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Thicket placed her hands over the top of her mother’s, giving them a gentle squeeze. “Thank you, Mom.”

Thicket’s mother planted a kiss on her forehead. “Now go on. You don’t want to be any later than you already are. I will pick you up at eight sharp and then, if you want, maybe we can order pizza and have a movie night? Just like old times?”

Thicket grinned. Leaning in for one last hug, she murmured, “That sounds great.”

She slipped out of the car and waved her mother off before turning to face Mr. Dunkum’s Yogurt Shack.

She knew she must look like a fool with her too wide smile and merry, skipping feet, but she couldn’t fight the happiness taking root in her heart.

For the first time in what felt like a century, she felt as though she had finally found her place.

Thicket set the pizza box on the coffee table and rifled through the bags of candy, chips, and movie disks her mother had bought while she was at work. Her mother had gone all out. There were at least a dozen different movies, ranging between sweet romances and comedies to thrillers and more junk food than the two of them could ever hope to consume.

Yet Thicket clutched the bags to her chest as though they were her lifeline. In a way, they were. She had woken up this morning, dreading the day for she had believed it would be another agonizing day spent in isolation. Now, she didn’t want it to end. She wanted to freeze time and remain in this one, perfect moment. Wanted to keep each and every one of the candy wrappings and frame them on the walls, painting over the years spent trapped in heartbreak with moments where her chest felt close to bursting.

For the first time in a long time, she let herself believe that this happiness was forever.

She rose, thinking she should probably start popping the popcorn before her mother came down when a knock sounded on the door. She crossed the room, mind occupied with movie titles and what kinds of candies to put in the popcorn. The thoughts winked out the moment she opened the door and found Jett standing outside.

Chapter Forty-Three

“What,” Marcel growled, thrashing against Enola’s hold, “did you do to her?”

“Oh,” Lavender said, twirling the knife around her fingers. “I simply put her back under the sleeping curse.”

The words hit exactly how she wanted them to. The jolt of horror running through the guard’s body was delectable.

“Princess,” he ground out. “Wake up. Please.”

“She won’t wake,” Lavender said.

“She did before,” Marcel snapped. “And she will again. Princess! If you can hear me, you have to fight it! Whatever she is showing you, it isn’t real!”

Such unwavering belief. How she would love to crush it.

“No. She won’t.” Lavender sighed happily, beaming at her own genius. “You see, this curse is different.

“The last time I cursed my darling sister, I made it so everyone she loved turned against her. I made her an outcast, punished for the very thing that made her oh so special. I made her miserable.” She flicked a strand of hair from her face. “It was fun while it lasted. All until the very thing punishing her became her ticket out. She started to wake up. I could feel my grasp on the curse slipping, despite how hard I tried strengthening it. Her misery drove her to finally embrace who she was and accept this world, which in turn led to her wake up. But unlike Thicket here,” she said with a sweeping gesture towards her sister, “I never make the same mistake twice.

“You see, as I felt her slipping, I tried everything I could to get her to stay. I even tried giving her what she always wanted. A happy ending. For her, that was a place to belong. I tempted her with the chance of that, and she completely ignored her dreams to fight for that happiness. Until it vanished, of course, which finally broke her. She realized she could never get it there and went in search of it somewhere else.” Lavender lifted a finger. “But this time, I will give her that happy ending, or what she thinks is her happy ending.

“See, she still won’t be happy because she will subconsciously be reminded of this place, but time there will erase those memories and it will only be a fleeting feeling. She will spend the rest of her life trying to convince herself that this was how things were supposed to be. That this was as good as life could get. And then, she will cling to it, never tempted to wake up again. And I will finally be rid of her forever.”

“How are you so sure?” Marcel challenged. “How can you be sure that’s what she really wants?”

There was a note in the guard’s voice that piqued Lavender’s interest. A subtle hint of longing. “Unrequited love is a poison, you poor infected thing. Yet this just makes what I have to tell you next even sweeter.”

The veins in Marcel’s neck bulged as he tried once again to fight Enola’s control. But he couldn’t move an inch. Couldn’t do anything but listen to her next words.

“Despite my sister’s attempts at breaking the curse, she didn’t fully meet the requirements and I was able to hold onto a sliver of that connection. I could slip into her mind and use the moments she slept to temporarily draw her back into the curse long enough to toy with her thoughts. There was one time, however, when I could see into her mind.

“I saw her happiest memories. Her wish for the future. She was so torn between the two worlds she walked that it kept morphing. Not even the jellyfish knew what to do with her.” Lavender leaned forward. “Do you know what else I saw? There were two boys, ones she loved very very much.”

Marcel’s breathing hitched. She hoped—prayed—it was a dash of hope.

“Their features kept shifting, making it hard to know exactly who they were. One had straw blond hair, the other a dark black. And both of them had eyes colored a deep, sky blue.”

The guard went still.