People were checking the shrines and leaving fresh gifts even now. Several dozen of what appeared to be common townsfolk had accompanied the royal procession; likely they’d used the excuse of needing to tend to their respective shrines—though everyone present knew that they only wanted a chance to glimpse the fae.
What was it about monsters that enticed people to look? Sephia wondered.
This was the ‘safest’ opportunity to see them, she supposed—when they would be relatively caged by the bars of tradition and circumstance.
But if she’d had a choice,shewouldn’t have been anywhere near this place.
She felt someone staring at her. She was unsurprised when she glanced to her left and saw Nana Rosa striding toward them.
The old woman’s forehead glistened withamalithpowder, as did the foreheads of many others around them. Only those with royal blood could see the fae unaided—another component of that ancient bargain. Others had to resort to wiping crushed amalith petals across their skin and putting drops of blessed water in their eyes. The combination of these two things made even the toughest person’s eyes water, so their guardian’s normally harsh gaze was tempered by tears, at least.
“What in the name of the three great gods have you two been up to this morning?” demanded Nana Rosa in a fierce whisper.
“We were—“
“The queen wasbesideherself with concern, and the king has already required smelling saltstwicetoday. They sent a small army’s worth of soldiers into the woods to search for you—and for what? Only for you both to come traipsing in here as if nothing happened.Honestly!”
“We were close by,” Nora insisted—in Sephia’s body and through Sephia’s voice. She gave no reason to suspect anything, and yet the realSephia still tensed, wondering if their caretaker would notice that something was amiss.
But Nana Rosa only narrowed her gaze on the one shethoughtwas Sephia, as she so often had in the past, and she snapped out another reprimand: “You should have beenhere, obediently waiting for your sister’s ceremony. I know this disappearing act was your idea, Sephia; how many times have I told you not to drag your poor sister into your foolish games?”
“We didn’t mean to be late.”
“You’ve only known this day was coming foryour entire lives, so why wouldn’t—”
“We may never see each other again!” The words were in Nora’s voice, but with the bite that usually accompanied Sephia’s. “So maybe we lost track of our last moments together.”
Nana Rosa turned slowly to face the one who looked like Nora, obviously shocked by that bite.
“We’re here now,” Sephia added, swallowing down her anger and trying to sound more like the peacemaker that the second-born twin usually was.
Nana Rosa studied her for a long, uncomfortable moment.
Then the old woman sighed her familiar, world-weary sigh. She still didn’t appear suspicious; the uncharacteristic vitriol in thisNora’stone could be explained away by nerves, after all. “Yes,” she finally said. “I suppose youarehere, aren’t you?” She pursed her lips, and without another word, she led them to the party of royals that had gathered close to the bridge.
As they folded in amongst this party, Sephia and her twin were swiftly reprimanded by their parents. Sephia managed to slip away just long enough to tuck the witch’s potion into one of her trunks—Nora’strunks, rather— alongside the vial of her sister’s blood. But there was no time to bury these things too deeply.
A warm, violent breeze swept to life, scattering leaves across the surface of the river. A sudden hush settled over the crowd, and Sephia steadied herself and looked across the bridge.
There was nothing interesting to see.
Not at first.
But the in-sync clopping of two sets of hooves soon penetrated the silence, and then Sephia’s chest tightened as two of the most beautiful horses she’d ever seen trotted over a hill on the other side of the river. Their manes were spun gold, their white flanks sparkling, their movements more like gliding than trotting.
They didn’t lookreal.
But those horses were nothing compared to the beings riding them.
Before today, Sephia had only glimpsed the fae a handful of times. She had locked eyes with one as a child, when a game of hide-and-seek had driven her carelessly deep into the woods. Another one had spoken to her from across the very river she stood before now, his voice honey-swirled and soft as a lullaby as he asked her what she was placing in the shrine at the water’s edge. But everything else had been paintings and illustrations in books, which did no justice to the ones approaching them now.
Sephia stepped toward them as if pulled by an invisible rope.
The warm breeze that had heralded their approach seemed to be under their command. It swirled the leaves and bent the flowered tree branches away from them, creating a more clear path to walk along. Their hair was the same white-gold as their horses. The light armor they wore made no sound as they dismounted with slow, elegant motions.
Sephia watched them drop to the ground. If they had wanted to keep floating in the air, unhindered by something so silly asgravity, then she suspected they very well couldhave.
The hush over the crowd remained. Everyone had stopped moving. Everyone was mesmerized—including Sephia, though she had steeled herself against this very moment, knowing she needed to be fully aware during it. But they had stolen away that awareness so quickly and completely…
