Good. Let him come to the Moors. Let him sit at her table and eat from her plates. He had no more love for the faeries than any of the rest of the humans. He would be frightened, and once he was, he would show Aurora his true nature.

“You need not,” Aurora said, her voice holding a clear desire to warn him off more firmly.

“If he wishes for my approval, he will accept my invitation.”

“Oh,” said Phillip with a bow, “I never thought to refuse it.”

Aurora’s eyebrows knitted, but all she said was “Good night, then. It was very good of you to come all the way here to give me your news. I am sorry we didn’t get to finish our walk.”

“After dinner tomorrow, perhaps,” he said.

Aurora’s smile bloomed, bright as any star. Maleficent refrained from rolling her eyes.

With a careless wave, Prince Phillip departed the Moors, followed only by Maleficent’s steady scowl.

“Why are you determined not to like him?” Aurora asked, whirling on her, a fresh light of anger in her eyes. “He has been a kind friend to me since I was crowned queen. You can’t believe he’s here to win my hand like Lord Ortolan presumes. And even if you did, you must know that I am uninterested in any courtship!”

“I only wish for you not to make the mistakes I made,” Maleficent said, putting a hand on Aurora’s shoulder. Perhaps she had acted too much in haste. “You know little of the world, as I once did. I suffered for that lack. I would not for anything wish you to suffer. I would not wish for you to be betrayed, your heart broken—even by a kind friend.”

Aurora pulled away. “What am I to do instead? Surround it with thorns, as you did?”

“You are my heart,” Maleficent said softly. “And you are right that I guard it fiercely.”

Chapter 16

“Did you hear her this afternoon?” Lord Ortolan demanded, pacing his chamber. “We must act, and swiftly.”

He had wormed his way into King Henry’s court many years before. He knew how to flatter a ruler, how to inflame ambition in his breast.

It had been easy to steer King Henry toward greater and greater excess, until war with the Moors had been the only way to enrich his treasury. King Stefan had been more difficult, especially after the death of Queen Leila, when he spent more and more time alone, shouting at the pair of wings he’d caged, as though they were likely to give him advice.