Grimble rose from his fern bed and sauntered over to peer into the mist along with her.
“Oh, look,” Elizabeth said, pointing to a vision of flowers drooping in gardens and lords and ladies dissolving into uncontrollable giggles.
Odd,he said, squinting as more images drifted through the steam.What’s the king doing now?
“Bursting into laughter in the middle of an important meeting. It’s very strange.”
The steam shifted, showing an image of Sasha studying a garden full of wilted plants, her face set in stone while fae courtiers laughed and whirled around her.
The vision darkened.
Elizabeth glimpsed Sasha alone in an unfamiliar room, touching the locket she wore all the time, the one with her parents’ images inside. Her expression remained sad until she rebuilt her walls.
That doesn’t look promising,Grimble said.
“No, it doesn’t.”
Maybe the fae are just happy people.
“They’re frivolous at times, yes. Everyone knows this. I suppose that might also make them laugh a lot.” But she couldn’t nudge aside the feeling that this wasn’t usual for this court.
Sasha might learn to laugh along with them,he said, flopping on the ground beside her and starting to lick the fur on his leg.She needs a good chuckle every now and then.
“She is rather somber.”
He snorted and looked up at her with strands of fur sticking out of his mouth.That’s an understatement.
“I believe it stems from losing her parents. She and I practically raised her younger sisters together.”
Yet she was still a child herself.
“I didn’t force her to help.”
No, but did you insist she have fun every now and then as well?
Perhaps. She couldn’t remember, and that made her sad. Her hands stilled over the cauldron. What if Sasha was too fragile for this, too burdened by responsibility to open herself to someone new? The fae court’s excessive mirth might break her instead of heal her. And then Elizabeth would be responsible for pushing her wounded granddaughter into a match she wasn’t ready for, all to save their magical border.
She shook off the thought. There was no going back, but she could make things better while going forward.
“This will be the perfect opportunity for Sasha.”
Her granddaughter could laugh a bit along with the fae and if the wilted flowers needed help, her magic was perfectly suited for that.
Elizabeth’s scrying erupted in a shower of silver and gold sparks, the magical reaction verifying her decision.
“See?” she said with a hint of smugness in her voice. “The magic agrees.”
It does.Grimble yawned and laid his chin on his front paws, his eyelids sliding closed.Let me know when you hear back from the fae king.
“I’ll send a message right away.”
There were risks, of course. The steam hinted at an unsettled court, which could be catastrophic if mishandled. But there was immense potential power if this matchsucceeded. Dominic and Sasha’s bond could aid the western regions of their realm, and fortify the failing magic along the border at the same time.
“I’ll write a formal proposal of marriage immediately,” she whispered to herself. The king would accept when she mentioned Sasha’s affinity for plant magic, a lure too tempting for a court with wilting flowerbeds.
Elizabeth smiled, her confidence in her granddaughter and her matchmaking abilities unshaken. “My magic hasn’t been wrong yet. Let’s see what happens when humor meets strategy.Thatwill be a dance worth watching.”
CHAPTER TWO
