Page 3 of The Heir the Fae Forgot
A warmth spread over my side until the prickling pain faded, replaced with that lingering warmth in its place.
I tilted my head up to look him in the eyes, then.
Here, alone in the Wildness together again, I saw in him what I’d been searching for. He’d allowed a hint of it to show before, but now that the other fae were gone, I watched as he let down the rest of his guard.
Or maybeIwas the one letting down my guard.
Together, we watched as Zev’s figure disappeared into the darkness leading into Icarus’ court. Once he was gone, Icarus ducked his head to press his lips close to the back of my ear to speak. The touch of him was electric, every place where our bodies brushed together, however faintly, lighting up.
“Looks like fate has once again brought us together, Aurra, My Storm,” he said, his hand reaching up to brush a matted strand of hair away from my face. “Now, let us see if we can free ourselves of this darkness at last, together.”
He took my hand in his, and together we descended into the depths of his Wildness.
CHAPTERTWO
I hadno idea what Icarus meant when he spoke of this darkness. Twice now, he’d claimed to be trapped in a cage of his own. Twice now he’d blamed fate for drawing us together, when each time it had been his own Wildness that had truly called. Twice now he’d said we could be freed, together.
But from what?
I was already free of the life I’d once been condemned to. As far as I knew, Iwasfree.
Why then did the words of the dark fae resonate with me so?
It was because he was right, of course. I wasn’t free. Not really. Not yet.
Not until, I was reminded as I emerged into the dim light on the other side of the underground tunnel and laid eyes on the three fae waiting for me on the other side, I was free of them. Not until I was free of all the fae who would lie and use me, would I truly befree.
I needed power to be free of them, and right now, I had none.
Icarus made no move to touch me in front of Shiel and the others, though I had no doubt it had nothing to do with any concern for their rection, but rather, to protect me—and the secret that we now shared. It was better if Shiel didn’t know Icarus and I had met before, let alone of the bond we’d shared. As much as I didn’t fully understand all that Icarus claimed, I knew he was right about that, at least.
He knew me in a way that no one else did. He’d awakened something in me that I couldn’t deny—even if it was his Wildness that had awakened it, and not quite himself.
But the dark fae didn’t need to touch me again for Shiel’s eyes the flash as we stepped through the doorway and out into the Wildness court. He looked over us too closely, his jaw set and his lips pressing tighter together as whatever he found displeased him.
The horses were the only creatures to voice their dissatisfaction. They tossed their manes and their eyes rolled upwards again, their feet pawing at the soft grass beneath our feet as they took in this strange new world.
And strange it was, indeed.
Far overhead, the trees formed a tighter canopy than before, their leaves making up for the lack of sky and the bright twinkle of fireflies for the lack of stars. The court delved deeper and deeper beneath this canopy of living stars. The court sprang from the earth with a polished glitter, not unlike the gleam of Icarus’ wings. It was a wild place, still, but it had been tamed.
Overhead, magnificent platforms had been built between trees that welcomed them by growing their branches into intricate, connecting bridges. Even from where I just stood now, I could make out great glass panes of something that looked like a cathedral, another a dining hall, and then higher up still, smaller platforms glowing with soft light from within as figures passed by, busy with court business.
Below, a deep ravine wound further beneath the canopy. Market stalls carved from beneath the roots of the trees promised peculiar goods, their purveyor’s voices just starting to ring out as the market opened for the day. The court was larger than seemed possible, stretching out of sight between the maze of massive trees growing like pillars from the earth below.
Servants of a kind I’d never seen before were waiting to take the horses, leading them away to be stabled as more of them came to peer out at us as we walked by. They stared unblinking with large, round eyes and sunken faces, their willowy bodies too tall to be human but too spindly to be fae. There was something almost insect-like about them, their fingers long and bony, their eyes fully black and glassy when they met mine.
They were the kind of creatures that would terrify me had I met them anywhere else. But here, they didn’t dare to come close, only watched as their master led us towards the largest of the trees and the staircase that wound around it.
Theirs weren’t the only faces that watched with curiosity as we were led up into the trees along a narrow, winding staircase.
Fae that shared the same blue-tinged skin and dark hair as Icarus stopped their tasks as we passed, their eyes watching us a little too carefully. It was clear that we were the curiosity here, fae of other courts not often wandering so deep into the Wildness that they were actually invited into its court.
I watched them with the same interest as I struggled to work out the hierarchy of a fae court such as this. Aside from the merchants I’d briefly glimpsed, the fae that resided here seemed to take on other very human-like roles. I saw a female pause where she led what must have been a fae cow by its lead, the bucket of milk under one arm swinging, forgotten, as droplets scattered across the ground. Wherever the droplets of milk landed, small white flowers sprung up to devour it before wilting and shriveling—returning just as quickly to the earth from whence they’d come.
Above us, in the open windows of the intricate buildings set into the trees, more faces peered down. These faces were painted, dark makeup highlighting eyes made to look even bigger against that distinctive pale skin. Their hair was woven into intricate patterns to resemble horns, their cloaks long and fluttering like dark wings. Despite that, only Icarus himself seemed to actually have either.
His court only mimicked him, their equally strange beauty merely a shadow compared to the real thing.
