“No!” I snarl, backing my beast body away from them, “I didn’t do anything wrong. Just ask Laurel! I saved her life.”

“Laurel?” Dorth asks, cocking his head, “You mean that sylph girl? I hate to tell you this, Kyla, but they are gone.”

“What?” I gasp out the word. Can this day get any worse?

“A huge saber cat appeared on the road as we were transporting them back to the palace, frightening the mytonirs pulling the wagon,” Dorth states, “This cat took the form of a man with fiery orange eyes. He threw my guards from their seats and took the women with him.”

Rift. He betrayed me. I didn’t want want to believe he would do that… My heart pounds in my chest. Ba-dump! Ba-dump! Everything turns foggy. My beast is taking over.

“Princess, you are under arrest,” Dorth states, his words blur together, “You must come with me willingly.”

No. I spread my wings and rush for the large stain-glass window at the end of the hall, shattering the glass in a rainbow of pieces as I take flight. From my beast throat comes a shriek of anguish.

What is going on? If Father were here none of this would have happened!

The group of people I leave behind gather on the broken part of the palace, staring out after me, all except for Wes.

I descend to the waterfall and roar my words, “Rift! You bastard, you broke my heart! You’ve–you’ve broken everything! Don’t play a coward now. You want a fight, let’s fight!”

No response comes back and my body starts trembling, tears flood over my eyes, rolling down my scaly cheeks. “I will find you eventually,” I warn him.

“Kyla!”

It’s Scenna’s voice I hear. I raise my head, peering over and through the jungle trees. She’s running toward me.

“Oh, Kyla, thank the Lord of Light they didn’t lock you up!” Scenna is panting as she comes to a halt in front of me. “You’re okay!”

“Where is Rift?” I snap. “I’m going to tear him apart for kidnapping you.”

“I’m sure he’ll love to hear that from you, but he’s actually the one that saved us,” Scenna says. “Come with me.”

Saved? Rift saved them? What does Scenna mean by that? Ugh. I’m tired of being clueless!

I follow her as she runs alongside the river that flows into the waterfall. We come upon a door opening from the ground. Scenna opens it and motions for me to follow. Of course, my beast is too large to fit in there.

“No, I’m not following you through there yet, let me see Rift and Laurel and Dayna safe first,” I tell her. I don’t trust anyone anymore.

“Of course!” Scenna says, understanding dawns on her face. She walks up to me and places a hand on my shoulder. “Kyla, while we were in the wagon and out of sight from the rest of the guards, the guard inside the wagon pulled a knife on us, he threatened that if we told anyone about you saving us, that what we went through with Dirk would seem like a daydream to us. That’s when Rift showed up and completely took down an entire group of guards by himself. He saved us from being killed by the Sorceress’ insiders at the palace so that we couldn’t testify in your favor.”

“Really?” Oh, my heart is starting to warm a bit.

“Rift, get up here!” Scenna shouts down through the door. “It’s Kyla!”

Even with Scenna’s recent story portraying Rift as a kind of hero, I can’t stop the spines raising to points on my back at the sight of him.

“Kyla, you made it out safely, somehow I knew you’d choose flight over being willing imprisonment and I’ll admit, the look of an outlaw suits you,” Rift says. “How did things go with my mother? I know she talked to you.”

“I’ll go get Dayna and Laurel, Dark Lord,” Scenna tells Rift, bowing her head at him.

“Keep talking,” I tell Rift, narrowing my eyes at him.

“Very good. Oh, and Scenna, get the other one up here as well,” Rift says, ignoring my seething, “I think she may be of help in showing Kyla what is really going on.”

“The other one?” I ask, smoke is puffing from my nostrils with every exhale.

“We know something is off at the palace, that there is an informant to my mother hiding there, so when you were getting the guards I went into the town and asked around. While at a local Inn grabbing a drink, a woman comes running in claiming she’s seen the Sorceress and that she really is Helle, wife of Prince Kalvar. I recognized her as such, but others at the Inn–they did not. They dismissed her as a raving madwoman.”

Helle. Oh, that means she’s alive!

“By the look on your face I believe you already know Helle is not at the palace,” Rift remarks, and he grins, “Good. Anyway,” he continues, “I pulled her aside and told her to stop talking like a crazy person, but I believed her. I then explained to her that she’s had a glamour put on her with dark magic and none can recognize her except me. Then I introduced myself and spoke of my relations with you.”

“Relations?” I snort.

“Oh, I didn’t tell her about you naked on my lap,” Rift says innocently, while also raising his voice a bit, “I was only referring to the fact that we rescued some slave girls together and killed a crime lord.”

“You were naked on his lap?” It’s Helle’s voice. And I watch as she rises from the door with Scenna, Dayna, and Laurel behind her.

“Helle!” I exclaim, not letting myself find time to be embarrassed, “You’re alive!”

“I’ll let her tell the rest of the story,” Rift says, leaning down to help the women and sylph up from the door in the ground.

“You can see that it’s me?” Helle says.

“I can!” I say, and my gaze snaps back to Rift. “Why can I see that it’s her?”

“Because of the Curse, I suppose,” Rift shrugs.

It makes enough sense to me, so I focus back on Helle.

“What happened? How did the Sorceress find you and how are we going to fix this?” I ask her.