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“It does.” I rub my temples, a headache forming, but I catch Theo wrinkling his nose. “Wait. What do you smell?”

“Salt,” he says, narrowing his eyes at the tunnel. “Another enchantment?”

I whirl to stare at the bookcase. There is noglow…or perhaps there is, but we cannot see it from inside.

“The tunnel must be invisible to those outside the castle.” I chew on my thumbnail. A witch lived in this castle, of that I have no doubt. So much of it has been enchanted in ways no unknowing person would be able to tell. I think of Inez’s mother, Ruya, and wonder what part she had to play in this.

“This is incredible,” Theo says, breaking me from my thoughts. “You can leave, Shivani.”

“Leave?” I turn back to stare at him. “I cannot leave.”

He looks at me as though I have grown an extra head.

“But you must. My father is…is going to kill you.” Tears spring to his eyes. “Do you not understand?”

“Of course I understand. It ismyhead that will roll,” I say, and it comes out harsher than I intended. I inhale deeply. “I will not leave you to suffer under him any longer. I will not leave any of you.”

“But—”

“Theo!”

His mouth clamps shut and his hands ball into fists.

“I do not want you to kill yourself for me,” he says, his voice strained and his nostrils flaring.

“Theo,” I say slowly. “You do not decidehow far I will go for you. That is my choice and mine alone.”

Tears spill down his cheeks.

“But you will die,” he chokes out. “If you leave now, you canlive. You can find somewhere safe, be free of this place. Find…find someone to love and marry and be happy.”

I sigh and step towards him, taking his hands in mine. He is right—I can flee and survive, as the snow hare does.

But I am no snow hare.

“You need to understand this. I stay, not because of what I feel for you, but because it is the right thing to do. True, I can leave, and maybe I will find a new home. But I would be tormented for the rest of my life knowing I turned my back on people I could help. Because Icanhelp. This curse…the answer is close. I know it is.”

Theo squeezes his eyes shut, trying to blink away tears. He grasps my hands tightly and takes a deep, shuddering breath.

“What…what must we do?”

I slip one of my hands away from his to close the tunnel door. The bookcase slides back together, the wood slotting into each other perfectly.

“We need more information.”

???

The first stop is the library.

“So, how does this apply to our current predicament?” Theo asks as we scour the shelves. I pull out various books that look like they have potential and stack them in Theo’s arms.

“Woefully little is known about your curse,” I reply, cocking my head to read the title of a thick, green book. “But what we do know is the king uses it to control you. You have never left the castle, never talked to anyone else in the kingdom besides the staff here, and it gives him an excuse to lock you up in that awful dungeon.”

“The dungeon is to protect people from me,” he retorts before pausing. “But I concede to your point.”

I smile sideways at him. “Curses are rare indeed, but they can always be broken. We need to figure out how to break it.”

“What about true love’s kiss?” Theo grins at me. “Perhaps we should try that.”