Page 31

Hannah

How did Severin know getting more new businesses, and their extra rent payments, is exactly the pick-me-up I needed after losing the second trial two days ago?

With the money he just pressed into my hand, I can finally buy the replacement hoses the volunteer fire department has been asking about for the last two years.

Those hoses will keep everyone in town safer.

And it’s all thanks to Severin, my fake fiancé, who I’m totally staying super far away from starting right now. Yep, any second now, my body will respond to the SOS my brain is sending and move away from him. Any. Second. Now.

Shit. I’m not moving.

Because those intense green eyes of his are locked on my lips, making them tingle like he’s already touching them. And caffeine-bender butterflies are zipping around my stomach so quickly I can’t catch my breath.

You need to focus, Hannah. You have to win the third trial. No distractions. No sexy times.

It’s been so hard to remember that. Especially since we’re still spending every second of every evening together.

Severin flies me out to isolated areas of the forest and has me practice talking to larger animals, since they’re more likely to be helpful in the third trial.

I’ve now bribed a bobcat, another eagle, and a black bear with salmon.

It turns out it really is a universally loved fish, and since none of the animals can get it until fall, I’ve become this summer’s salmon supplier.

I have two whole fish thawing in my fridge right this very second, ready for tonight’s flight.

He’s so patient through it all! It must be incredibly boring listening to me have so many one-sided conversations. But he doesn’t complain, just waits and flies me to the next location.

Ugh, those flights. That’s when it’s hardest to remain focused, because flying is exciting, and I spend the entire time pressed against Severin and feeling how strong his body is, how carefully he holds me, his shadows wrapping everywhere and reminding me of all the other things he can use them for…

“Hannah,” Severin growls, his voice so husky it strokes across my skin, raising goosebumps.

Okay, maybe some sexy times are okay? Aren’t there athletes who say orgasms improve their performance? I bet that’s me! I bet I can work even better after a few orgasms… or a hundred. With Severin, any number seems likely.

I sway toward him…

Shadow appears out of thin air only a few feet away.

“Cat,” Severin spits. “We should bell you.”

“I’d like to see you try.” Shadow’s smile shows an awful lot of teeth as he extends his hand. “My finder’s fee.”

Severin forks over two gold coins. Then when Thorvinn comes back downstairs, Severin arranges for the orc to have access to human money so he can open the pub this evening.

Severin’s really putting his all behind helping Ferndale Falls.

It clearly means a lot to him to be able to stay on Earth.

I keep thinking about all of this in terms of what it means for me and the town.

But that agreement we signed clearly stated that each party gets something out of this deal.

The shadow fae need this fake marriage, too.

Guilt crashes over me. I really, really need to win this next trial. Not just to save my small town, but for Severin.

He turns back to me, accomplishment filling his emerald eyes, making him look more lickable than ever.

Focus, Hannah. You totally need to focus.

My lady bits give a sad sigh. For just once in my life, I wish I weren’t so damned dependable.

I moan all of this to my besties the next evening, when I join them for a girls’ night out at the new pub.

“Look at all the progress you’ve made,” Skye says. “In less than two weeks, you went from failing one of these bride trials to almost winning. You’re making huge leaps! ”

“Yeah!” Autumn slams her tankard down on the bar for emphasis. “You’ve got this. You’re going to win the next one!”

I squint at her. “Are you drunk?”

“Not yet.” She takes another pull. “But I am, as they say, a bit squiffy.”

“Who says that?” Skye giggles. “You need to come by the library and get some books written this century.”

“I don’t think I drank that much.” I stare into my tankard, closing first one eye and then the other. Yep, the liquid’s only half gone, not drained. “So why does it feel like I drank the whole thing?”

“Autumn’s been making the cereal-milk cocktails for the Witch Bitch Spicy Book Club kind of weak.” Skye gives a little burp. “We’re all lightweights now.”

“I have not.” Autumn tries to point, sways on her stool, and slaps that hand to the bar to steady herself. “Okay, maybe I have.”

“No,” Rune’s deep voice says. “Orc ale’s stronger than human beer.”

“Ohhh.” I grin at him. “But the tankards are huge! I thought it was like Oktoberfest, where they make sure the beer’s weaker.”

“The tankards are orc sized.” The werewolf’s lips twitch.

“Orcs do lots of things… bigger.” Skye waves a hand toward Thorvinn, who lifts a cask into place and pounds a tap into the top, his shoulders bulging.

“Is that a euphemism?” I ask. “I’m too tipsy to tell.”

“Yes.”

“God, would you look at him?” Autumn sighs, cheek resting on one hand as she gazes down the bar at Thorvinn. “Just look at the way he fills out his shirt!”

Rune frowns down at her. Then his eyes snap away as another group of people walk through the front door.

Opening night at The Thirsty Tusk is a hit, and there are quite a few humans mixed into the shadow fae, with some wood nymphs, pixies, and gnomes sprinkled around. The only orcs are the ones working the bar, though.

Jared, wearing non-cycling clothes for a change and looking good, chats up a wood nymph man with oak-leaf hair. When he comes over to the bar to order them another round, I ask, “Things going well?”

“He likes my legs.”

“They’re freaking tree trunks of muscle!” I grin. “Of course he likes them.”

Jared smiles back. “Thanks, Hannah. All these new people are great. The dating pool was kind of nonexistent before.”

I nod. There were almost no single men around our age in town before the fae arrived.

Jared heads back to his date, and a group of pixies fly over, ordering tiny thimbles of cider that they down with loud cheers.

I even spot Luke propping up one of the walls, his folded wings rising above his horned head.

“Hey, Skye,” I tap her arm with the back of my hand and point him out. “That’s the dragon with the huge library.”

“Is that a euphemism?” She squints toward him.

“Probably.” Naomi once told me something specific about dragon peen, but I can’t remember what it is. “But also literally. Big scholar. Lots of books. Just your type.”

My friend turns pink and looks down at her drink. “Yeah, but I’m probably not his type.”

“What do you mean?” I wave my hand up and down, taking in her amazing pinup-girl dress from the 1950s that perfectly shows off all her curves.

“He’d be lucky to have you,” Autumn adds, flipping her long red hair back over her shoulder to keep it out of her tankard, her bangles jangling. “Super lucky.”

I catch Rune staring at her, a strange look on his face. She follows my gaze and squints at him. “Anyone ever tell you that you look like Jason Momoa?”

“Who?” He frowns down at her and crosses his arms over his chest. Whether he means for it to happen or not, his biceps flex, straining the fabric of his Henley.

“It’s a compliment.” She pats his arm, her hand lingering. “Nice.”

“Very nice.” I take another sip, the malty ale smooth on my tongue. “Not as nice as Severin, though.”

As if called into being by my words, he appears out of the crowd, his hair flowing around his shoulders in utter perfection. How the heckity heck does he fly everywhere and have such great hair?

“Magic,” he says to me.

Oops! I break into giggles and slap a hand over my mouth. I said that out loud.

His eyes narrow, and he scowls all around. “This is far too crowded.”

“No.” I throw my arms wide. “This is a hit! Lots of business. Lots of customers. Lots of people having fun! ”

“Lots of people far too close to you,” he growls. “Any one of whom could be Meloria wearing a glamour.”

“Oh.” Shit, this fae stuff is hard to keep track of.

“I’m taking you home.” His arm goes around me, right as Jared walks back past us.

“Hey. It’s Hannah’s fiancé!”

Everyone turns to look at us.

I glide my hand up Severin’s chest and glance up at him through my eyelashes. Then I bat them a few times. Ha! Even tipsy, I’m a great actress. The best. Send me an Emmy.

I say, “We need to put on a show.”

Autumn’s expression goes horrified, and she starts flapping her arms around in warning, like the town’s only stoplight broke and she’s directing traffic.

Oops. My voice might have been an eensy bit loud. My next words come out as a whisper-yell. Much better. Super discreet. “We need to fa—”

Severin’s mouth crashes over mine, hot and insistent and stealing all of my ability to form words. His hands splay across my lower back, pulling me closer, and my butterflies dive straight for my lady bits, making everything tingle.

I moan against his lips, opening for his tongue. No matter how this started, there’s sure as hell nothing fake about my response to him.

Whoops and cheers come from all around us, the pixies the loudest of all.

We pull apart, and the heated look in Severin’s intense green eyes makes my knees go weak. I always thought that saying was BS, but nope! One-hundred percent accurate, if it’s the right guy.

I’m still staring up at him like a deer caught in the headlights when a bar fight breaks out a few feet away.

Severin’s shadows pick me up and move me aside right as a punch goes whistling past my head. His fist jackhammers forward, crashing into the nose of the stranger who tried to hit me.

As the man crumples to the ground, his face and hair flicker, changing shape and color until…

“That’s Meloria’s representative!”

Severin growls, a feral sound of warning that flashes his fangs.

A woman comes stumbling toward us, arms pinwheeling. Instead of catching her, Severin’s shadows form a shield around me. She bounces off and sneers—the expression is familiar, even if the face isn’t, and contains more malice than a stranger should feel. Somehow, I know she’s Meloria.

“Severin! It’s her!”

“I know.” He catches my gaze. “Do you trust me?”

“Always.”

Something flickers in his eyes, too quickly for me to tease out its meaning.

Then the world goes hazy as he cocoons me in his shadows. Chaos whirls all around, but nothing touches me, and even sound is muffled. It feels like being wrapped in a cotton-candy hug, and it smells like Severin, pine and leather and wood smoke.

God, I love that smell.

In the next few seconds, Skye shoves in beside me on the right, followed by Autumn on the left. I hug them both to me. “Are you guys okay?”

“We’re fine!” Skye says.

“Yep.” Autumn nods. “Severin and Rune kept us safe, and then Severin stuck us in here with you.”

Oh, god. Tears prickle my eyes.

Severin’s in the middle of a bar fight with Meloria and whoever else she’s got working for her, but he took the time to keep my besties safe!

Screw it. I’m too drunk to keep lying to myself. Nothing I feel for him is fake.

I’m falling in love with the man who only wants me for a year, and I’m falling really freaking hard.