Page 37 of The Court the Fae Forgot
“But I won’t leave my sister to suffer in my place,” I stated, locking eyes with him. “There’s a school that needs to be paid for. If I can’t take her with me, then I want assurance that she’ll go to it. I want her to be protected.”
Shiel’s eyebrows raised. “And the money Finch has already given your family isn’t enough?”
I shook my head, looking once more over the sorry excuses plastered against the wall like the cowards they were. They deserved no charity, not from me or anyone else, but for Ada … for Ada.
It was for her that I advocated. I had to remind myself of that.
“Not with my father’s injuries,” I said, trying—and failing—to keep my own contempt now from my voice, even as I said it. “He’ll need to be treated. And he’ll need to hire help to work the mill while he recovers. That’s to say nothing of the help he’d need anyway once we’re both gone.”
A sob choked its way out of my sister’s throat and she buried her face back into my front again. Her shaking shoulders threatened to break my heart, but I held myself steady.
At least, on the outside.
Inside, I had already broken into a thousand tiny pieces.
Shiel’s lips pressed together, the idea of doing anything to help my parents clearly coating his tongue with a sour taste, too. He glanced at his companions, his face pulled up in a sneer.
“I’ll be honest with you, Aurra,” Shiel said, his teeth still gritted together when he looked back at me. “The thought of helping these monsters reviles me, even though you’re the one who asks it of me. Are you sure you don’t want me to just kill him? Your father? I’ve no doubt your sister’s life would be better for it if I did.”
My sister stiffened a little in my arms.
“Don’t worry,” I said to her, “I’m not a monster yet.”
I looked back up at Shiel and shook my head. “School. And hired help.”
He wasn’t pleased with my answer, but he nodded once in agreement.
Somehow, my father took that as an invitation.
Emboldened by the fact that I’d spared his life a second time—however reluctantly—he finally peeled himself away from the wall and stumbled forward, one hand cradling his broken arm.
He carefully approached us, grimacing worse with every pitiful step, as if trying to drum up sympathy, while only making me regret with each of those steps that I hadn’t agreed to Shiel’s proposal the second time. As soon as he opened his mouth, I regretted my choice even more.
“You can’t just take her and leave us with nothing,” his voice crackled, thick with bile and the stench of drink turned sour. “She is our daughter, our eldest. She’s an important part of this family. We would be nothing without her.” He smiled despite the words that he spoke, despite the fact that he’d been so quick to disown me in the moments before he attempted to end my life just minutes before.
If that wasn’t enough to make the fae at my side break his promise not to kill him, his next words were.
His face screwed up in an even more sorry display as he held out his one good hand to point at me. “Hired help isn’t going to be enough. She had a dowry to be paid too, you know. She’s worth the coin for two cows at the very least. And … and you say she’s a princess? A secret princess?”
His tongue darted out to wet his lips. “Well, I have a feeling there will be others who’d like that information. It seems like we’ll need to keep her identity secret for a while longer.”
At the very suggestion of money in exchange for his silence, Zev strode forward. His large body seemed to fill up the whole room with a thick darkness of anger. My father rightfully stumbled backward, his face growing white as he finally managed to shut himself up.
Zev’s muscled body made my father look very, very small in comparison. His head tilted upward so high that he nearly fell over trying to look into the fae’s face as he spoke, his voice coming out low and sharp.
“You truly dare threaten this fae? Again? In front of his guard?” He gestured to Shiel. “Need I remind you that with a snap of my fingers,” Zev held up his hand, fingers pressed together and ready, “fae beasts will descend upon your home and tear you all to shreds. You would be a fool to think that any of us or any other fae would give a single thought toward you and your wife. To us, it would feel as guiltless as accidentally stepping on an anthill.”
He leaned even closer. “The only reason we haven’t killed you already is at the request of the daughter you so clearly despise. You should think on that, remember that every breath you draw from here on out is owed directly to her. If I had my way, your brains would already be painting every wall inside of this hovel you call a home.”
Zev’s threat had its intended effect.
The inner thighs of my father’s pants slowly turned a darker shade as Zev took a step even closer to him. “Our future queen has spoken, and I, as her sword, will make sure her wishes are carried out.” With each step Zev advanced toward my father, he backed him closer and closer to the wall. “If her sister doesn’t go to school, you will be ants to me. If you lay a hand on her sister’s head, you will be ants to me. If her sister so much as cries, you’ll be ants to me.”
As if his message had not yet been driven home, Zev stomped down his boot and mimed the action of crushing an anthill underfoot. He kept his eyes locked on my father’s the whole time, his face such a mask of fear that it was a small miracle he didn’t pass out.
“Understood?”
Father could hardly nod his head, but he managed a small shake.
