I opened my mouth to speak, but a strange electricity sizzled around us. The buzzing crowd had been replaced by a strange and eerie quiet mass of faeries and changelings. Everyone’s gazes were locked on the approaching Autumn Royals. Fear flickered across some faces, and anger boiled on others. No one was happy to see them, a fact that Queen Viola didn’t seem to mind at all. Her face was pure steel, her lips turned up into a smug smile.
As the heavy thud of horse hooves grew closer, Queen Viola’s eyes suddenly cut straight to me. Her gleaming red eyes flickered, and her thin lips pressed tight together. There was something strange about her gaze, one that lasted far longer than a casual glance. She cocked her head when I frowned, as if in curiosity...or recognition. Did she know who I was? The girl who had defeated the fae she’d sent to take down the Academy?
Or did she recognize me as a changeling, one she was desperate to destroy?
Suddenly, the Queen vanished from sight when a large muscular form with blazing red hair slid just in front of me. His body was taut with tension, anger rippling off his fisted hands like violent waves at sea.
The Queen passed on, along with her companions. With a frown, I wrapped my hands around Liam’s arms and pulled him toward me.
“What was that all about?”
He kept his gaze distant, focused on the Royals. “Nothing.”
I narrowed my eyes. “If it was nothing, then why did you throw yourself in front of me like some kind of bodyguard?”
“Because I am your bodyguard, Norah,” Liam said. “And I didn’t want her to look at you for too long and realize you’re a changeling.”
Irritation flickered within me, particularly when I saw the tremor in his jaw. Liam might have been telling the truth, but it wasn’t the entire truth. He was hiding something, just like he and the others had been doing for weeks.
There was more to this than he wanted me to think.
The crowd dispersed after the Procession of the Autumn fae. Now came the celebrations. The lively dancing, the games, and the feast. Long skinny tables were set out, dozens covered in the most succulent foods from the Harvest. And in the center of it all sat a bowl three times the size of my head and filled to the brim with glistening, freshly-picked blackberries.
Liam gave a nod toward the fruit and smiled for the first time all day. “You’ll want to try the blackberries before the end of the night. It’ll be your last chance to have them until next summer.”
I cocked my head. “Why? Do they magically disappear after tonight or something?”
It sounded unlikely, but it wouldn’t be the strangest thing about Otherworld. That much I was certain of.
“Close enough,” he said. “After Autumn Equinox, pookas like to poison blackberries by spitting on them. They go rotten to the core, though they don’t look like it, so there’s no way to know which ones are deadly.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Every time I hear something new about the pookas, the more and more they sound like complete assholes.”
He dropped back his head and barked out a laugh. “That’s my girl.”
A wave of warmth went through my body, and I glanced up at Liam with hope in my heart. What I would give for him to pull me close right now, to feel his strong arms wrapped around me, to relish in the fiery heat rippling off his golden skin. Sure, we were in the middle of thousands of faerie. Most of the realm was here tonight. But I didn’t care.
His hand whispered across my back again, as if he could read my thoughts. Our gazes locked, and his lips curled into a smile. But just as quickly as it had appeared, it disappeared again.
“Come on,” he said, his voice slightly gruff, betraying the emotions he didn’t want me to see. “They’re about to cut the barmbrack, and you’re going to want to be there. It’s one of our yearly traditions that every fae loves.” His lips spread into a grin. “Probably because it involves cake.”
Despite my disappointment at our lack of contact, my ears pricked up at his words. “Did someone say cake?”
He let out a low chuckle. “Cake made by the Summer Court, no less. Best kind of cake in the entire realm.”
Liam led me through the festival grounds, and it seemed as though every faerie present was heading in the same direction we were: toward a square table that squatted underneath what must have been the most massive cake I’d ever seen in my life. In fact, it was about ten times as large as a standard cake, perfectly square with elaborate frosting covering every inch of its surface.
Four Summer fae were bustling around the cake, slicing the cake into uniform square slices. Underneath the frosting, the cake itself was a beautiful deep red with swirls of brilliant yellow.
“It looks completely bizarre, but at the same time very delicious,” I said, smiling as one of the Summer fae passed me a plate. “What flavor is it?”
“It’s the taste of Summer.”
At the tone of his voice, a shiver slid down my spine. I glanced up at him, swallowing hard when I saw the heat of his gaze. It made my entire body quiver, despite myself. How could just a single look from him make me such a trembling mess?
“Liam,” I whispered, but he merely shook his head.
“Just try the cake, Norah.”
My heart beat hard. Why was he gazing at me so intently? Why did he look as though my reaction to this cake held far more meaning than it should? I dragged my gaze away from his handsome face and stared at the red dessert. Should I be wary of eating this? Would it cause some kind of magical response?
But even if it did, it wouldn’t be anything dangerous. Liam wouldn’t let me eat it if it was.
With my breath held tight in my throat, I brought the cake to my lips. My teeth sunk into the sweet velvety frosting, and a thousand different flavors danced across my tongue. Cinnamon and chocolate. Strawberries and cream. Pumpkin and spice. Dozens of combinations, one after another, an endless stream of delight. Until my teeth crunched against something rough and hard.
Frowning, I did my best to swallow down the cake before spitting out the rock-like object in my mouth. I held it up before my eyes, a strange sensation filling my gut. It was someone’s ring. How odd. One of the Summer fae must have lost it while she’d been baking the cake.
“By the forest,” Liam said, his voice full of awe.
I glanced up. He was staring at the cake-covered ring in my hand, his eyes as wide as a summer full moon.
“You were right,” I said with a laugh. “Barmbrack is a lot different than any cake I’ve had before. They usually don’t come with rings.”
It was a joke, but one that was seemingly lost on Liam. He still stared at the ring like it was some kind of bizarre object from another solar system.
“Excuse me,” I said, turning toward the Summer fae who was handing out the cake. “I think one of you lost a ring in the cake.”
When I showed her the ring, she raised her free hand and let out a whoop that echoed so loud, it must have been heard as far as the opposite end of the festival grounds.
“The Barmbrack Ring has been found!” She grabbed my hand, the one that still held the ring, and held it aloft in the air. Everyone around us cheered. The fae began dancing, and a folksy tune began to play from random faeries who grabbed instruments from a nearby table.
Confusion rippled through me as the Summer fae dragged me away from Liam, who still stood staring at me with a dumbfounded expression on his face.
“I’m sorry,” I said to the Summer fae. “I don’t understand what’s going on. What’s a Barmbrack Ring?”
The woman’s face lit up with a smile. “Ah, you must be a changeling then if you don’t know about the ring. Every year, we put it in the cake. Whoever finds it means she—or he—is destined to be wed within the year. If you haven’t met your mate, you will soon, love. And a faerie wedding is always a cause for celebration.”
I blinked and stared at the female fae. If I’d felt confused before, it was nothing on how I felt now. Destined to be wed within the year? That didn’t make sense. It couldn’t be right.
“There must be some kind of mistake,” I said.
“No mistake, my dear.” Her grin widened. “The Barmbrack Ring always knows. It’s never been wrong. Not even once in thousands of years.”