In fact, she meant to send him a message right back. She went inside for a quill and inkpot and was ready to write NO on the bottom of the note when she realized that she couldn’t.

Because if she said no to the gardens, then the answer to the second question would be no as well, which would mean they were the same answer—which meant yes. But she couldn’t write that, because if the answer was no to the first part and yes to the second, that meant the answers weren’t the same after all.

There was only one “correct” way to answer the note. Yes to the walk. Yes to the answers being the same. Yes.

Of course, there were other possible answers. Like setting the page on fire. Or ripping it into tiny pieces and throwing them off the side of her balcony like confetti. That would show Count Alain what she thought of him making his sister do his apologizing for him.

Or she could forget the note entirely. After all, she was the queen. She wasn’t obligated to answer every ridiculous piece of litter she came across, especially litter that wasn’t even formally addressed to her.

Then there was a sound above her. Prince Phillip looked over the edge, his hair falling around his face. He’d let it grow since he’d arrived in Perceforest, and it was already past his ears. He blinked at the paper in her hand and gave her a slightly embarrassed grin. “I thought you might still be awake.”

“Yes,” she blurted out. “The answer to the riddle, I mean. That’s the only possible answer, which is very rude.”

“Very,” he agreed cheerfully. “But I hoped it would still be the one you wanted to give.” His gaze went to her throat and she could tell the moment he saw Count Alain’s sapphire necklace, because his smile faded. “There’s something I must tell you. I ought to have said it when we were on the hill, but I waited and then there wasn’t time.”

Phillip was going to say that he was going back to Ulstead, of course. Suddenly, the air seemed colder than before. She shivered, not entirely from the wind.

“You could tell me now,” she said, steeling herself.

He grinned down at her. “I’m not sure you’d like me to shout it off the balcony, though the idea has a certain appeal. Tomorrow is soon enough. Will you walk with me? Just for a few minutes? Would you mind?”

“Let me ask you a riddle instead,” Aurora told him, although her heart was no longer in the game. “The answer I give is no, but it means yes. Now what is the question?”

“You’re answering a riddle with another riddle?” he demanded, mock-affronted.