the summer court seemed as endless as winter’s, only perhaps worse, because there didn’t appear to be any doors in these never-ending halls. More than once I found myself wishing I could urge the birch woman to move faster. Lunabella, while our best lead, was not likely to be the end of our case and time was short. But I doubted she could move any faster, and all the other guards had remained behind aside from the pixie, who flittered in irritated circles around Falin, Dugan, and me. I didn’t think the diminutive fae was inclined to help.
After what felt like a mile of walking, the birch fae stopped. I frowned. There was nothing around us but more vines and flowers. She reached out one pale hand, and the vines slithered away from her. It wasn’t so much that they revealed a door—I’d been able to see the earthen wall behind them in places before they had started moving—as that they formed a doorway that had not previously been there.
And this was why I would never be able to navigate around Faerie on my own.
Falin gave the birch woman the smallest nod before reaching back to offer me his hand. I took it, trying hard to ignore the pixie as she dive-bombed my fingers. I didn’t want to wait around to see what the pixie would do next. She clearly didn’t like me. Or maybe it was my escorts. Either way, her skin had changed from the softly glowing green it had been when she’d been with the other guards, to first yellow, then orange, and now she simmered an angry red.
I lifted my eyebrow at Falin, tossed a glance backward at Dugan, and when both men nodded, we stepped through the doorway.
Chapter 9
I expected the doorway to take us to the wildflowers and pond where the king had been lounging during our conversation.
It didn’t.
For a moment I thought we’d somehow stepped back into the Eternal Bloom based on all the tables spread around us, each laden with food and surrounded by fae eating and making merry. Music played gleefully, and I could see dancers off to my left. But unlike the Bloom, which still attempted to resemble a room despite the Faerie sky and living amaranthine tree that functioned as its ceiling, the “room” we’d been led to appeared to have no walls, at least not before the tree line I could see on the edges of the field. There was also no floor, the tables and chairs spread haphazardly in the grass.
The birch woman hadn’t followed us in, but the pixie had. She chittered at me once more, hovering right before my face. Then she kicked me in the nose.
“Hey,” I yelped, jerking my hand up to bat her away. I didn’t even come close to touching her as she zipped out of reach, and I rubbed the tip of my nose. She hadn’t done any damage, but the kick had stung.
She stuck her tongue out at me, and her color changed to a deep crimson. Then she turned and flew away, vanishing among the tables.
“What was that about?” I asked, resisting the urge to rub my nose a second time.
“I have no idea,” Falin said, his eyes scanning the tables of fae. “And both of our guides have now left us, so I guess we are on our own.”
“I suggest we look for the largest table, if we are looking for the king,” Dugan said, scanning the scene.
“And if we just want to look for Lunabella?” I had the feeling I already knew the answer. I asked anyway.
Dugan turned away from the festivities in front of us to shoot me a frown. “I don’t suggest we do that.”
Right. Well then, I guess we had a king to find.
Without a guide, we made our way through the field slowly. The revelry for the longest night would start tonight, but it looked like the summer fae were pregaming their celebration quite hard. Or maybe this was common for the court. I had little to base it on. Despite the sun blazing overhead, bonfires had been lit in the field, and fae of all manner danced around them.
I hadn’t been around many large gatherings of fae. I visited the Bloom occasionally, but most of those fae were independents who lived near mortals. I’d been to the Fall Equinox revelry, but I’d been a little overwhelmed that night and hadn’t been able to pick out who belonged to which court