Page 8 of Fae Trials

“No.” Sicily stood and walked across the room. “I have to know what we’re up against.” She reached our front door and paused.

Nausea writhed in my belly, a physical manifestation of my cowardice. I desperately wanted to face Lady Gala. To tell her she was no better than us, just lucky to have been born a fae and then to have become fated to marry one of the princes. But not even the lower fae spoke out against the royals. Everyone around here was so quick to take offense, and grudges could last generations.

Instead of facing my enemy, I scurried to the other room, shut the door, and placed my ear against the wood.

The muffled sound of knocking from outside continued, and sweat poured down my brow. Sicily wouldn’t say something foolish, would she? Even though she had been impeccably polite to Lady Gala, that encounter had upset her even more than it had upset me.

I heard the slide of one iron bolt and then another. Then the front door creaked open, reminding me that it needed oiling. My throat dried.

“Where’s Unity?” asked a familiar voice. “What happened this morning?”

“Elijah!” Relief turned Sicily’s voice breathy.

He rushed into the room. “I just heard Unity defied one of the Fated in the middle of Doolish!”

The front door slammed shut. I opened the bedroom door and poked my head out. “What are they all saying?”

Elijah stood in the middle of the living room, an imposing figure in his white overalls and his transparent, dragonfly wings fluttering behind his back. Despite my troubles, a jolt of attraction shot through my heart. Elijah’s father was a full-blooded faerie, which accounted for the wings, cerulean-blue eyes, and copper-colored hair. His mother was a human, which gave him a similar rugged handsomeness to the Lumberjacks of Switzerland.

“What the bloody hell happened, Uni?” He spread his arms in a wide WTF shrug.

“It wasn’t her fault,” said Sicily from where she leaned against the front door.

Elijah ignored her. “I overheard Lady Nevermore tell the other Fated about a defiant human she wanted to track down after dark. She was livid.”

I gulped. “How did you know it was me?”

“Because I rode down on my break and asked some of the vendors what happened this morning. They told me you and she had an altercation.” He flashed those bright eyes with disbelief. “You know better than to mess with the royals.”

Ignoring the clenching of my stomach muscles, I shook my head. “It wasn’t like that.”

Elijah crossed the room and grabbed my arms. “Why would you defy one of the bloody Fated?”

“Do you have pixie dust in your ears?” Sicily snapped from where she stood by the door. “It wasn’t Unity’s fault!”

Elijah turned around, seeming to notice my sister finally. “Alright, then. Tell me what happened.”

My hands trembled. If Elijah was this worked up, things had to be dire. Maybe Sicily was right, and I needed to leave Doolish. My sister walked to the stove and boiled the kettle while I told him what had happened, explaining how I had narrowly avoided getting burned by the backside of a drake.

Elijah winced. “You know their shit is hotter than boiled water.”

A relieved breath whooshed out of my lungs. At least he no longer thought I was at fault. “That’s why I couldn’t go through with her penance.”

He shook his head. “Sometimes, even I can’t fathom the depth of fae pettiness.”

Sicily muttered something unintelligible under her breath.

My gaze dropped down to the basket Elijah had set on the floor, containing osprey eggs he’d probably brought from the academy kitchens. He was some kind of supervisor up there, which meant he had access to things the highest echelons of the fae discarded.

“Have you had lunch?” I asked.

He shook his head.

After picking up the basket, I joined Sicily in our small kitchen area and pulled down a copper frying pan hanging from a wood beam. Sicily opened the icebox and extracted chives and rapunzel leaves.

“Lady Nevermore seemed more agitated than usual this morning.” Elijah walked across the room and lowered himself onto the sofa. “For the past few days, the Fated have been looking forward to something from the outside world the Princes said would arrive today.”

“IPads.” Sicily placed two mugs of chamomile tea on the coffee table. “Someone spread the rumor that Apple was sending us a gift.”