her gaze over me, taking my measure once again. This time I came out slightly better than I had in the flower tent. Then I’d felt like an ant; this time, more of a mouse. Not that much of an improvement.
“I’m told you’ve promised my husband that you will spend three days in our court,” she said, looking thoughtful. “I can’t imagine you are well pleased with him considering his deception in getting you to court and now this curse business.” She waved her hand vaguely as if she could trace the shape of the magical trap the king had set. “No doubt when he made the bargain he assumed he’d charm you, bed you, and have you begging to help him simply for the favor of his smile. That didn’t work out well for him.”
She certainly had a way of summing up the obvious. I only smiled at her, waiting for her to get to the point.
“Visit me instead. I will show you my gardens and we can have tea,” she said, and graced me with her own beatific smile.
She was without a doubt a powerful Faerie queen, terrible in her beauty, and yet I felt no pull of glamour while looking at her. If I ranked the Queen of Light as a ten on the “using entrancing glamour to fuck with people’s brains” scale, the Summer King would be a seven or eight. Even the Winter Queen had caught me briefly a time or two when I wasn’t guarding myself. But the Summer Queen was simply what she was. I had to admire that. Of course, the cynical part of me had to wonder if she was simply subtler than the other royals I’d encountered.
“I think that would be an agreeable arrangement,” I said cautiously, committing to nothing.
“Good. You can tell me about what my husband requested then.” She held up a hand to ward off my protest. “A curse laid by a royal can only be removed by another royal, and only after it has been triggered. I will be happy to remove it for you in my garden.”
“A generous offer,” I said, again not committing to anything. After all, I didn’t actually need the curse removed as long as I never attempted to divulge what the king had said.
She laughed. “I do hope you were this reticent with my husband. I will await your visit. Be merry.”
It was a dismissal, and I took it as such. I made a small curtsy, Falin bowed his head, and then we hurried away from the queen and her small entourage.
“I’d ask why you didn’t tell me you were cursed, but I guess I know the answer,” Falin hissed in my ear as we made our way around a boisterous group of revelers.
I shrugged. “I did mention I was pissed off. I just didn’t elaborate on all of the reasons.”
Falin grunted, and I knew he was thinking about what else the queen had said. And what she’d implied.
We’d just swerved to avoid getting caught in a dance that had spontaneously erupted not far in front of us, when Falin stopped. Half asleep on my feet, I didn’t notice he wasn’t walking anymore until the arm I had laced through his tugged me back, my own momentum making me stumble.
“What—?” I started, but he turned toward me and pulled me closer to him.
He leaned toward me, and for a moment I thought he was going to kiss me again. Butterflies erupted unbidden in my stomach, but he pressed his lips just beside my ear instead.
“Twelve o’clock, headed straight for us,” he whispered. “Smile as if I’ve said something clever as you look.”
I did as instructed. Lunabella and two companions were maybe twelve feet away, coming from the opposite direction, and also avoiding the dance. There was no time to duck out of sight and we were right in their path. Falin’s actions made sense; at their angle, and with the way he was pressed against me, his face wasn’t visible. Though I’d been displayed with the Winter Queen’s court, I was far less recognizable than her knight. We were just another fae couple, caught up in the merriment of the revelry. With Falin’s breath trailing softly down the back of my neck, it wasn’t hard to play my role. I let my hands crawl up over his shoulders as I watched the trio through slitted eyes.
Lunabella and her two companions—an auburn-haired male Sleagh Maith and a pale, drawn fae woman whose