Chapter 1
Thefrozenlandscapeblurredas we drove down the winding road. The reds and golds of a Maine autumn had snowed over several weeks ago to become a winter wonderland. Little crystalized snowflakes hit the windshield before slowly melting down the glass.
My wife, Lydia, sat in her heavy parka, heat cranked up too high. I pulled at the collar of my Armani sweater, uncomfortable but unwilling to say anything. Lydia had an unending sense of cold.
Can a human be colder than a vampire?
“I can’t wait until we get home so we can see everyone!” Lydia exclaimed, an enormous smile on her face. “Guess howshocked they will be to see that I’m the first of all my sisters to get a fae husband!”
I’m not sure exactly how I’d ended up in this situation. It was a set of events that had spiraled out of control. Part of me remembered how she looked in that wedding dress, the ivory lace of her gown matching the white-capped mountains in the background. She was beautiful, and I’d begun to feel something I’d long ago sworn I’d never let myself feel.
She gave a sigh. “Our wedding was so lovely. It was such a shame nobody could be there.”
“We got married because we were about to be accused of murder and we needed a convincing cover story,” I reminded her and myself. We’d run off to a resort in upstate Maine and taken our vows right before the police hauled me off to the station for questioning.
“Oh, I know.” Lydia held up her hand, examining the ring on her finger. I’d only been able to buy it because of the money Darcy had given me. “But none of my sisters has a ring like this.”
“I’m glad I can fulfill your dreams of outperforming your sisters.”
“Outperforming may be an overstatement.” She let out a laugh and nibbled on her fingernails the way she did when she got nervous. A pang of tenderness rose in my chest for her.
When Lydia and I had started dating, it had been just for fun—a cute romance with no commitment. But when my band manager was found dead and I looked responsible, I thought taking her out of town would save us both.
It hadn’t.
Instead, skipping town made us both look guilty. When Darcy offered to bail us out if we eloped, we took the money and married. It was fun for a minute, and I thought it would be best for both of us. Of course, I was wrong. My life was never as easy as I'd hoped it would be.
But somehow in the process, I’d fallen for her.
And Lydia had been put in danger. Again.
I thought of the annulment papers hidden in my laptop bag in the back of the Jeep, and my hands tightened on the steering wheel, the battle inside me intensifying. Lydia acted as if she enjoyed nothing better than being married to me, even though we both knew the arrangement might be temporary.
If she understood what my life was like, she’d be the one asking for an annulment already.
I breathed in her scent in the stuffy Jeep. Her blood was one of the many enticing things about her, a vibrant mix of tang and roses. Whenever she came near, I found myself breathing in the concoction of smells that was Lydia Bennet.
But she was Lydia Wickham now.
“Do you think they will be happy you married a lowborn fae?” I asked.
“Happy for me? They’re going to be jealous.” She smiled, flicking her light brown hair behind her. The smell of her shampoo drifted through the vehicle in my direction, and I pushed aside how it made me want to be near her. “I’m married to George Wickham of the Grey Doors!” She reached up and adjusted the vents, opening them wider so that they blared more heat into our small space.
People thought vampires couldn’t stand sunlight. That wasn’t true, but I felt certain in that moment that this vampire would incinerate if the Jeep got any hotter. Or perhaps it would be the entire vehicle that would go up in flames, taking both of us and the annulment papers with it. I planned on giving her the papers once we returned to my townhome after visiting her family.
I just needed to be sure of one thing first.
Lydia had solved the murders that could have exposed me and landed me a life sentence. I owed her so much, but I couldn’t give her a happily ever after. No matter how much I might want to.
I dropped the driver-side window a crack to release the heat. Lydia didn’t show any signs of noticing or caring.
We went past a sign by the road, half of it hidden by snow. I made out the lettersAusandeightsand the number ten next to it, and I breathed a sigh of relief. Austen Heights was mere minutes away, and then I’d be free of the heat and Lydia would be free of me.
As we crossed over the town line, the magic of Austen Heights came to life. Children in knitted cloaks chased enchanted snowflakes that giggled and dodged away like fireflies. Tiny winged creatures with fur-tufted boots zipped through the air, delivering hand-folded letters sealed with holly wax. A snowman on the corner tipped its hat politely as our Jeep rolled by.
The moment humans left Austen Heights, they forgot about magic. But once they crossed over the town line, their memory returned. Because Lydia was a half-fae and half-human witch, she had no trouble remembering, and I was a fae-turned-vampire. Outside of Austen Heights, we had tohide our magic. But even in Austen Heights, I still had to hide my vampire nature. Lydia acted as though my condition was another everyday reality, but simply being involved with me had already turned her world upside down.
We pulled up to the Bennets’ shop on Main Street, Cupid’s Confections. A small, charming store, with several pastries and love potions filling its shelves. In the window floated a tiered cake decorated with sugared violets. It rotated on its own, casting a soft, lilac glow. The Bennets lived behind the shop. I’d been inside a few times. First, when I was almost dating Lizzy, Lydia’s sister. We’d never officially decided that Lizzy and I weren’t dating, though things had petered out between us. And then Lydia just sort of bulldozed her way into my life, and here we were, now husband and wife.
