Page 50 of The Heir the Fae Forgot
I saw him open his mouth to continue, but I stepped between the two of them, successfully stopping Finch from saying whatever damning thing he was about to say next, and blocking Icarus’ murderous path in the process.
Only then, at last, did Icarus look at me.
Nothing good was going to come from this conversation. Both these fae held secrets from the other that were far too close to being spilled.
“Finch, why don’t you go find Zev,” I said, my gaze still leveled with the Lord of the Wildness.
I heard Finch start to splutter out an argument but I repeated myself, again, refusing to look away from Icarus in case he tried to do something if I did.
“Now, Finch,” I snarled, when he made no move to follow my order.
At least that was enough to finally make his feet start shuffling towards the door. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him turn and hesitate before heading back into the ball, as if he was considering whether or not he should take Icarus on one-on-one. Thankfully, he wasn’t quite drunk enough forthat.
The moment we were alone, I narrowed my eyes and set my jaw as I marched straight up to where Icarus remained, frozen and furious as the first moment he interrupted me and Finch.
“What are you doing?” I snapped, one finger waving in his face.
Icarus tried to force his posture to relax, but it was too late. “Oh, nothing,” he said, not at all sounding like he thought it wasnothing,“I’m just surprised you’ve chosen sides already.”
“Chosen sides?” I glared up at him. “I’m not choosing sides. But if I did, it wouldn’t be any of your business. Not after that little stunt you tried to pull with me.”
He ignored my accusation, focusing on his own. “Then what exactly whatwasthat you were doing just now, with…what’s his name? Sparrow? Blackbird?”
It was my turn to cock my head as I looked up at him, each one of my hands raising to plant firmly on my hips. “I thought you weren’t jealous.”
In a single movement, Icarus was upon me. He towered over me, a single hair’s-breadth between us as his dark horns glittered beneath that crown of his. It made him look serpentine, like a dragon with a great spiked crest.
The power and emotion that emanated from him now certainly felt like that of a fire-breathing beast.
“Of course, I’m jealous.”
His jaw set and his lip curled up in a snarl. “How could Inotbe jealous when I see you falling for not onlya lessercourtthan mine, but a lesserfae. At least, maybe if you’d had the decency to run to Shiel for comfort, I might have felt less…disrespected.”
The hair on the back of my neck stood up, and perhaps emboldened by the faerie whine, I snapped.
“Finch is twice the fae you could ever hope to be,” I snarled back, feeling my feet rise up onto my toes, as if a few inches could make the way he hovered over me any less impressive.
“Not, I can assure you, where it truly counts,” Icarus spat back, and all at once, there was no gap between us at all. His hands wrapped around my waist pulling me flush against him until I couldn’t ignore the way he throbbed against me. His head ducked low and his voice took on that deep, dangerous quality that made me have to fight to keep my head on straight. “I meant it that day in the forest, when I said our fates were bound, My Storm. Every moment we spend together only makes me more sure of that. A fae doesn’t feel that and simply let it go without fighting for it first.”
Somehow his fury made him even more beautiful.
Anger suited him. It brought out the angle of his cheekbones, that sharp line of his jaw, even his snarl made his full lips entice me closer. He was the Wildness through and through, deep, dark, dangerous—every part of it made to draw me in, and keep me here.
His lips curled slightly into something more of a smile. “It’s my turn to have a moment alone with you. That deal might not allow me to entice you to stay in my court, but it doesn’t stop me from taking you out of it.”
He didn’t give me a second to respond, not a single second to process before those great, leathery wings of his unfolded behind him. His arms tightened around me so suddenly that with a gasp, they stole the breath from my lungs.
“Aurra!” Shiel’s voice called out to me as he, Zev, and Finch erupted onto the balcony—a moment too late.
A great wind swirled around Icarus, filling his wings and launching us up, together, into the blackness of the sky.
More shouts followed, but I couldn’t hear them over the roar of wind in my ears.
The lights of the ballroom fell away as we tore through the air. Those great wings flapped with a furious wind of their own, carrying us higher and higher, faster and faster until I was sure we were about to crash into the tightly wound canopy overhead.
“Icarus!”
I shouted the fae lord’s name, but he didn’t answer. His head was thrown back, his smirk replaced by a look of raw, dark delight as that canopy shattered over our heads. We plunged into the night, the darkness suddenly broken by that endless expanse of stars—real stars.
