The more I was with her, the less able I was to enact any of the plans I had so carefully devised. Though she had always had the upper hand, she had not known it, and I had promised myself that she never would. She knew nothing of the curse, and so she could have no idea of just how much power she wielded, yet she had somehow managed to discover another sort of power over me. What frustrated me most was that I had allowed her to discover it. She charmed me. There was no longer any use pretending otherwise. Denial was a fool's refuge, and I liked to think that I had never been a fool. Rather, I preferred to tell myself that my acknowledging Mira's power over me meant that I might one day discover the means to do away with that power. This, then, was my true denial, for I do not believe I would have tried to do away with that power if I could. The more I saw of her, the more I was enchanted by her smiles, by her laughter, and by her rather playful spirit. Even as the shadows of the castle seemed to lengthen and the knowledge of my own mortality loomed larger and larger, she seemed to blossom.
