Gregor turned his autumn-leaf eyes off the backside of a passing faerie waitress. “We no longer subject families to executions.”
“Your consideration knows no bounds.” I sipped my wine, even though the taste was souring my stomach.
His mouth curved. “Your tongue is as sharp as aquila’s beak, little Amara.”
A warm hand wrapped around my forearm, dimpling the ultraviolet fabric of my dress’s three-quarter sleeves. “Dinner. Come.” Nima pulled me away from Gregor and Remo. “Please don’t anger thewariff,abiwoojin. Your father and he are already not seeing eye-to-eye these days. Which is probably why he wanted you to get engaged . . .” She trailed off, as though considering what she’d just said.
I itched to explain all Iba had told me in the gazebo, but this was neither the time nor was it my place to tell her. He’d share his reasons soon enough. Nima clutched my arm until we reached the banquet table carved from a singlecalimbortrunk, then went to join Iba at one end.
“Amara.” Iba gestured to the chair beside my grandfather’s and across from Giya’s.
My grandfather rose and wrapped one sun-spotted hand around the copper twig rung, scooting it back for me. “How lucky I am to be seated next to the prettiest girl in Neverra.”
How I adored this man. “I’m the lucky one.”
He tucked my chair in, then regained his seat beside my grandmother, who was fingering one of theadamansblooms tied into bouquets by sprigs of wild chives and scattered down the length of the table.
When she retracted her hand, the petals tinkled. “I still can’t get over the fact that they’re made of glass, and how long have we been living in Neverra, Derek?”
“Almost an Earthly century.” Wonder lined Pappy’s tone.
After my parents’ wedding, Nima sat her father down and explained what she was and where she needed to live. Pappy hadn’t believed her at first, so she’d shown him. Apparently, when he’d popped out of the portal, he’d blacked out. Iba had caught my grandfather as he’d toppled off the thin disk and had lain him on the mossy ground. To make a long story short, when Pappy had come to, he was still convinced it was a dream. It had taken him days of wandering through the land and passing through portals to believe it was real. And then it had taken him almost an entire Earthly year before he’d talked to his girlfriend Milly about the faerie isle.
Oddly enough, Nana Em believed faeries existed right off the bat and had been delighted by the magical land, and had grown even more so when Pappy had asked for her hand on the beach bordering the Pink Sea. Although Pappy and Nana 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 thedraca,wariff, and now theprinsisafacilitate your rise inlucionagaranks? 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 luminousadamanspetals 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 twolucionagaassigned 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.
