“Yes.” No use denying it. I could no more change my family than I could my status as a mixed blood.
“Charming,” she said in a tone that was anything but.
“Speaking of charming”—I turned to Darcy and bowed my head slightly—“thank you for such scintillating conversation. You know how to make a memorable first impression.”
Darcy raised an eyebrow, but before he could respond, I edged past him and found more than a handful of females, Marked and Unmarked alike, eyeing him.
He didn’t shrink from their gazes; he hardly reacted at all, as if he was used to brushing off the people around him. Even among the other fae, Darcy had a commanding presence with his broad shoulders and assessing gaze. If only they knew what he was capable of.
With how reticent Darcy was, there was no point asking him anything else, especially not with Caroline around. Now that I knew his name, I would look into him myself. After all, how many people could there be with the name “Darcy” who were close to Charles Bingley? For now, I should collect Jane and go home.
I glanced over my shoulder once as I made my way across the dance floor and found Darcy still watching me, a frustrated question in his dark gaze.
Insufferable fae.
I turned away and spotted Mom whispering with the gnome DJ. A second later, she looked around, then passed him a potion. He gave her a thumbs up and turned off the music, gesturing to someone behind the curtain. A second later, a woman in a glimmering turquoise dress came out on stage and took the microphone. Her voice was hauntingly beautiful, and for a moment, the dancers stopped and stared at her.
A siren then—they were known for having beautiful voices that could mesmerize people. With a flick of her wrist, the siren created illusions of herself with her water magic, and the replicas danced to her music.
Mom stood to the side, watching Charles and Jane with a smug smile. She wasn’t joking when she made comments like “I’d do anything for my children.” A mother’s love might know no bounds, but neither did a child’s embarrassment.
Charles rubbed the back of his neck, then said something to Jane that made her smile. He put both hands on her waist, and she froze for the briefest moment, then wrapped her arms around his neck. The two swayed softly, staring at each other like they were the only ones around. At least Jane was oblivious to our embarrassing mom. For now, anyway.
I couldn’t pull Jane away when she seemed so happy. Instead, I wove between dancers and through the color-changing fog that covered the floor until I reached a familiar figure on the other side of the room.
“Charlotte!” I called over the music.
Her brown eyes lit up. “Lizzy, I didn’t expect to see you here. You never want to come to Club Meryton.”
I laughed. “I’m here for work. I would’ve told you, but I didn’t know you were back.” Besides Jane, Charlotte wasmy best friend. As soon as I’d moved back from New York, the three of us had gotten a place together.
“Just got in a bit ago,” she said. “It was a short trip.”
“How was your aunt?”
“Still insisting I get married if I want to see a penny of my inheritance.” She shrugged and tossed her wild black curls behind her shoulder, then fiddled with her scarf. She was always wearing one. It was as much a part of her as her love for crafts and baking.
“You’re looking for a husband in a club?” I teased and followed her toward the bar where a shifter woman with impressively applied eyeliner mixed drinks.
“Not particularly, but I promised I’d ‘make an effort’ to appease her.” Charlotte ordered a starlit elixir, her favorite drink. I had to take her word that the shimmering silver beverage was delicious since alcohol, like coffee, messed with my magic.
Charlotte was Unmarked, but she’d spent her whole life in Austen Heights and knew about the magical community. As a town resident, she had a charm to protect her from the forgetfulness spell that made outsiders lose all memory of magic beyond the city limits. For normalUnmarked, the spell altered their memories to fond recollections of a quirky little town and helped our tourism grow without risking the magical community. But once an Unmarked returned to Austen Heights, their memories returned as well.
“Is that Charles Bingley dancing with Jane?” Charlotte tilted her head toward the dance floor.
“Yes.” I tried not to let my interaction with his haughty sister or his murderous friend color my tone.
“He seems really into her.” Charlotte sipped her drink, watching the pair dance.
“I know.” But how long would his interest last once he realized the Bennet sisters were half-witch? Surely he’d already started to sense that something was different about her.
“And she’s still dancing with him,” she said as the siren finished her second song and the music changed back to the gnome DJ.
“Weird, right?”
Three dances in a row with the same man was a record for Jane. Usually, she’d shoot me a look after one dance,occasionally two, begging me to come get her. But now she didn’t even seem to remember that I existed.
I ignored the twinge in my chest at the thought and scanned the dance floor for Darcy. I had been keeping an eye on him, but somehow I’d lost him in the crowd.
