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Wicked Lovely
Melissa Marr
For Loch, Dylan, and Asia,
who believed in me even when I didn’t, and the memories of John Marr Sr. and Marjorie Marr, whose presences linger and give me strength when I would falter
Contents
Prologue
The Summer King knelt before her. “Is this what you…
Chapter 1
“Four-ball, side pocket.” Aislinn pushed the cue forward with a…
Chapter 2
As freaked as she was by the faery approaching her…
Chapter 3
Aislinn closed her eyes as she finished describing the faeries…
Chapter 4
On the outskirts of Huntsdale in a gorgeous Victorian estate…
Chapter 5
Donia knew Beira approached when the wind shifted, bringing a…
Chapter 6
On Monday Aislinn woke before the alarm went off. After…
Chapter 7
“Hello?” Leslie snapped her fingers in front of Aislinn’s face…
Chapter 8
Aislinn stood motionless, gazing in the direction of the vanishing…
Chapter 9
As she tried to make sense of the earlier events—Why…
Chapter 10
By the time she was far enough away from the…
Chapter 11
When Aislinn walked up the steps to Bishop O.C. the…
Chapter 12
When Donia walked into the library, she saw Seth. Aislinn’s…
Chapter 13
After the taxi dropped her at the railroad yard, Aislinn…
Chapter 14
By the end of the week, Aislinn was sure of…
Chapter 15
When Donia returned home from her evening walk, Beira was…
Chapter 16
Seth stirred the pasta absently. He glanced at her. “You…
Chapter 17
A half hour later Aislinn walked down Sixth Street, feeling…
Chapter 18
Early the next morning, Donia awakened on the floor, Sasha’s…
Chapter 19
Keenan was shaken when he left Donia; he walked aimlessly…
Chapter 20
When Aislinn woke—the clock’s red numbers proclaiming it past 9:00—the…
Chapter 21
Donia walked past the faeries outside Seth’s home—a few familiar…
Chapter 22
When Sunday morning came, Aislinn wasn’t surprised to find Grams…
Chapter 23
Donia knew who it was before she reached the door.
Chapter 24
Keenan stirred his drink idly. The Rath usually cheered him…
Chapter 25
Aislinn didn’t stop running until she was at Seth’s door.
Chapter 26
“It’s her.” Beira stomped her foot, setting frost rippling over…
Chapter 27
When Aislinn woke the next morning—still curled in Seth’s arms—she…
Chapter 28
Keenan heard Elena’s statements as clearly as if she were…
Chapter 29
Aislinn stood motionless as Keenan walked on. Some of the…
Chapter 30
Donia knew they were coming, but it still made her…
Epilogue
Clutching the silk-smooth wood of the Winter Queen’s staff—my staff—Donia…
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Copyright
About the Publisher
PROLOGUE
The Summer King knelt before her. “Is this what you freely choose, to risk winter’s chill?”
She watched him—the boy she’d fallen in love with these past weeks. She’d never dreamed he was something other than human, but now his skin glowed as if flames flickered just under the surface, so strange and beautiful she couldn’t look away. “It’s what I want.”
“You understand that if you are not the one, you’ll carry the Winter Queen’s chill until the next mortal risks this? And you’ll warn her not to trust me?” He paused, glancing at her with pain in his eyes.
She nodded.
“If she refuses me, you will tell the next girl and the next”—he moved closer—“and not until one accepts, will you be free of the cold.”
“I do understand.” She smiled as reassuringly as she could, and then she walked over to the hawthorn bush. The leaves brushed against her arms as she bent down and reached under it.
Her finger wrapped around the Winter Queen’s staff. It was a plain thing, worn as if countless hands had clenched the wood. It was those hands, those other girls who’d stood where she now did, she didn’t want to think about.
She stood, hopeful and afraid.
Behind her, he moved closer. The rustling of trees grew almost deafening. The brightness from his skin, his hair, intensified. Her shadow fell on the ground in front of her.
He whispered, “Please. Let her be the one….”
She held the Winter Queen’s staff—and hoped. For a moment she even believed, but then ice pierced her, filled her like shards of glass in her veins.
She screamed his name: “Keenan!”
She stumbled toward him, but he walked away, no longer glowing, no longer looking at her.
Then she was alone—with only a wolf for companionship—waiting to tell the next girl what a folly it was to love him, to trust him.
CHAPTER 1
SEERS, or Men of the SECOND SIGHT,…have very terrifying Encounters with [the FAIRIES, they call Sleagh Maith, or the Good People].
—The Secret Commonwealth by Robert Kirk and Andrew Lang (1893)
“Four-ball, side pocket.” Aislinn pushed the cue forward with a short, quick thrust; the ball dropped into the pocket with a satisfying clack.
Her playing partner, Denny, motioned toward a harder shot, a bank shot.
She rolled her eyes. “What? You in a hurry?”
He pointed with the cue.
“Right.” Focus and control, that’s what it’s all about. She sank the two.
He nodded once, as close as he got to praise.