Page 57 of The Court the Fae Forgot
Shiel didn’t take his eyes off the men now cowering before him, their glances first toward each other, and then toward the only exit now blocked by the fae stepping ever closer to them.
“Go ahead, call for help,” Shiel said. “You can try, but I promise you, you won’t like the way it feels to have your vocal cords ripped out if you do.”
“Shiel.”
My hands shook when I reached out to take his arm. I felt my body press into his, tucked slightly behind his figure, my touch stalling his advance, if only for a moment. Only then did he tear his eyes from his prey to look down at me.
I nodded behind him, toward the tavern. As much as I hated Rayner,loathedhim with every fiber of my being, I knew no good would come of Shiel killing him. He might be able to kill two men with his bare hands, but twenty? A hundred? News of a fae on a killing spree would spread too fast, and all I could think about was the two fae passed out, drunk and defenseless—or as defenseless as any of these fae could be—two floors above us.
Shiel’s face darkened as he read the look on my face.
“Don’t you dare tell me I’m not allowed to avenge you,” he growled, unable to stem the hate he felt from seeping into his voice, even as he spoke to me. “Don’t you do that to me, Aurra. Not again. Your father, I understood. But these men? These pieces of filth?”
I swallowed, hard, struggling to keep my knees from shaking, too.
“Just don’t kill them,” I whispered. “Please, Shiel. Whatever you do, don’t let me make a murderer out of you.”
A slight flicker of surprise flashed deep within his eyes, but it was gone as soon as it was there. In its place was a deep, pulsing rumble of frustration.
“Go to the tent. At the edge of the forest, Aurra,” he growled. “You won’t want to see this.”
Then he turned back to the two men and stepped forward again, this time leaving me to stumble back toward the street.
“Trust me,” he said, one hand reaching for the sword at his belt. “She didn’t do you any favors with her request. You’ll wish you were dead by the time I’m through with you.”
CHAPTERTWENTY-TWO
I did as Shiel commanded.
The tent was tucked away at the very edge of the trees, hidden only by the barest graze of the shadows. I was too shaken to care, too hollow to fear the call of the Wildness now.
I climbed inside and secured the door, seeking out the warmth of Shiel’s untouched bedroll. There were no screams from the men he’d cornered in the stable, but I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not.
I wasn’t sure Shiel had it in him to heed my pleas.
There would be no love lost between me and Rayner if he died, but I didn’t want his blood on my hands. Shiel might be the one to swing the sword, but it would be my soul that bore the weight of it.
We’d spent the days sleeping beneath the open air instead of suffocating inside a tent. The canvas fabric rippled in the faint breeze, drowning out the distant sounds of the city in front of me, and the forest at my back.
It was an eerie kind of silence that fell.
I pulled my knees to my chest and Shiel’s cloak, abandoned in his haste to come to my aid, over my shoulders. Like that I waited.
And I waited.
And waited.
No screams tore the night.
No footsteps thundered by in pursuit of a fae caught tormenting the townsfolk. No voices. No threats. Nothing to break that empty, stretching silence … until something rustled just outside of the tent, and fear gripped my heart in the final moments before it was Shiel’s face that finally appeared in the open door.
His face was cast in shadow too deep to make out more than the outline of him, but I didn’t need to see him to smell the scent of blood that stuck to him, thick and sweet and cloying.
I stiffened, fearing the worst.
The sight of me drew a growl from deep within Shiel’s throat.
“It is done,” he said, voice thick with an anger I doubted would fade anytime soon. “But don’t worry,Princess.Those men will live to see another day.”
