Page 8 of The Heir the Fae Forgot
A proper dress,instead of the flimsy lace and silk nightgown that had been provided me the night before, was hanging in the window, waiting for me when I awoke. It wasn’t the only thing, waiting for me, however.
A figure sat inside the window frame, one leg wedged up along the sill, the other dangling lazily along the wall. It took me a moment to blink away the dream that I’d been having, and another moment still to realize he was not just another part of it.
It sat up so quickly that I nearly fell straight back into the same deep unconsciousness that had taken hold of me the moment my head hit the pillow the night before. My hands flew up to clutch at the searing pain in my head, my own sleepy groan nearly drowning out the soft chuckle echoing from the figure still perched precariously across the room.
“Good morning, Princess. I was wondering if you planned to sleep through dinner, too…seeing as you’ve already missed lunch.”
Finch’s voice pulled me out of the last remnants of sleep.
I was suddenly aware of justhowflimsy the nightgown was that I wore. My hands slipped down to cover my breasts, practically exposed beneath the thin silk.
“What are you doing here, Finch?” I snapped, immediately glancing at the door to check that it was still locked. It was.
Finch kicked out his foot absentmindedly.
“Oh, you know, just thought I’d come check on you and Shiel after he didn’t come home last night. Did you know he slept outside that door all night?”
“Still probably out there,for all I know,” Finch said with a small shrug. He glanced out the window, the panes now cracked open just wide enough for a warm morning—orafternoon, if Finch was telling the truth—breeze to rustle his chin-length golden curls.
“Wouldn’t you know?” I asked, struggling to scoot to the edge of the bed while still keeping my chest covered. “He sent you, after all.”
“Shiel doesn’t know I’m here,” Finch admitted. “In fact, I’m under strict ordersnotto bother you.”
“And yet…you’re here.”
“I was curious. Can you really blame me?”
I pulled the blanket up a little tighter. “Actually, I can.”
Finch stuck out his bottom lip in a pout before he turned back to the window. He reached up to rap twice against one of the panes of glass.
“This whole place is a web of magical locks,” he said. “It’s like a maze to navigate, with one exception.”
His eyes sparkled when he glanced back at me. “Ravens. Ravens can get through all of them in here. So, imagine my delight when Zev let slip that he shifted into abear.Compared to that, shifting into a raven was nothing.”
He snapped his fingers as if to demonstrate the ease, but the sound of it only made me flinch. I found myself glancing around the room for any sign of one of the Icarus’ strange servants.
“There’s only one problem, though,” Finch continued, a small groan escaping him as he shifted his awkward position perched along the narrow sill. “Now that I’m fae again, I can’t seem to get out of this damned window without your invitation. Would you mind very much?”
Finch’s beseeching look quickly fell when he found no sympathy in the one looking back at him.
“Why don’t you just turn into a raven again?”
He licked his lips. “Um, well, about that…”
He glanced down at himself, a shiver slowly building within him for a moment—only for nothing to happen.
He glanced back up at me, offering only a pitiful shrug. “I guess I’m stuck in the middle of one of those webs. Can’t get in, can’t shift. I’m at your mercy, Princess.”
I measured him up for a moment. “There’s two ways through a window, you know,” I said, pointing towards the glass propped open.
Finch’s face paled for a moment. “You’re not really saying…”
I raised one of my eyebrows in response.
“Please, Aurra,” he begged, a tiny bit of desperation seeping into his voice. “It’s alongway down.”
“You should have considered that before you broke into my bedroom,” I said. “Maybe if you hadn’t let me sleep through my official introduction, then I might have been more willing to forgive you, too.”
