Page 16 of This Prince Is Not Charming

“Why not you?” His jaw ticked. “You’re great at bossing me around. If you win, you can boss around the entire city of Fairwitch.”

“And where will that leave my father? You know he won’t come to the castle. He can barely leave our house.”

The amusement left Cillian’s eyes. “I know,” he said quietly.

“Not to mention the fact that I can’t marry you.”

He pursed his lips. “I’m not the one who smells like old cabbage.”

“No, you smell like the trees. You always have,” I said, absently, mind refusing to even wonder what it might be like to be married to Cillian Wolfgang. That was a possibility I’d closed myself off to long ago.

Cillian nudged me with his shoulder. “Aside from your father, would it actually be so bad to be married to me?”

This was exactly what I didn’t want to think about, but Cillian, as usual, was oblivious.

“Arranged marriages are all the rage, I hear,” he continued. “And most of those people don’t even like each other. At least that’s not the case for us.”

“It’s impossible.” I thought of my father, how agitated he’d been all day, so anxious he couldn’t even eat.

“I know,” Cillian finally said. “So don’t win. Purposely sabotage the whole thing.”

I pointed at my chest. “Me. Not win?”

“Oh, godwitches.” Cillian shoved a hand through his thick hair. “You’re insufferable, you know that?”

“You’re only saying that because you’re still upset that I beat you at Windwalker the other night.”

Our favorite card game. Last time we’d played I destroyed the high prince so thoroughly he’d sworn off the game for life.

He snorted. “Barely.”

“Barely? I won within five minutes of starting because you’re not good at strategy.”

“I’m the High Prince of Fairwitch Isle. I think I’m pretty good at strategy.”

“Not according to Windwalker.”

“Never mind. I do not want to marry you.”

“Okay,” I said, voice resolute. “I will lose. I’ll purposely do terrible at whatever the challenges are, and Castle will have no choice but to eliminate me.” At least I hoped that would be the case.

“Who are the other contestants, anyway?” I asked. I’d been so wrapped up in my own participation that I hadn’t actually stopped to think about who I’d be competing against.

“Well, I have good news and bad news,” he said in that voice I knew was meant to soften the blow he was about to deal. “Which one first?”

“Good,” I said.

“You’ll be meeting them tomorrow. Apparently it’s a tradition of the marriage trials to have a little meet and greet before the competition begins.”

I raised a brow. “And the bad news?”

“You’ll be meeting them tomorrow.”

We looked at each other and burst out laughing, even though this situation was not remotely funny.

I wiped a tear from my eye. “Siobhan must be fuming.”

“Oh, she’s furious. But she’s convinced this is just Castle’s way of making sure she’s really serious about being queen. At least that’s what Fargus told me after he visited her and her mother to see how they’re faring.”