The prince skirted me around the edges of the room. “See that group of men over there? One is dressed in the sea blue of the Cove Court, two others in Riverlands green, while the rest are in my house colors.” He nodded to a collective of diplomats chatting at the edge of the room beneath gold-framed archways that overlooked the vast mountain landscape outside.
I took in the shades and different styles of dress, and committed them to memory as fashions of differing courts. “Yes, I see them.”
“Three of them live at the Snowcap Court, but the others are visitors who arrived a week ago. Since then, I have noticed a difference in how our residing diplomats have been acting. One even attempted to seduce my future queen.” He frowned. “But when asked, he swore he did not mean to do it. Fae cannot lie, and the behavior was very unlike him anyhow. Which is why I believe someone manipulated him into it. The same person committing murder.”
“Thank you, Prince Elran,” I said. “We’ll investigate.”
He honored me with a shallow bow, which I returned.
“Thank you, witch. I hope that one of your teams apprehends the traitor before the ceremony this afternoon. I would hate to enter into my eternal union knowing that bad blood was in my midst.”
Apparently done with me, the prince floated off toward his bride.
I sucked in a breath.Right. No pressure. Except it’s already almost noon. Better hurry.
I scanned the crowds for my teammates and found Sam first. She was chatting with a gaggle of women dressed in gem-toned gowns dripping with crystals and beading and feathers. For the millionth time since breakfast, I wished that I was wearing one of those beautiful gowns, but it would have been impractical.
Instead, our heads of schools spread the word that everyone from where we lived wore military-inspired attire to weddings. It was a bummer, but being able to run would be imperative if we found the killer. So I brushed the annoyance aside as I made my way over to Sam and joined the group.
“Hello, ladies. Might I steal my friend, please?” I smiled and inclined my head in a manner that Headmistress Wake had assured us was an appropriate greeting for anyone but royalty and priestesses of the fae religion.
The fae, who I believed were courtesans, returned the gesture with a pleased titter and bid Sam a pleasant day.
Once we were alone, I relayed what the prince had told me.
Sam’s eyes snapped over my shoulder to study the men. “Have you gotten close to them yet?”
I shook my head. “I wanted backup.”
“Well, you moved too slow. The Torna twins are already staking a claim.”
“What?!”
I whirled around and saw that Sam was right. The twins had joined the circle of diplomats. Not only that, but they’d gone for the divide-and-conquer route with each twin monopolizing the attention of three fae.
“Crap,” I said, which earned me an offended look from a passing pixie. “What should we do?”
Sam shrugged. “Why not do what they’re doing? Divide and conquer. The prince might be right, but he also might not. I don’t think we should put all our eggs in one basket, or bring Diana or Andre with us.” She gestured to a far corner, where our teammates chatted with a fae who wore the dark green and gold garb of a high priestess. “They can keep putting their feelers out. If we notice anything off, we’ll notify them.”
“Good call,” I said. “Okay, let’s split up. I’ll take Ayla.”
The elder Torna twin didn’t even know I was coming until I slithered an arm around her delicate shoulders.
“Hey, Ayla, why don’t you introduce me to your charming friends here?” I batted my eyelashes at the fae men, all of whom were young, attractive, and definitely interested in a little female attention.
“Hello, Odette,” Ayla spoke. The lyrical quality of her voice sounded enhanced from when I’d heard it in our world. Was it being in Faerie that did that? Or was she working it to convince these guys she was one of them? “I thought I recalled that you didn’t like elves much, otherwise I would have waved you over long ago.”
The guys frowned, and seeing as they bore the distinct pointed ears and impossibly tall bearing of elves, I could understand why.
Ayla clearly hoped that her little remark would have me running off with my tail between my legs. The little shit was playing to win.
Unfortunately for her, so was I.
“What made you think that?” I asked Ayla. “I adore all types of fae, but I have a particular penchant for elves. The ears are sohot.”
Two of the elves broke out into wide smiles.
“I’m Odette, a witch from the human realm, seventh cousin of Prince Elran, and happy attendee of the royal wedding.”
