Page 18 of A Bride for the Winter King
Paul wiggles his brows. “Instead of meeting every candidate face-to-face, the king will host blind dates, and the brides will only have their personalities, wits, and voices to stand out. Who will hold our king’s attention long enough to advance to the nextstep, and who will simply be eliminated without ever laying eyes on him?”
“This is such an exciting experiment, Paul. A first impression of the heart.”
My brows furrow. What fucked-up, alternate universe did I end up in?
Paul raises both arms to the sky, the sleeves of his tuxedo about two inches too short for him to look chic. “I can’t wait to get started. Brides, please report to your sponsor for the schedule, and we’ll see you tonight for the inauguration ball.”
“Let the games begin!” Sarafina concludes the broadcast, and the cameras fly back inside a large leather-cladded chest next to the hosts.
Whispers of disappointment lament the absence of the Winter King, but adrenaline swirls in my veins. My gaze meets Seth’s, and the Fae presses his lips together in an uncharacteristic pout. The whole point of me coming here was that the Winter King would see me and keep me around.
My only real chance of saving Ayaan is about to go up in smoke.What am I supposed to do now?
Chapter 8
Love is Blurry
LORI
After the welcome speech, we all walk back to the Spring quarters, and Seth takes me aside. “How did you know? About Iris?” He drags me to the corridor between his bedroom and the dressing room with a sad frown on his face and closes the door behind us. “The official investigation states that she fell down the tower by accident”—a resentful grimace twists his features—“but I just know she was pushed.”
The cold tingles from before return full-force. There’s something about that tower that’s not right. “Pushed by whom? The king?”
He shakes his head. “I was just a kid then. I was playing with the breeze, practicing how to turn myself into a cloud, and before I knew it, Iris was dead. My mother always said that Elio wanted Iris all to himself. His paranoia that someone would steal her away prompted him to shutter her from the world. The day of her death, Elio was furious. Iris had thrown a lavish party without his assent, and they fought up on that tower, but my mother could never actually prove that he killed her. He claimednot to have pushed her, and since Fae can’t lie—and Elio being the oh-so-great Winter King—no one was willing to dig deeper.”
A cold shiver runs through me. “That’s horrible. I’m so sorry.” I rub the space between my brows and concentrate on the problem at hand. “How am I supposed to get picked during a blind date?”
Seth presses his palm to his handsome face, looking as defeated as I feel. “They fucked us, I agree.”
“Can’t we get an edge, here? Maybe I could watch some footage from the old pageants?”
“The previous year’s games are not viewable after the fact. It’d be…awkward, to say the least. Don’t worry, the candidates from Spring, Summer, and the Red Forest don’t watch the Yule pageant, either, so I expect only the Winter seeds will have an edge since they all get to watch the pageant on TV.”
All of my ideas run into dead ends, and my chest contracts. “Come on!” I punctuate the word with a soft punch to his breast bone. “You’ve been part of this circus for years, right? There must be something useful you remember about him.”
Seth taps his nose in a repetitive manner, deep in thought. “Elio’s a total bore. He likes poetry and sad music.”
“Very helpful. Poetry and sad music… You’d make a world-class spy.”
The Winter King authored a famous poetry book, so Seth’sintelis perhaps the most well-known fact about Elio Lightbringer. My eyes narrow, all the urgency and nerves begging me to pick at the Fae prince for his flagrant ignorance. “Tell me, Seth. How far did your best protégée make it last year?”
He grits his teeth together, busted like a kid in the pantry, his hand deep in peanut butter. “Alright. My seeds never get past the first round.”
“Funny how you forgot to mention that,” I quip.
“We’re not exactly on good terms, Elio and I. I didn’t want to discourage you before we even got started, but you’re a game changer, I’m sure of it.”
“Not if he never sees me.” I twist my hair in a bun above my head. Glossy waves and pretty make-up can’t help me now.
“That’s not all. I have an ace up my sleeve.” Seth winces like he wasn’t planning on sharing so many details. “This year, I convinced my mother to attend the Yule brunch in Snowhaven. She hasn’t set foot in Wintermere in ages, so Elio will want to keep a few Spring seeds around for that not to insult her. Just make sure he remembers you, and we’ll be fine.”
The tight knot in my gut eases at the news. Politics could serve me well here. “Tell me more about Iris, then.”
A loud knock startles us both. “Number sixteen. You’re up. We have to get you ready.”
The voice belongs to the Faeling, Byron, and Seth swings open the door with an asinine smile plastered on his face. “We’re ready, B. Lori, here, was just powdering her nose.”
“I’m not sure what good that will do.” Byron marks down something on his clipboard. “Keep the hood and cloak, but you can remove the mask once you're inside the date pod, if you want. The partition walls separating the king from the brides are made of ice, making anything beyond them too blurry to see.”
