“Risa is a witch,” Javi answered for her.
The Wolf stopped short.
Here was the familiar reaction people had to Risa. Flashing suspicion, pursing lips, carefully edging away as if her mere proximity promised infection. That was how the Wolf looked at her.
“I’m not a witch,” she snapped. “If I were, I wouldn’t waste my time babysitting this fool.”
“Handsomefool,” Javi corrected, thrilled at being remembered after all.
“That does not explain how you can see curses,” the Wolf said in a slow, deliberate voice.
“Or how she can break them,” the prince agreed. There was something in his tone of voice that made Risa narrow her eyes in question, searching his face for whatever hid behind that perfect smile. It did not reveal itself.
“I don’t know,” she confessed, answering them both. “I don’t believe I can do it intentionally.”
The Wolf regarded her for a moment longer before giving a curt nod. “Then I suppose you are not a very good witch after all. Not like the one who made this place. The legend says she was all-powerful.”
Of course the Pass was made by a witch.
“Oh, I bet the legend is about love,” Javi said, mostly to himself. “All the good ones are.”
“If I tell you, will you stop speaking?”
“Yes,” Javi answered, just as Risa said, “Unlikely.”
The Wolf released a long-suffering sigh. “The story goes that a despondent witch created this labyrinth when she was jilted by a lover.” She gestured at the tunnel walls with both arms.
Brunie growled menacingly. The sound ricocheted through the tunnel.
“She wanders the maze forlorn, cursing all those she encounters to suffer her same terrible fate,” the Wolf went on. “It is not true, of course. I have passed through these tunnels for several years without meeting her.”
Magic was the last thing Risa wished to think about. She’d had enough dealings with it to last several lifetimes, and no interest in meeting a depressed witch hurling rocks and digging tunnels all because she’d been dumped. Though—
The witchhadto be powerful to manage the labyrinthine paths. Perhaps powerful enough to break a very stubborn curse of bad luck.
“I don’t see why she didn’t just find someone new,” Javi groused, kicking a lone pebble in his path.
Risa shot him a look.
“It’s easy to fall in love,” the prince said flippantly, as if he couldn’t fathom how others didn’t understand. “You just have to find the good.”
She thought of her curse. Of what she was. How she couldn’t find the good inside herself, no matter how hard she looked.
“What about the bad?”
Javi thought about it for a moment. Gaze soft, mouth parted. “That’s what makesstayingin love hard.”
Suddenly, it made far more sense why the witch had done what she did. Risa supposed it made sense why her parents had given her up without even a goodbye.
Love was not for cursed girls.
Risa was better off without it.
CHAPTER FIFTEENIn Which the Trio Encounters a Jilted Witch
After several failed attempts at making conversation with the vengeful outlaw, Javi hooked an arm through Risa’s and bent his head close to her ear.
“I have a request.”
