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Chapter1
Cade
“Where is she?” I demanded for the tenth time in as many minutes, ignoring Maywin as she feebly tried to stop me from leaving the rehearsal dinner.
It wasn’t much of an obstruction, the fae’s tiny frame hardly a blip around my towering form—not that she much stood in my way in the first place. My annoyance mounted with each passing second, and a servant would not stand between my bride-to-be and me—even if she was Zephyrine’s best friend. I couldn’t understand why she was trying to stop me.
“Please, Alpha,” Zephyrine’s maid implored me again.
I rose from the banquet table, where I was surrounded by guests for our rehearsal dinner in the main ballroom, each one just as perplexed as the last, wondering what had happened to Zephyrine, who had been there moments earlier. Dinner was about to be served, but my fiancée was conspicuously missing.
“Please, what?” I sputtered, baffled by her behavior. “Everyone is waiting for her. What’s keeping her?”
Maywin paled and reddened before paling again, lowering her dark waves to hide her embarrassed face.
“Never mind. I’ll go for her myself, Maywin. Step aside.”
“But you can’t!” Maywin squeaked again. My patience was fraying entirely. I steeled myself in front of the guests, among them Nikkoli and Sabine, who didn’t need to see me losing my temper on the night before I wed their daughter.
“Maywin,” I tried again with forced breath. “What is going on?”
I stared daggers at my fiancée’s personal maid, and she made a sound that resembled a whimper.
“Miss Zephyrine asked for a few minutes to get herself together. I promised her I would ensure no one interrupted,” she mewled again.
A few minutes ago, I had accepted that excuse, but as the guests grew antsier and the clock continued to tick, it wasn’t going to fly. I had to see what was keeping Zephy.
“It’s been way more than a few minutes!” I insisted, glancing at Zephyrine’s confused parents and then at the enchantress, Aradia, who appeared just as confused by the hold-up as me.
I summoned Aradia closer, and she swooshed toward me, her crimson hair fanning as she moved. She never seemed to walk but glide, despite her many, many years. There was a grace about the timeless enchantresses who tended to outlive any of us and somehow always remain youthful.
“What is it, Alpha?” she asked, foregoing the usual smart-assery that she reserved for our time alone. She could read the worry on my face and knew the time and place for mockery.
This wasn’t it.
“Have you seen Zephyrine?” I asked warily, keeping my voice low. I didn’t want to alert the others to the issue. To my relief, Aradia nodded vehemently.
“I saw her earlier—when I came to wake you,” she reminded me. “She was down here looking for you. I told you as much.”
My hope faded. “Since then?”
Aradia shook her shimmering, red waves. “No…”
“Well, she seems to have taken on a case of the jitters. Can you check on her for me?” I asked tersely.
“Of course, Alpha.” With her crystal eyes glittering, Aradia made a discreet exit for once, not leaving in a whirl of smoke and magic as she so enjoyed doing. Her lack of antics disturbed me more, as if she, too, could feel something wrong.
I maintained my fake smile, my hands clenching and unclenching as I debated what to do with myself.
“Is there a problem, Alpha?” one of the neighboring noblemen asked. He offered me a smug smile, as if he sensed trouble brewing, and I returned his stare evenly.
“Are there ever problems in Ironhelm that I can’t solve, Lord Nestor?” I replied charismatically as my eyes cut glass in his direction.
The anxiety in the pit of my stomach grew. I pursed my lips, determined to keep my composure, at the very least, in front of Sabine and Nikkoli.
This is a terrible first impression for me, Zephy,I grumbled silently, wondering if she was punishing me for being late first. But I immediately dismissed the idea. Zephyrine didn’t play childish games. If she had been upset with me, she surely would have let me know about it.
A chill of dread ran down my spine as another terrible thought crossed my mind, and I whipped around toward Maywin again.
