The following morning, Esmerelda was gone. Hailey was sitting at a table in the dining room, glancing through the pages of a large tome. A small gray and black striped cat sat next to her, eyeing her breakfast. The cat was thin and small, half way between cat and kitten. Hailey was certain that if she walked away, her plate of eggs would be licked clean.

“What do you think of this spell?” she asked the cat. “Do you think it would work?” She flipped through the pages of her book until she found the one she was going to attempt today.

The cat blinked green eyes at her and waited on the wooden bench, hoping for food.

“You don’t care, do you? Hailey dropped a small amount of her eggs on the bench next to her and the cat ate it greedily. Then it looked up, waiting for more. She gave it more food, knowing that the cook would scold her for doing such a thing. She could hear Lavina’s voice in her head from all those years ago. ‘Cats that get fed under the table stop catching mice.’

“I am not supposed to be feeding you, you know, but I suppose it doesn’t bother you if I’m breaking rules.”

The cat waited, watching her every movement.

“I really should come up with a name for you.”

Noises drifted up from the courtyard. It sounded like a small crowd was gathered out there. She wondered what was going on. Sighing, she put the plate of food on the bench so that the cat could enjoy herself without being scolded for being on the table. She reached down to pet the cat and it shied away from her fingertips, and then continued eating. She was ridiculously soft.

“Behave yourself,” she told the cat, then gathered up her book and walked to the courtyard.

The courtyard was indeed packed with people. They were all eying one man in the center. “Good people of Taivalon,” he said, smiling at the crowd and flipping back his short, red cape. “I have come to your fair city in hopes of rescuing the princess.” He was tall and not exactly handsome, but he did seem to be able to grab everyone’s attention. His deep set blue eyes scanned the crowd as if making sure they were all paying attention. “I have traveled far from Yapuris.”

With that, a murmur ran through the crowd. Taivalon had not seen visitors from its neighboring kingdoms in years. Yapuris was one of the closest kingdoms. Had the king’s message to neighboring kingdoms finally gotten through to one of them? Was one of their neighbors finally going to help? Looking at the young prince, she doubted it. If he were really here to help them, then he would have brought mages with him. There were two servants with them, one that carried a longsword and one that did not.

“Your highness,” Martin made his way through the crowd, shoving as he went. He was not a large man, but he was the assistant to the king and once people realized who he was, they let him through. He bowed before the prince. “I apologize for not being here to greet you when you first came,” he panted as if he had run an marathon. “The queen has sent me in her stead and hopes that you will be most welcome in our castle.”

The prince nodded as if he expected nothing else. “Thank you,” he said. Perhaps he was annoyed by the way the king’s assistant had interrupted his grand speech. Hailey looked at the crowd. Most of the women seemed quite taken with this young man and is fine dress and flashy speech. Many of the men looked annoyed.

She finally spotted Aaron in the crowd. He seemed to be grinding his teeth. This prince had the potential to interrupt her plans. Exactly what did he think he could do for the princess? She would not let him interrupt her work. Feeling irritated, she realized that he already had. She turned to go and found a small kitten by her side.

The spell that Hailey had tried had not been successful. The only thing that had worked so far was to try to push at the spell, but that moved it only a fraction of an inch and it was still very much attached to the princess. She didn’t think that it would become unattached unless she figured out how to do that. All of this was more difficult that she had originally thought it would be.

She had grown accustomed to sitting in the dining room with the cat that had adopted her. Sitting in the mage’s library reminded her of Barinon, of what she should be able to do and with how disappointed he might be if he saw how little progress she had made.

She turned the page of the massive book and her eyes began to close. She was so tired. She started when Widget walked across her lap. She hadn’t realized she had fallen asleep. There was so much to learn, so many spells that she didn’t understand. She petted the cat’s head idly and felt it’s tiny claws sink into her thigh.

“Ow!” She said and detached Widget from her dress, placing the cat beside her. She couldn’t remember if she had really looked at the page she was on, so she glanced at it again.

“Invisibility,” it read. She almost longed for the days when she had been invisible to the world, a ghost haunting the halls of the castle. She propped her head against her palm.

People were coming in and out of the dining room now, bringing plates of food with them. It didn’t smell particularly good, but she should probably get up and grab some food. It would help her stay awake. Without intending to, she began to doze.

“Hailey,” his voice wasn’t particularly loud, but at the sound of her name, she jolted awake, wiping at her face.

Aaron strode into the dining room, looking as handsome as ever. All of that soldiering had muscled him out. But instead of smiling at her a look of concern crossed his features. He was holding a plate of food. Maids were mopping the floor nearby. Had she missed dinner? She must have looked like a fool sitting here with a stack of pages, taking a nap in the middle of dinner.

He paused before the table where she was sitting. “I brought you food. You will eat it, won’t you?”

“Of course.”

He sat across from her, sliding a plate of chicken and mushy potatoes to her.

It did not look particularly appetizing, but she would try. She smiled weakly at him and picked at the chicken. It wasn’t that she didn’t like poultry, it was that she didn’t like eating it cold, and part of her always wondered if she was eating Henny.

“So what are you working on?” He dragged the mage light closer, and knocked over her careful stack of torn and blackened pages, pages the dragon had nearly destroyed as it crashed through the bookshelves. The pile shifted sideways and one of the pages fell to the wet ground.

She gasped and grabbed at the page before it hit the wet floor, but his fingers were quicker. He snatched it out of the air with his good hand and placed it back on top of the stack.

“Those pages are irreplaceable,” she told him, feeling anger rise within her. “You almost destroyed what could have been the key to getting the princess free.”

“I’m sorry. I caught it before it fell. I don’t see what the big deal is.” He was right but that didn’t matter. It felt like he had almost destroyed the world. She knew she was being irrational. The dragon could have destroyed the page that would set the princess free, too. It was an uncomfortable thought that she didn’t like to entertain.

“No,” she finally said. “You’re right. I shouldn’t be so upset. It’s just been a rough day and I really want to figure this out before I go to bed, you know?”

“It might be easier to find it if you got some more sleep. You are going to bed soon, right?”

“Yes, I will get some sleep and thank you for the dinner. I am hungry.”

He took her hand for a moment and she looked at him, unsure of what to say. Finally, he said, “I should go. I’ve got some things I need to see to before bed, myself.” He rose, and let go of her hand, and walked away.

She felt like a complete idiot. He had been nothing but kind to her and she had almost lost it over the pages.