Rajah's Curse

Chapter 35: The Festival

I shook my head. First, she wasn't fine. She was nearly as upset as I was. Second, I had not been a perfect gentleman. I should not have held on to her like I had. She really needed to raise her standards. And third, I didn't want to lecture her tonight. I wanted to talk to her now. What had she been about to say? It had sounded important.

Jasmine just rubbed my cheek. "I swear if he doesn't give me a lecture on the dangers of hugging or some such nonsense tonight, you can give me a proper talking to tomorrow. Okay?"

I nodded. It wasn't okay, but she didn't need to know that I would be agonizing over our unfinished conversation all day long.

*****

But that was exactly what I was doing. It was hours later and I was still asking myself:

What had Jasmine been about to say before I transformed?

Was it possible that she had wanted to discuss my curse? Nowadays, Jasmine rarely mentioned my ability to "disappear" or anything else curse-related when it came to me. I had begun to think my curse was actively stopping her from noticing anything.

It hadn't occurred to her that her tiger and her adviser were the same person and it was not for lack of trying on her part. I still hadn't forgotten the time Jasmine trapped me in a meeting room. I had been alone in there with no way out, but when dawn came and Jasmine had opened the locked door, she had been baffled to find Rajah instead of Ren. The obvious solution never seemed to enter her mind.

I had assumed it was like that with all of the aspects of my curse. But what if I was wrong?

What if Jasmine had stopped talking to me about my curse because she realized I couldn't discuss it? It could explain a lot of the princess's more bizarre behavior, like the night she destroyed her headpiece. She had thanked me for discovering the cursed object's existence and said:

I sincerely hope that one day I'll be able to return the favor.

Yes, it had been a general thank you for all my help, but still.

And the scrolls! What if they hadn't just been a thoughtful gift, but her indirectly offering aid? I could just imagine Jasmine, on top of her government work and undoing Jafar's magic, spending time secretly investigating me. It made sense to keep it a secret from me as Ren.

But did I really think she would not say anything to me as Rajah?

That last question made the whole idea seem like a far-fetch conspiracy. Nearly as far-fetched as the other possibility my mind kept insisting upon:

Courtship.

There were occasionally times when I suspected that perhaps Jasmine might possibly be interested in something more than friendship. She acted so familiar with me. She spoke without guile when we were together. And she was always touching me, elbowing me, and pulling me from one location to another. And she had been so flustered last night.

And that hug. Birthday traditions aside, it had been a very forward thing to do which she had to know. And then she had said:

I'm not blind.

Like she knew that I was always two steps away from doing something ridiculous when I was around her. And she approved.

A lesser man might see all that as an invitation for further intimacy, but I was a prince, not a lovesick fool. Jasmine did not care for me in that way. I knew what the princess looked like when she was infatuated and there had been no signs of that last night or any other night.