“Okay, fine. I didn’t.” My assault on the potatoes complete, I attack a slab of meat. Hopefully it’s venison and not some other forbidden delicacy, like pixie. Mandy would’ve warned me if I were eating one of her people; I’m sure of it. “So, why the name change?”
“My birth parents named me Henry. When they adopted me, Mom and Dad kept mispronouncing my name as ‘Hanry.’ Well, mostly Mom.”
Hmm. This fits: Mab definitely struggled to remember my name. And here I thought it was personal. “Why didn’t you correct her?”
“Didn’t seem worth it.” Hanry—or Henry, I guess?—colors slightly. “Anyway. Bulan found me today, and we devised this plan.”
“I would’ve appreciated some warning,” I tell him after another bite.
“I know. Bulan only slipped me the toothbrush right before the ceremony. He explained that May doesn’t actually want to marry a human man. She thinks she does, because she’s convinced we’re stronger and more macho than we are. That’s why Bulan and I figured if we proved we weren’t as masculine as she imagined, we’d both finally be off the hook.”
Well played, Hanry… sort of. He still hasn’t learned to tell his mom no. His lack of courage is a problem, and it’s a problem I don’t think I can fix.
“May actually seems like a catch,” I say, getting up. “I’m kind of disappointed for you.”
“Sabby, I’m sorry.”
I suck in my lips so I don’t say something stupid.
“Sabby, I’mso sorry,” he repeats, standing. Reminding me how tall he is, how safe I thought I was with him.
“I need someone who can protect me,” I say. “Someone who can stand up against chaos. Or at least their own parents. You came up with all these schemes, but at the end of the day, you still couldn’t tell your mother the truth.”
“I get it,” says Hanry.
“Do you? Because when you were standing up on that platformin your wedding tunic, it felt like you didn’t care about me. Like you didn’t care I was being humiliated by your own parents, that I was the butt of a thousand jokes. How could I believe you’d ever try to make our relationship work in the future? That you wouldn’t give up the first time it became inconvenient?”
Hanry sighs heavily and sits back down with the same air of defeat.
“I do care about you, Sabby, and I’m sorry for… making your life worse. And not being honest with you. I know I need to do better. I don’t know how, but I need to figure it out.”
“Strong agree. Grow some balls.”
“I don’t want to lose you. Again.”
I point Hanry’s oily fork at him. “You realize that on some level, you weren’t totally on the up and up with either meorMay, right? That’s shitty. How could I ever trust you?”
Grimacing, Hanry says, “I don’t know.”
He keeps saying that.
“Well maybe you need a second Rumspringa. AnEat Pray Lovejourney.”
“Maybe.” Hanry’s gaze moves from me to the party, his expression caught between pleased and sad. “You’re serious about this, aren’t you? The wedding planning thing.”
“More than serious,” I reply. “I’m ditching my job in New York for it.”
He smiles. “Good.”
It is. I survey the State Room, trying to see everything like Hanry does: the room, filled with members of the Community in their wild and fascinating glory. Fairies, mostly, plus a few familiar faces from Halloween. Mandy dances with Rochester. Robert the Sasquatch waves his arms beside them. Crows peck at the wedding cake. A manticore relieves itself on a flower arrangement, and… there’s May, calling me over to the dance floor.
Beside her stands King Tits and a smooth-skinned fay. IknowI would’ve noticed this fairy if I’d seen him earlier—he puts Rochester to shame when it comes to hollow cheekbones and sulky sexiness. Like Hanry, he’s looking around, but instead of being sad, he’s tornbetween wistful and angry. Making eye contact with me, his scowl deepens.
“That’s Seb,” says Hanry unnecessarily. I already recognized him from the photo in Hanry’s room. He has the same hooded eyes and scowl. Also, he’s Tits’s spitting image, minus the antlers and chaotic affability.
“So that’s why your dad left this morning. To pick him up,” I realize.
Hanry nods unhappily. “He was in the human world. When Mom and Dad adopted me, they swapped us out. I got to grow up as royalty. He had to live with my parents. Except for yearly check-in visits.”
