Page 34 of The Heir the Fae Forgot
“Because,” Shiel said, that darkness in his eyes softening, “I don’t want you to be corrupted by it. This magic, the magic of the Wildness, it has a way of poisoning all that it touches. The longer we stay here, the longer you play with fire at Icarus’ command, the harder it’s going to shake free of this place.”
Something about his words made a nervous feeling flutter inside me.
I wanted to believe that Shiel was wrong, that his distrust of the lord of the Wildness was unfounded, but I couldn’t. It was Icarus’ idea that we stayed. Icarus who insisted I try to draw at the magic of his court. And it was Icarus who refused to take me to this Oracle, even though I’d asked, and more than that, even though she was the very reasonShielhad agreed to take me into his court in the first place.
Everywhere I turned, it seemed to me that the true answer lay with this Oracle, and yet the more I pushed towards her, the more Icarus and his court pushed me away.
I was finally getting answers, so close to getting the truth I’d sought for so long—when we were, of course, interrupted.
Overhead, a new noise joined the roar of the waterfall. It started with a sound of creaking as the trees began to shift, making room for the flapping of wings and the cawing of ravens as they swarmed in from overhead.
It could mean only one thing.
Icarus was back, and he was listening.
I turned once to Shiel and pressed my finger to the middle of his chest. “We’re not finished here,” I hissed. “I’ll get my answers, and you’re going to get them for me.”
“And how am I going to do that?” Shiel asked, eyebrow raising.
“You’re going to find out how I get to this Oracle on our own,” I said, glancing up at the ravens descending with an increasing feeling of dread. “That way, I don’t have to rely on Icarus and his corruption—or on anyone else—to find out who I am.”
Shiel caught my arm before I left. “Promise me you’ll be careful. If Icarus discovers you’renota fae of the Wildness, for sure, there’s no telling what he might do. Right now he’s offered us his protection, but if he thinks he’s losing his control over you, have no doubt he’ll do what he must to change that.”
I looked deep into his eyes, at the genuine concern there, and this time, I nodded.
This time, I didn’t refuse him.
CHAPTERFOURTEEN
I had once again foundmyself stuck in a strange place between two lords.
I’d seen firsthand the corruption of the glamour that Shiel feared, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t fear it too. The only thing that sent me back up to Icarus’ quarters to test my own glamour again was the reminder that I the spell binding my access to my own magic was so strong I couldn’t evensensethe Wildness’ glamour when I tried to call on it—let alone pull enough of that glamour to actually corrupt me, too. I’d worry about that another time.
For now, I only needed to worry about surviving through Icarus’ damn ball and maintaining my own free will once it was over.
I might be stuck between Icarus and Shiel, but I had both of them working for me, too.
Between the two of them, I’d learn who I was—one way or another.
There were only three more days until this ball. Three days to pry information out of Icarus, and three days for Shiel to find out how I could get to this Oracle to pry a little more. The court was already starting to bustle with preparations. The market had transformed, tradesmen and women busy with nothing but arrangements for the night fast approaching. Whatever Icarus had threatened them with this time had worked. There was not an idle fae hand to be found in his court.
In the meantime, I rose once more to the top of the court to let Icarus try and draw a magic out of me that I was growing more and more sure we wouldn’t find. If it weren’t for what Shiel said, about how there was no telling the lengths Icarus would go to keep me under his control until he found some way to use me, I’d still be going to him now.
Not because I wanted to, but I needed the answers only he seemed willing to give—even if he was only giving them to me because he thought it would bring down my guard.
As if he needed anything other than his mere presence to dothat.
Icarus hadn’t called for me the day he returned to his court. Nor the day after.
If he’d been trying to pique my interest, he’d succeeded. Two days alone in my room was enough to make me feel like I was on the brink of going mad. The closest thing to human interaction that I’d encountered was continually turning away either Vanya, Nissa, or Envi when they came to my room to deliver meals.
There had been so sign of the demons since the day Icarus left, not that I minded. Either they were too busy preparing for his ball, or something far more important had called them away.
Now, as I rose above the canopy and heard the vines begin to weave themselves together behind me, I couldn’t help but notice something had changed about the fae lord’s quarters in the short time since I’d been gone. The remnants of his work had been scattered across the table, the dried herbs crunching underfoot as I stepped further in. The chairs in the study had returned to their corners, but the table remained, my failed experiments remaining on display like some sad reminders of the glamour even Icarus couldn’t coax out of me.
It took me a second to spot Icarus himself, only to find him hunched over in the middle of his mattress, his head bent over a notebook he was scribbling in, the rest of the bed strewn with half-finished letters. He wore the same robe he’d worn in our shared dream and his usually silky hair had become a tangled nest about his horns. The dark rings under his eyes indicated that he hadn’t slept, and from the number of untouched plates stacked along the bedside table, hadn’t so much as left his room for some time.
Not, at least, since he’d arrived back in his court two days prior.
