Page 59 of A Dead End Wedding

“She skipped compassion,” I murmured.

The queen turned her head to give me a sly smile. “I skipped nothing. You, yourself, Tess of the Callahans, have won the final challenge by protecting us from harm, even when you may have been inconvenienced by our actions.”

“Ha! Inconvenienced!” Lorraine muttered.

“By taking in and loving a child of the wild and supporting her in her magic.” Viviette smiled at Shelley, and suddenly the little magical Fae girl was there, skipping toward us.

“And, finally, in what we designed to be the original Trial, by demonstrating Compassion to one of the least of us.” The queen raised her arm and pointed at the line of horses to the left ofus, which suddenly split in two, revealing Braumsh as he walked toward us.

“This unfortunate troll, loved by none, came to Dead End expecting hatred and derision. Instead, he found kindness and compassion.”

“And baked goods,” the troll said, flashing those shiny white teeth in a smile.

Before either of them could continue, I stepped forward, my hand in Jack’s.

“Hello, Prince na Garanwyn,” I said cheerfully. “Welcome to our wedding.”

Both the queen and the troll froze, shocked.

Jack turned to study my calm face, and then he nodded. “Right. The teeth.”

“How did you know?” Viviette asked.

“When did you know?” asked the troll, who dropped his glamour and showed us all his true, shining, princely self.

“Not till yesterday,” I said, answering the second question first. “How? You left clues. First, trolls have truly unfortunate teeth, since they can’t practice good dental hygiene in their swamps. But your smile was immaculate.”

Rhys grinned. “Couldn’t quite do it. But that couldn’t have been all.”

“No. There was also the way you wouldn’t say thank you. I did some research. Most trolls have no problem with thanking people, not that they do so very much, but they can if they want. You, though, tried every tortured way in the book to avoid saying it.”

“But I finally did,” he reminded me, and Viviette nearly fell over at the revelation.

“Finally, both versions of you called me ‘lovely Tess,’ which was unexpected enough to stand out.” I shrugged. “I’m prettyenough when I clean up, like tonight. But ‘lovely Tess’ was a bit much.”

“Not to me,” Jack growled, pulling me close.

“The tiger speaks the truth,” the queen said. “Rarely have I seen a bride as lovely.”

“Well,thank you,” I said deliberately. “So, are we good for the next five hundred years?”

The queen raised her hands above her head, and dancing silver lights flashed through the night. “You are!”

“Hooray!” Jack and I shouted, and everybody cheered with us.

Later, much later, when Rhys asked me to dance, and after he explained that his magic blocked my gift from touching him, I waltzed around the Dead End town square with an immortal Fae prince.

“Am I still the prettiest man you’ve ever seen?” He laughed and pretended to preen.

“No,” I said honestly. “That would be Jack. But you’re the prettiest Fae prince I’ve ever seen.”

He pulled me a little closer and whirled me through the steps of the dance. “I wish you only joy in your marriage, Tess Callahan. You deserve nothing less.”

When the song ended, he bowed to me and then to Jack, and then he vaulted up onto a snow-white horse, and they leaped over the gazebo and disappeared.

“Showboat,” Jack said disgustedly.

“Who cares?” I gazed into his beautiful green eyes. “The most beautiful man in the world is going home with me tonight, and then we’re going to Alaska.”

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