Wicked Lovely

by Marr, Melissa

  The faeries outside were all watching. Several giggled gleefully.

  The vine-girl in the suit was there again. She looked up from her newest menagerie of origami animals—which were now walking around as if they were alive. “Told you, Cerise,” she said, and went back to folding more leaves. “That sort of approach doesn’t work if they’re already in love.”

  Aislinn let go of the encroaching faery. “Stay away from him.”

  “For the night”—the faery looked back inside, her wings opening and closing behind her, slowly, like a butterfly at rest—“but really, I think he could do so much better.”

  Freaking faeries. Aislinn opened her mouth to say something else.

  “Not interested,” Seth called from behind her.

  “Bitch,” said one of the girls to Aislinn as she left. She stomped out like she had a right to be offended. “You didn’t need to grab her like that. She was just flirting.”

  The other said, “Guys don’t like pushy girls. They like ladies.”

  At the door Jimmy paused and deadpanned, “Yeah. It’s really not a total turn-on.” Then he cracked up. “You get tired of Seth…”

  Mitchell shoved him. “Shut up.”

  Invisible to everyone but her and the faeries, several of the ever-changing group of fey things outside scurried off.

  Aislinn shut the door and leaned against it.

  Seth was already back at the nasty-smelling concoction, stirring it. “Since you don’t seem the jealous sort, I’m guessing she was a faery.”

  “Wings and all.” She went over, pulled him down to her, and kissed him. “But I might be a bit more the jealous sort than I realized.”

  He grinned. “Works for me.”

  He put down the spoon and followed her over to the counter. “Thought they didn’t like steel.”

  “They don’t. That’s why she was trying to get you to go out. She was strong enough to come in, but not strong enough to stay long. She couldn’t even hold her glamour very well.” She picked up another handful of herbs to crush. “Do me a favor?”

  “Always.”

  “Stay home tonight.” She picked out a few thicker stems. She glanced back at the door, a suddenly thin barrier against the growing number of faeries outside.

  “I could ask you the same,” he murmured. He held her tightly.

  She closed her eyes and leaned her cheek on his chest. “If I don’t get answers soon, Grams is going to pull me out of school. I can’t stall her much longer, and I don’t want to lie to her and say they’ve gone away.”

  “I could come with you….”

  “He’s not going to talk to me if I bring you along. I need him to think I’m believing him.” She stretched up so she could kiss him, and then added, “If this doesn’t work, we’ll try something else.”

  He looked worried, afraid—things she didn’t want to see, didn’t want him to feel—but finally he nodded. “Be safe, okay?”

  “I’ll do my best….”

  Because if she didn’t, everything would be taken away—school, friends, Seth, everything. Keenan needed to let something slip. The faeries needed to say something that could help her figure out how to get rid of him. They simply had to.

  CHAPTER 17

  Once they take you and you taste the food…you cannot come back. You are changed…and live with them for ever.

  —The Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries by W. Y. Evans-Wentz (1911)

  A half hour later Aislinn walked down Sixth Street, feeling more apprehensive with each step. Thinking about the faery coming into Seth’s home didn’t make matters any better. What if I hadn’t been there? Would they hurt him? She hadn’t wanted to leave Seth, or meet Keenan, or deal with the whole debacle, but she needed answers. Keenan had them.

  He stood outside the entrance to the carnival, looking so normal that it was hard to remember that he was one of them, and not just court fey but a king. He reached out as if he’d embrace her. “Aislinn.”

  She stepped backward, easily dodging him.

  “I’m so glad you came.” Keenan looked terribly serious.

  At a loss for what to say, she shrugged.

  “Shall we?” He held out his arm, like they were at a formal dance or something.

  “Sure.” She ignored his arm—and his brief frown—as she followed him toward the maze of booths that had seemingly sprung up overnight.

  People milled around, an impossibly large crowd. Families and couples played games on every side. Many of them had sweet-smelling drinks—some sort of golden slushy thing.

  “You’re just so”—he stared at her, smiling that inhuman smile—“I’m just so honored that you joined me.”

  Aislinn nodded, like he made sense. He didn’t. This is ridiculous. His too-eager comments made her feel increasingly uncomfortable.

  Beside her, a group of girls tried to throw tiny plastic balls onto glass platters. Overhead the lights of the Ferris wheel sparkled. People laughed and cuddled close to one another as they walked by.

  Then Keenan took her hand, and suddenly her Sight was so clear that she gasped. Everywhere she looked, glamours faded. The workers running the booths, the concessions, the rides…They’re all fey. All the carnies and quite a few of the guests were faeries. Oh my God. She’d never seen such a large crowd of faeries before.

  Everywhere she looked, disguised faeries smiled back at her, friendly and happy.

  Why are so many faeries wearing human faces?

  Some real humans milled about, playing rigged games and riding rickety rides, but the faeries didn’t stare at them. She was the one they all watched.

  Keenan waved to a group of faeries who had called out to him. “Old friends. Do you want to meet them?”

  “No.” She bit down on her lip and looked around again, feeling her chest tighten.

  He frowned.

  “Not right now.” She forced a smile, hoping he’d think her nervousness was just shyness.

  Control. She took a deep breath and tried to sound friendly. “I thought we were going to get to know each other.”

  “Right.” He smiled like she’d given him some rare and precious gift. “What can I tell you?”

  “Umm, what about your family?” Aislinn stumbled, feet as unsteady as her breathing.

  “I live with my uncles,” he said as he led her forward, past a group of faeries that—until a moment ago—looked like they could go to Bishop O.C.

  Several gestured toward her, but no one approached. In fact, the others moved out of Keenan’s path as he led her toward a row of booths where the now-revealed faeries ran carnival games.

  “Your uncles?” she repeated, feeling increasingly doubtful that coming was a wise idea. She pulled her hand free. “Right, the guys who were at school.”

  Faeries. Just like almost everyone here. She felt dizzy.

  She tried again. “What about your parents?”

  “My father died before I was born”—he paused, looking not sad, but angry—“but everything I am is his gift.”

  Did faeries die? She wasn’t at all sure how to respond to his odd comment, so she simply said, “My mom is gone too. Childbirth.”

  “I’m sorry.” He took her hand again, squeezed it affectionately, and intertwined his fingers with hers. “I’m sure she was a good woman. And she must’ve been lovely to be your mother.”

  “I’m not much like her.” Aislinn swallowed hard. All she had was pictures. In the pictures Grams had around the house, her mother always looked haunted, like she couldn’t quite handle the things she could see. Grams never spoke of her mother’s last year, as if it hadn’t existed.

  “What about your father? Is he a good man?” He stopped, holding her hand while they stood there, surrounded by faeries, talking about their families.

  If she hadn’t been able to see the oddly shaped eyes and strange smiles on the faeries who listened, it might seem so very normal. It wasn’t.

  She started to walk away, going toward one of the concessio
n stands where they were selling those sweet-smelling drinks.

  “Aislinn?”

  She shrugged, more comfortable talking about a father she knew nothing of than the mother who’d given her the Sight. “Who knows? Grams doesn’t know who he is, and Mom’s not here to tell us.”

  “At least you have your grandmother.” He reached up with his free hand and stroked her cheek. “I’m glad you have had that, a loving caretaker.”

  She started to answer, but headed toward them were Pointy-Face and about six of the other faeries who liked to linger at Shooters, harassing the regulars, chasing her away from the pool hall with their very presence. She froze, unable to move, years of instinct overriding logic.

  “Aislinn? What’s wrong?” He moved in front of her, blocking her view of everyone and everything but him. “Have I offended you?”

  “No. I’m just”—she offered him what she hoped was a convincing smile and lied—“chilly.”

  He shrugged off his jacket and draped it over her shoulders, gently. “How’s that?”

  “Better.” And it was. If he were what he pretended to be—kind and considerate—she might’ve felt bad that she was here on false pretenses.

  But he wasn’t. He wasn’t real at all.

  “Come on. Let’s walk. There’s always some interesting games here.” He took her hand again, bringing her Sight back in full force.

  Beside them, a woman stood in a child’s wading pool calling, “Three darts for a prize.”

  A thick braid dangled like a rope past her knees. Her face was like one of those angels in old paintings, innocent with a spark of danger in her eyes. Aside from the goats’ legs that peeked out of her long skirt, she was gorgeous, but no one approached her.

  At the next tent a steady line of faeries and humans waited. Faces Aislinn had glimpsed around the city mingled with faeries she could never have imagined—wings and thorn-crusted skin and all manners of dress. It was too much to process.

  Aislinn paused, overwhelmed by the sheer number and variety of faeries around her.

  “The fortune-tellers here always put on a good show.” Keenan pulled the flap of the tent back farther so she could look inside. There were three women with rheumy white eyes. Behind them stood a row of statues—like gargoyles without wings. They were freakishly muscular. And alive. Their gazes flitted around the tent, as if they were trying to find someone to answer unspoken questions.

  The faeries all stepped aside, and Keenan led her to the front of the tent.

  She stepped closer to one of the statues. It looked wide-eyed, almost afraid as she reached out her hand.

  One of the women reached out and snatched Aislinn’s still uplifted hand. “No.”

  The women spoke all at once, not to her or to Keenan, but softly—as if to themselves—in a sibilant whisper. “He’s ours. Fair exchange. Not yours to interfere.”

  The one gripping her hand winked at Aislinn. “Well, then, sisters? What say we?”

  Aislinn tugged backward; the woman held tight.

  “So you’re the young one’s”—the fortune-teller looked at Keenan with her seemingly blind eyes—“new ladylove.”

  Behind them, faeries pushed closer, scuffling and chattering.

  The old woman gave Keenan a searing look—her white eyes shining—and said, “She’s different than the others, dear. Special.”

  “I already knew that, mothers.” Keenan wrapped an arm around Aislinn’s waist, half hugging her, like he had a right to pull her closer.

  He doesn’t.

  Aislinn stepped away as far as she could with the woman holding her hand.

  All three women sighed, simultaneously. “Fierce, isn’t she?”

  The one still holding Aislinn’s hand asked Keenan, “Shall I tell you just how different she is? How special this one will be?”

  Every faery there suddenly stopped talking. They were all watching openly, transfixed and gleeful, as if a horrible accident were happening in front of them.

  “No.” Aislinn pulled her hand free and grabbed Keenan’s arm.

  He didn’t move.

  “As special as I’ve dreamed?” Keenan asked the blind women, his voice carrying clearly to the faeries who pushed forward.

  “There are none you will meet so rare as she.” The three women all nodded, eerily in sync with one another, like three bodies with one mind.

  Grinning, Keenan tossed a handful of unfamiliar bronze coins to the women, who unerringly snatched them out of the air, their hands moving in precisely the same arcs at exactly the same moment.

  I need out of here. Now.

  But she couldn’t run. If not for the Sight, she wouldn’t have reason to react so strongly: the women weren’t any stranger than most carnies.

  Don’t expose yourself. Remember the rules.

  She couldn’t panic. Her heart still beat madly. Her chest felt tight, like she couldn’t breathe. Hold it together. Focus. She needed to get out of there, get away from them, back to Seth. She shouldn’t have come. It felt like she’d walked into a trap.

  She stepped away from the women and pulled on Keenan’s arm. “Let’s get a drink. Come on.”

  He pulled her closer to him and went with her to the door, past the crowd of murmuring faeries.

  “She is the one.”

  “Did you hear?”

  “Send the message.”

  “Beira will be furious.”

  As the evening wore on, faeries he hadn’t seen in years arrived at the carnival. It’s a good turnout—even with the hags here to spy for Beira. Emissaries from the other fey courts came, some for the first time in centuries. They know.

  “Keenan?” One of the guards from Donia’s house came toward him and bowed.

  Keenan shook his head. He spun Aislinn to him in a loose embrace, far from graceful, but effective nonetheless. She glimmered faintly in the dark, the sunlight of her changing body already filling her. Sometimes it was like that; the change came on so quickly that the mortal girls grew suspicious. It made sense that his queen—for surely she could be none other—would change even quicker.

  Behind Aislinn’s back, a rowan-man in a mortal glamour intercepted Donia’s guard.

  “What?” Aislinn started, staring up at Keenan, eyes wide, lips parted as if she waited for a kiss.

  Too soon for that. But he did move closer to her, holding her in his arms as if they were at a ball. And we shall have one, show her the splendor of our court. As soon as she ascends to the throne.

  Glancing past Aislinn’s shoulder to where the rowan-man had stopped Donia’s guard, Keenan said, “I don’t want anything to spoil tonight. Should the world end tonight, I wouldn’t want to know.”

  And it was true. He had his queen in his arms; after centuries of searching, she was finally in his arms. The Eolas had all but said it.

  He tilted her head up and whispered, “Dance with me.”

  She shook her head, something very close to fear in her eyes. “There’s no room, no music.”

  He spun her, wishing she had on proper skirts, missing the sway of silk and rustle of petticoats. “Of course there is.”

  No one strayed into their path. No one jostled them. Instead the crowd moved around them, parting to clear a space so he could have his first dance with her, his queen.

  At the very edge of the river, he saw his summer faeries—our faeries now—fade from view, shed their glamours, and join the dance. Soon, with Aislinn beside him, he’d be able to protect them, take care of them as a true King of Summer should.

  “Can you truly not hear the music?” He led her past a crowd of bog faeries, who hadn’t bothered to shed their glamours, but were dancing all the same. Their luminous brown skin sparkled with light that lay trapped just under the surface, looking like long-lost cousins to the selchies. Several of the Summer Girls had begun to swirl in place, waif-thin dervishes of blurring vine and skirt and hair.

  With one hand on the small of Aislinn’s back and the other holding her tiny
hand, he led her through the swirling crowds of invisible fey. Mouth against her ear, he sing-songed, “Laughter, the roll of the water, the soft whir of traffic, the hum of insects. Can’t you hear it, Aislinn? Just listen.”

  “I need to leave.” Her hair flung across his face as he spun her away and back, closer still this time. She sounded terrified when she said, “Let go.”

  He stopped. “Dance with me, Aislinn. I hear enough music for both of us.”

  “Why?” She was still and stiff in his arms, looking around them, staring into faces hidden under mortal masks. “Tell me why. What do you want?”

  “You. I’ve spent my life waiting for you.” He paused, looking at the joy on the faces of the summer creatures, those who’d suffered under Beira’s reign for so long. “Give me this dance, this night. If it’s in my power, I’ll give you whatever you ask in return.”

  “Whatever I ask?” she repeated incredulously. After all the worries, the research, the panic, he offered her an out in exchange for a simple dance.

  Could it be that easy? One dance and she could leave, get out of here, away from all of them. But if there was truth in any of the stories, faeries only offered exchanges that would benefit them.

  “Give me your vow.” She stepped several paces back so she could look him in the eye—an impossible task from up close.

  He smiled that earthshaking smile, and her words caught in her throat.

  She shivered, but she didn’t back down.

  “Swear it in front of all these witnesses.” She gestured at the waiting crowd. They were mostly faeries, but a few humans stood by watching, not knowing what the spectacle was about, but watching all the same.

  The faeries—those invisible and those wearing glamours—gasped and murmured.

  “She’s a clever one…”

  “…getting a king’s vow without knowing what he is, who he is.”

  “Will he?”

  “She’ll make a wonderful queen.”

  Then Keenan raised his voice so everyone could hear him, “In front of all before us, I give you my vow of honor, Aislinn: anything you ask of me that I can offer is yours.” He dropped to one knee and added, “And from this day forward, your wishes shall be as my own as often as I am able.”