Fae's Anatomy by Mindy Klasky

Author:Mindy Klasky [Klasky, Mindy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rabbit Hole Press

12

The next night, Jonathan said, “What will we do about Oberon?”

I wondered if he could read my mind. The water in the fountain tinkled as we lay on the grass. I’d counted three shooting stars, and I’d wished on every one. Let Oberon leave us alone. Let Oberon leave us alone. Let Oberon leave us alone.

I said, “He’ll never leave us alone.”

“Aren’t there other fae princesses he can drag to the altar?”

“Marriage has nothing to do with it. Not anymore. I took something that belongs to him. His pride. His reputation. He’ll never give those up without a fight.”

Jonathan twined a lock of my hair around his fingers. “He should be fighting for you.”

“He’s never cared about me. I’m a means to an end. Nothing more.”

“He’s an idiot.” He sounded like he’d been chewing on a lemon rind.

“He’ll never leave us alone…” I repeated.

He reacted to my tone. “You’re planning something.”

“It might not work.” I’d thought about it all day, when I was supposed to be sleeping.

It might not work. But it might. If I struck the perfect tone. If I called on all our fae traditions. If I edged Oberon into a corner and didn’t give him a chance to slip away…

It was a plan worthy of a fae princess.

I climbed to my feet, ignoring Jonathan’s grunt of protest. “I need paper,” I said. “Parchment if you can get it. And ink made from the galls of oak trees. And crimson wax to seal a message from the Seelie Court.”

“You can’t get a message out of here, remember? We’re still blocked in by your ley lines.”

I had forgotten—that’s how taken I was by my plan. But I wasn’t about to be defeated by an impenetrable magical blockade.

“You can use your computer to send a message, right? And Cerberus can deliver it.”

He followed me into the hospital—not that I gave him much of an option. The emergency room was deserted, courtesy of the ley-wall blocking all ingress.

I sat in front of a computer and waited impatiently for Jonathan to type something, a password or some sort of command. When we stared at a plain white screen, I started narrating, spinning out words as fast as he could type.

“Oberon will never agree to this,” Jonathan said, when my dictation was complete. “Not on the night of the next full moon. Even I know that night will mark the height of your powers.”

“He doesn’t have a choice. He’s bound by the rules of chivalry.”

“He hasn’t exactly been chivalrous yet—chasing you halfway around the world to force you into a marriage you don’t want.”

“That the thing. Chivalry requires me to submit to his will, at least after our parents entered into their arrangement. And chivalry allows him to come after me. But chivalry says a man must always defer to a woman in the setting of a social engagement.”

Jonathan eyed the screen. “That isn’t a social engagement.”

“He won’t have the nerve to say otherwise. Because no gentleman would ever seek to fight with a lady.

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