Curse of Magic (The Fairy Tale Enchantress, #2)

by K.M. Shea

Angelique smiled. “Then I shall call you Puss.” He twitched his whiskers. “You hope to irritate me?” “No. Because I think it’s proper—to acknowledge this new life that you’ve embraced,” Angelique said. “Though I might mess up sometimes.”

“You don’t like him?” Angelique asked. “As a general rule I don’t like anybody,” Puss snidely replied.

Angelique had very little patience for romance and love—particularly people who went all gooey and useless over such things. She had a missing master to find and goblins to kill. What use was love in all of that?

“You are…unusual.” “My father says that all the time. I think it is merely that most folk don’t know how to take responsibility for themselves,” Dylan scoffed.

Angelique stared at the railing of the dais and wondered if Lazare’s blundering admittance was kinder than these false pretenses they tried to feed her about tradition and what was natural. It wasn’t a nice feeling, knowing she was beheld in terror like a wild animal. In fact, it was soul-crushing. But at least she now knew straight out it was her power they feared. She could understand that. Their insistence on pretending otherwise, however, was a blade between the shoulders and a wound that wouldn’t heal because it gave her false hope that if she said the right thing, looked the right way, did all they asked, she would eventually be accepted. But they won’t. Angelique finally knew this. In the end, all I can do is embrace my purpose as an enchantress and find my worth in that—in helping those who need it and protecting the continent from harmful magic. Because I will never win them over. Not ever.

Tristisim slammed his fist on his desk again. “This is an outrage!” “I don’t care,” Angelique said.

Finally!