My shoulders lowered slightly when I stepped through a pretty flowering arch. It held a cozy space with sofas, chairs, and coffee tables. From here I could still hear if my name was called, but I could take that corner seat on the couch and put my back to the wall—
“I’m sitting there,” a cranky male voice grumbled.
The owner of the voice turned out to be a toddy. He scowled at me.
“Sorry.” I stepped back.
He shoved past me and fell onto the couch. A few high fae at the other end of the room glanced over but didn’t say anything. Beside them, a terrifying creature with the head and upper body of a bison stared at me without blinking. When I crossed the space toward the remaining open corner, his gaze followed, so instead, I walked right past the chairs and back through the arch to court, trying not to run as the hair on my neck prickled.
Circling the banquet again, I loitered until my feet hurt. One of the long tables held scattered fae, but no obvious groups, so I lifted my chin and strode toward it, acting like I belonged there.
Right before my butt settled into a wooden chair at the table, though, a sweet feminine voice asked, “What’ll you give me for that spot?”
Glancing up, I froze. Her voice didn’t match her form at all. An ugly sharp brown beak took over her face, nearly as long as my forearm. Her beady black eyes blinked at me, waiting.
“Um... excuse me?”
“The seat,” she snapped now. The disconnect between sounding like a high school cheerleader but looking like a hag made me blink owlishly at her instead of responding.
“Do you normally find it acceptable to rest beside someone without permission? I expect you to bargain for it.”
“Oh... I—”Have no idea what to say.I hovered over the chair in a weird limbo.
Lore’s face unexpectedly popped into view as she dropped her elbows onto the high table. The shimmery silver sleeves of her dress nearly dragged through a half-eaten plate of food. “What did I miss?”
I glanced between her and the hag, who stuck her long beak in the air and tossed a grape up, catching it with a sharp snap that made me flinch.
“Not much. Just waiting for my name to be called.”
“Aren’t you going to sit?” Lore asked after a beat of silence.
Inch by inch, I lowered myself into the seat.
The hag sniffed, but she turned her back on me and didn’t say anything.
“You have really good timing,” I whispered to Lore with a relieved smile.
She grinned back. “I’ve been told that before, actually.” Then she gave me a cheerful wave. “See you later.”
Startled, I called out, “Bye,” to her retreating back.
That was odd.
An hour passed in uncomfortable silence between myself and the hag.
Both individual petitioners as well as groups approached the thrones, some quick while others took what felt like forever, until the musicians unexpectedly stopped playing. Nearby fae turned to watch as all three royals swept down the stairs and out of the room.
Now what?
Were they taking lunch? Did I wait until they came back? Or was this one of those one-to-four-days-later situations?
A lumbering gait shook the ground behind me. I tensed.
The bison-headed fae slammed into the seat at the other end of the table. Miss Don’t-Be-Rude acted like someone had called her name. Waving a hand, the hag called a delicate, “Be right there.”
And without wasting another second, she waltzed off, leaving me alone with a new terror. This huge creature turned its head sideways to stare at me with one of those beady black eyes. My heart stuttered as I pretended not to notice. Would it talk or charge? And was one really better than the other? I debated making a run for it...
“Oh, Brynn, there you are!” Julian scooped me up from my chair by the elbow before I fully registered his voice. “I’ve been looking all over for you!”
