Page 5 of Faking with the Fae King

“They can’t see the real you,” I say. “They think you’re standing right in front of me, staring at me with adoration.”

Hannah turns to face me. “Why?”

“No one can know ourmarriage is fake.”

“I can’t lie to my best friends!” She shakes her head, her long, straight brown hair swaying. “I won’t.”

Ah, scruples. How very inconvenient.

“I will allow you to tell two people.” I hold up the correct number of fingers to reinforce my point. “But the spell will not allow them to speak of it with anyone but you.”

Emotions flicker across her face in a fascinating display. Does she know she shows every single thing she’s thinking? Her look settles on one of determination. “Let me tell three people, and I’ll do it.”

“Agreed.” A part of me likes that she made a demand of her own. An entire year with a pushover would be boring.

“I’m going to release the illusion now. It’s time to start playing your part.” A pulse of magic radiates outward. I grip Hannah’s hands in mine and walk backward, pulling her onto the grass. Stopping beside a bed of tulips that match the bright pink of her blouse, I sink to one knee.

“Hannah, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”

The look of shock on her face is perfect. She’s either a better actor than I credited her for, or she didn’t expect that I would propose so quickly. Yet I refuse to give her time to back out of our arrangement.

I squeeze her fingers, even as soft gasps come from the crowd.

“Yes,” she whispers.

Shrieks fill the green as I stand, and the other women surge forward with a babble of congratulations. They hug Hannah, some of them even crying a little, though these appear to be happy tears. In all my years of battle, I’ve seentears many times, but never ones of joy. Goddess, it’s confusing.

Thankfully, none of the women hug me. A couple of them start toward me, arms wide. At my scowl, some long-dormant survival instinct kicks in, and they abruptly change their minds. Thank the goddess. I don’tdocasual contact. I don’t do casual anything.

“Where did all of this come from?” Skye waves an arm toward the rest of the new garden. “The flowers, the trees!”

“I did it with magic. It’s my engagement present for Hannah,” I lie. “I wanted to propose to her in a beautiful place.”

A chorus of awws come from all the women.

“You can remember him remaking the green?” Hannah asks them.

“Like that’s something you forget,” Autumn says.

“This confirms that you’re both attuned to magic.” Hannah turns to the rest of the women crowded behind. “Everyone who can remember the way the green just came back to life, step closer.”

Several of the women huddle around her.

“There’s a lot we need to talk about. Can everyone meet at eight this evening at the bookshop?” When they nod, she turns back to me. “I’ll see you then. I need to talk to my… fiancé.”

Most of the women move away, heading into the garden I just created, but the blonde and redhead remain by Hannah’s side.

“Come.” I stretch out a hand. My shadows writhe under my skin, setting my tattoos dancing. They long to reach outand coil around her and snatch her to me. “We need to finalize our engagement.”

“Where are we going?”

“To my palace.” Moving my palace to Earth without any type of formal agreement was a bit of hubris. It cannot remain past today unless I bind myself to her to anchor it here.

“You’rethe reason there’s a new building on the outskirts of town? I should have known,” she says. “That land doesn’t belong to you.”

“On the contrary. I didn’t place my palace on your land.” Doing so would have destroyed far too many trees and other plant life. “I instead inserted itintoyour forest. The palace and its grounds are still part of Faerie.”

“That… that’s impossible.”

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