“Just climb out the window.”
“I’m not climbing out the feckin’ window.”
The person knocked again.
I didn’t have time for his stubbornness.
“Fine. Get under the bed.”
His nose wrinkled. “Is it clean? If there’s dust, I’ll sneeze.”
The all-powerful fae prince with no power hadallergies. Just my bloody luck. “Get in the closet and stay quiet.”
“Aveen?”Keelynn. “Are you in there?”
“Just a moment. I’m . . . um . . . indisposed.” I shoved Rían toward the closet doors. The space would be tight, but if he moved the dresses aside and hunkered down, he should fit. There wasn’t time to make sure he was hidden before the door opened.
The dark shadows from the fading day were nothing compared to the dark smudges beneath my sister’s eyes. “Can I come in?”
I wanted her to. Desperately. “I don’t think you should.”
“Oh,” she startled. “I just wanted to apologize for the way I’ve been acting. I know none of this is your fault. That you wouldn’t have chosen to marry Robert yourself. If there was any way around it, you’d find it. I just wanted to say that.”
I had found a way around it. And if Rían weren’t hiding in my closet, I would have told her everything. “It’s going to be all right,” I said, clasping her cold fingers. “I’ll fix it.”
“Aaaachoo!”
What in the world? That sounded like the daintiest sneeze I’d ever heard.
Keelynn’s head snapped up, and her eyes narrowed. She glanced over my shoulder into the room. “Is there someone in there with you?”
“It’s . . . um . . . Sylvia. She’s helping me decide which dress to wear tomorrow.” Lies. So many lies. When would they end?
“Really?” Keelynn folded her arms across her chest. “I just saw Sylvia on the stairs not five minutes ago, carrying a vase of flowers to the parlor.”
Think,Aveen.Think.
“I . . . Um . . .” How did I explain a fae prince without explaining a fae prince?
“Aveen, dear? Do you mind helping me with these buttons? They are dreadfully hard to reach.”
“Who is that?” Keelynn mouthed.
The woman’s voice sounded unfamiliar. But it was definitely a woman.
A tall woman with black ringlets, wearing my dress.
A woman with cerulean blue eyes.
Bloody hell.
“This must be Keelynn,” Rían said in a high, cheerful voice, bouncing over to my slack-jawed sister. “I have heard so much about you. Aveen talks of nothing else.” He took her hand and gave it a vigorous shake.
Keelynn’s eyebrows bunched over wide eyes. “That’s right. Who are you?”
“Lady Marissa DeWarn, of course. Don’t tell me Aveen has kept me a secret! You little minx.” Rían smacked my shoulder, sending me back a step. “Aveen and I met a few weeks ago at the market. She has been such a dote, helping me settle into life here in Graystones. It’s so different from Vellana. Dreadfully dreary and mundane. I could die of boredom.”
“You’re from Vellana?” Keelynn asked.