Page 32 of The Heir the Fae Forgot
Vanya’s eyes widened, and she went to argue, but Shiel only tilted his head down slightly and bore his teeth at her.
“Say I forced you. Then Icarus can deal with me.”
She looked like she was still unconvinced, but then Nissa reached out to touch Vanya gently on her upper arm. She glanced first at Nissa, and then at Envi, who both shared the same worried look before she finally nodded once and agreed.
They left, but not without casting one last, lingering look of suspicion at me and the golden fae that had driven them away.
I wondered what kind of rumors would be spreadingnow.
Whatever they were, they’d be more harmless than whatever would be spreading had Shiel not come to my rescue when he did.
CHAPTERTHIRTEEN
Only once thethree fae females were well and truly gone did I whirl on Shiel, fury sharp on my tongue.
“What was that about?”
He was so accustomed to this sort of response from me, by now, that it didn’t even phase him. His voice remained calm, his posture relaxed, though his eyes still watched to make sure the three fae females didn’t decide to change their minds and make a hasty return.
“I didn’t trust them,” he said, simply—an answer that immediately drew from me a whistling huff of frustration as I threw my hands up in front of me.
“You don’t trustanybody.”
“I trust Zev and Finch,” Shiel said, nodding his head for a moment before he finally turned to look at me. “And believe it or not, I trust you.”
“Bullshit.”
The word was out of my mouth before I even had the chance to think it.
I kept my gaze locked with Shiel’s as I scrambled to my feet, waving away Zev and Finch’s arms reaching to help me despite nearly losing my footing on the slippery bank more than once as I did.
“What reason do you have to trust me?” I asked, still looking Shiel dead in the eye. “Isn’t that why you just sent Vanya and the others away? You thought I was going to tell her something I shouldn’t?”
“I sent those three fae away because they’re trained in the art of getting you to say what you shouldn’t,” he said, the outer corner of his mouth turning up slightly in disgust. “They’re a staple in every court, an unavoidable consequence of the natural jostle for power that occurs the moment a fae puts a crown on their head.”
Beside him, Finch wrinkled up his nose. “Don’t even get me started on the crotch fleas.”
“I think you’re the only one who has any problem with that…Finch,” Zev said with a more than generous helping of disapproving side-eye.
“What we’re trying to say, Aurra,” Shiel said, his own disapproving glare making Finch shrink back a little, “is that it isn’t about you slipping up and saying something you shouldn’t on accident. It was about them digging it out of you against your will. It’s happened to the very best of us at least once.”
“And some of us more than once,” Finch muttered.
I stuck my tongue in my cheek, thinking for a moment. “What are you really here for, Shiel?” I asked. “Surely Zev and Finch could have shooed off the busybodies, you know, since they trust you so much.”
“I’m here because I saw my opportunity,” Shiel said, simply.
“To?”
“To try and win back your trust,” he said, after a moment, his words finally hesitating a little. “By giving it, first.”
“What—”
“I was wrong, Aurra,” he said, stepping forward ever so slightly. I didn’t step back this time. I let him take another step, and then another, until he was standing so close I could smell the warm scent of him fill the narrow space between us. “I should never have kept my title from you. I should have told you where we were going. I should have told you about your glamour. All of it. I shouldn’t have kept a single thing from you.”
He paused just long enough for his Adam’s apple to bob in his throat. “The only reason I agreed to Icarus’ deal, to stay here in his court a moment longer, was because I hoped it might allow you to finally trust me, or at leastbeginto trust me,” he said. “I don’t believe you’re a member of this court. But if you need to learn that for yourself, then I suppose I can stand by until you do.”
Finally, an answer that shocked me into silence.
