Chapter 22
“You monster!”Bellashrieked, charging full speed for the enchantress, but one wave of the woman’s hand delivered Bella ten feet away.She skidded on her shoulder in the fresh dirt and came to a stop at Henriette’s feet, who hauled her upright and clutched her close.
“You had no reason to kill him!”Bella continued, rage tears burning as she accused the evil woman.“We worked hard for two straight weeks!We did everything you said!”
Calmly, the enchantress replied, “You poison my pond and expect me to be happy with this...this...offering?”She waved a dismissive hand at the new pond.
“It is better than its predecessor.It will support life.It willpreventdeaths.Is that not your curse?”Bella glared and quoted: “‘Save and prevent until healed, sentenced until then are you.’We havepreventeddeaths.”Bella added.“We havehealedthis entire area.And it’s not even his fault!”she charged, attempting a new angle.“The pondwater was salted!You set him up on a fool’s errand to fix an unfixable problem.”
When the enchantress did not seem inclined to respond, Bella looked at the last place Riven had stood.She recalled the secret message down the lefthand column and felt a tiny spark of hope at her last attempt to undo his curse.
“We’ve kissed.It was love’s kiss.That should reverse your curse.”She dashed angry tears from the corners of her eyes and recited the curse, spelling out the first letter as she went:
“Lakes and ponds I govern
On hills and dales and fields
Verily I sentence you
Ever after to suffer and mourn
Seek you sums and yields
Killer of beasts kind and true
In this filth hereby be adorned
Save and prevent until healed
Sentenced until then are you.
“Love’s kiss, spelled out right there in your own curse.I demand you honor it.Now.”She might end up with the same fateful end as Riven, but either way, Bella’s life no longer had meaning without him in it.
Bella could see how her challenge startled the enchantress, for she visibly recoiled.“You...kissed...a frog?”
“He kissed me, actually.Twice.”Now Bella wiped her cheeks with her palms.
“And you were not repulsed?”
“Shocked the first time, not the second.”
The enchantress studied her.“It is only love’s kiss if you both professed love for each other.He did so, yet you have not.”
“Yes, I have,” Bella insisted.
“She did,” Henriette immediately added.“The day she returned, she told him she loved him.”
Bella nodded, grateful for her friend’s instant support.“I did.”
The enchantress studied them.“Yet, he did not return your love.”
“Of course he did,” the queen said as she stepped into the conversation.“My son, aprince,loved this woman enough to undertakeweeks of manual laborfor her.Be not a fool.”
Everyone gasped as the two most powerful women in sight squared off.
