Page 100 of Samhain

And that scared the living shit out of me.

“Christmas,” I said again, reassuring him. “I promise.”

29

Miri

LONDON

Ivy had an eight-hour layover at Heathrow that she extended to twenty-four hours. She had to return to the States, but she could do some homework from the UK, enough to get her up to speed. The rest she’d finish when she could. From the plane, security snuck us into the limo waiting for me. Even though the windows were tinted, Ivy ducked down to stay hidden, just in case.

Photographers swarmed the car on either side, circling us in all directions, shouting questions about where I’d been and if there was any truth to the rumors about me and Reginald, prince of Monaco. I rolled my eyes, remembering the nonsense I’d escaped when this whole thing started—the dinner with the prince and the donations for Danae. I’d caught up on the plane ride, sent a few emails, and agreed to several events so I could squeeze more money out of the right people, but I’d practically forgotten about my upcoming nuptials.

Bollocks.

I was supposed to go to Monaco sometime soon. I was supposed to deliberate his proposal. I was supposed to be the Duchess of Aberdeen. I’d gone on this fantastic magical journey only to arrive right back where I’d started with an entirely new perspective on the whole thing. Me included.

I’d seen terrible things—a queen made humble by her own husband, a child that could teleport halfway around the world and back, a completely new realm full of creatures that were only supposed to exist in fairy tales. I’d learned the truth about my connection to my spouses and what the implications were of the vows we’d made that night in ruins.

I remembered.

I remembered Alberich saving me from the wreck.

Yes, Little Thistle, you’ll come to owe me quite a bit before we’re through.

I shoved it down inside of me, relegating it to a part of my mind that I could lock and forget about. The point was, in the span of a few days (or what felt like a few days to me), I’d become a completely different person and the rest of the world had stayed much the same.

Once my driver felt confident we’d lost the paparazzi, Ivy sat up and shook her head, heaving a deep sigh and muttering something about vultures.

“You used to say it was the price we paid to live the life we did,” I said.

“My mother used to say that,” she corrected, smiling from next to me. “I’m not so sure I agree with her anymore.”

“Uh-oh,” I said. “That sounds like rebellion.”

She shrugged. “Maybe it’s time for me to be rebellious.”

Oh, I liked this side of Ivy. Perhaps a little too much. Maybe she read that in my gaze because she winked and leaned in to kiss me, but my phone vibrated and drew my attention to my lap.

Gran.

“Shite,” I said. When my phone finally regained signal, I’d had three missed calls from her and thirty from Sandra. If Grandmother had bothered to call me three times, and I hadn’t answered, I was in immense trouble. This was now call number four. I picked it up, my hand shaking, my voice more anxious than I’d liked. “Hello, Gran.”

“Hello, Gran?” A brief, appalled silence before, “Darling, where have you been?”

“Would you believe I lost my charger?” I lied. “I went on a trip to Ireland, to that college where I did the intensive. You remember the place, surely.”

“I wish you’d let someone know,” she said. “I almost deployed the royal guard to find you.”

“Gran.” I sighed. “I’m twenty-four years old. I’m allowed to vacation when I want.”

She clicked her teeth, a noise that echoed her disapproval. I was her granddaughter and her subject. One did not simply tell the queen what to do, but it got Ivy’s attention, and she raised an eyebrow at me.

“Now, listen to me, my dear,” Gran said, but my attention drifted to my wife, my one and only wife, as she kneeled in front of me. I zeroed in on her hand going to the switch for the partition, sliding the tinted glass up so my driver couldn’t see back here.

It set my heart racing.

What is she planning?

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