Page 39 of The Court the Fae Forgot
There was no sign of a carriage outside waiting for us, only packs now being secured to two fae horses snorting their excitement for the journey ahead. I recognized them from that first day, when Finch had arrived in his gilded carriage and truly set this all in motion.
The man and woman I’d once known as Mama and Papa didn’t bother to follow us out to say their goodbyes. I didn’t care. I didn’t want the memory of their faces to scar this final moment.
I took one last, lingering look at the place I’d grown up, at the cottage, the mill, the familiar forests and trees.
If I had any energy left to try and miss them, at least, I would.
Finch was already beckoning me over to lift me up onto one of the horses when a sudden flurry of movement had all three of the fae reaching for their swords. But it wasn’t my parents in some final effort to exact revenge, nor was it some new assailant that had simply been waiting for their chance to get at me out in the open.
It was my sister.
Ada rushed from the cottage after me, escaping just long enough to throw her arms around me one last time.
“I’m going to miss you so much,” she whispered into my hair. “I don’t care what they say. You can’t leave me, Aurra.”
I was unable to stop the tears this time.
“I’m going to miss you, too,” I whispered back. I wished desperately that I could offer her some reassurance, so I gave her all I could. “But don’t worry, I’m safe now. And soon, you will be too.”
I held my sister for a long moment, her teary eyes looking into mine.
We’d spent our lives fighting together, and suddenly, I was leaving her.
I wished with every fiber of my being that I could, at the very least, take away her pain. A new life was starting for her, too. Soon, I wouldn’t be the only one able to escape this place.
But, where I was leaving it entirely, she had to remain in part.
I couldn’t stand the thought of her living her life knowing I’d left her behind, that I’d left her to deal with all the pain and the reminders on her own.
So, I held my sister tight and I looked her deep in her eyes until her sniffles quieted.
“Ada,” I said, Idemanded,“I want you to forget me. Forget all of this. It’s better for both of us if you never remember the imposter who brought you so much pain.”
She opened her mouth, ready to argue, but then she stopped. A strange look clouded her eyes, almost as if she was confused, and then she was suddenly stumbling back.
I knew the betrayal that had to be stirring inside her, but I also knew it was better this way. Better for her to move on from the changeling who’d poisoned her life long enough. Better for her to spend her days looking forward than to dwell on the horror that was our past.
I knew she would face hardship, still.
My parents weren’t about to turn into kind, charitable souls overnight. They’d always been cruel, just used my presence as an excuse not to take responsibility for it.
But I had no doubt that their fear of the fae would protect my sister—at least a little.
And that had to be enough, because it was all I had to give.
I let go of Ada then, as much as it pained me, but only because Finch was reaching out to pull me back too.
“Come now,” he said, carefully leading me back step by step from the one thing I cared that I was leaving behind. “It’s time, Aurra.”
I took one last look at my sister, at the shivering shape of her in the darkness, and I wished in that moment that she wasn’t looking back at me like a stranger.
CHAPTERFIFTEEN
A stranger.
That’s what I was, even to myself.
The first few hours of our journey passed in silence. Our group moved slowly, the three fae walking on foot as I struggled to stay in the saddle of the one fae horse that wasn’t heaped with packs for the journey ahead. We followed the path beyond my family’s farm and away from our town, moving slowly south. It wasn’t long before we were walking along a route that I’d not taken before.
