Page 11 of The Court the Fae Forgot
Without the skills to earn a living outside the mill, I’d as likely starve as I’d be driven into the arms of another with far more sinister intentions than my parents’ neglect. A husband, a master, a seemingly kind stranger … all those presented a danger far greater than the sting of my father’s belt or the familiar burn of an empty stomach.
I had little happiness in my life, but I’d learned how to make the best with what little I did have. Somehow, in one day, one fateful meeting, that tenuous balance had been shattered.
I didn’t know if there would be any way to recover it.
I didn’t know if I even had the strength to try.
So now, in this moment, if the Wildness inside the forest wanted to take me, then I was going to let it.
Whispers erupted from somewhere deep, though whether it came from the forest itself or somewhere inside myself, I didn’t know. They crept along my skin, raising gooseflesh on my arms and causing the hair on the back of my neck to stand on end. Ifeltthe whispers as if they were fingers caressing my skin, seeking out the warmth of my flesh.
Something deep inside the forest moved. The shadows lengthened, the branches overhead seemed to knit closer together, and a quietness began to settle over me as even the birds ceased their singing.
I took another step toward the darkness, but as I did, this time it wasn’t merely the shadows that grazed my skin.
Something far more tangible reached out and grabbed me, taking me roughly by the shoulders before my broken foot could touch the leaf-scattered ground again.
“Not a single step further.”
Icy fingers clung to the stained fabric of my gown, digging into the tender flesh below. I held back the desire to cry out as all the pain the Wildness had held back came flooding in all at once.
Hot breath warmed the slope of my shoulder as lips drew nearly close enough to graze the exposed skin there. I caught the flash of long, dark hair draping over my shoulder as whatever had taken hold of me leaned closer, the deep, silky voice growled words as close to a threat as the Wildness had once a promise.
“I’ll take you one day, but not like this. There’s no fun in such a willing offering.”
The heated words raced across my skin like lightning.
As quickly as the hands ensnared me, they let me go. The void of the embrace left, only for a great, overwhelming fear to rush into its place.
I was suddenly aware of everything at once. I was far deeper in the forest than I remembered wandering.
The great trees of the forest loomed overhead, so little light filtering through their mangled branches that I was left in near complete darkness. The shadows here didn’t shrink back as they did before. They kept reaching for me like great snaking roots, threatening to catch me and drag me further inside.
That hum was louder now, growing like it had in the moments before the fae struck me down in the village. It reverberated through the trees,fromthe trees, as if it was the rushing of their very lifeblood.
I whirled in place, nearly passing out from the pain in my foot as I did. Blackness clouded the outer corners of my vision, that darkness solidifying into a single, looming figure only as it began to finally clear.
Standing before me was another fae—as different from the first as night was from day.
His dark form was silhouetted from a distant light filtering in from the far reaches of the forest behind him, his body blocking the path back to the road. It took my eyes a moment to adjust, but as they did, the fear that had enveloped me only sunk its claws in deeper.
He was everything I’d once expected a fae to be.
He was a creature of the night, something born and bred of the dark.
A hint of leathery wings spread out from either side of his broad shoulders, sweeping out along his back like the drape of a cloak that rustled along the leafy forest floor. The hands curling at his side glinted with sharp, black claws. My skin prickled where he’d touched me, the remnants of those claws leaving unseen marks.
I had to tilt my head back to see his face, he was so tall, but the moment my eyes met his I knew it was a mistake. Dark horns curled like a crown above his head, glittering black amidst the dark curls framing the clenched muscles of his jaw.
And his face … that face …
Like the fae before, an ensnaring beauty looked back at me—cheekbones sharp as his curling claws and full lips drawn back to show the glimmer of wicked teeth. But even in the darkness, the stark white of his skin shone bright, as if to highlight the danger in his pitch-black gaze.
A gaze so fully transfixed on me that I felt as if he was lookingintome, not just at me.
This was the fae of my nightmares, the creature that had inspired the stories meant to keep me from doingexactlywhat I’d just done.
I was keenly aware of the fact that this fae could kill me now in a single stroke and no one would ever be the wiser. I’d just be added to the countless stories of wayward humans once again foolish enough to heed the call of the Wildness only to never return again.
