Page 28 of The Crown the Fae Forgot
The more I fought it, the more my heart began to race again.
“They know to find us here,” Finch whispered to me. I didn’t know how I heard him above the music, or if I evendidhear him. But I knew he meant it from the slope of his brows, finally showing the concern I’d been so desperate for him to find. Not for Zev, however, but for me—just for me.
Finch’s usual anxious energy had stilled by the time he wrapped his arms around me once more. He held me so steady that it took me even longer this time to realize that we’d once more been pulled into the dance.
This song was different from the last. The one prior had invoked merriment and excitement to the point of near hysteria, time passing so quickly that the remaining hours leading up to the solstice had flown by, unnoticed. This one was morepassionate, full of emotion that than through it like a deep current. Time now seemed to ebb slower, and with it came an awareness that I hadn’t felt before. Each breath was an eternity, each step a lifetime. The birds overhead flew so slow I could pick out the way the wind rustled every feather between each flap of their wings. The flags waving in the breeze appeared suspended in amber. The skirts that spun around my ankles rippled one pleat at a time.
It would have been easy to get lost in this dance as well, to meld into the patchwork of dancers and spin between Finch’s arms for an eternity, all else forgotten once more.
“Look at me, Princess,” Finch whispered again, his voice drawing my gaze up to lock with his. He held me tight, so tight that our bodies were pressed together, one arm wrapped around my waist as the other held my hand, pulled up tight so it was tucked almost beneath my chin.
Just as before, Finch kept me rooted, anchored, grounded in the reality only he seemed capable of holding onto amongst the crowd. Maybe it was because he was so usually lost that when he needed to, he was the only one not so enchanted by its draw.
Fighting the magic made my head spin, but if I focused on Finch, on the way his eyes crinkled up slightly at the corners when he looked at me, at how the outer corner of his mouth always seemed to want to twitch into a smile, at how his fingers dug a little tighter with each passing second, as if he couldn’t pull me close enough—if I focused on that, then I didn’t feel so close to pulling apart at the seems.
Or, at least, not by the magic.
Because instead, the fabric of me was straining to hold together because ofhim.
It had been a long time since Finch and I were alone, truly alone. The memory of that last time came flooding back, andwith it, the reminder of the promise—no, thedealhe had made—came flooding back too.
Something lurched inside me, lodging itself in the back of my throat as my eyes dropped for a second to rest, a moment too long, on Finch’s curved lips.
“Are you thinking of it too?” Finch asked, his head dropping bit lower. Our faces were so close together that it was easy to forget we were in public, and not entirely in our own, private world. “About my promise?”
There was no point in lying. If Finch didn’t feel my heartbeat quicken himself, then Zev would soon tell him, anyway. The way it stirred now could not be confused with the simple stirrings of the dance. It leapt and skipped and skidded to a halt all at once.
Staring into his eyes, I couldn’t help but feel my heart try to run away, despite everything he was doing to hold me in place. It thudded so deeply in my chest that I wondered if it would soon ignore the confines of my bones and flesh and simply break free.
“It was a stupid promise,” I whispered back, knowing it was useless to lie. “Only proved what Zev warned me about you to be true.”
For a second, Finch’s hand tightened just a little too much. “What do you mean?”
I let out a small breath, something closer to a sigh. “You’re impulsive.”
The momentary flicker of uncertainty in Finch’s eyes disappeared as quickly as it appeared. As the song has progressed, however slowly, his face has progressed ever close to mine as well. His eyes searched my face in a calm, reassuring manner, making everything else around us finally disappear. We were, in that moment, the only creatures in the whole world.
“I don’t think anyone—least of all myself—is trying to pretend I’m not,” Finch said back, that slight smile starting to twist its way back onto that perfect mouth of his, still hoveringall-too-close to mine. “But I choose to view my impulsivity as a virtue, rather than a fault.”
“Any how is that?” I asked, only realizing the mistake I’d madeafterthe words were out of my mouth.
“Because then,” Finch said, his hand releasing mine only so that he could cup my face and tilt it up towards his, instead, “no one can really blame me for doing this.”
The moment his lips pressed into mine, my whole body set alight.
I swore my heart actually did stop then, that treacherous organ refusing to beat even as my lungs refused to take in air. I died a little, in that moment, but only because of how trulyaliveI felt.
There was nothing that existed but me and Finch, and even of that, the only part that remained was the place where our bodies finally met. We were suspended in time for only so long, however, because even the enchantment holding us within its grips couldn’t make that moment last for the eternity it deserved.
The moment we broke away, it was as if the rest of the spell finally broke with it.
The dance had ended, the crowd dispersing, the music grinding to a halt as across the square, I spotted the face of a clock—my eyes shifting over Finch’s shoulder to land on the two figures clawing their way through the crowd towards us as I registered the remaining fifteen minutes until the sun hit its peak in the summer sky.
Zev and Shiel had found us, and not a moment too soon.
It was time.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
