“And who did he bring with him?” Uncle Rolf asked, noticing Cassie.
Nessa was unsure what Devin shared with Rolf, but since he didn’t tell him who Cassie was, she wasn’t about to either. Things only got more complicated as they had more people in the loop. It was actually nice of Devin to leave Uncle Rolf out since he had much more he needed to do. He didn’t need to worry about Nessa.
“His cousin, I think,” Nessa replied. “Something about wanting to show her a queen being crowned and not sure he’d ever get another chance.” Nessa tried to mumble some sort of coherent reason.
Her uncle seemed to believe her as she focused on her food. It was hard to lie to him, but she trusted Devin. It seemed only Turner, Ronan, and Nessa herself knew who Devin brought into the village, and it was better that way. The more people who knew, the more likely Cassie could get into trouble. Nessa didn’t like lying to her uncle, but it was to protect both of them.
Nessa finished up her food, and when she took her last bite, music began somewhere. Nessa cringed as one of her suitors stood from his table across the room and began to walk toward her.
“I have to dance already?” Nessa complained to her uncle.
He smiled. “Yes, the job is never done for the queen. It’s up and dancing for you.”
Nessa wanted to pout and say no to the approaching man, but she couldn’t. He was officially her suitor, after all. All three of them were. Nessa would have given anything to find a hole and be swallowed up by it. She didn’t want to dance with her suitors, and the anger that kept slipping across the bond was driving her nuts.
‘Before you dance with him, tell everyone you are allowing any suitors,’ Devin told her.
Nessa had forgotten she was to activate the plan. It would do no good if just her suitors danced with her. Cassie was sure that none of her three suitors were the actual witch from when she healed them earlier. Nessa needed to dance with the witch sidhe to make the whole night worthwhile. Nessa turned to her cousin.
“Ronan, wasn’t there something you wanted to tell everyone?” she asked. She still didn’t want to dance with anyone, but she would find out who was attacking this way.
Ronan looked at her with questioning eyes before he snapped his head back to the approaching suitor.
“Oh, yes, I completely forgot,” Ronan replied, standing and motioning for the music to stop. The suitor stopped in his tracks.
Nessa was unsure how Ronan was going to tell everyone their plan, but she didn’t worry much over it. Ronan was now her second-in-command, as was protocol that the closest relation of similar age would take that role. He had begged her to deem him ineligible and choose Gemma instead. Nessa didn’t let his plea dissuade her. She needed him beside her, and there was no way she was going to drag Gemma into all of it. Gemma had already been poisoned once, and Nessa wanted to keep her out of danger as long as she could.
As Ronan stood before the crowd, everyone looked at him expectantly. He fidgeted with the cuff of his shirt before standing up straight. His sly glance to Devin told her all she needed to know. Even if Ronan didn’t think he had the strength to be the second-in-command, Devin did, and he would make sure that Ronan had all the support he needed.
“While discussing Queen Vanessa’s options in suitors we realized that we hurriedly agreed to the three choices yesterday. In our haste, we found that we left out other options for suitors that either were not present yesterday or not prepared to announce their intentions. We have thus decided to reopen the options for our queen, and any man that wishes to marry the queen—be it a noble or a common sidhe—can announce their intentions by asking her to dance tonight.” Ronan waved to the musicians and sat back down.
Only Nessa saw his hands shaking under the table. Grasping it, Nessa gave him a silent thank-you. He nodded to her, and then back to Devin. Nessa only glanced at Devin before noticing the crowd had stayed silent and were still watching her. No one seemed to know what to make of the change. She knew that would happen, and Ronan even prepared her for it, but it was still strange. Were the sidhe so set in their ways that one little change would make them think the world was ending? Nessa glanced over at her uncle, who held the same stumped expression on his face. Change was in the air. Nessa knew wholeheartedly she couldn’t choose someone else. She had to be with Devin. The faces around her proved it as they slowly shook off the shock of the slight change and warmed to the idea. The sidhe needed him as much as she did.
Devin sat beside Cassie as another sidhe asked Nessa to dance. The offer to court her had worked well, and she had not stopped dancing all night. It was wearing on her, but Nessa was tough. If she could handle assassins trying to kill her, she could handle dancing all night at her own coronation ball. As the song ended, and Nessa finally got a chance to sit down while the musicians took a break, she made her way back over to their table. Discreetly she took off her gloves and dropped them on the table between Cassie and herself.
“I didn’t know you knew how to waltz,” Devin teased Nessa. “I was pretty sure you avoided all court teachings.”
Nessa stuck her tongue out at Devin. Even if she was exhausted, she was at least in good spirits.
“I didn’t realize there were that many people that wanted to court me,” Nessa replied, closing her eyes and rubbing her forehead. Devin had to hold himself back from taking her hand in his. He could ease her pain a bit, but it was too risky to touch her in front of everyone. They needed the people gathered to all think they had a chance to court her in order to catch the witch sidhe that had a crush on her.
“Any news at all?” Nessa asked Cassie when she finally opened her eyes.
“Not yet,” Cassie replied.
“So more dancing?” Nessa asked wearily.
Cassie looked at Devin, and he nodded. ‘She can feel the magic in the room. They are here, but they haven’t danced with you yet,’ he explained.
“Ugh,” Nessa muttered as she stood. Devin grinned at her. Even though she complained, Nessa was tough. Dancing might have been a form of torture, but she would survive.
The music had begun, and someone was making his way through the people that were on the dance floor again. Nessa’s momentary exhaustion left as Liam parted the crowd and approached their table. Devin tried not to peek through the bond, but he couldn’t help it. Nessa was happy to be rescued by Liam and happy to go dance with him. She walked away on Liam’s arm. It was hard to see, but a good reminder of why he even came to the sidhe village. They’d been trying to break the bond. Now he saw that they should have tried harder. The witch sidhe was trying his best to get Devin out of the picture. Would he go as far as to hurt Devin, and thus Nessa? Nessa’s life had been in peril since the moment they’d returned to her village, and now it was Devin that was putting her there. A secret admirer wouldn’t be trying to hurt Nessa, just him. Devin needed to see if the old king was wrong—he needed to find a way to break the bond.
A new song began, and Liam led Nessa around the dance floor. When the song ended, he didn’t let go of her. Nessa laughed and smiled as a second song started, and they began to dance again. Devin could feel the happiness across the bond. She had a life in the sidhe village, and Devin did not. The sidhe feared him, but all he saw all around him was the love they had for Nessa. She was needed in the palace with the noble sidhe. He was needed with the outcasts. They were two different people needed in two different ways. Maybe their fate wasn’t to be together. Liam was her match. He was nobility and someone that cherished her. Was he a better fit for her?
“So how did you bind your life to hers?” Cassie asked as she watched. She saw way too much for someone they were trying to keep a secret from.
“A blood bond,” Devin replied.
Cassie nodded as the people danced more. “Never considered that.” Cassie looked around more. The light sidhe didn’t tend to use blood in their spells. “And you now have regrets?”
Why did the only teenager in the room have to be so astute? Devin wante
d to lie, but he knew that what Cassie saw. She wasn’t going to believe his fib, anyway.
“I do, but not the way it sounds,” Devin said. “I don’t regret being with her. I’d gladly spend the rest of my life with her. However, I regret her having to be with me. I’m not one of them. I never will be. You can’t say you don’t see how much we are outsiders sitting here.”
“But you have their magic, even if you were never trained like them,” Cassie replied. She didn’t see a difference, and Devin wished the sidhe didn’t see the difference either. His life would have been a whole lot easier if the sidhe were as open to differences as she was.
“Having their magic and being one of them are two different things,” Devin explained. “And my being here alone is putting her in danger. The bond we have makes it so that if something happens to me, it also happens to her. If I get stabbed, then so does she. My life is connected to hers, and this is the first time I am regretting it.”
Nessa seemed happy in Liam’s arms. She was her carefree self that Devin missed. Her life would never be completely untroubled, but he worried that he was part of the strain. The sidhe would never accept him, even if Nessa did. She needed to be with a sidhe to be free of that, and as much as it hurt to see it, Devin did want her happy more than anything else.
Cassie’s eyes widened a little at his explanation and then she nodded. “I guess I can see that. The bond between you is strong. It’s stronger than the one between the guy she’s dancing with and the woman way back there in the purple.”
Devin looked to where Cassie was pointing. A smaller, yet beautiful sidhe, was sitting with Liam’s family. Her bright blue eyes went perfectly with blond hair that curled almost as much as Nessa’s dark unruly mane. Liam didn’t turn around or indicate he even knew the girl, but Devin wasn’t about to not believe Cassie. She had a knack for the night human world, even if she didn’t know about it.
“He’s bonded to her?” Devin asked. Liam was about to move up on Devin’s suspect list if that was the case.
“Yeah, just like you and Nessa, but not as strong,” Cassie added. The song finished, and Nessa returned to her table where her uncle and cousin sat. After talking to them briefly, she came over to Devin and Cassie.
‘Let her check your hands,’ Devin told Nessa silently.
‘Why?’ Nessa asked. She was defensive about Liam. A bit of jealousy tinged at her defensiveness.
‘Because he’s bonded to someone else,’ Devin replied, not even being nice about.
‘So what?’ Nessa replied. Devin paused. Nessa already knew. ‘They were forced to bond together when they were preteens. It was part of a family agreement.’
‘Then why is he chasing you?’ Devin asked in reply. ‘He already has someone else.’
‘Because he doesn’t love her. His strength keeps her safe and gives her a place in his family, but it isn’t love,’ Nessa answered.
Devin was unsure if that was even possible. The former king had said the bond doesn’t form unless the people want it to be there. If Liam didn’t want to be bonded to that girl, then it wouldn’t have worked. But the real question was why was he pursuing Nessa if he was already bonded? Some people might have been able to bond without experiencing the romantic feelings of love, but Devin was pretty sure Liam wasn’t one of them.
Devin looked at Nessa as she continued standing and didn’t sit down. He didn’t need to feel the bond to know that she was upset with him and his unspoken accusations of Liam. She might have told him that she wanted to be with him, but Devin saw the doubt. He could never give her the security of being married to a sidhe. He would never be accepted by all of them. He would always be a day human.
‘Liam is a good guy and would never be into witch magic,’ Nessa defended the red-haired man that was still watching her intently. Part of Devin wanted to go over and punch the dreamy-eyed expression off the oaf’s face, but Devin was lucky his years to practice self-control kicked in, even if it felt like he had less where Nessa was concerned.
‘Just show Cassie your hands, and I’ll lay off him,’ Devin replied. He didn’t really think that Liam was practicing witch magic. The guy was too much brawn and not nearly enough brain to be a witch, but he had to be sure anyway.
Nessa sat down beside Cassie and placed her hand discreetly under the table for Cassie to see. Cassie was good at deception and looked around the room as she talked to Nessa.
“So this makes everything official?” Cassie asked. “A crown and now a dance makes you queen? It’s that easy?”
“I guess,” Nessa replied, refusing to meet Devin’s eyes.
“For being a queen, you don’t seem to know much about your people,” Cassie commented with unabashed honesty. “Sorry. There’s that talking without thinking thing again.” Cassie apologized, but Nessa didn’t seem to care.
“I never thought I’d be queen, and so it wouldn’t matter what I did and didn’t know,” Nessa replied back just as honestly. There was much the two girls had in common, and in the short time getting to know each other, they actually were kindred spirits in the weird night human world.
“They don’t have queen school here?” Cassie asked. Her expression didn’t change as the next suitor approached Nessa.
“No, and I wish they would have warned me that being queen came with hours of fun dancing,” she added sarcastically as she stood and faked a smile at the man, extending him a hand and walking back to the floor.
“I don’t envy her,” Cassie commented as Nessa danced. “Everyone always wants to secretly be a princess. Nessa is proof that it isn’t what people think it will be. I’m glad that I’m just a normal girl.”
Devin coughed at the word normal. Cassie was anything but normal. She turned to him and for once looked him in the eyes.
“What?” she asked with a smile. “I’m normal. Really. Just ask my family and friends.”
“Is that what you call yourselves these days? We must be looking for a normal sidhe,” Devin teased, careful to not use the word witch.
“At least I’m normal where I come from,” Cassie added as she caught on to what Devin meant.
He chuckled. Cassie was far from normal, but anyone that was connected with the night human world, and didn’t know about it, tended to not be normal in any capacity.
“And was he normal?” Devin finally asked as he noticed Liam now dancing with his bonded sidhe.
“Oh, he has it all over him, but it isn’t him.” Cassie shrugged casually like it was of no consequence. She was looking for the witch, not one that the witch had touched.
“Of course he did,” Devin replied, thoughts processing the situation. Liam had witch magic all over him, yet wasn’t the witch. “The person cursed him to put him into that coma before.” Devin was really hoping Liam was the suspect, and he would have an excuse to get rid of him. Witch magic residue proved nothing.
“No, this wasn’t from before. Sometime in the last few hours, he touched our suspect,” Cassie explained as she kept looking around the room casually.
“So Liam’s part of it?” Devin asked. He hadn’t been expecting that. Maybe he would be able to get rid of the annoying oaf.
“No. I don’t think so. His love for Nessa feels different than the magic user,” Cassie explained. “His love is purer. There’s no evil in that man, no matter how much you dislike him.”
Devin glanced across the floor to Liam. He was dancing with a girl he loved enough to bond to, but he wasn’t even looking at her. His attention was completely on Nessa. Devin didn’t want to see another man eyes all over his Nessa, but then again it was becoming more obvious; Nessa wasn’t his. He could never be the sidhe she needed. Maybe, since Nessa and Liam both had someone they were bonded to, they did have more in common than everyone else. Liam was still a sidhe, and that put him even higher on the compatibility list. To hear Cassie explain that Liam’s love was pure hurt, but it made it easier to ask Cassie his next question.
“You can see our bond, right?” h
e asked.
Cassie nodded. Devin took a breath. He was going to cross a line, and he wouldn’t be able to go back. He took one last look at Nessa. Liam was making faces at her as she danced with the tall, lanky suitor. He was an uncoordinated as he was tall. Yes, Nessa needed to be free to make a choice that would help her and her sidhe.
“Can you break it?”
Cassie stared harder at Devin and then glanced across the room at Nessa. Nessa wasn’t looking at the man she was dancing with, but was laughing at the silly gestures Liam was making behind the man’s back.
“Yes. I think I can,” Cassie replied. “If that’s really what you want.”
Nessa danced more, and Devin couldn’t take his eyes off her. He loved her. He knew what love was, but he was unsure if she loved him. She said she did, and he could feel the bond that she did, but he still had doubts. Would she love him if the bond wasn’t there? Would she still pick him? The man she was dancing with clumsily turned her around. Liam maneuvered his bonded so that he could continue to entertain Nessa. Devin peeked through the bond. Nessa was exhausted beyond belief from the day and all the dancing, but the moment her eyes caught Liam, she perked right up. He made her happy. He made her fit in. He was what Devin could never be. Liam was a sidhe.
CHAPTER 7
Nessa sat in the courtyard next to the first sidhe courtier. She had just met him a day ago, and Nessa would be glad to see him gone from the village as soon as he would leave. The tall sidhe even dwarfed her as they sat. He didn’t seem to care or notice that he sat close enough that she had to bend her neck at an uncomfortable angle just to see him. He just kept talking the whole time. He didn’t even pause for an answer when he asked questions. That was actually good, as Nessa had stopped listening to him ten minutes into the date.
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