"You were supposed to get in touch with me over the weekend."

Luke looked up from the book in his hands to find Maura glaring down at him. The morning light shining through the window lit her head like fire, tendrils of crimson hair curling about her face like inextinguishable flames. Her temper was blistering hot. "I told you," he said. "I was busy."

"Busy doing what?" He said nothing and her eyes narrowed. "I have other responsibilities, you know. You might not take this assignment seriously, but I do."

"I'm sorry," he said. It was an automatic response, though, a remnant of his lost mortality. The older fay tended not to be remorseful. Still, Maura's shoulders relaxed a degree.

She pushed a lock of hair behind her ear and folded her arms across her chest, shifting from one foot to the other. "Well, are you free this afternoon?"

He would have said no except for Evelyn sitting on top of the adjacent desk, cloaked behind a glamour of invisibility. "Go on," she coaxed. "Tell her you are free this afternoon, as well as the next. Tell her you are free for as long as it will take to win her heart."

"Maybe," he said.

Maura's mouth hardened. "Look, I don't want to be stuck with you any more than you want to be stuck with me, but it's not like we had a choice."

"One always has a choice," he replied, though more to himself than her.

"Then my choice is to get a good grade, which means you have to pull your weight. I won't do the work for you."

"Take your seat," Mrs. Raines said from the front of the classroom. "That means you, Maura."

"We're just discussing our project," she called over her shoulder, a smile in her voice. When she turned back to Luke, though, the smile had vanished. She pointed a finger at his chest and lowered her voice. "I don't care if you mess up your own life, but don't mess up mine. Meet me in the library after school."

"Oooh, she is a feisty one!" Evelyn commented as Maura made her way to her desk at the front of the room. "She will be good for the queen, and us. Can you feel her strength?"

Luke could not respond, unable to glamour himself as Evelyn had done. Still, what could he say that would not further rouse his mother's suspicion and force her to keep him on an even tighter leash?

"Humans perish every day," Evelyn said next to him, as though sensing the nature of his thoughts. "The poor creatures are heartbreakingly fragile. The span of their lives is no more than a speck on eternity's timeline." She leaned across the aisle and spoke seductively. "But we, dear Lucas, span the ages. It would serve you well to remember that."

He rose then, the blood of his heart thundering in his ears, and made for the door. "You cannot run from duty!" Evelyn shouted as he reached the threshold. "The queen always gets what she wants."

Mrs. Raines called after him as well. "Luke, are you okay?"

Maura had turned in her seat to stare as well, just as everyone else in the classroom, but he did not answer. He simply turned his back and fled. He made it outside and down the steps, running as fast as he could, trying to escape, but with nowhere to go . . .

No matter how often Luke set foot in the mortal realm, it felt foreign to him. He had been born among humans, but he'd been raised in the queen's court. He was her son, a prince, as well as her attendant.

"There," the queen had whispered to him, pointing a slender finger in the direction of the school. Her whispers had not been necessary, however. She was invisible to mortal eyes, protection denied to him, even though he was now fay. "You will find her in there."

He hadn't asked the girl's name or how he would recognize her. Like an arrow aimed true at its target, he would know her at once. And yet with every girl he saw walking along the sidewalk, laughing with friends, texting on her phone, he wondered briefly if she was the one. It was the not knowing—the anticipation—that knotted his insides. When the destined encounter finally did occur, resignation enabled him to accomplish what duty compelled him to do. Still, he had made a silent vow that this time would be different.

"Remember who you are," the queen had said in a low voice, staring into his eyes. She had already begun to doubt him.

He had bowed his head, unable to meet her gaze. She was the only mother he'd ever known, and he had made up his mind to betray her. "Yes, my queen."

"Do not delay, Lucas. My strength wanes."

He had opened his mouth to respond, to utter a lie that would put his mother's mind at ease, but before he could say anything at all, she was already stepping through the veil that separated the mortal world from their own. "Do not fail me," were the last words he heard.

In the same breath, Evelyn had materialized at his side. "What are you doing here?" Irritation made him speak harshly.

"Must you ask?" Evelyn said with a grin. She had donned a mortal glamour—jeans, Converse sneakers, and short, pink-tipped hair. She saw him looking at her with a critical gaze. "Do you remember when mortal girls wore beautiful dresses?" she lamented. "Now, they hardly care."

"Times change. People change."

Evelyn had linked her arm through his then, patting his hand. She doubted him, too. "By the way, the girl's name is Maura."

*****

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