Goblin Ball (9 page)

“It’s just as I knew it would be,” she said. “Faeview’s grounds are perfect for a faeling’s gifting celebration.”

“A faeling.” Bella frowned.

“Lady Lexi must have fae blood. Look at her grandmother,” Cammy said. “Grandmother! The lady looks younger than you or I. Frown all you want, Bella. I don’t care. I know I’m right.”

From a choice of seating arrangements, she and her sister had commandeered a thick, richly colored Turkish rug laid out on the grass along with throw pillows and parasols. For the less adventurous, or the less decadent, wicker chairs and tables were available.

“Her ladyship wasn’t kidding when she said fancy dress,” Bella said. “What do you think they’re all supposed to be?”

“I think the little cute ones are pixies, and the ones with the slouch hats are leprechauns,” Cammy said. “The tall, beautiful ones are fairies.”

“What about over by the water, those blokes with the black harps tattooed on their biceps? Bella said. “Urban punk Irish?”

“Don’t turn up your nose. One might put a spell on you.” From Cammy’s research, they were likely a contingent of the
Tuatha Dé Danaan
. “Relax. Enjoy—”

“Oh! Cam, look.”

A pair of steely wings popped out of the back of the darkly handsome guy talking to Lord Dumnos. They extended, undulating as if possessed of their own sinister intentions, then retracted and disappeared. The fairy made Cammy quite nervous, but she wasn’t about to admit it.

This isn’t fancy dress at all. It’s real
.

“How… how fun,” she said. Let Bella keep her illusions if it made her feel safer. Let her cling to the notion this was all for show. “It’s like we’re in a play.
A Midsummer
Day’s
Dream
.”

“Only it’s not midsummer, Cam. And we’re awake.”

“Yes, dearest.” Cammy sighed. She had to accept it. Bella had no imagination at all, and moving to Tintagos hadn’t helped. “I’m sure you’re always awake.”

“One of us has to be.”

“You’re not going to forgive me for what you saw in the magic mirror, are you?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Then I’m going to go find some champagne.”

Cammy stood up and, her hands covered in fingerless lace gloves, brushed errant sparkles from her shoulders. She smoothed the skirt of her Belle Epoch gown and inwardly smiled. The pale green brocade was perfect for the occasion, as were the button-up, fawn-colored boots, but the peacock feathers in her hair were the
pièce de résistance
. Whether or not anyone recognized who she was supposed to be, in her own mind the costume was a success.

She headed toward the Grecian temple. Her eyes drinking in the feast of it all, she glanced back to check on Bella and promptly bumped into someone.

“Oh, excuse
moi
!” the man said. His hand went reflexively to his macramé choker and the bright-cut jewel at his throat. “On a day like today, I should have watched where I was popping into.”

He looked like a golden god. There was no other way to say it. His loose, curly hair was like spun gold out of a fairy tale, and his skin was smooth, perfect, and had a bronzish-gold tint. His eyes were bright green, the only thing about him not golden.

“Well, aren’t you a picture.” His wings contracted and disappeared as he admired Cammy’s costume, his smile bright, as if she was the most interesting person he’d ever encountered. “For a moment, I thought I’d gone through Morning Glory’s time portal back to 1876 again. You’re the image of Lydia Pengrith.”

“You’re right, I am.” Her costume really was a success!

“But darling, where is your adult beverage?” The golden man clapped his hands. “More importantly, where is mine?”

A little creature appeared in the air between them with a tray and three flutes of pink bubbly liquid.

“Have a drink! It’s good and pink!” the creature said.

Cammy accepted a flute, and as the golden man also took one, an arm covered in sparkles reached out from behind him for the third, just as the creature and tray disappeared.

“Hello, hello! I’m here!” Her ladyship’s mother stepped out of nowhere. She took a sip of champagne and said, “Goldy, come on. Let’s go see Lexi.”

Goldy.
Of course that would be his name. He grinned and waggled his eyebrows at Cammy in farewell, then followed Morning Glory over to what looked like a giant walnut shell which served as a child’s cot. Lady Lexi held on to its edge and brightened as Goldy called out to her.

More proof she’s faeling,
Cammy thought as she put the pink liquid to her lips
.
According to Lydia Pengrith, fairies developed extremely quickly, and faelings—human children who had fae blood—grew faster than usual when they were in touch with their fae nature. The baby wasn’t four months old, yet she was standing.

Cammy’s wine was only half gone, and a wonderful feeling came over her. Everything was fine. Everyone was beautiful. Lovely. The world could not possibly be a better place. She took another sip. As the liquid surged through her, she saw every creature for its true self.

There were fairies and brownies, leprechauns and pixies, humans, and—if she wasn’t mistaken—not twenty feet away from her, the ugliest creature in the world, engaged in a perfectly matter-of-fact conversation with the countess, was a goblin.

Lovely, lovely.
She twirled in the sunshine.
That is just as it should be.

She finished the champagne, and a pixie popped in to take her glass and offer a fresh one. Cammy lifted the glass from the tray, another crystal flute rimmed in gold, and the pixie popped out. She lazily continued creature watching, until she saw someone who took her breath away.

A man had just come over the hill from the direction of the car park and stood at the edge of the gathering, looking from group to group as if searching for someone in particular. Cammy’s heart pounded as she watched him, waiting for him to find her.

But he stopped too soon. He fixed on Cade and headed in the earl’s direction.

No!
Cammy wanted to cry out.
You’re supposed to come to me.

She had no idea who he was, but she had seen him once before, standing behind her shoulder in the magic mirror.

II. Bella

Cammy was making
a fool of herself. Again. Bella knew she should have stayed at the flat. She could have kept the shop open. One of them had to be sensible, and it obviously wasn’t going to be her little sister, with her magic mirrors and books of wyrding spells.

Tintagos had pixilated Cammy. With that sloppy smile and rapturous expression, people would think she was on something.

No. They wouldn’t. Bella sighed. Everyone at the picnic looked like they were on something.

The sun had passed its zenith, and dusk was but an hour or so away. As the daylight began to lose strength, the energy of the actors all around her seemed to increase. Of course they were actors. Lady Dumnos had told them it would be fancy dress. They were actors, and the appearing and disappearing acts were special effects, done with high-tech makeup, dry ice, and mirrors, somehow rendered for the out-of-doors.

Except for one small problem. The short, gnarled, truly hideous-looking—and short—man talking with their hostess.

He looked very much like the one Bella had seen last night in her magic mirror.

III. Greg

The drive from London
had taken hours, but finally the stretch limo pulled into an off-road parking lot and stopped. The fae poured out, eager for the open air. Each one wrinkled his nose or averted her eyes as they passed Greg. His wife first, then her father. Then
his
father, Lord Sarumen, the scary bugger. Quinn, the asshole.

None liked him, not even Jenna. He didn’t like them either.

He used to think he was special. Really going somewhere. At first he’d been amazed that a long, cool drink of water like Jenna Sarumen even knew he was alive, let alone that she wanted to know him much, much better.

But then he’d thought,
why not?
He was pretty hot himself. And he was well on the way to wealth of his own. Not Sarumen wealth, obviously, but he could see himself making base high six figures with bonuses and escalators pushing it close to two mil. Every year. Nothing to be ashamed of.

Jenna didn’t have to wink at him twice before he’d dumped his drab, workhorse girlfriend, Lilith Evergreen. Lily was dead weight anyway. Dragging him down. She had no self-respect. No self-confidence. Good enough to get him through law school—she could cook and clean, do research and type, and she was useful enough in bed. But nothing close to life-partner material.

All he had to do was mention the name Sarumen to his mother and hint that an engagement was imminent. Soon after that, the keys to the kingdom had been restored, his father’s acceptance once again beyond doubt, his trust fund unfrozen. The world was his oyster.

And it had all burst like a bubble. Lily had taken the guilt money—which he’d fully expected her to reject—and had gone off to England, to Dumnos, where she met and married an earl, Cade Bausiney. She was a countess now, damn it all.

When Jenna found out, she’d gone ballistic. Called her father, screaming like the spoiled brat she was, said that Lily had gone back to England and demanded to go home. Home… to London. Jeez. She was a Brit. Information she might have told a guy before she married him.

Apparently, Lily was ancient, like them. She used to go by the name Igraine, and the Sarumens had been searching the world for her for hundreds of years—which made no sense, but what did anymore? Jenna had never wanted Greg. She’d only wanted to take what she thought belonged to Lily.

Greg climbed out of the limo, his wife already gone from his sight, flitted off to play with others of her kind. She had never loved him, not even a teeny, tiny bit. Didn’t love anyone. From what he could tell, as a rule the fae didn’t. Love, that is.

The spring breeze played with his hair, flirtatious and sensual, the only gentle caress he’d felt in ages. He huffed out a short, ironic laugh at himself and walked on, over the small rise covered in green grass, and on to the pantomime. He had a minuscule part to play, barely a line or two left to deliver.

IV. Lilith

“Max, you were
right. They came.” Lilith watched a band of half a dozen new guests arrive. They looked like they belonged to each other, all extremely well dressed in designer clothes out of GQ or Vanity Fair. By their expressions, they considered this affair beneath themselves.

Lilith recognized two of their member right away: Jenna Sarumen and her father. Not so long ago Lilith had envied Jenna her charmed life, not knowing the truth of what she and her family were. “I hope they aren’t here to cause trouble.”

“They risk the high gods’ wrath if they do,” Max said. “They’re here by Cissa’s invitation. They can’t breach a queen’s hospitality.”

“It would seem rank has its privileges even in fae,” Lilith said. “Great gods. I know that man, the human trailing behind them.” It was Greg. He looked… pathetic.
She silently thanked the high gods for having escaped him.

Cade had yet to notice the appearance of his adversary, but she wasn’t concerned. They’d decided to take as little notice of the Sarumens today as possible. Wrong place, wrong time for corporate battle. He had squatted down beside Lexi’s cot, and they were having a nonsensical conversation. As if concerned for her father’s mental well-being, Lexi’s eyebrows knitted up. She kissed her palm and pressed it against Cade’s cheek and laughed.

Watching her husband and daughter play, Lilith relaxed. “I’m sorry everyone’s disappointed Lexi hasn’t visited the faewood,” she said to Max. “But a hundred years might pass while she was there.”

“The ones who matter will visit in the human realm,” Max said. “The others will be satisfied with seeing her here at the gifting.”

“A fae gifting.” She was still uneasy about the concept.

“There’s nothing to fear.” Max said. “The fae adore children, and your daughter is of the queen’s own blood. They would never hurt her.”

The queen
again
.
So impersonal. So distant. Lilith was pretty sure Max liked Cissa. Loved her, even.

“None of their presents will be so unwieldy as mine,” he said. “Or as tangible.”

“What do you mean, tangible?”

“I’ve heard the leprechauns are giving her a pair of grow-booties. They’re the most dangerous gift coming that I know about.”

“Grow-booties?”

“Baby booties that will never fall apart. They’ll grow as Lexi grows, and change to whatever style suits the day. Their charm—”

“Indestructibility and adaptation not being at all magical?” Lily smiled.

“To the leps, those are run-of-the-mill qualities in baby shoes. Not good enough for the queen’s only heir. The charm in Lexi’s pair is that as long as she wears them she’ll never take a wrong step or fall.”

“That sounds good. Why do you frown?”

“One person’s charm is another’s curse. If the child never falls, she’ll never learn to rise.”

“Ah, I understand you.”

“The other presents will be ephemeral and benign. Beauty, kindness, grace, good fortune, the ability to dance, to tell a good joke.”

“Nice, sparkly, fairy things,” Lily said.

“Just so.”

“Those gifts I don’t fear. But I worry about unintended consequences.” Lily stopped. “Max, when I went to Avalos for
Mistcutter
, I met someone there. He was unlike anyone. Not human, not any kind of fae.”

“Velyn of the fallen.”

“Yes. He said he’d known me in my past life as Igraine. It was he who told me about my and Cade’s reincarnation. I asked him if he’d ever seen heaven, and he said he’d seen the highest heaven. The highest god. Max, I believe Velyn is a fallen angel.”

Max nodded but said nothing.

“Lexi was christened last week. I never believed in such things before, but now… I do.”