Page 58 of The Court the Fae Forgot
He cast one glance back over his shoulder. “Unfortunate as that may be for them.”
He tossed a packet of papers inside the tent, torn and stained with more of the blood that clung to him. I knew what they were.
The marriage license my father had signed for me.
I breathed out a sigh of relief. “Thank you, Shiel.”
He didn’t accept my thanks. I didn’t think he could. I knew I’d pushed him in a way I had no right to. Who was I to tell him how to dole out justice?
But then again, greater still, who was I that he was more than willing to kill for me?
“I suppose those two louts ended up drinking themselves to sleep,” Shiel said, his face still turned toward the lights of the inn. “Come now, I’ll take you back inside before you’re missed. Zev and Finch will have a heart attack if you’re not there when they wake up.”
The tavern was still aglow, its business likely not concluded until dawn was close to breaking again. But the lights of the inn were slowly but surely going out as those who chose sleep over drink finally managed to drown out the raucous shouts from down below.
We couldn’t hear their voices from here, but I shuddered at the thought of passing through again, those faces turning to watch as I accompanied yet another fae inside. I’d had enough of men tonight. Zev and Finch hadn’t exactly left any room for me in bed, and besides that, I wasn’t sure I was ready to face Zev, let alone crawl into bed with him.
“Actually,” I said, looking down at the stiff bedroll beneath me. “I think I’ll stay in the tent tonight.”
Shiel froze, his gaze finally snapping back to me. I expected a fight from him. After all the lengths I’d gone to spend one night in that inn, after calling him my captor, threatening to leave him, he just took one good look at me and nodded, once.
“Stay here,” he said. “I’ll be back once I wash the blood off.”
“No—”
I lurched forward on instinct, my hand wrapping around his wrist.
“No,” I said again, as his eyes lifted to meet mine; my eyes having finally adjusted to the dark so I could at least make out his features. For all his strength, I saw a smidgeon there of the same feeling that haunted me, too. “No,” I said, my voice small. “Don’t leave me. I don’t want to be alone.”
I knew it was foolish, but still, just the thought of being left to wait again here amongst the trees, at the edge of that reaching Wildness, even for a second, made my gut wrench. A shiver racked my body, causing me to draw his borrowed cloak tighter around my shoulders.
Without another word, Shiel climbed into the tent, pausing only to close the flap behind him before he moved to pull me close to him. His hands wrapped around my front, pulling me back until he cradled the back of my head against his chest.
All I could hear now, as the sleep that had evaded me for so long finally, slowly, came to claim me, was the rapid beating of his heart matching mine.
We awoke like that,tangled together as the silence was shattered all at once.
“Shiel! Aurra!”
I was still struggling to pull free of sleep’s grasp long after Shiel had leapt to his feet, tearing through the tent opening like it was nothing more than spider’s silk. It was another moment still before I could cope with the sudden cold that rushed in with the absence of his body pressed to mine.
Once more, my cheeks flushed at the memory of last night. Had I really slept the whole night wrapped in Shiel’s arms?
Shiel? The very fae who, just the night before, I’d been sure secretly hated me?
There was no time to dwell on these thoughts, not when I spotted the frantic shapes of Zev and Finch racing toward us from the streets outside. Finch was waving his arms overhead, a mirror of the image Ada had been the night he and the other fae arrived.
“Shiel!” he called again, eyes wide and wild. “We have to go,now.”
Shiel, his sword already drawn in preparation for a fight, turned to spot something behind the two fae nearly upon us. He swore loudly, hastily sheathing his sword as he whirled around to offer me a hand.
“Come, now, Aurra. There’s no time to waste.”
“What is it?” I asked, reaching for the dress I’d somehow pulled myself out of in the night. More color rose to my cheeks as I glanced down at myself, thinking about how little fabric there had been between me and the fae now beckoning me forward. It was stained a deep reddish brown, the blood I’d not allowed Shiel to wash from his body now marking mine.
“Leave it. All of it. There’s no time.”
Shiel lunged forward and grabbed my hand, yanking me from the tent after him before I had time to process any further. Zev and Finch had already untied the horses. Their hair stuck out at odd angles, their faces still creased with signs of a hard night’s sleep pressed face down into pillows.
