Page 20 of The Heir the Fae Forgot
Rather than answering with a truth as likely to spark a war as anything Finch was about to say, I settled on a half-truth, instead. I was no practiced liar under the best circumstances, and these were anything but.
“It’s not you,” I said, my nerves causing my heart to quicken within my chest. “It’s…it’s …” I wracked my brain for a moment before blurting out the first thing that came to mind. “It’s my sister.”
“Your…sister?” Icarus asked, eyes narrowing.
Shiel’s lips pressed together as the dark fae turned to look at him. “A human she was raised with.”
It was Icarus’ turn to sneer. “A human? Come,” he settled back into his chair, his hooded eyes taking me in now. “You’re better than that, now Aurra. No human should ever be able to affect you so.”
“Yeah, well, some of us aren’t entirely heartless.” I had to fight the anger that rose up in me at his suggestion. I couldn’t expect him to understand. I was the fae who’d been human up until last week, he was a fae who’s scorned humans for—who could even guess how long. To him, they were like ants, their lives short and insignificant.
That, at least, had the intended effect of the dark fae. Icarus shot forward, eyes bright and searching now.
“Heartless? That’s quite the accusation.”
“Well, you’d have to be, to forget your sibling so soon after abandoning them,” I said. “Forget human or fae, would you not miss adogif you’d left it behind?”
That sneer on Icarus’ face softened just a little. He stroked the end of his chin, that sordid interest returning to his eyes.
“You make a fair point, Aurra,” he said, after a long moment. “So, you miss your human sister, you say? Would you like very much to see her again? Would that help ease all this…” he trailed off, looking over me with a lingering glance, “tension?”
What wouldreallyease the tension causing my blood to pound in my ears would be if Icarus hadn’t killed over a half a dozen of his fae and left their bodies hanging above my bedroom for me to find. But since that was not only already done, but that bringing it up was only likely to once again spark the near drawing of swords, I was just relieved that Icarus had bought into my lie.
Half-lie because, of course, I really did miss my sister.
The trip to the market had done more than left me shaken. It had brought back those memories together that I’d already begun to let slip into the vague mist of ‘before’. Before the fae arrived and changed my life. Before I learned that my parents weren’t really my parents, my sister not really my sister. Before I entered one life of abuse for another, before I was subjected to a new set of lies meant to get something out of me without actually ever letting me know what that was.
Before all of that, there was just the two of us.
And now, without her, there was an emptiness that I’d never be able to fill. There were some people whose places inside of us had become a permanent part of us. I doubted I’d ever walk into a market again without thinking of her and wondering if her life had taken a true turn for the better. That was my only hope in all of this. I’d escaped the false parents that had made it their mission to torture me, but she remained. Would their scorn fall on her next, or would they heed Zev’s warning and send her to a place where she would, at least, be out of their reach for a while?
I hadn’t delved into this half-truth with the anticipation that it would overcome me here, in front of Icarus and his court, but that’s what it did.
I was shaking by the time I answered Icarus. I knew he was baiting me, half teasing me, still not willing to believe that a human girl could affect me so.
“Yes,” I answered, near breathless. “If I could see my sister again, be sure that she was safe, then that would change everything.”
I expected him to scoff, to sneer, to laugh off the desperation soaked into my voice. I’d made the mistake of being vulnerable with him, but rather than take advantage of that, something softened further in the dark fae before me.
He lifted one hand, and in a second, one of his demon servants stood at his side.
“Fetch me the crystals.”
The order had barely been issued when the servant blinked out of existence then straight back into it, this time holding a huge stone bowl filled with glittering crystals the size of my hand or larger. Though the demon carried the bowl like it weighed next to nothing, the table nearly collapsed beneath its weight as it was set down. The tree beneath us shot new vines and branches up to support the sudden weight, these vines growing up to wrap around the bottom of the bowl, as if cradling it.
These new vines lifted and tilted the bowl slightly until it faced Icarus. A new look had taken over his features, an excitement that was palpable.
And not only from him.
Shiel had frozen at my side. His eyes were glued on the bowl with as much curiously as there was trepidation. He clearly wanted to stop Icarus, to put a halt to whatever it was the dark fae was preparing to do, but he seemed unable.
Icarus drew back the sleeves of his shirt, exposing the blue veins racing up his forearms as he held them over the bowl of crystals.
“Come, Aurra, let us see how this human sister of yours fares.”
I didn’t even feel myself consciously give my body the order to move. I was simply suddenly pressing to his side, my eyes widening at the sight of slight glow starting to form deep inside the clear glass-like facets.
“What is it you’re doing, Icarus?” Shiel growled from across the table. His curiosity hadn’t been enough to banish that trepidation, it seemed. His hands were now gripping the table so tightly that I could practically see the vine and branches that formed it shuddering beneath his grasp, as if they wanted to wriggle free.
