Page 100 of The Shattered Kingdom
“Wow.”
Hundreds of thousands of small string lights have been strung from the trees. It’s beautiful, and I can’t imagine how stunning it will be when the sun fully sets in the next hour or so. They create a trail to a building deep inside the park, just beside a long row ofhedges that I know lead to the gardens.
Hundreds of faeries surround the building, most standing on an expansive stone patio. They’ve dressed for the occasion and seem in good spirits as they chat and laugh amongst themselves.
Several servers are rushing around with trays of drinks and snacks.
This is nerve-wracking.
“Give Abby and me a minute,” Mason says, turning toward Kie and my family. “We’ll meet up with you shortly.”
Kie doesn’t look convinced. “Don’t take too long. People are expecting us.”
Mason leads me to the right, away from the hedges. The sun continues to set, hopefully allowing Mason and me to blend in with the shadows. I’m now a queen, and I need a minute of quiet to process that before facing the faeries.
Will they try to question me as they did to Mason? I know practically nothing about the faerie way of life, and there’s no hiding that.
We reach a small building deep inside the park. It’s surrounded by trees, giving a false sense of privacy. I promptly sit on the front cement steps, my legs splayed before me and my shoulders slumped.
Mason sits with me, his thigh pressing against mine. We don’t speak. It’s nice.
Mason’s the first to break the silence. “You did well today.”
I lean against his shoulder. “Do you really think so?”
“Yes.”
We fall silent again. It’s comfortable, and I let my eyes slip shut as I focus on the steady sound of his breathing. I’m beyond exhausted. It’s been easy to ignore, but now that I have a moment to sit and relax, it’s setting in. I need rest—and quiet.
“I don’t want to go to the party,” I admit.
Mason hums. “We can skip it.”
“Jackie might lose her mind.”
“She most definitely will,” Mason admits. “But the faeries only care to see Kie, anyway. This celebration is just an excuse for Jackie to announce and brag about her new position on the council. Nobody will miss us.”
“Kie will be pissed.”
“That’s never stopped you before,” Mason teases. “Why let it stop you now?”
Mason rises. I hesitate, pretty sure this is a horrible idea, before taking his outstretched hand. Mason knows this world better than I do, and if he says I can skip the party, I’m going to believe him. He’s an asshole, but he wouldn’t suggest I do something that would genuinely upset the faeries. I trust he wouldn’t.
“Where to?” I ask. “Home?”
Instead of answering, Mason drags me off the patio. His pace is fast, and I have to practically jog to keep up with his hurried steps. We eventually reach a row of carefully shaped hedges, and my heart pounds as Mason expertly weaves me through them. They’re taller than I am, and while the sun hasn’t completely set, it’s dim.
It would be easy to get lost out here, but Mason maintains a tight grip on my hand.
We walk through rows and rows of hedges, eventually reaching the small courtyard where Queen Gitta’s observance was held. I’m relieved to see her body has been removed, and I eye the stone slab where she lay before allowing Mason to pull me away.
Kie hasn’t spoken much about Queen Gitta’s death, and I wonder if he’s affected by seeing me and my mom together. I can’t imagine how hard it would be to watch somebody interact with their mother after I’d just lost mine.
Mason leads me around the party, careful to stay in the shadows.
I catch occasional glimpses of the celebration through the hedges, and what I see is terrifying. There might be more people there now than there were when I first saw it. How many faeries did Jackie invite?
We finally exit the hedges. Mason continues forward. The string lights don’t stretch this far, and I rely on his sense of sight as we weave between trees. Where are we going? No trellises are overhead, so we must still be in the park.
