But now, the crown, and all its burdens, fell to her head. She was not just going to Alanza to network, or to learn about faerie politics, or to polish her royal manners. She was going to Alanza to make the best political match she possibly could, and she knew her family would not settle for less. They couldn’t. Their hold over the leprechauns could slip at any time, and the penalty for getting displaced was death.
She glanced back at the spot where he was leaning against the wall, where she had felt his eyes on her, but he was no longer there. She began to look around but stopped when she saw Griffin watching her.
He set a few drinks down in front of Brielle, clearly having gotten her several—probably in hopes that he wouldn’t be making a return trip to the bar. Fiona came up behind him, carrying several more.
He moved toward Darby, bending into a low whisper. “Did you see something?”
She shook her head, though the hair on her back was standing up again. She could feel those smoldering eyes training on her, watching her, watching Griffin.
She quickly glanced back. Mr. Smoldery Eyes looked away, caught in the act. There was something about him that looked familiar though, something otherworldly. Was he a magical being too? And if so, did he recognize her?
Griffin followed her eyes, scanning the crowd suspiciously. “If you think someone will recognize you—”
She shook her head again, annoyed that he sometimes seemed to be able to read her mind. “We’re disguised well enough,” she said. Her usual long bright red hair looked jet black, short, and dull tonight. She had painstakingly changed several of her facial features, including her least favorite, her scooped, turned-up-at-the-tip nose. She was wearing street clothes unbecoming of a faerie, and especially one of noble birth.
She had also gotten all three of her friends to wear street clothes and change parts of their appearance. Brielle’s changes were almost comical, as all seemed to only make her look better—prettier, curvier, taller. Darby was sure she would make the changes permanent if they didn’t use up so much energy to maintain.
The other two had settled into more inconspicuous looks that made them look blander and less noticeable rather than brighter and more beautiful. Faeries had a tendency to look ethereal to earthlies, with far more striking features than the average one. And Griffin didn’t bother to disguise himself at all, as although he was a faerie, same as the rest of them, he typically had no trouble blending in wherever he went.
A pair of college guys approached Brielle and Quinn, and soon enough they were chatting and joking together. Brielle was the first to lead one to the dance floor, but not before Darby was able to mouth the words, “be good,” to her. Brielle had an annoying habit of toying with earthlies, and Darby didn’t have time to clean up messes that night.
Five minutes later, Quinn’s college guy asked her to dance too. She entered the crowd with her man, playfully dancing with a good half a meter between them still.
Brielle was already far across the room, making out with her earthlie. Darby hoped she didn’t want to go home with him, if only to avoid an argument with Griffin when he had to go retrieve her the next morning before their flight.
Griffin’s eyes shifted between the two girls on the dance floor and her, though they lingered much longer on her as she finished her drink.
“Do you want to dance?” she asked him, feeling suffocated under his gaze.
He seemed surprised by her question. “I—” he hesitated.
“You and Fiona should get out there,” Darby continued, encouraging him. She knew Fiona had a crush on Griffin, and though the Torrey family were amongst her parents closest advisors, and were unlikely to approve of Fiona dating a commoner, she still tried to get her two shy friends out of their shells every once in awhile. After all, Fiona and Griffin had both held places in her family’s court since they were children. They had known each other for as long as she had known either of them.
“I don’t know—” Griffin said in protest.
At the same time, Fiona said, “Sure, I’ll dance.”
“Well, if you’d like to,” Griffin said to Fiona.
“No, not if you don’t,” Fiona replied.
Darby laughed. “Go! Dance! I will be perfectly fine here by myself.”
Griffin’s eyes darted around the room, and he opened his mouth to protest again.
“Your princess commands you,” she said, giving him no out.
Griffin met her eyes, then turned to Fiona, holding out his hand. “If our future queen insists,” he said with a forced smile on his face.
She watched them leave, finding herself more alone and approachable. She looked around as inconspicuously as she could, trying to see if she could find the stranger again.
At around the moment she considered giving up, she finally spotted him hiding in a dimly lit corner of the room, still watching her. She met his eyes and he looked away for several seconds, before glancing up quickly again, as if to check if he had been caught.
This time, he met her eyes, returning her gaze. Her breath hitched in her chest. She could see his interest in her, and she recognized what he was—not earthlie, she already knew that—but more specifically not so unlike her at all.
He had the look of a leprechaun—the signature slight point of the ears, the upturned nose, the thinner, longer frame. But he was also so much more—dark, mysterious, uncompromising. And at the same time, his blond hair and icy blue eyes gave him the look of an angel, shadowed and fallen and tortured by his past.
She wished Griffin weren’t there, wished none of her ladies were. She wished she didn’t have to worry if she was eye-flirting with one of her future subjects.
He moved dangerously toward her, and she knew she should find Griffin. This man could be a spy, a stalker, or an assassin. He could know exactly who she was. And what did she expect to happen, anyway? Griffin would never leave her alone with him for long. Certainly not long enough to sneak out with him, probably not long enough to even have a drunken make out with him.
Just as she started to get Griffin’s attention, she stopped herself. Griffin was right there, in the middle of the dance floor, splitting his awareness between Fiona and her. He wasn’t that far away. With the number of times he had glanced at her since leaving her side, he would notice the mystery man in seconds. And he was trained to stop an assassin, if things turned for the worst.
She planted herself, encouraging the man to approach her with her eyes. As he neared her, she could see that he was about her age, give or take a few years—much younger than she had guessed from across the room.
He reached her, holding her gaze from across the small, round table covered in the half-empty drinks of her dancing companions.
“You’re not an earthlie, are you?” he asked, smiling at her.
She considered lying, but then thought better of it. “No, I’m not. You?”
“You have a lot of friends,” he said, lightly chuckling. “I didn’t think I’d ever get a moment alone with you.”
“And why would you want that?” Darby asked.
“Why does any man want a moment with a beautiful woman?”
She raised an eyebrow. “Are you from Dublin, or just passing through?”
His expression turned to a smirk, though Darby saw something else in his eyes—pain.
“Originally from here. Now passing through.”
“Where to?”
He stared at her, his eyes smoldering again. “Doesn’t matter, does it? What matters is what I came to the club looking for.”
From the way he was looking at her, it was pretty clear what he came to the club looking for.
She looked away, though she could still feel his eyes staring down at her. Her breathing pulsed in her throat, speeding up as she considered it—all the things he could do to her, all the ways he could entertain her. She had never been with a man before, not even a kiss. Kissing required privacy, and Darby had none of that—she always had her family, or her staff, or
her friends, or Griffin surrounding her.
She looked up and caught Griffin’s eye from across the room. He had noticed the stranger, no question. He seemed on higher alert, though he thankfully hadn’t interrupted them yet.
She looked up at the guy. “You wanna go somewhere?” She could hear the recklessness in her words, but she didn’t care.
She was eighteen years old, a full-grown adult, and she had never kissed anyone.
He narrowed his eyes at her, mild surprise etched across his lips, nose, and cheekbones. “You don’t seem like the kind of girl who ‘goes somewhere’ with a complete stranger.”
She smirked indignantly. “Guess you underestimated me.”
He watched her, unconvinced. “Where do you want to go?”
She thought quickly. She couldn’t exactly leave the club without telling anyone where she went…
“An empty hallway. An empty room. Doesn’t matter to me.”
He nodded. “There’s an empty hallway right through that door. It’s how I got in here.”
She followed his eyes to a non-descript, gray door not far from where they were standing.
“I’ll meet you back there in three,” she said, pulling out her phone. “I just need to text someone.”
His eyes fell on her phone as he chuckled again. “Don’t keep me waiting.”
He walked away, toward the door, and Darby took a sip of her drink nonchalantly, knowing Griffin was probably watching her. She pulled out her phone, quickly texted Quinn—she wasn’t stupid enough to go off with a stranger without telling anyone, after all—then sent a message to all three of her ladies, asking them if they could distract Griffin for the next ten minutes.
Ten minutes was all she needed to get what she wanted from the stranger.
And if something happened to her in the process, at least Quinn would know.
It was worth the risk.
Feeling Griffin’s eyes still on her, she made her way toward the women’s restroom, before ducking into the crowd and backtracking toward the grey door. Every step of the way, she expected him to appear before her, asking her what she was doing, where she was going. He never caught her though. As she neared the door, she transported to move faster through space, hoping that none of the many witnesses would see her effectively disappear and reappear. Transporting was always more dangerous in a crowded room of earthlies. Too easy to get caught.
Finally, she closed the gray door behind her and faced him, her mystery stranger, who was looking at her the way she suspected she was looking at him.
“Come here,” he said quietly.
She complied, moving toward him. She imagined he had a lot of experience pleasuring women, and that she wasn’t the first he’d met in the empty back hallway of a club.
She didn’t care though. All she wanted was to feel normal. A few minutes of kissing in an abandoned hallway, so she didn’t have to go off to Alanza with no experience at all—was it too much to ask?
She closed in on him, and he leaned against the wall, his hands finding her waist. He looked down at her, suddenly seeming much more boyish and unsure of himself. Then, he bent his head down and his lips found hers, first just touching them, then opening his mouth a little more.
Her first kiss felt sweet, soft, and gentle, something she hadn’t expected from this man.
She opened her mouth and his tongue found its way across her lips, her own tongue. She wrapped her hands behind his neck and pressed her body against him, wanting much more of him, wanting the much rougher side of him that she saw earlier.
He seemed to understand. His eyes blazing, he pulled her waist in, lifting her blouse and pressing his fingers into her skin. She kissed him harder, more passionately, and he quickly flipped places with her, slamming her body against the wall.
He kissed her deeper, pressing his body against hers in a way that sent shivers through every part of her. He pushed her legs apart slightly with his own, pressing himself against her. His hands quickly found their way up her blouse to her bra, though he didn’t attempt to take it off. She let out a soft sigh into his open mouth.
Then, he pulled back, as if he had shocked himself. “This isn’t what I wanted,” he said, breathing heavily.
She inhaled and exhaled slowly, trying to calm herself down. “It seemed like what you wanted?” She sounded unsure of herself, like a little girl, too insecure for a future queen. She loathed herself for it.
“I wanted to talk to you more first,” he said, his breathing slowing to a steady calm.
The gray door burst open and Griffin stormed in. “Get away from her. Now.”
Her mysterious stranger immediately dropped his hands from her waist and took several steps back. He looked at her with a mixture of confusion and betrayal.
“Is this your boyfriend?” he asked.
Not knowing how else to explain it, she nodded. “Something like that.”
He pressed his lips together, looking away from her. He looked back at them, opened his mouth as if to say something, then glared at her and turned, walking in the opposite direction down the hallway.
Darby listened miserably as his stomping footsteps echoed for several seconds, reverberating against the metal and concrete that surrounded them. She had used him, and he knew it. She had hurt him just to get something from him.
The truth was, she had enjoyed it, and she had enjoyed him. She wished that she had more time with him, to talk, to get to know him, to do it all up properly, just as he wanted.
He was right—she wasn’t the kind of girl who ‘goes somewhere’ with a complete stranger. She had acted desperately, like a woman for whom a kiss could never just be a kiss, a crush could never just be a crush, a marriage could never just be about love. But how could she ever explain that to someone who didn’t know who she was?
As soon as the door at the other end of the hallway shut, Griffin confronted her. “What were you thinking?”
He didn’t sound angry, rather weary and confused.
“I needed some space from being watched over,” she replied. “From everyone always having their eyes on me, always watching every move—”
“—You know why I can’t let anything happen to you.” Griffin’s tone had turned accusatory and ragged, like he was trying to swallow the emotion welling in his throat.
She nodded. She did know. Griffin and her older half-brother Delaney had been best buds, drawn to each other when both of their mothers died at their tender ages of four. Griffin didn’t know his father, who had disappeared before he was born, while Delaney’s mom had never been more than a lustful convenience for their dad.
Darby and Delaney’s dad had always been in love with her mom, and while the Queen had always treated Delaney as her own son, Darby knew there must be some resentment there. Delaney had turned into a cold and angry young boy, so as a last-ditch effort, the King and Queen took in Griffin to their care in the castle to keep him company.
Griffin was there the day that Delaney died, diving off a high waterfall and never resurfacing from the craggy rocks and crashing waves at the bottom.
Not long after, Griffin left Alanza and enrolled in a yearlong training as a bodyguard. He hadn’t left her side since graduating from his program.
“Do you though?” Griffin pleaded with her. “Do you truly understand what Del’s death did to me?”
She nodded again. “I was perfectly safe,” she insisted.
“He’s a leprechaun,” Griffin argued. “Couldn’t you tell?”
“I was perfectly—”
“You were not safe!” Griffin growled, raising his voice. “There are leprechauns who want to destroy your family. And they aren’t going to be like earthlies that you can easily use your powers against. You have to be more careful, Darby. Your family has enemies, real enemies. More enemies than you can possibly know.”
“I’ve barely made any public appearances,” she insisted, though she knew he was right. “No one even knows what I look like, aside from guess
ing that I’ll have red hair like the rest of my family. I won’t even be announced as the heir apparent until the orientation.”
Griffin shook his head. “You cannot act like this anymore,” he insisted. “Tonight was a mistake. Coming here was a mistake. The rest of the faerie world will not be as kind as the bubble you have lived in for the last eighteen years. Alanza will show you a taste of it, but it’s still nothing compared to what you face out there.”
She frowned. “Tonight was not a mistake,” she said quietly. “It was a last chance at freedom.”
“Well, I hope you got your taste,” Griffin said gruffly. “Because the night is over.” He grabbed her arm and she let him, knowing there was no point in resisting. He was her trained bodyguard. He could overpower her if she refused.
Less than five minutes later, all five of them had gathered and transported home to her family’s castle.
And once again, she was a princess.
2
Brielle watched Quinn pick up a piece of jewelry from the main table, where all four girls had laid out their full jewelry collections. “Quinn, that’s my necklace—I might wear it—”
“It goes better with my dress,” Quinn said, holding it up to her neck.
Darby sighed. The whole plane ride down, Quinn and Brielle had bickered like sisters over who had caused them to leave late that morning. Brielle claimed Quinn had started packing too late, which caused the delay, while Quinn said Brielle had packed too much, which made it impossible for anyone else to load their things.
The plane had arrived several hours late due to loading problems, which meant their household had less time to set up, which meant they had run horribly behind schedule to get ready for the presenting ceremony that night.
Darby had hoped to see Alanza from the front of the school, but their late arrival had meant she was rushed in through one of the lower side entrances. The January temperatures were much higher than in Ireland as the seasons were reversed, and as Rio de Janeiro was much closer to the equator. The castle stayed under 30 degrees Celsius thanks to its natural breezy layout, with archways and windows fully open to the outside elements. Large fans throughout all the rooms and granite stone walls along the exterior retained the cool air. The design gave the effect of living amidst the jungle, which suited Darby, who, as an earth faerie, had always been attracted to flora and fauna alike.
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