Page 19 of The Crown the Fae Forgot
“There were always rumors,” Finch said, his eyes sparkling a bit, almost as if despite himself. “Fae who opposed the king, suddenly doing things very uncharacteristic after they left. Never in front of him, never in a way that could be blamed on the king…”
“Finch…” Shiel’s voice was a warning. He was glaring at his companion when I looked at him. “Be careful what you say.”
It took me a second to understand what he meant, but when I did, my eyes dropped down to stare at my hands in shame, instead of anger.
Shiel was afraid of what Finch was saying. Of what that meant for me, for what my power could do.
For what I might realized I could use it for—not just to control fae against their will, but without their knowing.
Without them even needing to be present.
“Aurra?” Shiel said, his voice sounding distant, as if he stood at the end of a long tunnel, instead of just out of reach. “If Icarus was here…how do you know he’s figured out who you are?”
My eyes began to focus again, but as they did, I found myself reading the words scrawled across one of the now scattered letters pinned beneath me. I read them once, still not understanding the meaning of the words. But then, as I blinked my brain back into working order, understanding began to dawn on me, and with it came a sinking, falling feeling, as if the room was collapsing all around me—but not from the tea, this time.
This time, it was from the words Shiel had written.
SOMETHING IN THE LETTER
I looked up at Shiel, my throat dry and my head pounding.
I started getting to my feet, but the blood had drained from my head, leaving the room spinning again when I tried.
All three fae reached for me, hands outstretched, as if expecting me to fall over into their arms. I might have, had I not been so determinednotto, if only not to give a single one of them the satisfaction.
The words I’d read were still ringing in my head, echoing inside my mind over and over, louder and louder each time until they were as unable to be ignored as the whispers had been earlier.
Shiel’s face paled in worry as all three of them shifted towards me again.
“What is it?” Shiel asked, eyes wide. “What’s wrong? Is it Icarus, again?”
The room was squeezing in tighter, threatening to constrict the very air from my lungs. All I could hear was Shiel’s damning words repeated over and over and over, the final words of a betrayal so cutting this time, that I couldn’t think of anything other than how badly I needed to put distance between me and the male that had done it to me.
I bolted for the door, prepared to push past Zev and Finch before they realized what I was doing, but I never got the chance.
One second, Shiel was leaning back against the bed, the next he stood bracing one arm on either side of the door, barring my way. There was no sign of weakness from the injury that had laid him up, healing, in bed this last week, not even the slight shake that had been there the first time my appearance at his side had prompted him to lurch out of bed.
He met my frightened face with a set jaw, hand outstretched for the letter I hadn’t realized I’d taken with me. It fluttered between my clenched fingers now, the ink smudging across my sweaty palm.
My heart beat so loudly in my ears, I could barely hear my own thoughts as I slowly, deliberately, handed the letter over to the lord that had written it.
His eyes watched me as his hands unfolded the crumpled paper, only flickering down to skim the words that had sent me into my panic for a second. When they lifted once more to meet mine, a spark of fury had lit within.
“So, you read this, and you were just going to, what, run away?”
When I didn’t answer him right away, his lips parted for a second and his mouth parted in a grimace. “Just like that? You’re so quick to think so poorly of me? I know what you think that letter says, Aurra. But it’s not what you think it is.”
Finch and Zev looked on in confusion, right up until Finch reached beneath Shiel’s outstretched arm and snatched the letter so he could read it himself. Zev read over his shoulder, and together, the confusion on their face slowly changed into recognition.
My heart only continued to beat at a pace that had Zev lifting up one arm to press against the tattoo surely pulsing furiously where I’d last inked it on his chest.
Shiel, meanwhile, hadn’t let his eyes leave mine. His jaw worked as his hands pressed harder into the doorframe, until the wood began to crackle beneath the force.
“What, so you’re going to trap me here then?” I asked, the accusation coming out between broken breaths. “Make me your prisoner after all?”
“No,” Shiel answered, moving again so quickly that I didn’t see the moment he slipped from the doorway to my side until he’d already caught hold of my wrist. His hand held me so tight that it was all I could do not to let out a squeal of pain. I held it back, however, as Shiel began dragging me from the room alongside him. “I’m going to show you why you’re wrong. And then I never want to see you doubt me again.”
CHAPTER TEN
