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By the time they arrived at the meeting house, it was bustling with people—a strange sight in Sevens. With all the new members of the village, it was an actual party, and Tarley couldn’t help but smile.

She was sure they were a sight, climbing from the back of the wagon in fancy dresses, but it wasn’t like they were royalty rolling up to a country dance in a carriage. Too bad they didn’t have magic to change it for the night.

Golden light spilled from the windows of the wooden building to light the surrounding woods, music drifting from the open door. They entered the room packed with people, all dressed up in finery. The chandeliers shone, candelabras adding light along the floor near each window. A fire hazard, Tarley thought it a bit preposterous having gone to the lengths for a fancy ball when it could have been something less ostentatious. But the queen had insisted, saying, “The fairy tale must be believable.”

Ivory ribbons held sprays of forest greenery, and Tarley had to admit it was like being transported to a fairy woodland. Credence, Mrs. Barnwell, and the queen had pulled it off.

It was a fairytale for her and Lachlan, all set to enhance the announcement that they were betrothed. It was a farce, even if she’d decided to relent. Their fairytale wasn’t a real one. It was an arrangement, except she hadn’t been able to tell Lachlan she’d agreed yet. While the queen had been right, being a queen someday would give her power, the secret in her heart was she was falling for Lachlan, which had nothing to do with power. And that is what ultimately terrified her.

She scanned the crowd, looking for Lachlan, Unable to find him, she stayed with her family as they moved through the space, stopping to say hello, making excuses for Mattias’s absence. When she saw Dr. Rufus moving through the crowd toward her, she ducked behind a tall man, drawing Auri with her.

Brinna danced with someone. Jessamine wasn’t, a wide swath of space around her, which she didn’t seem to mind. Auri looked pale but smiled. Tarley just wanted to see Lachlan.

Suddenly the crowd quieted.

Credence and Horance entered the room with their visiting distant relation, Rose.

Tarley gaped. Credence looked like a queen in her deep scarlet dress, her white hair piled on her head in an explosion of ringlets. Horance escorted her on one arm, and on the other, Rose looked younger than her years in an understated pink gown.

Hoping for Lachlan, Tarley swallowed her disappointment.

“Miss Fareview?” someone said from behind her.

Tarley and Auri turned.

“Nix?” Auri breathed. “How can–”

Sure enough, Mr. Uraiahs bowed before her, looking as beautiful as he had the first time Tarley had ever seen him, though he had the same strange pall about him as Auri’s. He was dressed in formal black, his usual color, it seemed. His dark hair was a touch long, and his face a bit scruffy, but it worked for him. “I’d hoped that perhaps you would save me a dance.”

Auri threw her arms around him, and Nix crushed her against him. “I’m so sorry,” Auri whispered. “I didn’t mean it. Don’t go again. Please. I don’t care about it.”

Tarley watched her sister’s pallor rapidly fade, her cheeks pink, her eyes vibrant, her smile infectious once more.

Mr. Uraiahs, whose color had also returned, whispered something in Auri’s ear. Then they abruptly pulled apart and glanced around, obviously looking for Scarlett, who was dancing with Tomas.

There was another man with Mr. Uraiahs, tall and imposing, the exact image of Auri’s suitor, only his antithesis, blond and golden as opposed to the dark and mysterious. The stranger’s face, however, was devoid of emotion, a living statue.

“Lucian,” Auri said, her tone curt, cutting.

The golden man dipped his head, and a smile broke out on his face as if there were a joke occurring between them, “Aurielle.” Then he looked away, as if resuming guard duty.

“Auri?” Tarley asked. “How?” She couldn’t understand how her sister knew these two men.

Auri offered her a smile, pure and unadulterated Auri, which grasped hold of Tarley’s heart and squeezed. It didn’t matter, really, only that her sister was happy. And this man offered that to her. Wanting that, Tarley scanned the room for Lachlan.

But he was nowhere to be found.

Her heart squeezed again, only this time with worry. What if he’d changed his mind? Or worse, what if he was hurt somewhere?

“Tarley?” Auri captured her attention. “This is Lucian. Nix’s brother.”

The blond man offered a nod of acknowledgement.

Tarley curtsied. “How do you do?”

He grinned. “Better now.”

Tarley blushed, her eyes skittering away to look for Lachlan once more, wanting it to be him flirting with her.