Page 47 of The Ruthless Fae King
“It’s not proper. You must wait outside,” she informed them.
It was a small victory, but I felt a tiny bit of joy leak into my desolate sadness as the guards stepped back and waited outside while we entered the shop alone.
Birdie was right, it was a lovely boutique. Candles that smelled like sandalwood and lavender, dainty gloves with flower embroidery. There was even a dressmaker in the back measuring a woman who stood on a pedestal in only her undergarments. Hence the no men rule.
Birdie was across the shop smelling candles, and I was just admiring an ornate glass brooch when the bell over the door chimed. Turning back to see who it was, I made eye contact with a young woman with black hair and fair skin. The hood of her cloak was up, dusted in snow, and she smiled at me.
She looked far too fair-skinned to be a Summer fae, but it did happen that the courts intermarried, so I assumed she was Winter fae or mixed. Turning back around to examine the brooch, I startled when she spoke to me.
“That’s beautiful.” Her voice came from right behind me, and then I felt a tug on my cloak pocket. “Lovely weather we’re having,” she whispered in my ear, and then slipped past me and out of the shop as if she were a ghost.
My mind was trying to process what had just happened. I wondered if she’d just pickpocketed me. But I hadn’t brought anything of value and her remark about the weather threw me.
It was horrid weather for someone who lived in Summer Court.
Unless she wasn’t from here.
My heart beat wildly as I slowly slipped my hand into my pocket and felt a folded note inside.
Birdie looked over at me and held up a candle. “This smells like Summer Solstice!” she exclaimed happily.
I smiled, my mind racing with what the note might contain. Peering at the dressmaker and her client, I was pleased to see they hadn’t noticed anything.
I didn’t dare open it in here, there were too many eyes on me, the new queen. Walking briskly over to Birdie, I grabbed the Summer Solstice candle from her hand and put the brooch on top.
“I’ll get it for you. Then I’d like to go back and lie down. Long day,” I told her.
She grinned at the prospect of the free candle, and I paid for both items, charging them to Marcelle. I didn’t want to look suspicious to the guards outside that we’d taken so long without purchasing anything.
Once we stepped back outside, my gaze darted around the market stalls and street shops looking for the woman, but she was gone.
Walking briskly, but not too fast, we made it back to the castle and I shut myself away in my room alone.
After pulling the letter from my pocket, I climbed into bed and unfolded it. When I recognized Piper’s handwriting, a sob formed in my throat.
M,
I’m safe in Winter Court. We are trying to rescue you but all three courts fight against Winter! I am going to attempt to smuggle your sister and mother out of Fall because only I know about the secret underground tunnels. Stay strong. We won’t rest until you are free.
-P
It said somuch and yet so little. Was it wrong that my heart wanted a letter from Lucien? For him to be the one writing me? Piper saidwe.Weare trying to rescue you. She and Lucien? She and his guards? Was Lucien doing it as a kindness, or… something else? At least he was granting Piper safety, and it sounded like he’d approved my mother and Libby to stay in Winter Court if extracted as well. Fall Court had two underground exit tunnels in times of war. They led out deep in the woods near the Winter border, so if Piper could get my mother and Libby out through those, it would be perfect. That was all good news… but… I ached to know what Lucien thought of Marcelle’s and my forced union…
And yet I didn’t need a letter. The snow falling from the sky, the crisp chill in the air, it told me everything.
He was mad as Hades.
I threw the letter into the roaring fire and then rolled over into bed. I never usually napped, I always had a lot of energy, but ever since I’d come here I wanted nothing but to sleep the day away and cry. I was trying to stay strong, to stay the course, but it was all starting to feel a little hopeless. And yet this letter gave me what I had needed to keep pushing on. So after prying myself out of bed, I went to have dinner with my husband and play the compromising wife.
I would get him to remove these cuffs, and then I would make his entire army watch as I stole the breath from his lungs.
If the people of Hazeville wanted a strong leader, they would get one.
Me.
TWELVE
At dinner, I droned on about how amazing the local shops were and the pretty brooch I’d gotten and was wearing. Marcelle smiled, complimenting the brooch and telling me how delighted he was that I loved Summer Court and was fitting into my role here.
