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“All alone, gorgeous?” A husky voice, barely more than a whisper, tickled her right ear.

Susannah leapt to the left, looked around and saw no one. The nearest princes were sprawled on a mass of silken cushions far to the right, and they weren’t watching her.

“What’s a nice princess like you doing in a place like this?”

Susannah whirled. No one. Were the princes becoming jokesters? She gazed around the room with growing unease.

“Who’s there?”

“Don’t be afraid. I won’t hurt you.” The voice came from her right.

“Where are you? What kind of trick is this?” Susannah reached out her hand, tentatively, and touched nothing.

“Show yourself!” she demanded.

A warm finger, a warm and very invisible finger, touched her lips. “I’m called Prince, ah, John.” The husky timbre of his voice played up and down her backbone like a harp string.

She grabbed the finger on her lips and found it connected to a hand, and that to an arm, and that to a body. The ghostly prince’s finger left her lips and his hand took hers, holding it away from his chest.

Susannah tried to speak, but the prince said, “Shh!” and led her across the room into one of the side chambers.

There was definitely something up with the enchantment. Either it was so powerful it bent the laws of magic and made the impossible possible—invisibility—or the fairies had been lying about invisibility all along. On the other hand, if this gilded prison was an extension of Ulaluna, perhaps the rules for invisibility were different.

Either way, it didn’t explain why this was the first time he’d made himself known.

Once they were in the room, hidden from the view of the others, he dropped her hand. They were in the flower chamber, several miniature fruit trees in pots along the walls and a low balcony that overlooked the palace gardens. The room smelled of roses and a whiff of spice. Mirrors in gold frames hung on the walls, reflecting only her face and form.

Where was he now? Wary, she spun in a complete circle. Why had she come into this empty room with a strange, invisible prince?

None of the princes had ever harmed her, ever forced their attentions on her, so she wasn’t nervous—yet. She stared at a potted plant as if it were him. “Why can’t I see you? Invisibility isn’t possible.”

“Because I’m a mystery.” The teasing comment sent another shiver up her spine. Something brushed against her arm. “A mystery you haven’t figured out.”

A sharp thrill not unlike the feeling of her powers coursed through her. “I haven’t? Or no one has?” Was he circling her? Was he behind her or in front? A moist breeze, or a breath, stirred the tiny curls on the back of her neck. She turned again and made herself dizzy.

“You. And no one.” He was close enough to reach out and graze her arm, or her cheek, or her hair, but never let her place her hands upon him. It was like a game of blind man, only playing with a man instead of her sisters added a certain element of tension.

She backed toward the door of the room. “Why are you invisible? How is it done?”

“It’s part of my…” the voice paused.

“Part of the enchantment?”

“Ah, yes. It’s part of the enchantment. I was going to say part of my charm.”

Susannah narrowed her eyes. He probably had no idea how it was done. Mortals rarely understood magic. They just accepted it. Accepted when the fairies told them things weren’t feasible. “No one else here is invisible. None of the others even know they’re enchanted.”

“I’m not like the other princes.” Prince John chuckled quietly.

“Why are you whispering?” she asked.

She heard the sound of a throat being cleared. “I don’t want to attract anyone’s attention but yours.” One of her curls received a sharp tweak. She smelled the faint spicy odor more.

She clapped a hand to her hair. “Quit doing that!” She spun to rush out the door but came up hard against the man’s invisible form.

His hands grasped her arms to keep her upright. He seemed tall, and his palms were rough, callused. She could see the doorway in front of her, and the ballroom beyond that, but every nerve in her system told her she was smack against a warm, male body.

“Dance with me,” he whispered.

“Let me go.”

His hands slid up and down her bare arms. One dropped to grasp the curve of her hip and the other took her hand, holding it against his chest. His body was hot and hard. Not like the other princes, not like them at all. The scent of warm skin and musty cloth tickled her nostrils.

“Princess,” he said, “close your eyes and pretend you’re with a normal man, a man enchanted only with your beauty.” The hand on her hip caressed her with slow, mesmerizing circles. He continued to the small of her back, where his hand seemed to burn through the thin silk.

Susannah grabbed at the rough cloth over his forearm and halted the liquid progression of his hand upon her body.

“All the princes,” she pointed out, “are enchanted with my beauty and my sisters’ beauty. That’s how it works.”

“Why were you all alone out there?”

“I don’t know. That has never happened before. We always have dance partners.”

“You have a very willing dance partner now, milady. All you have to do is cooperate.” His hand resumed its massage of her lower back, and the muscles in his forearm shifted.

He felt so real, as real as any other prince. Perhaps it was because she couldn’t see him and could imagine he was anything she wanted? If she lost her hold on him, she might not find him again. He was just a man, another poor, enchanted man. He piqued her interest because he was different, perhaps representative of a change in the enchantment.

If he knew about the enchantment, he might reveal more information about it.

“You tell me why I stood alone, Prince John. If you’re so unlike the other princes, tell me who you are, who they are and why you all languish here in this place.”

“We languish here in anticipation of your presence.”

That silly answer was on par with the type of things the other princes told her. She tried again. “Why did the fairies enchant you? Are you being punished?”

“I have no more knowledge than what I explained, fair one. All I know is I’m here with the others, yet they aren’t aware of me. All I know is I’ve watched you from afar, as graceful as a lark, and wanted you. And now I have you.”