Page 25 of The Crown the Fae Forgot
We turned to go, but before we could, she caught my arm and looked me deep in the eyes.
“I hope you understand this aid I offer comes with a price,” she hissed. “I do not do this simply out of the kindness of my heart. I expect to be repaid many times over.”
There was a fierceness in her eyes when she looked at me that told me all I needed to know. She might rule her court thatrevered her, but just because they didn’t fear her, didn’t mean they didn’t have reason to.
“Are you sure about this?” I whispered to Shiel, as soon as we were out of earshot.
“I am,” he said, his hand briefly brushing against mine. Rather than pulling away, however, he glanced at my face—and seeing the concern knitting my brows together—his fingers interlaced with mine. “I know you can access some of your power already, but if you’re going to face the Eastern Court—and all the other courts that will be racing to claim what’s rightfully yours—then you need to do it at full strength. It won’t matter that you don’t know the full breadth of your power. The fact that you possess it alone might be enough to keep the peace.”
“Or, at least,” Shiel added, after falling quiet for a moment as we passed by the final set of guards as we finally exited the manor, “buy us some time for the inevitable chaos soon to follow.”
His words brought back an image I’d hoped I could forget, of the vision I’d seen, of bodies and war and death…and I hoped beyond hope that this was not the inevitable fate Shiel spoke of.
But in my heart, and in the echo of the Oracle’s prophesy that once more ran over and over through my mind, I knew hope wasn’t going to be enough.
Between the daysI’d already spent in bed and the nerves of what lay before us the next day, sleep was out of the question. I was already awake, my eyes glued to the slight shift in patterns across the ceiling that the rising sun had finally begun to cast, when Finch pried open the creaking door.
“There’s a thing called knocking,” I said, still staring straight up at the ceiling.
He ignored the comment and took it as an invitation instead, the rest of him appearing in the widening gap as his face spread into a broad grin.
“I had a feeling you’d be awake,” he said, half breathless with whatever it was he was dying to tell me. “Shiel told me to let you sleep, but—”
“Yes, Shieldidtell you to let her sleep,” Shiel said, from where he’s appeared over his shoulder. He reached out and caught Finch’s shoulder with one of his rough hands and pulled him back, his own body stepping up to fill the doorway. He reached for the doorknob to pull it back shut, but then paused as his eyes landed on me.
Finch took his momentary hesitation as a second kind of invitation.
He was back at Shiel’s shoulder, practically bouncing on the balls of his feet, rearing to go. Seemed I wasn’t the only one on edge, Finch just had his own way of showing it.
“She’s not even asleep,” Finch said. “Come on, Shiel. It’s Midsommar. What’s the point in holing up in here all day? It’s just going to make the wait that much worse.”
To my surprise, Zev appeared as well, the marks of his own deep sleep still etched into the side of his face and the gravel of his voice.
“For once, I agree with Finch,” he said, letting out a yawn. It was all I could do not to stare at the tattoos etched across his skin, fading already in the days that had passed since I last touched them up. He hadn’t remembered—or hadn’t bothered—to dress, and his tight breeches weren’t doing much to cover him, either. “It could be good for her to get out of the house. Who knows how the spell is going to affect her?”
It was clear he had something more to say, but Shiel cut him off with a sound close to a growl.
“My point exactly,” he snapped. “That’s why Aurra needs to rest.”
Shiel reached for the door more firmly this time, but before he had the chance to pull it shut again, I let out a loud sigh and sat up, my eyes narrowing at all three of them, now.
“Do I have any say in this, or is it already decided for me?”
“Do…you want to go?”
“Well, I’m certainly not going to get any sleep. You three bickering has made sure of that.”
I wasn’t getting any sleep anyway, but they didn’t need to know that.
“If I might,” Zev said, his own sleep-deepened voice edging closer to a growl as well, “I had a good reason for suggesting Aurra leave. And unlike Finch, it has nothing do with cornering her on the dance floor.”
Finch’s face reddened, but both he and Shiel turned to wait patiently for Zev’s promised explanation.
Zev, relishing the momentary silence, let out a loud yawn and stretched, his arms spreading out over his shoulders like great, muscled wings. They were nothing like the dark fae, Icarus’actualwings, of course, but they were memorable in their own right, the defined muscles rippling beneath his skin.
Now that he had all three of our attention—though for two decidedly different reasons—he finally let out a small, satisfied, smile and nodded towards the window.
I’d left the curtains slightly cracked, and through the sliver of window, I followed the direction of his gaze until I saw what he was motioning towards.
