“Indeed,” a second voice replied. “I’m not surprisedMrsStarspun hasn’t shown her face much in society since arriving.”
Charlotte’s cheerful expression faltered, her smile freezing in place as her eyes darted toward the voice. Beside her, Rosavyn’s face tightened, a muscle working in her jaw as she met Iris’s gaze with a look of quiet alarm. She placed a hand on Iris’s arm. “Perhaps we should?—”
“I would be hiding too,” the first voice replied with a delicate sniff. “Being human is bad enough, but to be second choice after another human? It’s positively mortifying.”
“And with the Fields family still here in Bloomhaven! Can you imagine?”
The Fields family.Iris looked at Charlotte just as the other girls’ gaze turned swiftly to the ground, her face flushing. Iris frowned.
“Clearly he was trying to prove some point by marrying the second one,” the woman said.
“I imagine so. One wonders if he even loved her at all or was merely doing it to spite his parents!”
The two of them laughed and continued moving through the crowd.
“Charlotte?” Iris’s voice emerged barely above a whisper. “What were they talking about?”
Charlotte’s eyes darted to Rosavyn, who was watching both of them with an expression of growing alarm. “I … I don’t know if it’s my place to?—”
“Tell me.” Iris’s voice emerged a little more forceful than she’d intended. “Clearly everyone else knows this secret, and I do not like being kept in the dark about something that pertains to my own family.”
Charlotte nodded, pressing her lips together before answering. “Perhaps we should find somewhere more private to discuss this.”
They made their way to a relatively secluded spot beneath a tree at the edge of the gathering. Charlotte took a deep breath before speaking. “My aunt … well … she and your father were in love, years ago. Before he met your mother. They wished to be married.”
Iris felt as though the ground had shifted beneath her feet. The thought that her father had loved someone before her mother—had nearlymarriedsomeone else—cracked the foundation of her family’s story as she understood it. Iris herself would not even exist if her father had married his first love!
“What?” she whispered.
“It was quite the scandal at the time, I believe. A fae lord and a human woman? It simply was not done. Not in those days. Your grandparents refused to support the match, threatened to cut him off entirely.” Charlotte’s voice grew quiet. “He left Bloomhaven after that. Apparently he said he wanted nothing more to do with any of it.”
“And then he married my mother,” Iris said slowly. “Also human.” Slowly, pieces clicked into place. The odd tension atThe Petal & Pearl, her mother’s strange reaction to meeting Charlotte. Her mother clearly knew that there had been someone else before her. “So when they saysecond choice?—”
“It’s horrible gossip,” Rosavyn cut in. “History that should have been forgotten years ago. But you know how some people love to cling to old scandals.”
But Iris was barely listening. The scene before her eyes seemed to fold in on itself before unfolding to reveal something slightly different—the same gathering but with subtle changes, faces shifting, positions altering. Then it folded again and again, each new variation layering over the previous one until she could barely distinguish what was real and what was not.
The world tilted alarmingly. She reached out blindly, her knees threatening to buckle. Rosavyn caught her arm. “Iris! Are you all right? You’ve gone terribly pale.”
Iris blinked rapidly, trying to clear the disorienting images from her mind. The strange folding effect began to recede, though echoes of it lingered at the edges of her vision, like scenes glimpsed through warped glass. She drew in a shaky breath.
“I … I think I need to return home,” she said, her voice sounding distant to her own ears. “I need to speak to my parents.”
“Iris, wait—” Charlotte reached for her arm, but Iris was already moving.
She pushed through the crowd, barely registering the disapproving looks her haste earned her. The surrounding sounds seemed oddly muted as she struggled to escape the gathering—and then collided with two men who suddenly appeared in her path.
“Oh! I do apologize!” She stumbled backward, looking up to find herself face to face with?—
Lord Jasvian Rowanwood. Sound crashed back into her awareness like a broken dam. Good stars, could she not escapethis man? Wasthisthe social engagement he’d spoken of earlier? The pegasus races?
Beside Lord Jasvian stood someone Iris did not recognize. Handsome, with light brown hair and an open, friendly face. “No harm done,” he said with a warm smile. There was something familiar about his voice, though she couldn’t place it. “Are you … is everything all right, my lady?”
“I …” Iris blinked once more. “Yes, thank you. I simply need to … to go.”
“Allow me to assist—” the stranger began, but Iris was already moving past them.
“Thank you, but no,” she called faintly over her shoulder. And with that, she hurried away, struggling to make sense of what troubled her more: her father’s unexpected past or the disorienting images that had momentarily replaced her reality.
