Page 34 of The Court the Fae Forgot
“This blanket …” I started. “It was glamoured.”
“Likely by your mother, or whoever she sent to deliver you here,” Shiel said, nodding. “Her last gift to you.”
I stared down at the scrap for a long second before I suddenly dropped it, watching the curl of fabric drift to the floor in a flutter of disgust.
“It wasn’t a gift. It was a curse!” I hissed, a sour taste building on my tongue. “It was given to me, glamoured to make me compliant. Whoever gave this to me is complicit in everything … everything …”
I had to stop for a moment to keep from choking on my own words. This was too much. All too much. I was losing everything,everythingI’d ever known.
I pointed down at the scrap of gold glittering, forgotten on the floor. I stood up straight, my chin held high as my voice finally steadied.
“I want nothing to do with it, or with the woman who forced that on me.”
“Are you so sure of that?” Shiel asked, his brow furrowing slightly. “You might feel differently once you know who it was. Once you realize why she might have done it. Her magic is all over that ribbon, however little of it is left.”
“What possible reason could my real mother have for subjecting me to this … thistormentof a life? More than just giving me up, more thansellingme, she used magic to make sure I never had the strength to so much as question the way I’d been mistreated?”
Three hands twitched, almost subconsciously, toward the swords strapped to their sides.
When Shiel stepped forward again, there was a new compassion in his voice.
“I believe she did it to protect you, Aurra,” he said, carefully.
“Protect me from what?”
I knew I was being insolent, knew my temper was flaring to new heights, fueled by one too many betrayals. “What could possibly be so important as to justify what she did to me?”
It was Finch that cut in, Finch that gave me the one answer that managed to still my racing, furious heart.
“A kingdom, Aurra,” he said. “She did it to protect you from the entire kingdom. Fromyourkingdom.”
Shiel stepped forward once more, and for a moment, he reached out to encase one of my trembling hands in his. He looked me deep in my eyes and held me there until my knees no longer threatened to give out beneath me.
“Aurra, we have reason to believe you’re the lost princess. The true heir to the throne. The woman who gave you up, who glamoured you to protect you, is likely the queen.”
CHAPTERTHIRTEEN
My mother,the queen.
I didn’t even know wehada queen.
I’d spent very little of my life concerned with the fae that ruled our world. I knew they’d come to conquer so long ago that we had little memory—and even fewer records—of the humans who’d once done it in their stead. My parents had taught me they were cruel, unfair, and selfish, using their powers to keep the humans they lorded over under their heels.
I also knew that my parents were liars, and that they’d had more reason than most to teach me to hate the fae.
It was their way of showing their hate for me more than they already did.
The very fabric of my world was coming undone, stitch by stitch. It was all I could do to keep the threads together, to keep them from getting tangled in a way that would be impossible to ever unravel.
“Lost princess? I’ve never heard of a lost princess,” I said. “Why have I never heard of her?”
“Well … that’s because she isn’t lost,” Finch admitted, his words drawing a flash of annoyance from Shiel. “She’s just been replaced. Probably.”
“We’ve had our suspicions for a while,” Shiel added. His hand still held mine, but no longer just to steady me, almost so tight as to keep me from pulling back. Not that I wanted to. His touch, warm and surprisingly soft, made me want to never let go. He was my lifeline, my anchor in the storm raging around me. “We had to be careful approaching you, just in case they turn out to be right. If you are the heir to this kingdom, then it won’t be long before others come looking for you too.”
I heard the suggestion in his voice, as careful as he was. His hand tightened slightly, his head dipping slightly as he kept his eyes on mine. “We’re here to make sure you get back to your court safely, whatever court that may be. Princess or not, you deserve to know who you are, Aurra.”
Back to your court.
