The Deadly Fae

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

A knock at the open library door at Lord Davenport’s manor house caused Sessily to turn and see the butler, Gevus, standing in the doorway, his head bowed to Lord Davenport.

“My lord,” the butler said firmly, but with feigned respect for interrupting the visit between Sessily and the Davenports.

Sessily knew it had to be important or the butler wouldn’t have done so. He would have just sent the “interruption” on his way.

“What is it now?” Lord Davenport snapped.

“A Lord Fairhaven to see you, my lord. He says it is most urgent.”

The butler was visibly cowed in Lord Davenport’s presence, keeping his head low, his eyes averted. Although he hadn’t been when Sessily had spoken with him to gain entrance to the estate and have a word with the lady of the manor. He glanced at Sessily, but she couldn’t tell if his look was in warning or something else. Definitely, he was trying to tell her something. She wished she could read minds.

Had he read something about this Lord Fairhaven’s thoughts that concerned Sessily and her being here? She didn’t know any Lord Fairhaven so she didn’t believe he’d cause her any trouble. Unless he was a good friend of Lord Davenport and planned to whisk him away to some other gaming house or something of the sort tonight and thwart her mission.

“Send him to my solar,” Lord Davenport said, brows furrowed in annoyance.

“He wishes a word with Lady Davenport as well,” the butler said.

At that, Lord Davenport’s face turned ashen. Sessily couldn’t figure out whether he knew this Lord Fairhaven or not. But then the way he had turned so pale, he must know him. And he didn’t want the lord to meet with Marguerite as well.

“We have a guest. Lady Marguerite is entertaining her and will continue to do so. Send Lord Fairhaven to my—” Lord Davenport didn’t finish his words.

A tall stately man strode past the butler, bowed his head slightly at Lord Davenport and gave a more courteous nod to Lady Marguerite, but when he saw Sessily, he stopped in his tracks.

Gevus gave her a sympathetic look and bowed out of the doorway.

All at once, Sessily felt a chill wash over her. Something oddly familiar about Lord Fairhaven struck her. His height, his measured moves. His blue eyes staring at her with such familiarity. Blue eyes like midnight in a darkened alley, only now in the lantern lights of the library, they glittered like blue diamonds.

The man had shot the thief who had attacked her in the alley.

He was handsome, in a dark sort of way. His mouth was pursed in annoyance, his dark brows knit together in a tight frown. He meant business.

He tilted his head to the side a bit. “I believe we’ve met before.” He didn’t say it in a way that showed he was uncertain, but that he knew of a surety that they had met.

His voice was as soft and dangerous as before. Vampires didn’t exist in the fae realm, but if they did, she’d swear he was one the way he seemed to be able to charm her into submission with just a dark look.

“Odd that you should say that,” Lord Davenport said, “but I was thinking the same—”

“At the queen’s masked ball,” Lord Fairhaven said to Sessily, bowing his head to her as if he had just been reunited with the mystery woman of the ball.

Like Cinderella from the human tales? And next, Sessily would have a fairy godmother. Right.

Sessily laughed at herself for thinking something so far-fetched. He was the one who had rescued her from the bear-like thief. He shot the man right in front of her! And he had called her a boy! The queen’s ball, her foot. Yet, in a way she had been like a woman of mystery when he’d seen her in the alleyway, fighting to get loose of the giant thief, and when he was dead, she just vanished into thin air.