After thoroughly checking the house and the grounds, and not finding any trace of Sioni, we faced the inevitable, awful truth: our daughter was missing, perhaps even… We couldn’t bring ourselves to say it. It was too terrible to even think about.

The witch’s curse kept echoing in my ears: “Whosoever cuts a lock of this girl’s hair after she turns sixteen will surely kill her.â€?

I looked down at the long strand of hair in my hands. It was unmistakably Sioni’s. No one else in our town had the same shade of hair; that vibrant, that red. And if it was her hair, then it must have been cut. And if it was cut, then -

“Wife, stop torturing yourself.”

I looked up through my tears at my husband. “I blame myself. If only I hadn’t put her in the tower. I don’t understand how she got out.”

“Think. Who would take her? Who could break the lock?”

I thought about it. The townspeople liked to come stare at her sometimes, but she had mentioned only one constant visitor.

“I know who it was. It was the prince.”