#akissintime

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As we descend the hill, she says, “Do you know what I was thinking, Jack?”

“What?” I stop to kiss her again. I rescued this princess, so I should be able to kiss her all I want, as long as she wants to, too. The wind, which had been roaring in our ears, has stopped.

Afterward, she says, “I think you were my true love all the time. That must be why I woke. Malvolia was wrong.”

“You think?”

“Yes, but she had her reasons. I wish I knew where she went. Perhaps if we come back another day…” She gestures uphill at the cottage, then gasps.

I look at what she’s looking at but see nothing. The cottage is gone.

[piecesfromliteratures]

I hold my hand out to Talia. I want to touch her and not stop touching her, to prove to myself that she’s real and alive and here. “I think we have to go.”

“In a moment.” She pulls me toward her and kisses me a bunch more times, on my cheeks, my hair, even my eyes. I throw my arms around her and hold her a really long time until finally the cottage door starts banging with the wind, and the noise reminds me that everyone’s waiting for us, Talia’s parents and the people in the castle. And Dad, too.

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But then I know what I have to do. I don’t know if my kiss will be enough, if she loves me enough, too, but I need to try. I lean over and think about Talia, about meeting her, being in Europe with her, then in America, how she was with Meryl, my parents, how she actually cared about the stuff I cared about and didn’t think it was stupid. How I loved her. I love her.

“I love you, Talia,” I whisper.

I put my lips to hers.

She stirs.

She wakes.

[piecesfromliteratures]

“That is kind. I know you fear your young man will not find you. But if he loves you, he will.”

I nod.

“And who would not love you, Princess? Even I, mad for revenge could not bring myself to kill you. You are well past the insolent brat I met three hundred years ago. You think of others besides yourself: your parents, Jack, even me.”

I nod again.

[piecesfromliteratures]

“I said it was a difficult test. True love would look a second time. True love would not be thwarted. True love would not accept no for an answer. He would search the world and certainly look again and again in every cottage in Euphrasia until he finds you.”

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“But killing me for my father’s cruelty is not justice. Can you not see that?” I allow the tears to run down my cheeks and implore her. “I am not my father. To kill me would be just as great an injustice as was done to you. Please do not do this.”

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“Aye. I was there. And you say you are in love with this boy?”

“Yes. I was not at first, when he woke me. But as I grew to know him better, to see how kind he was, not merely because I was a princess, but because he liked me, I grew to love him.”

[piecesfromliteratures]

But I have lots of time to think about that on the airplane. I wonder how many times in my life I would have been able to prevent something, change something, do something different, if only I’d listened to someone. I don’t know, but when this is over, I’m going to try and listen a lot more.