Page 47 of The Heir the Fae Forgot
Hewantedme.
From the very beginning, before Zev, or Finch, and certainly before Shiel showed me a single shred of kindness, Icarus wantedme.
Sure, it would be easy to claim he only wanted me for my powers, but I’d felt the bond he claimed had formed between us. I’d felt him, felt the way he desired me, seen the way he looked at me. It might have started with him wanting me for my powers, but I knew there was something more to it, too.
And that, I realized, was what frightened me the most.
That was why, when I finally understood what staying with Icarus would mean, my only thought was to leave. That was why, as I finished my glass of wine and turned back to the two fae at my side, I knew one thing, and one thing only.
We needed to find Shiel so that as soon as he felt the deal was done, we got out of here—Oracle or not. Only, the moment I turned back to Finch, I was distracted, because he’d gotten distracted first.
One of the lanterns had, at last, floated close enough for him to catch. He held it in his hands now, his face pressed so close to the glass that his nose was actually squished up against it. Any sign of his displeasure with me from a moment before had vanished, the look on his face replaced now with one of curiosity.
“It’s a pixie,” he whispered, as if saying it aloud would make the tiny creature I now saw hovering inside the glass vanish. His eyes lifted for a moment to scan the hundreds—if not thousands—of lanterns floating all around us. “They all are.”
I tore my eyes from the tiny, glowing creature encased in the glass to follow his stare.
When I looked back down, Finch was already fiddling with a small catch on the outside of the lantern. There was small popping sound as he finally undid it, and in the blink of an eye, the moment the glass cage was unlocked, the pixie was zipping out.
It was gone even faster, but not before stopping for a single second to look back at Finch, as if silently thanking him for setting it free.
I watched the pixie fly off in a colorful streak until it was no longer distinguishable from the rest of the tiny pinpricks up above. But when I looked back, Finch wasn’t looking at the pixie he’d rescued.
He was looking at me.
His brow had furrowed like he was deep in thought. Something about the way he looked at me, it made me shift uncomfortably where I stood. I tried looking for Zev, but he was gone too—presumably to get some food to put in Finch’s stomach, which was obviously already far too poisoned from the amount of faerie wine he’d drunk.
When I looked at him again, his own gaze still fixated on me the same way, he’d started swaying on his feet.
I caught him around the shoulders and started helping him towards the wall, where he could at least lean on something to steady him. He accepted my touch with a spark of delight, his hands wrapping tight around me and refusing to let go once we’d stepped even further out of the throng of dancers.
But when I went to pry him off of me, his hands only tightened.
“Aurra…” my name came out slurred between his lips.
“Just a minute now and Zev will be back with food and some water,” I said, even though I was only guessing. I craned my neck to try and spot any sign of the massive fae in his white shirt. I’d just thought I’d spotted him starting to weave his way back towards us when Finch reached up and cupped the side of my face, forcing me to look back into his eyes.
His face was mere inches away from mine now.
Normally, I’d have found myself pulling away. His breath was hot on my face, but it wasn’t sour. It drew me in further with the scent of sweet wine and berries plucked from the buffet when I wasn’t looking.
His feet had gone steady at last, or maybe I was just swaying with him now.
“You’re soverybeautiful, Aurra,” he whispered, his eyes as glassy as the fae dancing around us.
Despite myself, I blushed.
“You’re drunk, Finch,” I said, trying to push him back—but not enough, I seemed.
His brow furrowed deeper. “No, I’m not drunk enough. I can never be drunk enough, not as long as you keep refusing to look at me the way you look at…at…athim.”
My lips parted. “At Icarus?”
“No!” His foot slipped just a little then, and I had to catch the both of us. Faces were starting to turn our way. “Not just him. At Zev. At Shiel, even. Anyone but me.”
I was lost for words then.
“I want you to look at me like you think I’m beautiful too,Princess,” he said.
