Things had become very awkward since Seth's return. We hadn't spoken since that day he burdened me with choosing between him and Keenan. It wasn't because he was ignoring me, rather I did not want to speak to him. His sudden disappearance angered me. Even if he did it for me, I felt that I should have at least been notified by him. On top of that, he was practically telling me that I should not me the summer queen. He never did say that but that's how it felt to me. I was being pressured; Work or his love.

As queen, I had to sacrifice, even if it meant sacrificing my happiness for the happiness of my people and the land.

Through all this, I continued to do my duty. I was not affected by the pain Seth had caused me. I had been strong through it all. Keenan, however, I could not say the same for.

The summer King had been very dull lately. I knew why, Donia had told me, and I could understand his pain. I wasn't angry that he had kept the whereabouts of Seth a secret from me for his own gain; I expected nothing less from him. Still, I was very disappointed with him when I found out. I treated him no differently then I did before.

As King, Keenan was expected to strong and as a summer farie, he was expected to be a bit more cheerful. Frankly, his dullness slightly irritated me and the rest of the court. Still, we said nothing and hoped he would liven up one day before summer arrived.

My relationship with Donia had slightly improved, to say the least. She no longer shunned me away as she had before. I still was not allowed to enter her home however we did meet up on several occasions, sometimes to talk business and sometimes even to just talk as woo young women just happened to be Queens of polar opposite courts.

Because of Keenan's resistance, I took charge in Court. I spent most of my time at the park and rarely ever went home. My grandmother understood.

I made deals and decisions with my court and advisors instead of Keenan. This was how I realized how strong I truly was.

I kept the summer girls happy and content; I even went on trips with them. Sometimes to the mall or sometimes out to a nice restaurant. Things at the summer court had juristically changed since Keenan's depression. I had done my best to show everyone how strong and powerful summer could be and at the same time how kind and gentle we could be. I think this is mostly why Donia had warmed up to me. That and the fact that Keenan had practically shoved me in the face of depression because Seth was in his way.

To say the least, things were good. In other words, they could have been worse.

Chapter One

It was that time of the month again; The Fair.

Everyone was so busy preparing and I was stuck in the midst of it all. I had no idea where Keenan had gone off to and honestly, his disappearance at such an important time annoyed me. He was always the one who enjoyed these things, not I.

On top of that, everyone was acting weird around me. The kept giggling and smiling when I passed by or when I asked them if they had seen Keenan.

I turned as I heard my name being called and saw Quinn, my advisor, running up to me.

"We have a problem." He notified me.

I sighed with annoyance. These things were never this hard to do before. Why now?

"What happened this time?" I asked, attempting to hide my wariness.

"It's summer wine. Some of it has seemed to go missing." He seemed worried when he said that.

That's strange, why is he so worried about that? It's not as if we needed that much. I'm sure we had more then enough for the night.

"Alright, call the club and tell someone to send enough to make up for the missing. I'll go look for it in the loft, just incase." He nodded in obedience and hurried away.

As I walked up to the loft, a thought occurred to me. Both Keenan and the wine had gone missing. What if Keenan was with the wine, or better said, the wine was with Keenan.

As I searched the loft, I came to the conclusion that he was not in the park. I decided to drive around and see if I could find him. I grabbed my keys and notified Tavish of me leave. Of course he did not approve and thought the idea was silly at a time like this but did not out-rightly object.

As I began to drive around town I spotted a man hunched over a fountain with a box besides him. I parked up my car right in front of the fountain and stepped out, loudly slamming the car door shut.

The man slowly turns around then turns away. It's definitely Keenan.

I could hear the sound of the fountain and nothing else but my high-heals clacking on the floor. As I neared Keenan, I discovered the missing summer wine inside the box.

"Keenan?" I asked.

Nothing.

"What are you doing?" I asked him again, only this time in a strong voice.

"I was going to get drunk." He explained in a small voice.

"With the stolen Summer Wine?"

"I was going to get drunk here so I wouldn't have to be awake for the fair but then I decided not to." He said, as if that made everything all better.

"So you decided to simply dump in all in the public fountain." I stated, raiding my eye brow slightly.

He was being really annoying. Keenan's childish behavior was irritating. This wasn't even Keenan anymore!

He never answered me. I quickly pulled my phone from my clutch and checked the time. It was almost six.

"It's late. Let's go." I ordered.

I waited a few seconds and he didn't move, so I tried again, only softer this time. I even went to help him up and to the car. Once I made sure he was in the passenger seat, I thought of what to do with the remaining summer wine. There were three unopened bottles left and one bottle which only had a few sips left. The thought of a carton of summer wine being wasted for no real reason angered me but I decided to overlook that.

I dumped the remaining several sips on to the side walks and prayed that no one decided to lick the ground. I contemplated on what to do with the wine inside the fountain. I finally decided to call someone to bring some buckets of water and dump then into the fountain. I wanted the wine washed away a soon as possible.

I snatched up the remaining three unopened bottles and walked back to the car. As we drove away, I snuck a few glances at Keenan. I couldn't tell if he was drunk or not but I really hoped he wasn't. For the rest of the ride, I said nothing and as far as I could tell, he was asleep.

As soon as I drove into the park and in front of the loft, a couple of summer girls immediately dragged me out of the car and into the loft to prepare.

They did my hair so in cascaded down my shoulders in wavy layers. They even pinned in small flowers. My eyes were done with light brown mascara and brown eye liner. Then, they touched it up with gold eye shadow to match the warm summer theme.

As a finishing touch to their efforts, they handed me a white sundress and brown wedges.

I walked with a cluster of summer girls surrounding me outside. As I stepped out, everyone made way for me to Keenan, who I must say had really cleaned up.

I gently smiled at him and took his hand in mine. Then after stepping besides him I shouted to the others, "Let the festivities begin!"

And just like that, they all dispersed.

I walked hand in hand with Keenan for awhile, just talking. It was nice.

"This is really well done." He commented while looking around.

"Thank you" I said automatically.

"You did this?" He asked me in surprise.

I hid a frown at this. What, did he think I was incapable of doing anything involving the court because I was not born as him?

"With help of course. But as far as management goes, yeah." I shrugged, hiding my slight anger.

"Wow! I'm truly impressed." He said nodding with a smile.

"Well I'm glad I could please you my king." I snapped back at him.

"Ash, I didn't mean it like—"He noticed his mistake.

I waved my hand to stop him.

"Yeah, yeah. I know. Let's just stop, okay?"

He nodded and frantically looked around.

"My King, My Queen. Summer wine?" Tavish offered.

We smiled at him and took the glasses. He bowed his head and walked away, leaving Keenan and I with an awkward silence.

"To summer." He toasted.

"To summer." I mumbled in echo.

After a big gulp, which I felt I really needed, I took his hand and lead him to the area cleared out to dance. We waltzed to the music, laughing all the while.

After the waltz finished, we stopped to get a drink. The night continued like that. Dancing, laughter, and summer wine.

We were swaying to a slow song in the center of the clearing, surrounded by other summer fey and completely drunk, when it happened.

Keenan's face inched closer as mine did. Our lips where only centimeters apart. I could smell the sweetness of the summer wine coming from him.

I tuned out everything else and only focused on the passion vibrating from us. Finally, after what seemed to be eons, we met.

It felt like a thousand sparks flying all over; nothing like the last time we kissed. I could barely hear the few fey around us cheering.

Whatever happened after that was all a blur.