“Think of what they did to her. They didn’t treat her badly or keep her a prisoner in a cell. They married her to a handsome young prince. They made her a princess, and did what they could to make her love him. I knew within an instant of meeting that creature of a king that he was far more clever and complex than you gave him credit for.”

“What of it?” Aiden demanded. I wanted to know the same thing, but at the same time my stomach clenched at the idea my emotions had been manipulated. Had the King really known I’d fall for Tristan? That he’d fall for me? Worse, had he actively manipulated us into it?

“The curse is an act of will,” Catherine replied. “Will, fueled by an intense desire to see something done and cemented by magic.” A chair scraped a bit on the floor, and I could all but see her leaning closer to him. “And it can be broken by will; by an intense desire to see the curse ended driven like a hammer with the force of magic.”

I felt numb. Rolling forward, I rested my forehead against the damp earth of the cellar, unable to meet Sabine’s questioning gaze. The idea that my role in the prophesy was to be bait had been bad enough, but this was worse. That the King had predicted bonding me to Tristan would make me fall for him, and that my love for him would give me the power to break the curse? I didn’t like that. It made me feel sick and even more used than I had before. It made me feel as though falling in love with him hadn’t been my choice, but part of a plan much greater than I knew.

“An interesting notion,” he said after a minute. “But how she feels about the trolls is of little import. What matters is that the troll prince loves her. It was he who told me there was a loophole in the girl’s promise in a desperate hope that I would help her. And I will, but it will come at a cost to him.”

Oh, Tristan. Tears dripped off my nose into the dirt.

“Her promise to the troll king was thus: I promise to do whatever it takes to find her and bring her here.” His laugh had a hysterical edge to it that made me cringe. “Cécile never went into Trollus. Here is the sand she was standing on when she gave her word, and that sand exists outside the barrier.”

Of course Tristan had heard the loophole in my promise even while he’d been suffering torture. All his life he’d been twisting words and undermining their meanings. He’d figured out the one way I could win free of my promise without breaking the curse, and he’d tried to give it to me. Now this man intended to use the information against him.

“So you intend for us to find Anushka, bring her to that spot, and then let her escape unharmed.” Catherine’s voice was toneless, but I knew she was angry. She wanted revenge for what Anushka had done to her, but that wasn’t part of Aiden’s plan.