Sioni’s mother knew she was supposed to stay on the king’s estate and wait with her husband for Prince Alfred to return, but she was never one for patience. Or waiting, for that matter.

So by the sixth day when they still had not received word from the prince and her patience was wearing thin, she packed a light bag, wrote her husband a cursory note which she left next to his slumbering form, and crept out under cover of darkness.

It was four in the morning and there were no stars to light her way, only a slender fingernail of moon that shone sporadically between passing clouds. She had keen eyesight, though, and she was able to make her way out of the castle and into the nearby forest quickly and easily.

She knew that there was a good chance Malvolia had kidnapped her daughter. She’d known this was a possibility for seventeen years. But the knowledge that her daughter was somewhere with that … witch, possibly hurt, probably scared, was enough to quicken her step. It was time to set things right again.