That delightful statement made the hair on the back of Angelique’s neck prickle. “I don’t understand.” It took her quite a bit of effort to keep her voice serene as they veered off the lane and took a stone pathway that snaked around the side of the glitteringpalace.
“He’s gone mad,” the lead soldier explained as he passed by a flowering rosebush. “And he’s transformed into some kind ofanimal!”
Angelique clenched her teeth, still struggling to understand. “Who?”
“Prince Severin,” a guard behind hersaid.
Severin?Angelique briefly strained her memory before she recalled the name. Severin was King Rèmy’s illegitimate son that Queen Nicole had officially welcomed into the family when he was achild.
And now he had transformed into an animal?But…how?
There was a roar that cut off into an animalistic snarl. It sounded like the source was just a bit past thebushes.
The lead soldier glanced back at Angelique, his face white. “That would be His Highness,” he said, his voicestrangled.
They rounded a bend in the path and almost rammed into the wall of soldiers lined up around a garden that was already half enclosed by rose bushes that were blooming unseasonablyearly.
“This way…Prince Lucien will want to speak with you first.” Angelique’s guide strode around the edge of the wall of soldiers, leading away from the snarls that clawed their way out of the enclosedgarden.
Angelique inclined her head, trying to peer over the men, but she couldn’t see anything as the purple haze of dusk settled over thegarden.
A man shouted in pain, and there was the roar of a wildcat.
“Your Highness, youmustretreat to a saferplace.”
Angelique snapped her attentionforward.
Soldiers and medics dressed in white were clumped around a blond-haired man who was dressed in the height of Loire fashion—an emerald green coat with jewel buttons, white breeches, and black, buckled shoes. Though dressed like a fashionable dandy, the young man’s face was twisted in the ratherun-dandy-like expression of anger, and a hint of fear showed in the way his handsshook.
“I’m not leaving him,” the young man spat. “The second I do, you’re going to killhim!”
“Your Highness, we are doing our best to contain him,” another soldier said. “But if we cannot take any measure to subdue thebeast—”
“He’s mybrother, not a mindless monster!” he shouted. “And if you harm him, I’ll have you thrown in the dungeonmyself!”
“Prince Lucien!” Angelique’s guide shouted. “I broughthelp.”
Prince Lucien—who was, if Angelique recalled correctly, the crown prince of Loire—eyed the guard, though he stopped breathing when he looked over Angelique from head to toe. “Who are you?” he finallyasked.
“My name is Angelique, I am an Enchantress-in-Training—”
Lucien knocked over five guards as he lurched to Angelique, snatching up herhands.
Angelique jerked her head back in surprise, her unease growing as Lucien stared into her eyes as if she had made theworld.
“Can you help my brother?” heasked.
“I don’t know,” Angelique said honestly. “What happened tohim?”
Lucien dropped her hands and strode away, beckoning for her to follow after him. “No one is sure. He had just droned on at me for no less than an hour about our country’s cavalry. When the meeting finished, he headed out to the rose gardens. Shortly after, this happened.” Lucien climbed onto the lip of a fountain and pointed into thegarden.
Angelique hesitated, then joined him, the new vantage point giving her the extra height she needed tosee.
Abeastprowled in the rose garden. A creature that was an eerie union of feline and canine with the head of a black cat, unnaturally broad shoulders, and the hind legs of a dog. The tattered remains of what had probably been a white shirt and navy trousers hung from the animal’s fur-covered frame, which was matted with blood—not his, judging by the bloodied claws that jutted from hisfingertips.
The beast snarled as it stalked through the garden, stepping over inert bodies of soldiers strewn around the gardens. Its slitted, amber eyes seemed to glow brighter and brighter as night fell, and the garden was lit only by the light of the moon and a few flickeringtorches.
“That is Prince Severin?” Angelique asked, unable to keep the disbelief from hervoice.
