You must return to Ulstead as soon as possible. We know nothing of this young queen except she is a great beauty—which we can readily believe, since we suspect she is the reason for your continued absence. But until you return home and your people are able to see you with their own eyes, wild speculation and strange rumors about your doings and safety will continue to abound. Finish your business—whatever it is—and return to us. You have a duty to your own country.

The letter was signed with his mother’s full title and her sigil.

He sighed, crumpled it up, and tossed it toward the fire. He would write back and give her a specific date when he would return. That would mollify her enough that he would be able to stay another week or two, at least.

But eventually he would have to return home.

And before that, he would have to do what he’d been too shy to since he’d been in Perceforest: he would have to speak. He must tell Aurora that he loved her.

Over and over, he thought about the words he planned to say, trying out new phrases and then discarding them, attempting to persuade himself that she wouldn’t prefer to be courted by some magical creature or one of the nobles who fell over himself to admire her beauty. He whispered words out loud to the cold sky, stopping halfway through each grandiose speech, hating how absurd he sounded.

“Aurora, if my heart were the moon, then you would be the sun, because the sun makes the moon glow, and I glow with, er, love…?

“My heart is an overfull bucket, waiting to pour itself on you…?

“When I think of you, I feel…”

She wouldn’t laugh at him. She was too kind for that. She would let him down gently and then he could return home, knowing he had no hope of her. When he saw her again, he would have had time to get used to the idea. And they would remain close, which was no small thing for the monarchs of neighboring kingdoms.

Despite those grim thoughts, he smiled, thinking of her parting words to him that night: The answer I give is no, but it means yes. Now what is the question?

A riddle for a riddle.

He puzzled over it, turning the words in his mind. When it struck him, he felt like a fool. It was the answer to the question he’d asked her immediately before it.

Would you mind?

Will you walk with me? Just for a few minutes? Would you mind?

No, she wouldn’t mind. She’d go for the walk with him.

Phillip was still smiling when a horned figure landed at the edge of his balcony.

Maleficent.