“No!” Aurora shouted, sliding off her horse and running toward them. She was the queen of the Moors as much as she was the queen of Perceforest. Maleficent had put the crown on her head, and the faeries had to listen to her commands as surely as her human subjects did. “Let him go!”

Too late, she realized her mistake.

The sentry heard her, and its fingers opened immediately, letting Count Alain fall.

Now Aurora was screaming.

Wings beating at the air and mouth curved in a bright, malicious smile, Maleficent caught Count Alain and held him high above the hunting party.

She looked as terrifying as any legend and twice as beautiful.

Diaval, in raven form, circled above her head. He let out a caw.

“Is this yours?” Maleficent asked Aurora. “You seem to have misplaced it.”

“Put me down!” Count Alain shouted, ignoring how she’d saved him from a nasty fall.

“Please,” Lady Fiora said, taking Aurora’s arm, “my brother was only protecting me.”

“That creature attacked first,” Lord Ortolan protested.

“The wallerbog?” Prince Phillip asked incredulously.

Lord Ortolan went on. “You saw it. My queen, you must order your—your godmother to put him down.”

“Human,” Maleficent said to Count Alain, her fangs flashing as she spoke, “you shot an arrow in the Moors. There was a time I would have crushed your skull for such an offense. I would have put a curse on you so that if you ever shot another, it would come back and strike you through the heart.”

Aurora hated it when her godmother talked about curses. But Alain seemed to realize finally that he was in danger.

“Your pardon, my queen,” he said, gritting his teeth. “And your pardon, too, winged lady. Fiora is my only sister, and I am overly protective of her.”

“Put him down,” Aurora said. “Please.”

Maleficent swooped low, making the hunting party cry out in surprise. Then she dropped Count Alain, sending him tumbling a short distance into the ferns and vines of the wood. He looked wet, miserable, and furious.

Aurora had thought it would be a simple thing to make peace between the humans and the faeries. She thought it was only a matter of making them see that they were wrong about each other. But thinking of Simon’s family and seeing the look on Count Alain’s face, she was no longer sure that the peace her treaty promised was possible.

Nor was she certain anyone wanted it.

“Go back to the castle,” Aurora told the hunting party.

“Surely you don’t mean to remain in the woods alone,” said Lord Ortolan.

She looked up at the winged figure hovering above them. “No, not alone.”

Chapter 9

Aurora was nearly her height, Maleficent noted as they made their way through the Moors. She remembered the tiny flaxen-haired child who had grabbed hold of both of her horns and refused to let go.

The willful girl who had giggled at her scowls.