She smiled, taking a step back as she said something. The conversation was drawing to an end. I pushed to my feet, prepared to trail her again.
I was gazing out across the dancers, not really paying attention to them, but I must have looked like I was waiting for a dance partner. A fae with a bestial face and hands tipped in claws bounded up to me. He wrapped his hands around my wrist, the claws carefully held away from my satin gloves. He dragged me forward a step.
“Come dance,” he said, trying to lead me closer to the singer and the other dancers.
“I don’t—”
He wasn’t listening. The music started again and he pulled me along with him as he began to dance. He was strong, and graceful, but with joints that didn’t move at all like mine. And no respect at all for the fact that I didn’t want to dance. I considered screaming, or struggling out of his grip, but I could see Lunabella every time he spun me and she was scanning the crowds again. If I made a scene, I’d draw far too much attention to myself.
The beastly fae led me on a leaping, twirling dance, and my already blistering feet protested every step. Still the fae wouldn’t release me. I twisted, trying to keep Lunabella in sight. She glanced back and forth until her gaze finally locked on who she must have been looking for. She scurried over to a fae wearing a golden cloak. No smiles and laughing this time. The two ducked their heads, Lunabella nodding slowly. I guessed the figure was a “he” only because of height and the width of his shoulders, but in fae, who came in so many shapes and sizes, that might be an assumption I couldn’t count on. The beastly fae spun me again, and one of my heels caught in the long train of my gown. I pitched forward, saved from falling on my ass only because he caught me by the waist. He gave me a shy smile full of fangs. I didn’t return the smile as I peered over his shoulder.
I’d lost sight of Lunabella in my near fall, and I whipped my head around, searching for her and the golden-cloaked figure. I spotted him first, the gold of his cloak reflecting the blue firelight in an ominous display. Lunabella wasn’t with him. My dance partner lifted me in a twirl that had my shoes two feet off the ground. I spotted Lunabella in the middle of the lift, headed toward the back of the clearing, the opposite way from the cloaked figure.
“Lovely dance. Really. But I need to—” I gestured as I spoke, pointing to the edge of the dance.
The beastly fae only smiled. He spun me again, the layers of fabric in the gown swirling around my legs. But I thought he was at least spinning me toward the seats and my escape. Until he handed me to another dance partner.
This one was far less skillful. He wrapped his arms around my waist and tried to pull me along as he leapt in uneven spinning circles. Now I did trip, falling to my knees only to be hauled back up by a third partner.
“I should sit down,” I yelled over the music, though what I really wanted to do was escape this dance and kick off my awful heels before tracking down Lunabella. My feet were throbbing.
The fae who had his arms around me, lifting me into the air as he spun us, only cocked his head to the side. He had roughly humanoid features, but he was covered in what looked like bright blue fur. I only realized it was actually feathers when I recognized the magnificent plumage of peacock feathers he had in place of hair.
He said something in a language I didn’t know. It didn’t have the musical qualities of the fae language and I had the feeling it was a foreign but human language—independent fae lived in every country of the world. The problem was, he couldn’t understand I wanted to stop dancing.
I tried to motion to where I thought the chairs were, and got my legs tangled in my skirt’s twisted train again. I would have fallen—again—if not for a pair of strong arms that caught me, spinning me away from the peacock fae.
“You look like you could use a rescue,” a blessedly familiar voice said, and I looked up into Falin’s face.
“Yes. Get me away from here,” I muttered, trying not to whimper. I very nearly added a “please” to the request, I wanted out of the dance so badly, but neither one of us would want him to hold a debt over me that the queen could use.
He moved us deftly to the edge of the dance. Someone tried to cut in, but a single glare from Falin sent them scurrying for an easier-to-acquire partner. We stopped even a pretense of dancing once we broke free of the group, but didn’t stop moving until we were past the chairs I’d sat in earlier. I limped along, struggling to keep pace with Falin. Once we were far enough away that we weren’t at risk of getting dragged back into the dance, he turned toward me.
“Are you hurt?”
“Not really, and far more important, I found Lunabella. She was with the court of light. I followed her but lost her during the dance.”
“I know. I saw you hurry after her,” Falin said, and I almost sighed in relief.
“So you know where she went?”
“Dugan is following her.”
I raised one eyebrow, surprised he’d passed following our only lead off to Dugan. Falin shrugged.
“It was rescue you from that dance or trail Lunabella. I wasn’t sending the Shadow Prince after you. Now, where are you hurt?”
“It’s nothing really,” I said, but I lifted my skirt, trying to get a look at my feet under all the material—not that I could bend to reach my feet in the restricting corset.
Falin knelt in front of me, and when I lifted my foot, he slipped off the shoe. I immediately felt better with the heels off, but then I was left with my bare foot dangling in the air. I set it down tentatively. The snow crunched under my toes, and it felt cool, but not cold. It would suck to walk around barefoot all night, but I probably wouldn’t lose any toes to hypothermia.
Falin glanced at the heeled slipper in his hand. Rusty red blood coated the blue and silver material where the shoes had bitten blisters into my foot. Falin shook his head.
“Only you could get injured by dress shoes.”
“Not true—heels are totally unnecessary torture devices.”
“Says the woman who normally walks around in thigh-high platform boots,” he said, his tone friendly and teasing. Then he looked at the shoe in his hand again and frowned. “But you can’t walk around barefoot, especially not with bleeding feet. Let me see if I can fix this. I’ll have to put it back on first.”
I grimaced, but lifted my foot so he could get the shoe back on. It felt like my foot must have swollen to the next size up in the short period the heeled shoe had been off because it felt even tighter and more painful now. Then Falin wrapped his hands around my foot, and his glamour changed the shoe. It grew softer and more pliable, the heel shrinking to nothing. I held my foot out and examined my new pale-blue-and-silver ballet flat.
“Much better,” I said as way of thanks. I lifted the other foot and let him glamour it as well. My feet still hurt—the glamour didn’t heal them—but at least they were out of the heels. He fussed with the dress next, and it became a little less full, a little more manageable, and the train shortened, shrinking until the trim of the dress hung just above the snow.
I gave an experimental twirl as Falin stood. The glamour held perfectly, the dress moving around me but no longer a major tripping hazard.
“I could kiss you.” I breathed the words as much as said them, a happy sigh tumbling out of me, and wished I had some way of thanking him better.
The edge of Falin’s lips lifted slightly, a small, secret smile just for me. Warmth fluttered in my stomach, a mix of awareness of how close we were standing, anticipation that he might take me up on the offer, and embarrassment because I hadn’t thought before I’d spoken. Not being able to say “thank you” was hard.
He stared at me, and the warmth spread, an unexpected eagerness with it. Months ago, at the last revelry, had been the last time we’d kissed. That had been . . . complicated. Mix a love confession with a threat at dagger point and maybe “complicated” was an unders
tatement.
Falin lifted a hand like he was going to place it on my cheek, but then he stopped, his fingers hovering just out of reach.
“Taboos are lifted for tonight,” he whispered.
The warmth of his fingers heated the air between his hand and my face. He wanted to touch me, I could see it in the way his lips parted, the heat in his eyes. Hell, I often saw it when he thought I wasn’t looking. He was forbidden to become further romantically involved with me. I knew that. But for tonight, those rules didn’t apply. All of Faerie was entreated to make merry.
I slid my hand over the back of his, giving it the slightest nudge so that his palm cradled my cheek. Even through his gloves, his touch made my skin tingle with anticipation. He gazed at me, intent, intense, and my breath caught. That made him look at my lips, and I knew he would throw caution to the wind.
He leaned down, his lips brushing mine, the kiss chaste. Then his hand slipped from my cheek to the back of my neck and he deepened the kiss. I lifted up onto my toes, balancing a hand on his chest as I relished the kiss. My tongue slid into his mouth, tasting, testing, and he met me perfectly.
It was far from our first kiss, and yet it held the same uncertainty as one. The kiss was exploration, heat but hesitation. We broke off, both breathing hard.
He stared at me, his gaze full of wonder and desire. I had been cherished before. Loved. But when Falin looked at me, and let me see his feelings in his eyes, he looked at me like I was air itself. It was intense. And it was frightening, because in his gaze, I could see that he really saw me. Not just the me dressed up like a doll at the queen’s command. Not just the planeweaver. Not even just the grave witch. But all of me. The me that stumbled around searching for coffee when I first woke. The me who’d thought he was an arrogant asshole when we first met. The me that tended to hide from difficult emotions and relationships. And the me that often felt like I didn’t know what I was doing half the time. He saw it all, and he still looked at me like I was everything.
I couldn’t hold his intense gaze. It was too much. Too real. I glanced away, and the moment broke.
Falin took a step back. “We should . . .” He stopped. His voice was still thick with desire. He cleared his throat, his gaze moving over my shoulder. “That was not a good idea. The queen is in a foul mood. We shouldn’t tempt her ire.”
I gave a jerk of my head that I hoped came off as a nod as I fumbled to put my hands in pockets, which the dress didn’t have. I was still breathing a little too hard, and the corset wasn’t helping. My chest heaved with each breath, my breasts threatening to spill out with each lungful of air. Stupid gown.
“I guess we should go find Lunabella,” I said, stepping back so I wasn’t quite as close to Falin and the possibilities that still seemed to hang in the air between us.
Falin shrugged. “Dugan is watching her. Besides, we can’t confront her here. If she was involved, we could do nothing as all grudges, crimes, and bans are temporarily forgotten during the revelry. If she wasn’t involved, discussing a death during a revelry would be . . . more than just frowned upon.” He sighed. “It might complicate things that she is in the light court, or that might simplify getting an interview with her after the revelry. I’m not sure. Either way, we know where to find her. For now that has to be good enough.”
“Then why send Dugan to watch her?”
“So I could be the one to escort you, of course.” He held out his arm for me to take. “Come on. Let’s enjoy the revelry.”
* * *
• • •
I yawned, stretching my arms over my head and breathing in as much as the constraining corset allowed. Dawn was starting to light the horizon, which meant the longest night was coming to an end, and the shortest day was beginning. It also meant I’d been awake over twenty-four hours.
“Don’t fae ever sleep?” I grumbled, dropping my arms and slumping in the ice-carved seat I was perched on.
Falin glanced over from his own chair. “During a revelry? Some already are.” He nodded toward the edges of the clearing.
Some fae slumped at the great banquet tables, snoring off an overindulgence of pixie wine. Others had bedded down in the snow under the trees, but many of those in the tree line weren’t necessarily sleeping.
The idea of taking a nap in the snow—even enchanted snow that wasn’t particularly cold—didn’t appeal to me. Still, I wasn’t going to be good for much soon. Leaving was always an option, but even if I stepped out now, at dawn, it would be sunset when I emerged. I hated losing an entire day to Faerie. Especially since I’d go directly to bed when I got home. Losing a day and then sleeping all night was like adding insult to injury.
“I have to walk around, or I’m going to fall asleep in this chair,” I said, pushing to my feet.
Falin laughed, but he stood in one smooth motion and extended his arm to escort me.
We wandered. So far we’d dined very well, watched several plays about Faerie history, listened to more different kinds of musicians than I could name, and even danced some more, though not for long because even in the ballet flats, my blistered feet ached. Neither of us had mentioned the kiss we’d shared.
We were passing close to one of the buffet tables when one of the revelers caught my attention. I stopped. I wasn’t sure what it was about the man, but something about the way he stood, or maybe his voice, was horribly familiar to me. His face didn’t look like anyone I knew. His skin was slightly ruddy and his features a little too round to be full-blooded fae, so I was guessing he was a changeling or possibly feykin. And yet there was something that struck me about his face as well, though I couldn’t place it.
When he saw me looking at him, he looked away, turning to a group of revelers beside him that I got a feeling he wasn’t quite a part of. I took a step closer to him and Falin frowned at me.
“What is it?”
“I’m not sure. There is something about that man . . .” I opened my shields enough that I could peer across the planes. I wasn’t expecting anything to change, as the man appeared to be at least mostly human.
Appearances can be deceiving.
The glamour he wore vanished under my gaze, revealing a very different face beneath. A face with sharp features that were not that dissimilar to my own. A face belonging to my father.
I strolled up to him, Falin at my side.
“I had heard it was customary to drop glamours for a revelry,” I said, as I stepped up beside him.
For a moment he looked like he was going to play innocent or try to deny who he was. Then he sighed, and while the glamoured face didn’t change, the expression became one I knew only too well.
“What is it you want, Alexis?”
Yup, that tone that managed to sound both uninterested and disappointed at the same time definitely belonged to my father.
“I’m surprised to see you here.” After all, from my understanding, he didn’t enter Faerie pretty much ever and no one knew he was fae. “But since you are here, I thought I’d talk to you about what we were discussing during our phone call the other day.” I left my words intentionally vague. There were a lot of fae from every court around us. I didn’t know what was known about the deaths in the winter court, but I definitely did not want to be the source of any rumors.
My father considered me. The glamour made his eyes look watery and slightly unfocused, and his expression vapid, like he’d had a little too much to drink. His actual eyes were clear and evaluating. His gaze slid to Falin, whose expression was empty, but I could almost feel the cautious curiosity vibrating through our locked arms. Falin did not know who the man in front of us was. Which was fine. I had the sinking suspicion it would cause issues if he found out that an unknown fae that didn’t belong to the winter court resided in—hell, was governor of—Nekros. Falin knew many of my secrets, but definitely not all of them.
“You will have to lose
your unfortunate choice of a chaperone,” my father said, tossing a disparaging glance at Falin.
“I’ll be right back,” I told Falin before he had time to react to my father’s chosen description. For a moment I thought he’d try to stop me, but he only pressed his lips into a thin line, shooting a distrustful glance in my father’s direction.
“Don’t go far,” he said. “With this many fae, it’ll be hard to find each other again if we get separated. I’ll try to keep you in sight.”
I nodded my agreement and then turned to hustle after my father, who was headed toward a scattering of small tables. He picked an empty frost-covered table closest to the tree line and slid into one of the seats. I sat across from him, the icy table between us.
“What kind of privacy spells do you have?” he asked.
I didn’t wince—it would have been a sign of weakness he would have jumped all over. “I have a small privacy bubble spell, but it’s not big enough to cover both of us when we are this far apart.”
He frowned.
“If I sat beside you—” I began.
He waved my words away with a dismissive twitch of his hand. “I’ve got it.”
I didn’t feel his magic, but the sounds of the revelry around us grew distant. The noises didn’t go completely silent like they would have had I used my spell, they just became less distinct and softer. That done, he propped his elbows on the table and folded his fingers into a steeple before his face, staring over his fingers at me.
“I didn’t think you traveled into Faerie,” I said.
He frowned at me. “Normally? No. But all fae are invited to the revelries. It is nice to visit sometimes. I do not believe that is what we are here to discuss, though.”
True.
“I accepted the case you wanted.” He’d never actually said I had to solve it. “How do I reach the high court?”
He evaluated me so long I thought he wasn’t going to answer. Then he asked, “Why is it you want to go to the high court?”
I almost didn’t tell him. He’d asked me a favor, and I’d fulfilled what he’d asked. I could feel the debt between us hanging in the air. But he’d intentionally indebted himself, so that did make me feel a little more amicable.
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