Page 12 of When Sorrows Come

I know how to conjure a gown when I need it, but my illusions have never been amazing, or sturdy, unless I’m pissed when I weave them—and I’d rather not make plans for my own wedding that involve being angry for days at a time. Not when I was still having to fight the lingering urge to be annoyed at everyonebutTybalt, who had admitted to the “what if we just... don’t tell her when the wedding is?” aspect of his harebrained scheme. It wouldn’t have worked if the rest of them hadn’t gone along with it.

The person who was blowing their horn honked again, longer this time, leaning on it like it was their job. I whipped around, ready to storm down to the sidewalk and inform whoever it was that we had kids living in this neighborhood, only to stop and blink at the edifying sight of Danny McReady, Bridge Troll and cab driver, parked in front of my house. There was a teenage girl sitting in his passenger seat, her dark hair pulled into pigtails and secured by what looked like strips of electrical tape. She leaned out the window, far enough that I was briefly worried she’d fall, and waved violently.

I blinked, hoping I didn’t look too much like I was on the verge of having an actual stroke, and waved cautiously back.

“Who is it?” asked Quentin, whose view of the street was blocked by the corner of the house. For him, for the moment, the world still made sense. Must have been nice.

“It’s Danny,” I said. “He brought the Luidaeg.”

I started walking toward the car before anyone could ask another question I didn’t know the answer to. The Luidaeg stopped waving but didn’t pull her torso back into the vehicle. Instead, she fluttered her eyelashes in an exaggerated manner. “Howdy, sailor,” she said. “Going my way?”

“Technically true, since you’ve been on a ship with me, and you know I am,” I said. “I have more people than I do vehicle.”

“Not a problem anymore.” She slapped the roof of Danny’s car,causing him to grimace and make a deep rumbling noise that never quite rose to the level of actual words. He was smart enough not to argue with the sea witch, even when she was in her charming human teenager disguise. Smart man. “This puppy already had about a dozen expansion charms on it before I got in.”

“Of course it did.” Danny is eight feet tall and built like a civic park storage shed. One of the square concrete ones the kids break into during the winter when they need to get out of the rain. Without expansion charms, he would never have been able to wedge himself behind the wheel, much less navigate his car over speed bumps.

“Had to add a few extra so Dad’s antlers would have the clearance they needed,” she continued blithely.

I tried not to choke on my spit or stop breathing. Instead, I blinked hard and took a half-step back, asking, in a tone that was only somewhat strangled, “You mean he’s really, uh, coming to the wedding with you? I mean, I know you can’t lie, so you were telling the truth when you said you were going to invite him, but I didn’t think he’d go along with it.”

“Doyouwant to tell my father he’s not allowed at your wedding?” She asked the question with a faintly abstract air, like she was discussing a possible change in the weather or a new fashion trend, not the idea of Oberon himself, King of all Faerie, attending my wedding.

“I—no, but I assumed he’d have something better to do with his time.” Like literally anything. “And I’m pretty sure we’re supposed to inform King Sollys before we bring another monarch into his territory.”

“Oh, Toby. My delicate, rule-abiding little flower.” She looked at me, and between one blink and the next, her eyes went from mossy green to solid black, and while I didn’t actually see her teeth change shape, they suddenly seemed much sharper than they had been half a breath before. “All territories in Faerie, from the deepest water to the hottest volcano, belong to my father. He needs no permission to trespass there, for trespass is impossible for one who carries his name and place among us.” She blinked again, and her eyes returned to a less alarming state as she smiled sweetly. “So it’s going to be fine. You told May I was going to be bringing two guests like I asked, didn’t you?”

“Um.” To be honest, it had completely slipped my mind. Thefact that I was now comfortable enough with the sea witch to forget about direct requests probably wasn’t agoodthing, but that’s where we were.

“Oh, whatever,” said the Luidaeg, rolling her eyes. “It’s not like she’s going to argue with me.”

Danny looked past her shoulder to me, mouthing “Help me,” in an exaggerated fashion.

Right. This was another of those things where the ending was preordained; arguing about it would do nothing but make me look like a stubborn fool. Iamstubborn, and I can be pretty foolish under the right circumstances, but this didn’t need to be one of them. I took another step back, turning the motion into a pivot as I spun on the ball of my foot, so that I was once more facing the much less alarming group standing around my car.

They looked at me with plain and unconcealed curiosity. I took a deep breath, then clapped my hands together like I thought I was getting ready to lead some sort of spirit rally.

“Okay!” I said brightly. “Danny is going to give us all a ride to Muir Woods. Grab your bags and get in the car.”

I didn’t mention the fact that Oberon and Poppy were apparently already in the back. Instead, I looked hopefully to Tybalt.

“I don’t want to boot Annie out of the front, and if it’s just the two of us, we could take the shadows, couldn’t we?”

He laughed. “I remember a time when avoiding the Shadow Roads was a thing you most deeply and devotedly cared about. Yes, provided the rest of our company does not object or feel abandoned, I will happily carry my bride to our carriage.”

I looked over at the others, pleading silently. Quentin had gathered my bags in addition to his own, doing his duty as my squire, even if it made him walk a little awkwardly. I was probably the most lightly-packed bride in history, since I wasn’t bringing my own dress,orany makeup. When I’d attempted to pack my own sad collection of brushes, May had come very close to slapping my hand before assuring me that she and Stacy had everything under control, and I didn’t need to worry my pretty little head about a thing.

Since I didn’t care about the process as long as I wound up married to Tybalt in the end, I had backed off again. Sometimes discretion is the better part of valor.

May shook her head and waved her hand dismissively.

“Go,” she said. “Enjoy your endless run through the cold dark nothing with the man of your dreams, while the rest of us ride in a spacious cab that has things like windows we can roll up, a working heater, and yeah, I guess, the missing King of Faerie.”

Jazz snorted, barely hiding the gesture behind her hand in time. I grinned.

Very few people actually know, for a fact, that Oberon is back from his long exile, and most of them were about to be in the car with him. The rest, well. I expected to see all but one of them at my wedding. August, my biological sister, technically knows Oberon is back, since her father’s return home had depended upon that happy event, but I was more than reasonably sure she hadn’t received an invitation to the wedding. As long as Simon didn’t decide to bring her as his plus one, we’d be fine.

“Enjoy the ride,” I said and turned to Tybalt, who spread his arms for me. I linked my hands behind his neck, not resisting as he swung me up into a surprisingly fitting bridal carry and took three long strides toward the shadows at the side of the house.

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