Page 8

CHAPTER 8

Seraphine

Korven stirred awake a few hours before dawn. I’d tried not to watch the tiny clock near his bed, waiting for him to wake and question me about what he’d left me to read and study. Since he had displayed his treasures, at least an hour of my time had been to steady my nerves of what the morning would bring. Another hour to actually read and look over the map. The last hour to crush any of the strange familiarity I had felt being in his presence again.

It was fifteen years ago that we had first met under that old sycamore tree at the edge of the Moonstone and Brackish Woods. Our lives had changed much since then. We both had futures to live and the fact that my curse had brought us back together didn’t actually matter. It was a coincidence that he was the one to deliver my curse and that Fiola decided to tie my life to his. Nothing about this was divine or meant to be in any way.

Nothing whatsoever.

“Morning, Phinie darling.” His raspy voice would have heated my blood if I’d had it pumping through my ethereal form. He sat up in the bed, spreading his wings wide in a long stretch.

“Good morning!” I said, cheerier than I felt.

He flicked a hand back through his hair, exposing his widow’s peak and dragged the sleep from his eyes. “How did the reading go?”

“I-I read everything and I think I’ve got Revelry down.”

He reached into his satchel and took a long drink from his waterskin. Wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, he gestured to the floor where all of his books were still open to the first page. “And which book intrigued you most?”

I floated over to my favorite so far. “This one.”

He nodded, reaching for his shirt, fitting it through special cutouts for his wings. “It’s got romance, you know.”

“I can tell.”

“I’ll turn the pages for you before I go.”

“Go?”

“I’ve got some people to speak to before we get started today. I have an idea on how we can set this up, but I’m going to need some cooperation from the right people.” He slid his feet into his boots and laced them quickly.

As he stepped around the small room, flipping each page, I asked, “By cooperation, do you mean forcing by magic?”

He chuckled, turning the last book and reconfiguring the small shiny pebbles holding it open. “Ravenfae magic is a bit unpredictable at times. But since these tasks are curse business, I should be able to use my more...persuasive magic easily enough to get what we need.”

“Should…should I come, too?” I added, doing what I could to keep the unease from my voice.

He rose from bent knees to face me near the window. “Well, I would invite you along since the outcome of this curse dictates your life as much as mine, but I think it’s best we keep you like this—hidden as much as possible. I don’t know if there are any faekind at the Burrow, and it’s best I find out without you. I expect to be back in an hour at dawn, if that was your next question.”

I gave him a small smile. “It was.”

His dark brown eyes lowered to the top of my dress. I looked down, my mouth twisting at the enormous satin bow draped across my ghostly chest. His eyes lifted back to my face, and I took a breath to tell him I had no part in choosing such an awful wedding gown.

But before I could speak, he shifted, soaring through the open window and into the night air. I watched him disappear across the dark sky, half a moon illuminating his silky feathers. Feathers I had known once. Feathers that had curled around me as I had drifted to sleep under an old tree whose roots stretched across the lands of both of our homes.

* * *

A few hours later, we arrived at the Burrow. It was a manor house located less than a five minute flight from the Rose and Briar. Boasting four stories, the gentlemen’s club perched at the top of a hill covered in thorny briars with bramble berries ripe for picking. Yellow scalloped shingles detailed the siding with forest green shutters and pillars in contrast to the cheery facade. A wraparound porch was fenced in with tall spindles every so often, holding the short stacked roof of the second story.

I floated next to Korven on the ground, my head leaning back to view the fourth floor, which was nothing more than one room in the tallest tower of the manor house. An enormous clock ticked in the early hours of morning above the window.

“What exactly do gentlemen…do at the Burrow?” I asked, admiring the overhangs of carved scrollwork across the third story balcony.

Korven glanced sideways at me, a grin blooming across his sharp features. “All gentlemanly things, I’m sure.”

I squinted back at the mansion, doubting that entirely.

He sighed and continued. “Kind things, clever and quiet things.” He shrugged. “I’d bet two hundred marks there’s even a library inside. All we need to do now is find the reader.” He continued forward, headed up the first steps, “Might be difficult to find, however. Seeing as he’ll be quiet and all.”

“Are you teasing me about my ideal man?” I asked, unable to keep the amusement from my voice.

His wings shifted and he turned his head over his shoulder. “I would never, Phinie darling.”

Before I could reply, he rapped on the dark green door three times. I hurried up the steps after him, just in time to see a squat man open it. He bowed low. “Your Highness, we were expecting you. Right this way.” He gestured inside and I followed close behind, floating through Korven’s wings slightly to avoid the closing door.

The man couldn’t see me, obviously not faekind, and addressed Korven again. “The Hare is waiting for your arrival on the fourth floor. Please follow this staircase and he will greet you there before you begin your inquiry.”

Korven nodded, thanking the man and beginning up the winding stairs to the left of the foyer. I followed, holding my questions, instead taking in every feature of the manor. Just as detailed as the outside, the rooms promised a wealthy clientele. Oil painted portraits of men in varying ages lined the walls. We passed the door to a sitting room, pipe smoke lingering in the air over chartreuse velvet couches. I wanted to float through the walls, exploring further, but Korven’s heavy footfall on the winding stair brought me back to our task at hand. We reached the top of the tower and Korven knocked on the single scarlet red door, which clashed with the rest of the club’s decor.

The door swung open on iron hinges and a portly man held his arms wide, greeting Korven like an old friend. “Prince Korven! Just in time, good sir! I’ve completed the names of suitors not five minutes past. Forty-two today, but word has not reached all of the Burrow’s patrons quite yet, I assure you.”

Korven nodded, stepping into the room. Again, I shifted through just in time to avoid the door that would swing through me anyway if I missed my opening. A bay window sat across the room with brilliant crimson curtains pulled back on hooks, showcasing a perfect seat for reading a good book. A long desk of dark cherry wood was the only furniture in the room besides two maroon high backed chairs.

“Will a guest be joining you?” the man I assumed was the Hare asked, gesturing to the seats as Korven pulled out the first and then the second.

“Soon, I hope. We’ll see,” he said, sliding into one chair and adjusting his wings in the movement. He picked up the scroll of parchment, holding it close to his face. The Hare shifted on his feet with a subtle unease.

The man cleared his throat as Korven ignored his presence. “Well, I’ll leave you to it, Your Highness. The first batch of bachelors will arrive at a quarter past. Please do call down to a Cardinal if you need assistance or anything at all.” He moved to the bell pull near the door. “One tug and a Cardinal will be with you within the minute.”

Korven lowered the scroll slightly, staring across the room at the Hare. The man took it as the dismissal it was and quickly left, closing the door behind him.

The moment he was gone, Korven reached into his tunic, pulling a pair of black-rimmed spectacles from an inside pocket and placing them across his face.

“Come here,” he grumbled.

I did as he said, unsure if I was more in awe that he wore reading glasses or that he had orchestrated this entire ordeal in the early hours of a single morning. I hovered in the chair he had pulled for me and placed my hands in my lap, leaning closer to take a look at the list of names on the scroll of parchment.

The names meant nothing to me. It was a simple list of gentlemen who I assumed Korven planned to meet and interview for potential curse breakers.

“You planned all of this in the mere two hours since dawn?” I muttered under my breath, pausing at the name Sir Fredrix Gorthenshire of Fredrixshire. Each name was more ridiculous than the last.

“I can be very convincing, Phinie darling. You once knew that.”

I blushed, remembering his reference. “So these men are arriving today and then what? You ask them about their reading habits?”

He continued to read the names down the list, marking a few with the quill left for him on the table. “Would you rather I start inquiring to men on the streets?”

I sighed, resigned to this idea of his—the best we had so far. “No.” I tapped my foot against the floor, meeting no resistance from the wood as my satin slipper fell through. “Please just...send them away if I ask. If any of these men are anything like Urik, I doubt we’ll be going in the right direction. And their names...” I trailed, leaning closer again to read another: Count Tristan Delacroix le Cul of Swepton.

“Done,” he muttered, sliding the glasses off his nose and back into his inner pocket. “I will shoo away any bachelor not to your liking for any reason whatsoever. Down to too many hairs in his nose.”

I laughed, relaxing a bit and rolling my shoulders. “Alright, Your Highness,” I mocked, reaching out as if to elbow him in the arm. “Let’s find a curse breaker.”