At the sound ofdarling, my insides quaked. It had been a long time since I’d heard him use that term of endearment. We were no longer inside the Academy grounds, and it was almost as though his mask of indifference was starting to slip out here in the “real” world. He hadn’t completely forgotten our time together, just like I hadn’t. Despite trying to pretend he didn’t notice me, I’d still felt his heated gazes all these weeks, regardless of how much he tried to hide them.
I opened my mouth to demand some answers, but a strange electricity sizzled around us. The buzzing of the crowd died, replaced by a strange and eerie quiet mass of faeries and changelings. Everyone’s gazes were locked on the approaching Autumn Royals. Fear flickered across some faces, and anger boiled on others. No one was happy to see them, a fact that Queen Viola didn’t seem to mind at all. Her face was pure steel, her lips twisted in a smug smile.
As the heavy thud of hooves grew closer, Queen Viola’s gaze suddenly cut straight to me. Her gleaming red eyes flickered, and her thin lips pressed tight together. There was something strange about her gaze, one that lasted far longer than a casual glance. She cocked her head when I frowned, as if in curiosity...or recognition. Did she know who I was? The girl who had defeated the fae she’d sent to take down the Academy?
Or did she recognize me as a changeling, one she was desperate to destroy?
Suddenly, the Queen vanished from sight when a large muscular form with blazing red hair slid just in front of me. His body was taut with tension, anger rippling off his fisted hands like violent waves at sea.
The Queen passed on, along with her companions. With a frown, I wrapped my hands around Liam’s arms and pulled him toward me.
“What was that all about?”
He kept his gaze distant, focused on the Royals. “Nothing.”
I narrowed my eyes. “If it was nothing, then why did you throw yourself in front of me like some kind of bodyguard?”
“Because I am your bodyguard, Norah,” Liam said. “And I didn’t want her to look at you for too long and realize you’re a changeling.”
Irritation flickered within me, particularly when I saw the tremor in his jaw. Liam might have been telling the truth, but it wasn’t theentiretruth. He was hiding something, just like he and the others had been doing for weeks.
There was more to this than he wanted me to think.
* * *
The crowd dispersed after the Procession of the Autumn fae. Now came the celebrations. The lively dancing, the games, and the feast. Long skinny tables were set out on the field, dozens covered in the most succulent foods from the Harvest. Roast duck, buttered potatoes, overflowing bowls of berries, apples, and watermelons. And in the center of it all sat a wooden bowl three times the size of my head, filled to the brim with glistening, freshly-picked blackberries.
Liam gave a nod toward the fruit and smiled for the first time all day. “You’ll want to try the blackberries before the end of the night. It’ll be your last chance to have them until next summer.”
I cocked my head. “Why? Do they magically disappear after tonight or something?”
It sounded unlikely, but it certainly wouldn’t be the strangest thing about Otherworld. That much I was certain of.
“Close enough,” he said. “After Autumn Equinox, pookas like to poison blackberries by spitting on them. They go rotten to the core, though they don’t look like it, so there’s no way to know which ones are deadly.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Every time I hear something new about the pookas, the more and more they sound like complete assholes. When can my training include stabbing one in the throat?”
He dropped back his head and barked out a laugh. “That’s my girl.”
A wave of warmth went through my body, and I glanced up at Liam with hope in my heart. What I would give for him to pull me close right now, to feel his strong arms wrapped around me, to relish in the fiery heat rippling off his golden skin. Sure, we were in the middle of thousands of faeries. Most of the realm was here tonight. But I didn’t care.
His hand whispered across my back again, as if he could read my mind. Our gazes locked, and his lips curled into a smile. But just as quickly as it had appeared, it disappeared again.
“Come on,” he said, his voice slightly gruff, betraying the emotions he didn’t want me to see. “They’re about to cut the barmbrack, and you’re going to want to be there. It’s one of our yearly traditions that every fae loves.” His lips spread into a grin again. “Probably because it involves cake.”
Despite my disappointment at our lack of contact, my ears pricked up at his words. “Did someone say cake?”
He let out a low chuckle. “Cake made by the Summer Court, no less. Best kind of cake in the entire realm.”
Liam led me through the festival grounds, and it seemed as though every faerie present was heading in the same direction we were: toward a square table that squatted underneath what must have been the most massive cake I’d ever seen in my life. In fact, it was about ten times as large as a standard cake, perfectly square with thick white frosting covering every inch of its surface.
Four Summer fae were bustling around the table, slicing the cake into uniform square slices. Underneath the frosting, the cake itself was a beautiful deep red with swirls of brilliant yellow.
“It looks completely bizarre, but at the same time very delicious,” I said, smiling as one of the Summer fae passed me a plate. “What flavor is it?”
“It’s the taste of Summer.”
At the tone of Liam’s voice, a shiver slid down my spine. I glanced up at him, swallowing hard when I saw the heat of his gaze. It made my entire body quiver, despite myself. How could just a single look from him make me such a trembling mess?
