I’d never seen a spell like this. It was like someone had used magic to create something out of a science fiction movie. Except the magic in the locket felt old. Very old. So maybe it was the opposite way—the idea for recorded holograms came from glamour and magic.
“Now we know what she looks like,” Dugan said, and there was a smug note to his voice.
I had to admit, that would probably come in handy. There was a chance Lunabella might attend the revelry, and we would have walked right by her without knowing it if someone who knew her didn’t point her out. We might even be able to use this image in a tracing spell. Though considering the image was magic, maybe not.
I studied the woman as she smiled at me in miniature size. She was pretty, her features a little rounder and less severe than seemed to be common among the Sleagh Maith. She blew her kiss before blurring and looping back to laugh again. I couldn’t imagine her being capable of the kind of brutal murder that had befallen Stiofan, but appearances were often deceiving, especially in Faerie.
“Do I want to know what you had to trade for this?” I said as I closed the locket, sealing the magical image away.
Dugan shrugged. “Nothing pressing. We are only borrowing the locket. I must return it before we leave.”
“Oh.” Well, there went the possibility of using it as a focus. It probably wouldn’t have worked anyway—fae magic and witch magic didn’t tend to play well together.
I opened the locket again and the miniature image of Lunabella appeared. I studied it, trying to commit her features to memory. Then I held it out to Falin, allowing him to study it as well.
The small gaggle of fae Dugan had been speaking to waltzed up to us, smiling and all but pushing the red-haired fae in the front of the group forward with their merriment.
“Did you see what you wanted?” she asked, rolling her shoulders back so that her breasts, which were only covered by the necklaces of flowers she wore, were prominently displayed.
Dugan smiled and held out his hand for Falin to return the locket to him. Falin frowned, but closed it, making the image vanish.
“I believe it was what we needed,” he said, unclasping the golden chain. “Your locket, my lady.”
He didn’t hand it to her, but waited, one side of the chain in each hand. She lifted her flame-colored hair and stepped forward. Dugan bent, fixing the chain around her neck. Once it was secured, she fingered the locket, fidgeting with it where it dangled just above her cleavage.
“You will consider my proposal?” she simpered. I’m not sure I’d ever actually used that word before, but there was no other way to describe the coy way she gazed up at him.
Dugan gave her a small bow. “I promised I would consider it. But now we must go.”
She pouted but didn’t stop us as we walked away. The smile melted from Dugan’s face as soon as his back was to her.
“What exactly did she propose?” I asked, keeping my voice low.
Dugan frowned at me. “She proposed.”
I blinked. “Marriage?”
“A contract for one, yes,” he said, and his voice was completely flat, as if the topic was boring. Then he looked at me and gave me a smile very similar to the one he’d adorned her with when he’d returned her necklace. Both smiles were completely fake. “I will, of course, not accept any proposals that complicate our betrothal.”
Beside me, Falin missed a step. He covered it almost instantly, but I saw it.
“Don’t say no on my account,” I muttered under my breath. So far most of Faerie didn’t seem to know that my father had promised me to the Shadow Prince, and I planned to keep it that way. The Winter Queen was far too likely to consider that complication as “compromising her planeweaver,” and that wouldn’t turn out good for anybody.
We approached the table where the Summer King lounged with several members of his court. He looked up as we approached, but made no other acknowledgment.
“We will take our leave now. Would you like us to have a guide?” Falin asked, inclining his head more or less a respectful degree toward the king.
For a moment, I thought the king wouldn’t provide one and we would have to wander around searching for the door. But letting powerfully placed members of other courts roam his halls apparently didn’t seem like a