Page 41 of The Crown the Fae Forgot
Something about Shiel’s words made icy fingers begin to creep their way around the base of my spine.
I found myself fixating on the backs of my hands again. A little color had begun to flush my skin, remnants of two days’ rides across the uncovered southern terrain. It was strange, really. When I first saw these new hands of mine, I’d thought it would take an age to recognize them as my own. But as foreignas they’d been the first moment the glamour over me had been lifted, only a day and a half later, and they no longer looked like they belonged to a stranger.
Just like the power inside me had quickly taken root, settled into me as something that had simply always been there.
No matter how natural this transformation had started to feel, I couldn’t banish the warning from the Oracle…nor the vision that her words had prompted me to see. I couldn’t forget the sight of those bodies piling higher, but neither could I forget what Shiel had said.
I turned my face to look at the lord of the Western court, his own body splayed out on the rocky ground next to mine. I took in a deep breath, feeling for the first time in weeks a slight bite to the air. From somewhere not too far off, a slight brine had begun to tinge the air. We’d be nearing the sea soon, and with it, the Eastern Court at its edge.
Though how soon, I didn’t know, and I didn’t want to ask.
I sat up suddenly and looked at Shiel, laying there beside me. “What’s really going to happen if the Eastern Court knows about me before we arrive? Or if Lady Phyrra’s guards catch up to us?”
It wouldn’t take much for Lady Phyrra to write to her sister, to send of the pigeons Shiel had been using to communicate with his own court to warn her of what was coming. Her loyalties might not lie with her sister, but right now, they certainly didn’t lie with me.
There was an even worse possibility unspoken of yet, too. Though Icarus had been gravely injured just a couple days ago, who was to say he hadn’t warned the Eastern Court himself? Or that, somehow despite those injuries, he hadn’t moved to conquer?
There was so much uncertainty.Too muchuncertainty.
Shiel released a deep sigh, “Then we will deal with whatever that brings. It was bold of the Southern Lady to try and kill theheir to the throne, even after what you did. With your gift…she really was gambling on you not knowing how to use it again. Or, perhaps, that you’d run out of power the first time.”
For a second, he shot me a sly look I didn’t have time to question.
“But would she dare defy you a second time?” his voice trailed off after the question as he considered it himself. “There’s no telling. The first time could be forgiven. But a second? A full betrayal?”
He clicked his tongue. “Even a new queen couldn’t let that slide. And Lady Phyrra, as heady as she might be at times, she’s not a complete idiot.”
I didn’t let the silence fall again before I voiced my second concern again.
“And Icarus—”
“Icarus,” he said, fixing me with a steady state, “is a broken fae. He’ll need time to recuperate before he could launch any mind of attack. Besides…if there was something already brewing in the Eastern Court, my spies would have already told me.”
“But—"
Shiel cut off any further concerns with a small laugh, “Aurra, there’s a reason no one has challenged the Eastern Court in all the time the fae have ruled over Luxia.” He extended his arm, grabbing ahold of my hand for a moment. “I know you’re still processing what happened after your transformation, but you handled it so well… You might not feel it now, but with time, I promise you’ll see.”
“But the Southern Court…” I said, my voice small, ashamed, even. “I didn’t mean to make an enemy of them.”
Shiel seemed to consider this for a moment. “Sure,” he said, at last, “Things will be difficult without the support of the Southern Court. But you’re directly backed by the Western Court, so that has to count for something.”
A blush formed on my cheeks as I remembered the promise that had given me the strength to go through with this in the first place, to undergo the transformation that would ultimately lead to me taking—or at least attempting—to take my throne.
A throne that I never wanted, not before, anyway.
Now that I felt the royal blood properly flowing through my veins, I’d be lying to myself if I didn’t admit I felt a certain amount of adrawto that throne I’d been denied.
“And what of the Northern?” I asked, instead of admitting any of this to Shiel.
He let go of me then, falling back as he let out a sigh.
I missed his touch, his gaze, that brief connection we’d once again shared. But more than that, I missed the brief moment of confidence his words had inspired. Because he just shook his head again as his eyes once more took on that far-off look, as if he was no longer laying on the ground beside me.
“We’ll just have to see,” he said. “Whatever comes our way, we’ll just have to be ready for it.”
For a moment, laying here beside the fae who’d somehow promised to abandon everything for me, I just wanted not to think about anything else. Not the bodies piling higher. Not the crown that awaited my head. Not the two courts that pursued us. Not the fear of “whatever comes our way”.
Shiel hadn’t noticed that I was still watching him. He’d fallen into his own head, the thoughts consuming his mind as he stared, unmoving, at the slowly stretching shadows cast along the roof of the cave.
