Page 7 of A Dead End Wedding

The Fae prince’s smile widened, and he gestured with one hand. Suddenly, an intricate silver-and-crystal crown sat on his head. “I rarely wear it. Too heavy, and it frightens the commoners.”

“Oh, boy,” I muttered. Then, louder: “Okay, as one of the commoners, I’ll ask you to please answer Aunt Ruby … the mayor. What is the Bargain? What do you want from us? And does ithaveto be by the sixteenth? We’re kind of busy around here till then.”

“Busy with what, Tess of the Callahans?” the prince drawled in honeyed tones. “Anything I can assist you with?”

“Not a chance,” Jack growled. “I’m tired of the show. Thrice asked and done: what are the terms of the Bargain?”

Three was a magical number in the Fae world. I didn’t know all the details, but when you asked a Fae something three times, they had to answer or come up with a good reason not to do so. Of course, to a Fae, killing you was a perfectly acceptable reason, so the “thrice done” trick wasn’t usually done casually.

Prince Rhys na Garanwyn drew himself up in his saddle and stared down his nose at us. “Thrice asked and now answered. The Bargain to retain the territory upon which your town resides for another five hundred years shall be a series of challenges. By our command shall you know them. By our dictate shall you attempt them. By our leave shall you achieve them.”

“That’s clear as swamp mud,” Eleanor said with some exasperation. “Speak plainly, Your Highness.”

He raised one princely eyebrow. “Five trials shall be set. Should you prove yourselves in Courage, Alliance, Wisdom, Compassion, and Beauty, the Fae will renew your charter. Should you fail, you and all humans will be banished from these lands forevermore.”

“Are you going to explain these trials?” I demanded. “Seems vague.”

“Come, take my hand and ride with me, lovely Tess, and I will explain more.” Rhys actually held his hand out to me.

I shrugged, ignoring Jack’s low growl beside me. “Sure, if you want to know how you’re going to die.”

This time, it was the Fae who flinched. He slowly lowered his hand, his lovely eyes narrowing as he studied me thoughtfully. “Ah. Yes, I have heard this of you. It might be interesting to see if your gift works on my kind, but not today. Tomorrow, one of us will approach you to set the first trial. Sleep well.”

He rose in his saddle and bowed to us, aimed a sardonic stare at Jack, and flashed a wicked smile at me. “May we meet again soon, lovely lady.”

Then he circled his hand in the air, and the rest of the riders fell in beside him. The horses took maybe ten steps, and then they disappeared. Horses and riders all vanished as if they’d never been in the parking lot, except for the length of silky green and gold cloth that fluttered through the air toward me.

Jack snatched it out of the air and crumpled it in one fist. “I hate that guy.”

“He doesn’t seem to have any love for you, either,” Aunt Ruby said, sighing. “This is going to be a mess. I’d better call a town hall meeting.”

Jack and I both groaned.

“It could be worse,” Eleanor said brightly. “He could have been demanding you wear Queen Viviette’s wedding dress.”

4

Jack

Wednesday: Wedding minus 10 days

It was going to be one of those days.

Because it’s Dead End. It’salwaysone of those days.

We walked back inside, and Tess’s Aunt Ruby, cute as a mayor button in her pink suit, put her hands on her hips. I stifled a groan, because I knew that stance. She was about to put the town hall plan into place.

I enjoyed a town hall meeting almost as much as I enjoyed dental work.

Or being shot.

“I’m going back to my office to set everything in motion. We’d better do it tonight. No use delaying, since we only have ten days to figure this out and a lot of trials to complete. What in the world could all this mean?” Aunt Ruby shook the letter in her hand at us.

My grandfather wasn’t in town, anyway, but he was coming home for the wedding. For somebody who traveled by horse and wagon during his first sixty years, he was definitely logging a lot of airplane miles these days.

“He said, ‘By our command shall you know them. By our dictate shall you attempt them. By our leave shall you achieve them,’” Tess pointed out. “That’s a pretty vague standard, and they can move the goal lines whenever they want. The Fae are tricky that way. Maybe we should reach out to Queen Viviette and see what she says.”

“She signed the letter,” Ruby said doubtfully. “I have to think that she would have told us more if she wanted to, though. It’s worth a try, maybe?”

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