Selina drew in a breath, her eyes again turning glassy. She shook her head. “I want him back more than anything. But I don’t want to lose you as well. I can’t.” She reached for my hand.
I gave her a weak smile. “At least it’s not in Seelie, right?” I wouldn’t even be considering this if the masquerade was in Seelie—the other kingdom of Faery. The Seelie Queen didn’t tolerate humans. Those who made it all the way across the Unseelie Kingdom to her border were killed on sight. The Unseelie King was cruel and cunning, but the Seelie Queen was a tyrant. There was no way I’d ever willingly walk into that part of Faery.
Selina nodded. “Right.”
“Does that mean you’ll help me?” It didn’t. But we could go around in circles talking about this, and I wasn’t changing my mind. Getting the king to grant me a favor was my best chance at saving Mother.
Without removing her eyes from the envelope and with a sigh in her voice, she asked, “What do you need?”
I licked my lips, unsure if our strong friendship went as far as I was about to ask. “A dress.” I swallowed before elaborating. “One of the fae dresses that used to belong to your however-many-times-great-grandmother.” Selina’s mother had an entire wardrobe filled with fae dresses she’d never worn but refused to throw out. I understood her not wanting to get rid of them—they were stunning dresses worn for only the most formal of occasions. Occasions that never happened in Holbeck.
Selina smiled—weak and watery, but the first I’d seen from her in a week. “I was hoping you’d say that.” She stood and took my hand. “Come. Before Mother arrives home from work.”
THREE
The dress we chose was pale blue and strapless. Diamantes sparkled around the top of the fitted bodice and at the waistline before giving way to three layers of tulle, each a slightly darker shade of blue. Selina’s mother’s collection also contained several masks, including a silver one with feathers on one side in the same blue hues as the dress. And to top it off, Selina found a set of diamante hoop earrings for my ears.
I had no suitable shoes, so Selina loaned me a pair of hers that were beautiful, strappy and silver. I was half a size bigger than her, but since both our feet were tiny, these were the best I could hope for.
I sat at Selina’s mother’s vanity table, watching my image in the mirror while Selina pulled my hair from my face to pile it on top of my head in an updo that would mark me as human as plainly as if I’d carried a sign stating the fact. “You can’t do my hair like that. Bring it down. Over my ears.”
Selina tutted under her breath. “You’re much too sensitive about your ears. No one will care what they look like.”
Untrue. And doubly so given what I was planning. “Except if I’m walking into the court of the King of the Unseelie fae.” They would definitely notice my ears.
Selina’s cheeks reddened. “Oh. Of course. I just meant…”
I knew what she meant. We’d had this conversation before. I always wore my hair pulled into a low ponytail at the back of my neck, covering my ears and secured by a clip Mother and Father gave me when I was a child. I’d learned early in life that because we lived in fear of the pointed-eared fae, anyone who looked neither fae nor human was not to be trusted.
Selina lived in hope that would change for me one day. She was one of the few people who didn’t care how I looked. I smiled at her reflection in the mirror. “I know. But for tonight, they remain hidden.” I swallowed. This was the perfect moment to bring up the other thing I wanted to say. “There was something else in the envelope that first time we opened it.” I wasn’t sure if Selina ever saw the extra gift inside, but I’d spent two years wondering what the two tiny flesh-colored triangles were and always came up with the same answer.
I leaned forward and scooped up the envelope, opened the seal and tipped the triangles out onto my hand. “Any idea what these are?”
Selina frowned at me in the mirror, pulling a portion of my hair up onto my head and fastening it with pins she had clasped between her lips. She lifted one shoulder, speaking around a pin. “Do you?”
I licked my lips, aware of how this sounded. “Ear tips. To make human ears look like fae ears.”
Selina’s mouth popped open, the pin dropping onto the wooden floor with a ping. She withdrew her hands from my hair and moved until she was looking directly at me rather than at my reflection. “What?”
“Think about it. Would the king send an invitation year after year to a person who never replies? Or would he stop the first time they snubbed him? Or maybe he’d march right up to Briony No-Last-Name’s cottage and ask her directly why she refused to attend his ball, then drag her back to Faery and punish her for not bowing and scraping the way he expects.” I shook my head. “What if the invitation didn’t come from the king? What if it comes from Briony No-Last-Name’s husband or lover who was stolen away to Faery by the Wild Hunt as a slave?”
Selina’s eyes narrowed. “A slave will hardly be able to get hold of one of the king’s personal invitations.”
I had considered that. “Maybe he is a slave, but he’s been there so long he’s proven his loyalty and he can get his hands on exactly that. Maybe he knows someone who could help disguise his lover so he can spend a single night with her. We have lived in this house for sixteen years. Her lover must have been in Faery all that time, or he’d know she was no longer here.” I held the tiny triangles up in front of Selina’s face. “What if these are to disguise human ears?”
Selina screwed up her face. “Ew. That’s revolting.”
“Is it? I thought you’d see it as romantic. The lengths he’s gone to just to see his lover again.” Selina loved a romantic story, and in my head, I’d thought this was one.
“Not that part, the fake ear part.”
I had slight misgivings about that. Apart from the ickiness of looking like one of them even for a short time, I had no idea where these came from or if the magic within them should be trusted—if they even contained magic.
But the benefits of possible fae ears for tonight far outweighed every one of my misgivings. “It’ll be fine.” I raised one tip to my ear.
Selina stopped me with a hand on my arm. “What if you can’t take them off?”
I added that to the list of things that could go wrong, though it still wasn’t enough to dissuade me. If I ended up with fae ears for the rest of my life, it was a small price to pay to get the king’s favor and make Mother well again. “I’ll deal with it if it happens.”
“I don’t like this.” Selina shook her head, her lips drawing together into a thin, tight line.
“Your displeasure is noted.” I raised one of the tips to my right ear and rested it on top, holding my breath as I waited.
Nothing happened.
Selina smiled, the air coming from her lungs in a whoosh. “Not ears, then.”
My shoulders fell and I nodded, not yet willing to remove the triangle. If they’d been ears, tonight would have been so much easier, but it didn’t matter. It didn’t matter because I was going anyway, ears or not. I needed that medicine for Mother.
A sharp burning pain ripped across the top of my ear.
“Bria!” Selina crouched beside where I lay on the floor—I didn’t even remember falling down. “Are you all right?” Her eyes roved over my face. “Oh, stars. Your ear. It’s…”
“What…?” I took her hand and pulled myself up to sit.
“Umm...” She pointed at the mirror, helping me back into the chair in front of it.
The burning had already subsided, leaving nothing but the echo of pain. I glanced in the mirror and gasped. It had worked. The tip had attached the way I hoped it might and for the first time in my life, my ear wasn’t deformed. Sure, it now looked fae, but not in the huge pointed way of the wild hunters. The top of my ear was small, pointed delicately at the end. I turned my head, looking from every angle. I’d expected them to look as ugly as my normal ears, but they were beauti
ful. They were no longer deformed. “I can’t even see where it joins.”
Selina’s face appeared beside mine in the mirror. Her forehead creased in a frown. “Can you get it off?” She swallowed hard, trying not to show how much my pointed ear disgusted her. And failed.
I nodded, though I wasn’t sure. Why would I take it off? It looked wonderful. “Hand me the other one.”
I braced for the burning pain as magic fitted the fake ear tip to mine. Even knowing it was coming, it stole my breath, but this time I remained on my feet. The second ear fitted every bit as well as the first. I couldn’t stop admiring them in the mirror, I was so grateful to look normal. Or normal-ish.
Selina dropped a deep blue gem on the vanity where it landed in front of me with a clatter.
I twisted to look at her. “Is that a time gem? Where did you get it?”
Selina put a finger to her lips even though no one else was home. “It’s Mother’s. You can’t go into Faery without it. You won’t know when to leave, you’ll end up confused and you’ll be easy pickings for the fae to trap you there.”
A human could last about five hours on their own in Faery before they lost all track of who they were and where they’d come from. There was no way I needed five hours to gain the king’s favor. And even less chance I was taking something as valuable as a time gem with me, no matter how good it would be to have a warning when it was time to leave Faery. “That’s very generous, but—”
“Take it. Or I’ll tell Mother what you’re planning.” She tilted her head to one side and crossed her arms over her chest. When Selina made up her mind about something, there was little chance I could dissuade her.
“What if something goes wrong and I can’t come back?” The time gem was probably the most valuable thing Selina’s family owned. “Your gem will be gone, too. You’d have no way to—”
Selina picked up the gem and placed it in my hand, closing my fingers around it. “If that happens, then I’ll be certain we did everything possible to get you out of there. I won’t have to sit here and look at that thing and wish I’d given it to you.” She shrugged. “And Mother will be mad at first, but I know she will agree with me.”
I looked at it in my hand, then slipped it into the pocket in the folds of my dress. Selina was right. The gem would make tonight’s mission so much safer. I hugged her. “Thank you.”
Selina brushed me off and picked up her comb and hair pins. “You might see Prince Fergus tonight. In the flesh.”
I looked down at my hands to hide my distaste. Prince Fergus Blackwood might be the only person in both worlds who didn’t differentiate between humans and fae. He took anyone as a lover—and usually took a different lover every night. The women he chose wore his favor as a badge of honor.
In the coming weeks and prior to his nineteenth birthday, the prince was expected to announce his engagement at the first in a long line of ceremonies to prepare for his coronation—which was likely years away—though as far as anyone was aware, he had not yet found his princess. Selina wasn’t the only person who secretly—or not so secretly—wished to be the girl the prince chose. “I’ll be sure to keep my distance.”
A wry smile rose on her face. “You say that now, but I bet you’d change your mind if you met him. I hear he’s very charming. And rumor says he’s good looking, too.” She clipped another piece of hair in place and then stood back and surveyed me in the mirror. “I think you just might pass as one of them.”
The trail through the woods that would lead me to Faery was well worn, even though those from Holbeck rarely walked it. Ours was the closest village to the only entry point to the kingdoms of Faery, and the villagers of Holbeck knew better than anyone the dangers of crossing it. Every year, hundreds of people spent the last of their human coin in our town on the night before they crossed to Faery, where they hoped to make their fortune. Most were never seen again. Occasionally we heard they’d become slaves.
I always wondered why no one attempted to talk them out of going. Tonight though, I understood. Tonight, I was willing to risk all I had because the fae had something I couldn’t get anywhere else.
Babbling water soon reached my ears, slightly louder than the soft whoosh of wind through the trees. The brook meant I was close, and I stopped to tie on my mask. Somewhere near the river was a fae guard, and behind him, the gates to Faery. Mother had told me once that the Crossing wasn’t obvious. That is to say, there was nothing marking the entrance to Faery. The guard was more obvious—but only when he wasn’t hiding himself on the Faery side of the border. He was, however, picky about who he allowed through.
I wasn’t worried. I was dressed for the masquerade and had an invitation in my hand.
Until I reached the brook and discovered there was a long winding queue standing between me and the Crossing.
The Unseelie King’s All Hallows Eve masquerade wasn’t a secret, but I’d never realized how popular it was among humans, each of us wanting something only the Unseelie King could give.
The queue was close to a hundred people. Every person—male and female alike—was dressed as elegantly as me; gowns of every color, long and flowing. Suits in blacks and greys, with colorful bow ties. All had walked to reach this place in the woods, and every person wore a mask covering their face.
I nodded to the woman in front of me and settled in to wait as raised voices from the front of the queue reached me. Two females were arguing with the fae guard, their arms making wide gestures as they fought to make their point. I strained my neck to watch.
“We were invited!” the taller of the two insisted. She was wrapped in layers of red fabric, her wide skirts swishing each time she moved. A leaf had caught on the bottom hem and followed her movements. “The crown prince personally asked us to attend.”
The fae guard looked down his nose. “Then the prince would also have given you a written invitation. Without that, you may not enter.” His gaze shifted to the person behind them, a woman on her own. “Next.”
The two at the front planted their feet. “We have to get in there.” These were the first words the other woman had spoken. Her lilac dress was understated compared to her friend’s. Strapless and fitting, it fishtailed from the knee.
The woman in front of me turned with a wry smile and I realized she was less a woman and more a girl. Perhaps around my age. And fae. What had she been doing on this side of the Crossing? “Someone seems desperate.” Her golden hair was half piled on her head, half curled down her back. Between her locks, the pointed tips of her ears jutted. Her yellow gown hugged her figure, drawing the eye to a body most women would be jealous of. Despite those pointed ears, her blue eyes behind her mask were friendly.
I nodded, knowing I’d beg in the same manner to get through those gates if I had to. “There must be something she wants desperately.”
The girl lifted one eyebrow. “A husband?”
There was something to her tone that told me I was missing something. “She plans to ask the king to find her a husband?” I wasn’t in a position to judge someone else’s wish, but it wasn’t something I’d ever ask the Unseelie King for. A fae husband? No way.
The girl laughed, then frowned. “You’re serious? You don’t know why all these women are here tonight?”
“To ask the king to grant them a favor?”
She shook her head. “The king has instructed Crown Prince Fergus to find a bride. He has until Winter Solstice Eve to name her or the king will find someone for him. Tonight is one of the last formal opportunities for women to put themselves in the prince’s path. Of course, I’m sure there will be plenty more informal chances.” She sniggered. “But in the meantime…” Her eyes rolled along the line ahead of us.
“Everyone here is hoping to be that person?” I was shocked. I knew others dreamed of this, but I’d never imagined so many would actively chase it down. “Prince Fergus doesn’t want a human bride.” At least, I assumed he didn’t. Tolerating human
s in his bed was one thing, but marrying one was surely quite another.
The girl’s look was conspiratorial as the guard moved aside and let the two women at the front of the line through, sans invitation. “You and I know that. The humans don’t. They think they’re heading for a life of riches and privilege.” She laughed, and it was neither a joyful sound nor kind.
It took me a moment to realize she was speaking to me as if I was one of her own. Fae. The disguise was working. But my momentary happiness was tainted by the knot that formed in my gut as the two human women sauntered through the invisible gates and out of sight. “They will make them slaves?”
The girl shrugged. “Happens every year to some degree. There are more of them this year because they all believe they have that special thing the prince wants. How long have you been away?” She changed topics without stopping for a breath.
I sighed, perhaps a little dramatically, hoping my answer was enough to keep her from asking unwanted questions. “Too long. And not long enough.”
A sad smile crossed the girl’s lips as she turned away. “I wish I could be gone too long.”
Apart from the row of stone markers that ran from the babbling brook all the way east to the ocean, the border with Faery was unremarkable. The Crossing was marked by two large trees between which one had to walk to move between the lands. There might have only been stone markers along the border, but the invisible wall ensured no one—human or fae—could travel across it at any place except The Crossing.
The Guard checking our invitations was always here, but not always visible. Mother said he had a hut on the other side of the border where he sat and waited for people to cross.
The wait to reach the front of the line seemed unfathomably long. Each person or couple went through the same charade as the first, using some new excuse where their missing invitation might be before the guard finally relented and let them through. I hoped the prince offered his hand in marriage to one of them. I hated seeing so many walk willingly toward such a horrible fate.
Kingdom of Yesterday's Lies (Royals of Faery Book 1) Page 3
