Page 42 of Faking with the Fae King

“There’s another new castle in the woods!” His pale blue eyes go wide, his voice filled with awe. “And there’s a dragon!”

“Dragon,” I say slowly, trying to wrap my head around it. “You mean a dragon-dragon?”

“It was huge! As big as a house.” He throws his arms wide. “And its wings…”

When I shoot a questioning glance at Rune, the werewolf nods. Okay, so dragons are freaking real and have moved to Ferndale Falls.

Looks like my kooky little town just got kookier.

I get directions and send Jared on his way, promising totalk about all of this soon. Maybe I can have a special town meeting for all the people who can see the fae? I set the issue aside for now. That can be a future-Hannah problem. She’ll probably cuss me out like a drunken sailor for putting it off, but there’s only so much I can handle at one time.

God, I wish I could call Severin. I need to get him a phone.

We head outside and immediately run into Mrs. Greely, who’s walking her elderly Labrador, Max.

“Hannah! Where did all those children come from?” Mrs. Greely points her cane at the tulips racing across the green. “They can’t be more than three-years old. Why isn’t anyone watching them? It’s a disgrace!”

Oh, god. I slap a hand over my mouth to try to hide my laughter. If the walking tulips look like toddlers, I wonder what she sees the pixies as.

“A disgrace,” another voice echoes.

I spin. There’s no one else near us. “Who said that?”

Rune shoots me a puzzled frown.

“Said what?” Mrs. Greely taps my arm. “Don’t you try to distract me, young lady. You’re the mayor. What are you going to do about the children?”

“I’ll look into it, Mrs. Greely. I promise.” At her that’s-not-good-enough snort, I add, “We should be glad we have such a wonderful small town where we all know each other and children can play without worry.”

Her face softens. “That’s what we did in my day.”

I pat her arm, letting out a quiet sigh of relief that I’ve diverted her.

“But there are strangers, Hannah!” She shakes her canetoward the other sidewalk, where a gnome does cartwheels and a wood nymph glides along. “Strangers!”

Damn. Should have known it wouldn’t be so easy. Mrs. Greely can be a dear, but she’s also the town busybody.

“Those aren’t strangers, Mrs. Greely. They’re new townspeople.” I want my words to be true. I want to win one of the bride trials, fake marry Severin, and make this prosperous future for Ferndale Falls real. Even if my marriage will be fake, what it means for the town won’t be.

It takes several more minutes—and a full interrogation of Rune about who he is—but we finally get free and enter the woods.

Finn races out of a patch of ferns, setting the fiddleheads swaying. “There’s a dragon! I didn’t think they were real, but I saw one.”

“I heard.” I lean over and scratch around his ears until he squirms in delight.

We tromp on down the path, Finn sending a series of suspicious looks Rune’s way. “Why does he have to be here?”

“I told you, he’s my bodyguard.”

“He’s awolf.” Finn spits it like it’s a dirty word.

I glance back at Rune to find him watching us with fascination. “You can truly talk to him.”

“He’s my familiar.”

“She’s my witch!” Finn yips, then looks up at me. “You don’t need him. I can protect you.”

I stop and crouch down to give him some more love. “I don’t doubt it for a minute,” I lie. Finn’s the best fox to ever fox, but against a shadow fae like Meloria? Hell, no. Especially since she seems like she’d have zero problemshurting innocent animals. “But Rune being here makes Severin happy, and he’s my fiancé.”

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