Page 59 of The Court the Fae Forgot
I had no time to be jealous.
I saw, the moment my eyes had adjusted to the sudden sunlight, exactly what had caused the sudden need to flee. Men with swords drawn, their faces pinched in anger and hate, rushed toward us, murder in their eyes. Not just any men, either. The guard, the one that had been so conspicuously missing the day before, had finally made an appearance.
And they were out for our blood.
Zev tore the remaining packs from the second horse and mounted it in a single stride, reaching back to pull Finch up after him.
“Sorry,” he whispered in apology to the protesting horse. “I’ll make it up to you.”
Shiel, in turn, took hold of me by the waist and practically threw me up onto the back of my own mount before leaping up after me, pulling me close to him. With a shout of encouragement, we were off.
And not a moment too soon.
It seemed as if the entire city had awakened, pouring from their houses and inns and brothels in pursuit of us.
We tore along the outer edge of the forest, trees flying by on one side as the outer buildings of the city turned into a blur on the other. We were soon closing in on Zev and Finch, the barrier between city and forest barely wide enough for both our horses to gallop.
“What happened? What’s going on?” I shouted out at Zev and Finch above the thundering of hooves.
Somehow, amidst the frenzy, Finch still managed to flash back a wicked grin.
“Seems our Shiel here got a little handsy last night with some of the townsfolk,” he called back. “Someone finally found them this morning.”
I felt something lurch inside me.
“I thought …”
“I didn’t kill them!” Shiel snarled again. He, it seemed, did not much appreciate being yanked from his bed by an angry mob.
Finch was grinning still when I caught his eye again.
“They’re alive, sure,” he shouted, “but let’s just say the remainder of their lives will be awfully … unfulfilling.”
In the absence of a response, Finch lifted one hand from where he held onto Zev to make a snipping motion in the air.
It took me a moment to understand him, and then a moment longer to fully understand what that meant.
“I told you,” Shiel said, only to me. His breath was hot and heavy in my ear, his breathing nearly as labored as the fae steed beneath the weight of both of us. “I didn’t kill them, but I did make sure they never found reason to lay hands on another the way they did with you.”
Finch wasn’t finished, however. His gleeful laugh, not dampened by the sound of the entire city’s population chasing us down, rang out between us.
“Can’t wait until I get to see what you do, Shiel, when you find out Zev had Aurra tattoo her own name across his ribs. I can tell you, those men weren’t the only men who had their hands on your lady last night.”
My name?
Shock rumbled through me. That was what Zev had me tattoo on him?
I remembered the shaky lines, the looped forms.
Something warm grew within me as I memorized the shape.
My name.
It was the first time I’d seen it, and just as it was now tattooed on Zev’s body, it was inked permanently in my own mind.
Up ahead, where the gap between the forest and the city grew wider, more soldiers appeared before us, blocking our escape. Instead of plunging straight into them, Shiel swore and told me to give the horse more lead. I hadn’t even realized I’d been holding the reins. I’d grown so used to gripping them over the course of our journey, that I’d instinctively taken them the moment he’d thrown me back into the saddle.
The horse bolted ahead, overtaking Zev and Finch before veering off to the side at one of Shiel’s shouted commands.
