Page 48 of My Faire Lady

“Livid? Doubtful?”

“Many of them remember the war, and those who do can still count how many we lost. Some are old enough to remember when your ancestors made this land our haven.” He turns, studying the landscape out the window. “The creatures are terrified, Scarlet.”

“Yeah.” I bite the inside of my cheek until the pain overwhelms the widening chasm in my chest. “I am, too.”

The crown of the sun appears, but the clouds blot it out before it can paint the sky in watercolors of orange. In the week since Lottie has been gone, the magic beneath my skin has settled—spread thin along my bones. But even the knowledge that she’ll be here any minute stirs it.

It lifts at the edges, curls, stretches—yawning awake.

The door creaks open, and Jeremy’s face appears in the gap. “We have a problem.”

“What is it?” Boden and I say together.

“Blaire just showed up in the infirmary. She collapsed the second she walked in the door.”

Ice climbs up the back of my neck as I glance at Boden.

Blaire is fae. Like him.

He pales and curls his hands around the edge of the desk, pushing to his feet. “But the fae are able to withstand higher losses of magic.”

The chill spreads over my arms and down my legs, dread hooking talons into my core. If Blaire has fallen ill, how long until the same happens to him?

“None of us are safe from this, apparently.” Boden’s gaze locks on mine. “Not even you.”

Jeremy pushes the door open another inch. “And she’s the princess in the joust. We don’t have anyone else who knows the script on such short notice.”

I close my eyes and drag a hand down my face. “Yes, we do.”

As if on cue, the footbridge lowers, its groan echoing through the trees. Part of me, the intrinsic thread attached to the earth, senses her footsteps on the land. It’s like a string tied around my sternum, tugging me toward her. And in return, my power unspools, strengthening. Breathing.

“Do you think she’ll agree to it?” Jeremy says, backtracking into the hallway.

I shrug. “Only one way to find out.”

“I’ll find you later,” Boden says, his expression blank. “I’m going to check on Blaire.”

He disappears out of the room, and I share a tight-lipped grimace with Jeremy. I follow him through the compound and out the enchanted doorway. A breeze snakes through my hair, but the air is damp and heavy—cradling a humidity that clings to my skin and promises rain.

Jeremy groans. “It’s going to be one of those days.”

Under other circumstances, I’d make a joke about dogs and rain, but I press my lips together and focus on my steps as we follow the path to the shoppes.

Her voice rings across the dewy grass like birdsong, and we round the corner as she slots the key into the shoppe’s door. The sign hanging from the eave sways, and white roses climb up the columns from the bushes she transplanted from her garden.

“Lottie,” I say.

She glances over her shoulder and pushes open the door, handing Kelsey a bag.

Lottie steps down the stairs and crosses her arms, looking between Jeremy and me. “What’s wrong?”

“Can you fill in for Blaire in the joust?”

Her brows shoot up. “What’s wrong with Blaire?”

Jeremy glances at me out the corner of his eyes. “She’s sick.”

“Like Glen?” She takes half a step back. “Is something going around?”