Page 24 of The Crown the Fae Forgot
For all her cool calculation and suspicion, I saw the moment true surprise flickered across the lady’s face. “But how can you…how could you…”
Her words trailed off as something seemed to dawn on her. “You called Icarus here.”
There was a moment of reverence in her voice as she looked over me once more, but that reverence quickly shifted into something like fear as just as quickly, her gaze shifted over to Shiel.
“But then this means…”
He nodded as she trailed off, her words shifting in a stream of very uncharacteristic swears.
She practically threw herself back in her chair, her hand lifting up to cover the bottom half of her mouth as she was lost in deep thought.
After a moment, her eyes cut back over to Shiel. “If you already knew the king was dead, why didn’t you make your move for the throne, instead of fetching the girl.”
Shiel pressed his lips together. “I have my reasons,” he said, simply. “But those don’t matter. We all have our reasons for wanting the throne, but none more than Icarus, and it’s Icarus we need to be wary of.”
Lady Phyrra’s lips parted in an unbecoming snarl, but she didn’t disagree. “I’ve heard rumors that the lord of the Wildness was practicing this new magic,” she said. “So it’s true then? Do you think we should be worried? Is he truly unable to unbalance things?”
Shiel paused, only for a second.
“Yes,” he said, after a long moment. “I think we have every reason to fear Icarus, especially if the Northern Court hears of this and makes a move. Icarus will take advantage of any instability to make his move, whatever that is.”
He didn’t need to elaborate that it wasn’t only the Northern Court that he was worried about.
Lady Phyrra showed no sign of offense, however. She looked at me next, a new, strange look overtaking her for a moment.
“It isn’t every day that I get the chance to claim my own stake at the Eastern Court,” she said, “but as much as I would love to see my sister’s face when I took her throne, I think watchingyoutake it from her will be all the more delicious.”
The vitriol in her voice was palpable as she spoke, a wicked gleam alighting in her eyes before she turned to Shiel.
“Tell me, lord of the Western Court, what can I do to help?”
CHAPTER TWELVE
I’d hada feeling that Lady Phyrra might not hinder us, but I hadn’t expected her to actuallyhelp.Not in the way she did now, with glee staining every order that streamed from her mouth in the frenzy that followed.
Whatever her plan was, she wasn’t waiting around for something so gauche as to actually discuss her plan withus.
We’d warned her that Icarus was in no state to move yet, but even that information did nothing to so much as slow her down. She was a force of nature, the ease with which she ordered around her servants, guards, and advisors as they flocked to her without hesitation in the very middle of the night was a sight to behold. There was no sign of dissatisfaction amongst them, not so much as a single disgruntled murmur as they answered her call and just as readily obeyed without question.
Once more, the reverence of her court was tangible.
This, I realized, was true power—not what Icarus held through force and fear. The fae of Lady Phyrra’s court obeyed her not because theyhadto, but because theywantedto.
And that made all the difference.
As quickly as the storm of action had been stirred, it faded—leaving in it a near breathless Lady Phyrra and the four male fae standing beside me, nearly as bewildered as I was.
“There,” Lady Phyrra said, flopping back down into her seat, one raising to fan her reddened face. “By the time the sun stalls in the sky tomorrow, the spell needed to unbind Aurra from her spell will be ready. It’s very fortunate that you came to me. There are few times of year when even I can summon the power needed to undo this kind of magic.”
Shiel nodded his head in gratitude. “So, you can do it, then? So simply?”
“Simply?” Lady Phyrra arched an eyebrow at him. “If you’re right, and it was my sister that cast it, then even with the glamour at its Midsommar’s peak, then there’s no guarantee I can lift it.”
Something stiffened inside Shiel. “Is there something else we can do?”
“If we had more time, then it would be a different matter entirely,” Lady Phyrra’s face stretched into an uncomfortable grimace as she spoke. “But we must act with haste,” she said, bowing her head first to Shiel, and then most surprisingly of all, to me, before rising to her feet with a renewed spark in her eye. “Chances like these don’t come often. There may never be another one like it.”
It was clear from her posture that we were being dismissed.
