Free The Day Human King by B. Kristin McMichael Page A

argument her mom was making? Ever the dutiful child, Fiona was a statue beside her mother, so Devin couldn’t tell. “I have hundreds of witnesses that would tell you Fiona and Rhys were together. They were even secretly married,” Maureen added, and the room erupted in talk.
    Devin stared at Maureen. She was lying, but he had no proof, just as she had no proof. It was word against word. Sidhe against day human. There was no weight behind his words without being a true sidhe, no matter what powers Devin had. To make matters worse, the man in question was dead, thus there was no debate. It was an argument he couldn’t win.
    “Then why did he go to seek out Arianna Grace in order to marry her?” Devin asked in reply. The room quieted at his question.
    “He never intended to marry Ms. Grace,” Maureen replied, brushing off his question like it wasn’t even a problem. “Even Nessa has admitted that much.”
    That was true. Nessa had stated that her brother didn’t intend to marry Arianna, but Devin knew otherwise. Rhys grew desperate to win over Arianna, and tried to charm his way into her heart to no avail. By the end, Rhys caused a battle to grab his trophy with every intention of making her his. Devin looked to Fiona. Her eyes were downcast and she remained silent. She knew the truth as well. Devin was growing more certain that Rhys never had any intention of marrying Fiona once he met Arianna.
    “And you?” Devin asked, pointing to Fiona. She still didn’t look up at either Nessa or Devin. Fiona was the weak link. Rhys must have broken her heart.
    “I support my mother on all she says,” Fiona mumbled. The room was back to chaos. No one knew what to think of the news.
    ‘I should have asked her yesterday,’ Devin told Nessa.
    Nessa faced him, and her anger increased. While he was getting used to it, Devin was a bit surprised. He had said the wrong thing again, though he wasn’t quite sure what it was, exactly, that he said wrong.
    ‘You knew?’ Nessa asked, like he had set her up to be placed on the spot by Maureen. In fact, Devin was sure Fiona didn’t want anyone to know. She had been nothing but scared and embarrassed when she saw him. It had to be all Maureen’s doing.
    ‘I ran into her yesterday. We didn’t really talk. I just saw. She knew I saw and ran away,’ Devin replied, trying to get Nessa to understand that it wasn’t a big deal. Yet it obviously it was to her because she didn’t calm down at Devin’s explanation. He was in hot water again. Every time he thought he was winning her back over, he pissed her off. Nessa was a hard one to crack.
    “The time for putting forth a new heir to the throne is done,” Rolf told the crowd, trying to calm the noise of the chatter. “The council agreed a month ago that Nessa was the rightful heir and had set the date that was only three days away. Maureen sat on that council herself. From the looks of it, Maureen knew about Fiona, and could have voiced her opposition then. She didn’t, and thus there’s nothing to discuss now. Next person. Thomas Knots,” Rolf stated, trying to contain the situation. He was moving on. He had to. What else could they do?
    However, Devin felt that the crowd wasn’t convinced, even if it was true. Fiona was known to be the companion of the late king. As big as she was now, she had to have gotten pregnant well before the king left for a month and was subsequently killed. This was a matter that had to be dealt with, but Devin needed time to think. Too much was building up at one time—Maureen’s claim to the throne just adding to the list—but right now it was more important to find the person poisoning everyone else. Devin had to agree and let Rolf move on with the grievances for now.
    “Devin,” Nessa’s cousin, Ronan, called out as he burst into the room. All faces turned to the young, dark-haired man. “There’s been another poisoning, but the person is still alive. They need you.”
    Devin nodded to