Page 2 of The Heir the Fae Forgot
Here, I’d only been worried about how much of my interaction with Lord Icarus was in my mind…when I should have been worried aboutallof it.
Worried about every interaction with every one of them.
At long last, something flickered across Shiel’s face, something almost like the slightest bit of surprise, and he took a half step back. That was the only invitation Icarus needed.
He seemed to grow taller, his shoulders pulled back and his wings tugging their pointed peaks slightly higher over his head.
“My ravens have prepared the way. You will find a safe welcome in my court. I will follow to close the path behind us—and to ensure my Wildness doesn’t get any ideas.” His dark eyes lifted to search the ever-tightening canopy closing in over us. “She can be a tricky mistress.”
Shiel shared a look with his two men, his eyes still conspicuously avoiding mine.
Only then did he take the lead, his hand on the reigns of his mare with Finch following close behind with the second. Zev alone remained behind with me and Icarus.
“Don’t worry,Prin—”
He caught himself only at the last second, his words tumbling over each other as he realized what he was doing. “—Arra,” he corrected, shame coloring his cheeks. “You’re safe. So long as you’re with us, Icarus won’t dare try anything.”
Zev reached out to me as if to offer a reassuring hand, but I stumbled back, out of his reach.
“It’s not Icarus I’m worried about,” I hissed, much to both of their surprise.
Zev went to argue, but then I felt another arm reach for me, this one snaking around my waist, pulling me tight to the Lord of the Wildness’ side. Even Zev, the tallest of the three Western Court fae, had to tilt his head up to look into the dark fae’s face.
“You heard the lady,” Icarus said, voice as smooth as honey. “Go on ahead. We’ll be right behind you.”
Once more, Zev’s hand had gone instinctively to the hilt of his sword. The moment his hand wrapped around the weapon, the trees reacted too. Their trunks came alive, the faces opening their mouths and letting out an unearthly, whistling screech. The tunnel leading into Icarus’ court began to writhe, the doorway shrinking as the tunnel of roots and earth shuddered with a deep, undulating bellow that began to roll out from deep within.
The corner of Icarus’ mouth turned up in a snarl. His hand pulled me tighter until his claws dug through my shift and pressed painfully into my ribs.
I sucked in a breath, but it went unnoticed amidst the chorus of unearthly voices reverberating around us.
Zev and Icarus’ gaze remained locked together this time.
“Unless you want that tunnel to squeeze closed around your friends before they have a chance to reach the safety of the other side, I recommend you let go of your blade.”
I could tell it pained Zev to follow his orders. His hand released the blade, but it hovered over it a moment longer, his face twisting as if the space between him and the steel physically pained him.
But then he met my gaze instead, and his face softened. There was confusion there as he struggled to understand the choice I was making.
I offered no explanation.
He was Shiel’s man. I couldn’t trust him not to share anything I told him with his master, and in turn, his master would use whatever Zev told him against me. Use it to get me back on his side.
Still, knowing that did nothing to stop the stab of pain that shot through my chest at the sight of his face before he left me and Icarus alone at the edge of his court.
The trees had stopped their screeching, the tunnel had stopped wringing itself shut.
In their place, in the silence that fell inside my own head, I couldn’t help but remember the tenderness with which Zev had once treated my wounds. I couldn’t stop remembering the way he’d saved me from Icarus’ Wildness, how without him I wouldn’t have even made it this far. I remembered the feel of the needle I’d used to ink my own name—my name,the beautiful shape of it never known to me before that moment—onto his skin.
Surely, that hadn’t been all show, too. Surely, that all couldn’t have been a part of some plan to manipulate me onto their side so they could use me.
Could it?
I shivered beneath the shadows of the trees.
As if that had reminded Icarus, I felt his claws suddenly retract.
“I’m sorry, My Storm,” he whispered as his hands brushed more gently over the place where those claws had dug into me, “sometimes I forget my own strength.”
