went back to Earth each year, they never spent more than a week away from Neverra, because nothing was more important to them than family, and because all of their human friends had eventually died.
Pappy leaned forward to look at the person who’d taken the chair next to mine. I didn’t have to turn to know the identity of my neighbor; the coppery glint of hair in my peripheral vision all but blinded me.
“Your father told me you’ve recently been promoted, Remo,” Pappy said. “Congratulations.”
“Promoted? What an achievement.” I seized my goblet of water and gulped down its contents. “Was it thanks to your grandfather’s name or your new fiancée’s?”
He stiffened. “I didn’t earn the promotion because of any blood or Cauldron relations, prinsisa.”
“Of course not. Why would your relationship to the draca, wariff, and now the prinsisa facilitate your rise in lucionaga ranks? I’m certain you’re a wonderful firefly.”
Remo shifted on his seat. “You’re just full of kind words tonight, fiancée.”
“I’m sorry, but did you think the glittery smoke that traveled through my body earlier gave me amnesia?”
Giya made a sound at the back of her throat that she stifled with her palm.
“Skies forbid anything made you forget how deeply you hate me,” Remo said under his breath. “Wouldn’t want our time together to be boring.”
“Indeed.” The luminous adamans petals reminded me of when I’d scraped my leg on the flowers while flying too low over them. The sight of my blood had made most Seelies flee, including the two lucionaga assigned to me. They’d shot into the sky, supposedly to call for help.
Remo, who’d been swimming in the Glades with a few of his friends at the time, had sidled up to the side of the copper basin and had watched me bleed with unabashed amusement. It was only when one of my guards returned with Geemee Kaji and Sook that Remo had plunged back into the water to continue his game of water polo or whatever it was they were playing.
As though thinking of him had conjured him up, Sook sauntered in, brown hair so wet it looked almost black, and flopped into the empty seat beside his sister. He was panting, as though he’d run all the way from his house, and his coppery skin glistened with sweat and rain.
“Sorry I’m late. So, what are we celebrating?” His black eyes darted around the long table before returning to me. When he caught sight of my neighbor, he did a double-take, and his black eyebrows shot into his silky bangs.
“My engagement to your dear cousin.” Remo slid both his elbows onto the table and aligned his forearms with his gold cutlery.
“Say what now?” Sook whipped his gaze toward the head of the table where Nima and Iba sat. “What did you do to deserve that?”
“Adsookin Geemiwa,” my uncle boomed. “Be nice.”
“Sorry, Iba.” He flashed his father an apologetic look.
“It is not to me you should apologize. It is to your future cousin-in-law.”
Sook’s square jaw worked, as though he were chewing on a piece of dehydrated panem. “My deepest apologies, golwinim.”
Remo flipped his knife over and over. Was he thinking of tossing it at Sook because my cousin had used the Gottwa term for lucionaga? Even though it was the appropriate terminology, most Unseelies—even half-Seelie ones like Sook—employed it solely to get underneath a Seelie’s skin.
When Remo didn’t send the knife hurtling across the table, I came up with a new hypothesis: Gregor’s heir was uncomfortable. Even though he’d never struck me as someone ill-at-ease in social situations, tonight, his family was heavily outnumbered by mine. Not to mention his mother had left.
Clinking arose from the end of the table opposite Nima and Iba. Gregor stood and tapped his fork against his wine goblet. “I want to propose a toast to the newly betrothed. Amara, it is my honor to welcome you into my family, and it will be an even greater honor to share the Farrow name with you soon.”
I almost choked on my spit. Even if I were to marry Remo—which so wasn’t happening—I would never take his family name.
Gregor raised his glass higher. “To two families becoming one.”
I was tempted to keep my fists on the table to display how I felt about Gregor’s toast, but one look at Iba had my fingers clenching around my goblet and lifting it high.
“Skies lend me strength,” Remo mumbled so low it sounded as though he were clearing his throat. He traded his knife for his golden goblet