The Day Human Way (11 page)

“That should work,” Maria replied. “We find the witch, and then we leave.”

Nessa was kind of sad to hear they would be gone soon. It wasn’t often they had outsiders around, and she had a lot more questions for them. Nessa didn’t want to let them go yet, but she understood. Maria was in charge of Cassie, and it was safer for them to leave. Nessa had been raised to distrust the witches, but it was far deeper for the others. From the little she caught of how the sidhe felt about witches, Cassie and Maria weren’t exactly welcome in the village. Nessa might have been against them also, but now she was more curious than anything. It was too bad they had to leave.

Devin escorted Cassie
and Maria back to the palace to wait. He could keep them in Nessa’s apartment, and no one would know the difference, or at least that’s what he hoped. He had already guarded that part of the palace extensively. It was going to take a bit of time to get Nessa ready, even if she insisted that it wouldn’t. He kind of liked that about Nessa. She was beautiful and girly, but she never took too long to get ready. She was more likely to just pull her hair into a ponytail and run out the door than to sit and pamper herself. And she didn’t need to, either. Nessa was beautiful on her own. He was slightly curious if they would let her get away with being herself for the ceremony.

Devin sat in Nessa’s room while she was whisked away to be dressed for her coronation. She looked utterly miserable, and he couldn’t help but laugh. She would be fine as her four invisible palace guards went with her to places, and they wouldn’t be happy if he joined them.

Maria sat down on Nessa’s book-filled couch and waited. Cassie stood staring up at the open ceiling.

“That makes no sense,” Cassie said to no one in particular. “What happens when it rains?”

“I’ve heard the rain doesn’t come in,” Devin replied, “but I haven’t been here long enough to tell you if that’s true or not.” Cassie blushed and joined Maria on the couch. Devin had to chuckle. Cassie seemed to blush any time a male spoke to her. How she was going to get through life like that was beyond Devin.

“So what’s the plan?” Devin asked Maria. He was unsure how they could tell who the witch was exactly.

“If you can get us close enough to view everyone, we should be able to tell,” Maria said as Cassie lay back amongst the books. She seemed to still be tired from her healing of the three sidhe.

“You just need to look?” Devin asked specifically.

“Yes, all it should take is a look. The sidhe and the witches give off a different aura. Anyone practicing witch magic should have the witch aura clinging to them. It shouldn’t take anything more than that,” Maria replied, closing her eyes, too.

Devin nodded to the two almost sleeping witches. He was glad they both felt safe enough with him to sleep, and he didn’t dare leave them alone in the sidhe palace even if he wanted to do more surveillance. Someone was practicing magic, and from what he got out of Maria earlier, it wasn’t her form. That was a little disturbing to him, as the other form of witch magic was more powerful and more detrimental to the user. Maria and Cassie practiced light magic. It was more focused on healing and preserving life. They could use spells and energies, but they never hurt another human being to do so. The dark magic clan oftentimes used sacrifices to do their magic. Dark magic was powerful and damaging. Devin was unsure if his sidhe magic would stand up to someone desperate.

Life would have been easier if Nessa was his now. Any secret admirer would have had no chance once she slipped the ring on her finger. That alone could have stopped all they were dealing with right now.

‘
I’m sorry I didn’t say yes before,’
Nessa told Devin through the bond while she was getting ready in another palace room. He had let his guard down and was probably sending all his thoughts to her by accident.

‘
This isn’t your fault,’
Devin replied, standing and walking away from the witches. While they couldn’t hear his conversation with Nessa, it still felt private.

‘
It kind of is,’
Nessa answered.
‘If I had let you finish and accepted your ring, maybe the person would have given up before even trying something. You are right. This could have all been avoided.
’

Devin shook his head. He wanted to blame someone, but Nessa wasn’t it. He was sad she hadn’t let him propose, but he didn’t blame her for the situation they were in. It might not have made a difference if she had said yes, anyway. Love wasn’t logical like that.

‘
We are almost done here,’
Nessa informed Devin.

He was surprised. How did they get her ready that fast? Maybe they were going to let her become queen without all the fuss and just as herself.

Nessa laughed across the bond.

‘
No, they did all the fuss,’
she replied to his thoughts. Still, he had forgotten to shield them from her.
‘Magic, remember?’

Devin nodded to no one in the room.
‘Is everything set?’
he asked. He hadn’t been watching the time, but as he looked outside at the moon through the opening in the ceiling, he realized that it was almost at its peak in the sky.

‘
Yes, Uncle Rolf is here to escort me, and we’re just waiting for Ronan to return from his patrol with Turner,’
Nessa replied.
‘Did they find anything?’

Turner had not returned to tell Devin anything yet, so Devin took that as a no. Nessa followed his train of thought and sighed.

‘
Can Maria and Cassie really find this person?’
Nessa asked, a little apprehensively. Worry laced her thoughts even if she wasn’t saying that to him.

Devin walked over and tapped Maria. It was a short nap, but nothing he could do about that. They needed to join Nessa as she was already being ushered into the main square of the palace.

‘
I hope so,’
Devin replied to Nessa, not completely convinced.

They had hundreds of people to look at and very little time. From what Ronan explained, the actual coronation would take only minutes, and then the party would begin. They only had those few minutes of the ceremony to find the witch. Devin was sure that the party didn’t include the common people, and he wasn’t going to make the same mistake as he had only days ago, when he assumed wrongly that only the nobles were behind everything. It could just as easily be someone from the village that had a crush on Nessa.

“Time to go find this imposter,” Devin told Maria, who had already woken Cassie.

Cassie yawned and nodded.

Maria and Cassie followed Devin to the door of Nessa’s apartment.

“If anything happens, keep Cassie hidden,” Maria told Devin. Devin nodded. Maria loved Cassie more than anything. She didn’t have any family around as her sister was banished at the time of Cassie’s birth. Cassie was the last family Maria had. Devin understood that much.

“Cassie and you will be safe,” Devin replied. He was positive of that. He had enough power to keep them hidden. He just didn’t know if he had enough to keep Nessa safe from her admirer.

When Devin
arrived
with the two witches, Nessa couldn’t see him. With both the sidhe and witch magic cocooning him, she couldn’t even make out the fuzzy lines that he had taught her to see through the sidhe magic. She was disappointed to not be able to see him, but understood that they needed to find the sidhe causing problems. The desire to have his face to focus on was going to have to be unmet. He was keeping them safe, and in turn keeping her safe.

Nessa followed behind her uncle as he wove through the audience, tapping people to get them to move. It was strange to walk amongst the sidhe as she had been hidden from them for days each time her safety was threatened. It was nice that Devin found a way to encase her in his protective magic, allowing her to go closer to everyone without them knowing that she was still protected. Only Uncle Rolf so far had figured it out.

As she stepped onto the stage in the middle of the courtyard, she was happy to find Ronan off to the side with Gemma. They both beamed proudly at her. With the way her life had been thrown upside down many times in the past few years, it was more than surreal to be standing before the sidhe now. Her younger cousin Gemma’s infectious grin was more than enough to keep her from feeling too overwhelmed. Gemma smiled and pointed to the other side of the stage.

He’s over
there
, she mouthed.

Smiling, Nessa nodded to her younger cousin. She knew exactly who Gemma was referring to: Devin. Nessa didn’t turn to see if she could see him in case she gave away his location to anyone else, but she was comforted to have him close by. Her whole life had been turned upside down when she begged her brother to let her leave the sidhe and see the day human world and he agreed. Devin had been the constant in her life from the first time she met him. She might not have liked him too much then, but she liked him plenty now. She couldn’t imagine doing everything she had done without him there. In fact, she would have more than likely been married off to Finn by now, or even dead. Devin was the reason she was able to stand there in front of her people to accept the crown that her uncle was holding and talking about.

Nessa smiled at the crowd as her uncle talked. She wasn’t paying attention to what he was saying, but she smiled anyway. Instead of focusing on his words, she was watching the crowd. Would the sidhe using witch magic stand out? From what Nessa had been told, all Cassie and Maria needed was to view the audience gathered. If it was that easy, could Nessa see them, too? She glanced around, but didn’t find anything out of the ordinary. All she saw were the faces of the people she was to rule staring back at her. Nessa couldn’t see far enough back to see the commoners, and the front rows were all the nobles, including her suitors. Everyone from her village and representatives from each family in the other villages were there staring at her. She recognized a few people, but not others. Would the hidden sidhe be a friend or someone unknown?

She couldn’t even venture to guess. Nessa would have never thought her brother’s best childhood friend, and her former fiancé would try to kill her, and that had already happened. Also, the woman she thought of as a second mother had been always plotting to control and then kill Nessa. While it was easy to think someone who didn’t know her would be plotting, she had dealt with those close to her doing it before. Now she had no clue what to expect.

Her uncle continued to talk and motioned to the suitors in the front row. Each nodded their heads back to him. She should have been listening to them, but it was hard to concentrate on what her uncle was saying when she knew one person out there was willing to kill anyone that liked her just to get to her. Nessa suppressed an involuntary shiver. She hated the thought that someone would be trying to kill Devin, too. She was sure almost everyone knew she was bonded to him. If the witch sidhe knew this, would they not kill him, but do something else? What if it wasn’t an admirer at all? What if it was a way to get to Nessa? Cassie seemed sure the person liked Nessa, but how did that teenage witch even know that? She was only a girl, just like Nessa.

Uncle Rolf turned to Nessa, and she realized a little too late that she should have been paying attention.

‘
Follow him,’
Devin told her, knowing that she had no clue what was going on.

‘
Thanks,’
she mumbled through the silent bond as she turned and followed behind her uncle.

Uncle Rolf led Nessa past Devin. The breeze reached out to her, and she knew it was her invisible bonded human. He slipped something into her hand as she passed. She didn’t dare stop walking and kept behind her uncle, who didn’t even seem to notice. Uncle Rolf kept walking as he passed the nobles and ventured further into the crowd. She never thought in a hundred years that she would be the family member being crowned one day. She always assumed her father would live a long life, and when he didn’t, she was sure her brother, Rhys, would be king long after she was dead one day. She never thought she needed the knowledge of the crowning ceremony, and since her return, she had no time to ask about anything. She had spent the entire time back worrying about her own life, and now Devin’s life.

Uncle Rolf finally stopped walking at the tree Devin had previously used to travel outside the village. Nessa was shocked to be standing there. Was she supposed to go somewhere else?

“This is the sapling from the tree our great king planted when he assumed the throne, and the wars for the crown ended. Vanessa’s own grandfather and my father saved this piece to plant when the tree was destroyed close to sixty years ago. While we no longer have the tall oak it came from, the same magic lives in her baby, just like the same magic of my father lives in Vanessa. To prove this, her blood will be added to the tree.” Rolf handed Nessa a dagger he was holding.

Nessa tried to hide her surprise, but it was hard. She already knew that her barrier wouldn’t let a knife penetrate it. How was she to prove anything with her blood? Would Devin drop the barrier? She felt for him, and he was at the back of the crowd. There was no way he was going to let the barrier down, but she was unsure what she was going to do. Nessa glanced up at her uncle, and he shrugged. He was just following tradition; she was sure.

‘
In your hand, just keep it hidden,’
Devin replied.

Nessa felt the small thing in her hand. She squished it between her fingers and was still unsure what to do.

‘
Pretend to cut your hand,’
Devin instructed, noticing she had no idea what it was.

Nessa wanted to complain, but hundreds of expectant eyes were watching her. She had no option but to listen and do what Devin told her. She hesitated as she placed the blade against the soft item she was holding. The crowd had to think she was hesitant about cutting herself, but she was unsure what she was even cutting.

‘
You can’t hurt yourself, just pierce the pouch and put the blood on the tree,’
Devin told her. He knew exactly why she hesitated.