Page 36 of The Heir the Fae Forgot
“Not with each other, but with the glamour itself.”
I waited as the silence stretched again and then, despite the thudding of my heart and every instinct inside me telling me to keep my distance from this already dangerous creature, I carefully stepped up into the bed to kneel beside him.
Icarus was staring up at the trees loosely forming a ceiling over our heads. He’d called me later in the afternoon, and by the time I’d climbed high to meet him, the sun had already come close to setting. Soon, I imagined, I’d be able to see the twinkle of stars—real stars—looking down at us from up above.
“The glamour granted their wish,” he said, continuing his story as I settled down in the down mattress. “It bound them to a new kind of glamour, one divided between four new courts to keep the balance. But no deal is made with the glamour without an exchange.”
“And the exchange?”
A sly smile tugged at Icarus’ lips. “Their immortality.”
“But you?”
He finally tore his eyes from the ceiling to look at me. “I, Aurra, am not from one of those four courts. My court was born from the Wildness, an anomaly that the glamour created when the fae brought it here. I was born in it, from it—and so, I was never bound to the same rules as the other courts. I and my court were different, and so the other courts called us perverted. That was why when you spoke of jealousy earlier, I had to laugh. We could have been the fae courts’ greatest allies, their freedom from the harsh rules imposed by their new deal with the glamour, but instead, jealousy drove them to make us their enemies. They trapped themselves in cages and pretended they protected them, and now that the glamour seems to have changed its mind, now that it is flowing freely through all the courts as it once did so long ago, they do not know how to handle it.”
I couldn’t help the way my gaze wandered from his eyes to look over his body then, at the markings his own use of the glamour had left on him.
“But you think you do?” I asked, knowing I was venturing into dangerous territory.
But any fight that had flared up in the dark fae had long since died down. All he had the energy for now was a small sigh.
“A fae’s glamour flows through their veins as they use it,” he said. “The more you use it, the more it molds you, shapes you, becomes a very part of you. Even I, who has used the glamour in ways that the other courts here could only dream possible, struggle to use the new magic. I’m carved deep with the glamour of many lifetimes. But you…”
He trailed off, his eyes looking over me with a small spark.
That was when I understood.
I was breathless when I answered. “You think I can use this new glamour…because I never used the old one.”
I narrowed my eyes at him then, suspicion drawing my brows together.
“You never thought I was a Wildness fae, did you?”
Icarus held my gaze for a long, long moment. “I could hope. It would be far easier for me if you were.”
The almost tender moment that had passed between us suddenly hardened as a buzzing noise filled my ears. It felt, for a moment, as if the floor was dropping out from beneath me as the sky above simultaneously collapsed in.
I was on my feet, staring down at Icarus in disgust before I realized it.
All because I remembered what he’d said to entice Shiel into letting us stay longer in the first place.
Until either you or I can claim her as one of our own, she has the right to act of her own free will.
“You know, I was this close,this closeto forgetting you’re just out to use me,” I said, forcing my voice to steady. I didn’t want him to know just how bright the fury burned within me. “You thought you could force me to do some Wildness magic using this new glamour that would make methinkI’m one of yours. Then Shiel couldn’t take me from here.Icouldn’t even take me from here. I’ve seen how you treat your court. You were trying to trap me.”
Icarus was suddenly sitting up. “How I treat my court?”
“Don’t deflect. That’s not the real issue here,” I said, but still, I backed up as the fae lord started to rise from his bed. His movements were careful and deliberate, but that was somehow more terrifying than if the pain had left him lurching. He was so focused on me that the pain and the exhaustion were entirely forgotten. “You lied to me,” I said, the knot tightening in my throat with each step I took away from him. “Not in so many words, but it was a lie still.”
Something must have shown on my face, because just as quickly as he’d risen to stalk me, Icarus froze again. His eyes widened slightly, lips parted, and he started to raise his hands as if to try and placate me,
“Aurra…”
“Don’t!” I snapped, and this time, there was no controlling my voice. “I’m done, Icarus. No more lessons. No more traps. You’re just as bad as the rest of them. No,” I stopped, holding up my hand to stop the steps he’d started to make toward me. “You’re even worse than them. At least now I know exactly how you planned to use me. For that, I guess, I should be thanking you.”
I bared my teeth at him as I swept down into a mock bow.
I must have made my point, because Icarus did nothing to stop me when I left.
