“What about the faerie godmother?” Chelsea asked.
“Unnecessary. We can make pumpkins grow that big without magic. And even a Winter faerie couldn’t turn a mouse into a horse.”
“Beauty and the Beast.”
“Story of a faerie who fell in love with a troll. Scares the wits out of most seedlings. The troll never turns out to be a handsome prince, though.”
“Rapunzel.”
“Growth tonic gone terribly wrong.”
Chelsea squealed. “Thumbelina.”
“That’s just basic anatomy misinterpreted. We are born from flowers, but we’re never that small. Mischievous Sparklers were known to have encouraged tiny-faerie misconceptions, though.”
“Tell me one that would surprise me.”
Tamani thought for a moment. “Do you know The Pied Piper of Hameln?”
Chelsea looked blank for a minute. “You mean Hamelin?”
“That sounds right. That one’s not a story, it’s true,” Tamani said, very seriously. “And it has scarcely been distorted at all. The Piper was a very powerful Spring faerie. Most of us can only Entice one or two animals at a time, but the Piper could Entice a whole city. He was eventually executed for that stunt.”
“What did he do with the children?” Chelsea asked.
“It’s kind of a long story. Ultimately, though, he marched them off a cliff. Killed them all.”
Chelsea and Laurel were both silent, staring at Tamani in horror.
“Perhaps not our happiest story,” Tamani said awkwardly.
“What about the Camelot legends?” Chelsea said, recovering first. Her eyes twinkled in a way that told Tamani this was really what she’d wanted to ask all along.
“What about them?”
“Laurel told me the parts that you told her, and that King Arthur was real and everything. But what about the rest? Lancelot? Guinevere? The Round Table?”
Tamani hesitated — he wasn’t sure he wanted to tell this story, especially not with David around. But it would look even stranger not to tell it now that Chelsea had him on a roll. “Laurel told you about the Unseelie, right?”
“Yeah,” Chelsea said, rapt.
“So you know the Seelie allied with King Arthur?”
“Queen Titania arranged it.”
“Yes. And in human fashion, the alliance was sealed with a marriage.”
“What, like a human and a faerie?” Chelsea asked.
“Yes, just like that,” Tamani chuckled. “Guinevere was a Spring faerie, like me.”
Chelsea’s eyes widened. “But I thought the point of alliance by marriage was to produce an heir who could rule both kingdoms—”
“It’s not clear if the Seelie knew that Guinevere couldn’t have Arthur’s children. We were all a lot less sophisticated, in those days — but it’s possible they did know, and simply… neglected to mention it to Arthur.”
Chelsea’s jaw dropped.
“There were many fae in Arthur’s court, including Nimue and her son, Lancelot. Lancelot was Arthur’s friend, but he was also Guinevere’s Fear-gleidhidh.”
“Her what?”
Tamani felt a strange sense of pride that Laurel had not shared that phrase with her friends. “It means watchman. Guardian.” It meant more than that, but Tamani was already feeling a little exposed.
“So Guinevere married Arthur, and when her faerie guardian stuck his nose into things and stole her away, that was the end of Camelot?” Everyone looked up as David spoke.
“Twist it how you want,” Tamani said, his voice steady, “but Lancelot was the least of Arthur’s worries. When it became obvious that King Arthur and Guinevere could not produce a child, many of the human knights cried witchcraft. Guinevere turned to Lancelot for both love and safety. But things in Camelot were already going badly, and let’s just say Guinevere was almost burned at the stake before Lancelot rescued her and took her back to Avalon.”
“So what if Lancelot hadn’t been around at all?” asked David. “What if Guinevere had really had a chance to make it work with Arthur? It still sounds like Lancelot was to blame for the whole thing.”
Tamani saw Laurel and Chelsea exchange glances. It was obvious that no one was talking about Lancelot and Guinevere anymore. Not wanting to distress Laurel, Tamani pretended to check his phone and stood. “Maybe,” he said. “But Arthur was a great king, especially for a human, and if you ask me, he’d rather lose a challenge than be handed an easy victory.” He gave David a long look then smiled. “I’ll be back soon,” he said, spinning his keys on the end of his index finger. He left the room, closing the door behind him without looking back.
Chapter Seventeen
LAUREL TOOK A SHORT BREAK FROM THE HOT, HUMID dance floor and walked into the slightly less hot — though heavily perfumed — bathroom. She checked under the doors of the stalls, but no one was there. Alone for a moment, Laurel carefully stretched and adjusted her shirt over her blossom — a little achy from being bound so many days in a row — then sighed and leaned her head against the cool mirror.
She really did like dances. For the first hour, anyway. But after a while the room felt too dark, and there were no sunlit windows to give her a dash of rejuvenation. On top of that, the music seemed extra loud tonight and her headache was back with a vengeance.
Teach me to stay up so long past sunset, I guess.
Still, there was only half an hour left. Laurel leaned over the sink and splashed icy water on her face. Blotting it dry with a paper towel, Laurel studied her light complexion in the mirror and — even if it was just wishful thinking — decided her head felt a little better. She was glad it was a casual dance; T-shirts all the way. She didn’t think she would have been up for a formal tonight.
The three couples had all started the evening in Laurel’s kitchen with Laurel’s mom’s homemade appetizers. It was interesting to watch Yuki out of the corner of her eye. She had lifted the appetizers carefully to her nose, trying to figure out what was in them before taking that first tentative bite. She was actually pretty nice. Very shy, but Laurel sensed there was more she couldn’t see. It was fun to have her around, as long as Laurel didn’t think too hard about the fact that the only reason they were all together was because Yuki was on a date with Tamani.
After the snacks everyone piled into the convertible — Tamani’s idea, to keep them all together. Thank goodness for bench seats. There weren’t quite enough seat belts, but as long as the person sitting in the middle of the front seat — Yuki, squeezed in close between Tamani and Laurel — had a jacket or something sitting on her lap, you really couldn’t tell. Not that there was a police officer alive who could give Tamani a ticket.
Laurel was letting the water run idly over her fingertips when she heard one of her favorite songs start. Feeling a bit of a second wind, she returned to the dance floor and found David. With a playful growl, she jumped on him from behind. He grabbed her arms and bent forward, lifting her off her feet and making her squeal. Then he swung her around and pulled her to his chest, his nose resting against hers. “Dance?” he whispered.
She smiled and nodded.
David took her hand and pulled her toward the middle of the dance floor. Laurel snuggled up to his chest and David held her close, his arms wrapped around her back, one above her blossom and one below.
As the song wound down, David grinned and twirled Laurel around. She laughed, enjoying the way the lights swirled when she looked up. She was in her third spin when Laurel caught Tamani out of the corner of her eye. He was several feet away, dancing with Yuki.