“I can’t answer the door like this!”
“I certainly wouldn’t.”
“Go see who it is!” I hiss.
“Am I your butler now?” he grumbles, but he disappears out the owl door.
While he’s gone, there’s another knock.
I begin pulling hot rollers from my hair, leaving them on the buffet at the side of the room.
Rowan returns. “It’s Ryder.”
“Ryder?” I ask, surprised. “What’s he doing here?”
“Why do you insist upon asking me questions I cannot answer?”
Rolling my eyes, I leave Rowan in the kitchen and open the door.
The handsome elf’s gaze moves to my hair. “I like it. Very vintage.”
“What?”
He glances inside, noticing the mirror on the hall tree, and gestures toward it.
My hair is in tight, fat curls all around my head, making me look like the pixie version of a 1930s Hollywood starlet.
“I wasn’t finished,” I explain. “I took the rollers out in a hurry, worried you might be?—”
I cut myself off, not wanting to feed the town’s rumor mill.
“I might be Ash?” he guesses with a smirk.
Well, so much for that.
“Never mind,” I say. “What are you doing here?”
“I thought you might like a ride to the meeting.” He gestures toward the waiting horse and small carriage just outside my gate.
“I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that,” I say.
He chuckles. “You will after a while, but you’ll probably miss a car heater in winter.”
“How did Laverna get to town when it was snowy? Surely, she didn’t ride her bike in that.”
“She usually came into town with Ash.”
Speaking of Ash, he appears through the trees, heading this way down the lane on foot.
“Uh oh,” Ryder jokes quietly. “My competition has arrived.”
But there’s no competition. I can already feel the glow of my magic responding to the councilman.
Ryder notices too. “What’s this? Are you sparkling for him again?”
“Shut up,” I mutter.
“I’m jealous.” He grins, turning toward the lane to wave a friendly greeting. “From the way he’s scowling at me, I assume the rumors must be true.”
