Page 43 of The Heir the Fae Forgot
Now that I knew what was on the line, I understood that there was no room for error. He couldn’t bring me to a court and claim I was the long-lost heir without some kind of proof. If word even got out of what he was doing, of who he thought I was, it could spark all-out war. It was never just about protecting me from the other fae. It was about keeping our entire world from descending into chaos.
Icarus never came for me while I was with the fae of the Western Court. He knew where I was within hours, however, thanks to his ravens. Once they’d first discovered us, the sound of their beaks tapping on the glass become a constant nuisance that even drawing the curtains wouldn’t drown out—if anything, it only made it worse.
There was no point in trying to drive them away. I had no doubt that Icarus would find another way to keep an eye on us if we did. Wherever we went in this court, even if it was staying in our rooms, we were being watched.
There was no need for another bed to be brought in. Shiel had volunteered his without question—not that Finch didn’t make a very convincing argument after that I should sleep in his, while he was in it, no less. They agreed to take watch in shifts throughout the night, so there would never more than two of them asleep at one time, anyway.
I might as well have offered to take watch all night while the three of them slept. I was awake, my reeling mind and beating heart refusing to let my body drift anywhere close to sleep.
After everything that Shiel had told me—and everything he still hadnot—I was no longer so sure that staying through the ball as promised was the right choice to have made. But Shiel was right, in one way. Better not to arouse any further suspicion in Icarus, not when his plans for me were already bad enough.
His end of the deal had to be upheld as well as Shiel’s, after all.
I’d been tempted to share the exact nature of Icarus’ plans with Shiel after all, once he’d told me the truth of why he’d hidden so much for me in the weeks after we first met, but at the last second, I found myself unable to do it.
I had, for the first time, a card in my hand…and I’d decided to hold onto it until I best knew how to play it. Besides, it wouldn’t do any of us any good if Shiel, Zev, and Finch started a full-on war at tonight’s ball. They were angry enough at Icarus already, justassuminghe’d done something wrong, I didn’t even like to imagine the level of rage that would consume them if theyactuallyknew.
I’d been nervous about the ball in the days leading up to it, but now that it was upon us, I was an absolutewreck.
Shiel and the others kept reassuring me that everything was going to work out fine.
They kept reminding me that it was no secret we planned to leave after. Icarus had failed to prove I was one of his own fae, and so there was nothing he could do to force me to stay once the requirements of the deal were met…as they would be as soon as the ball was over. Still, we’d done everything we could to prepare for our departure as soon as it ended without arousing too much suspicion.
No matter how we prepared, however, I couldn’t help the drowning, nagging suspicion that we hadn’t done enough.
No matter how much Shiel or Zev or Finch or all three of them together reassured me, I doubted very much that Icarus was going to just let us leave.
Not without putting up a fight.
And if that fight failed?
I wouldn’t be surprised if he went to all-out war over that, too.
War and bloodshed, that was what this all so quickly kept coming around to.
The only thing that kept me from falling apart completely as the hours ticked by, was the fact that at least Icarus’ demons still seemed preoccupied with whatever it was he’d called them away to do. The one thing Ididn’thave to worry about tonight was being snatched from thin air at any given moment.
It was a small reassurance, but I would take what I could get.
We were the only fae, it seemed, who were not assigned some role in the preparations for the impending ball. Just from what I could see out the raven-lined windows, it seemed as if every other fae in the court was on the verge of panic.
Shiel seemed certain he was on the verge of learning how to get to the Oracle when he left the morning before the ball. The hours ticked by, and before we knew it, all too soon, the time had arrived.
But Shiel had not.
It was my turn to take up anxiously pacing the floor where Finch once had. My gown, a waterfall of delicate black silk and soft satin, rustled with every step, until I sounded like just another one of Icarus’ listening ravens.
The neckline plunged almost down to the narrow taper of the waist, and though the sleeves were long, the back of the dress was open, revealing the many scars my father had left on my skin. Unlike Zev’s tattoos, which I’d spent the afternoon touching up to keep my hands occupied, those seemed unwilling to fade.
It was fine by me, though. They served as a reminder of the life I’d led before, the one that had been meant to break me, but had failed. I didn’t like to claim that the cruelty I faced at my human father’s hands had made me stronger, but it had certainly taught me just how much I was able to bear.
If nothing else, I hoped that would at least give the fae something else to gawk at tonight other than my face. Because my face was an even worse liar than I was.
Zev and Finch had chosen not to wear the colors of the Court of the Wildness, opting instead for their own dark breeches and plain white shirts. They didn’t look like they were going to a ball, but it didn’t matter. I preferred them that way. At least, when the three of us stood before the washroom mirror, I recognized at least two of the fae peering back.
At long last, there was a knock on the door, but when we opened it, it wasn’t Shiel.
It was Icarus.
