Page 62 of The Court the Fae Forgot
Shiel? A Lord?
It brought back a memory of something I’d asked him before, of what his stake was in figuring out who I was. He’d accused the other Lords of wanting to jostle for my favor, or my downfall, but he’d neglected to tell me then that he was one of them. From the way he stiffened at Icarus’ revelation, I doubted he had any plans to tell me at all.
What else then, was he keeping from me?
A sour taste coated the back of my tongue.
Shiel could bite his own tongue no longer. “What do you want, Icarus? If it’s nothing more than to admonish me for how I choose to spend my holidays, then we’d best be on our way.”
Icarus ignored the way his hand, finally letting go of the hilt of his sword, now reached for the reins instead. The one thing Shiel refused to let go of was me.
“Why not stay a while?” Icarus asked. “Rest your horses. Recuperate from your travels. There’s still plenty of time to make it to the Southern Court, if that’s really where you wish to spend the …holidays.”
Icarus turned back to me then, his eyes meeting mine. “There’s no point in leaving now,” he said, “not when I might have the answers you seek.”
Shiel swallowed, hard.
“Surely you don’t mean …”
“The Oracle has awakened,” Icarus said, the mention of the name bringing a new shiver down my spine. “If anyone can tell you who this wild girl is, it’ll be her.”
“Besides,” he said, waving his arm at the birds up above. As he did, the ravens took flight all at once, their cawing echoing through the rustling trees as they picked between the branches to take flight, their dark forms scattering through the leaves overhead. “The Wildness is more dangerous than ever. I can promise you’ll be safe here with me, but I can’t promise my forest won’t try to devour you if you wander too far.”
The crows carried with them a message, I was sure.
To my right, Finch whispered a curse under his breath, and I knew why.
Any chance of us travelling on in secret was over the moment that first raven took flight.
Even if Icarus didn’t know who I was, he knew who Shiel was. He knew something was afoot, something the lord was keeping from him. He didn’t seem a man who liked to be kept in the dark. Not when he was used to being the one keeping others in that place, cast in his shadow, his light the only way out.
“Is that a threat?” Shiel asked, once the silence had once again settled. At last, the sound of steel scraping drew my eye to Zev. His gaze was trained steadily on Icarus, his sword half drawn, waiting only for the order from hislordto strike.
Icarus once again held out his hands to either side. “It’s simply the truth,” he said. “The Wildness is no longer only under my control, Lord Shiel. The glamour is back, and this time, it has a mind of its own. It’s a good thing you’re here. We have much to discuss. We Lords must stick together in the times to come. You can’t argue that, at least?”
His hand reached up once more to stroke the mare, but this time, his claw scratched her, ever so slightly. She let out an agitated whinny, stomping back and letting out a loud, angry snort. Icarus examined the tip of his figure as if the sight of blood there, red and hot, surprised him.
“What is your name, Lost One?” he asked, suddenly addressing me.
A light sparked in his eye when he called me by the nickname he’d used when we first met. That’s when I knew.
Hedidremember me.
Heat flooded through me as much as fear when I answered him, guilt tugging at me as I participated in this charade.
“Aurra.”
A sly smile tugged at the corner of his wicked mouth. He’d guessed my secret. He knew that I’d not told the others of our meeting, and I hated that he now held the power of that over me. He kept his eyes trained on mine as slowly, carefully, he sucked the tip of his finger into his mouth, eyes rolling back as if in pleasure from the prick of the mare’s blood.
I felt the horses shift uncomfortably at the sight, to say nothing of the disgust that flickered across Finch’s unguarded face.
I alone knew what he really meant by it, his eyes still boring into mine as his lips parted and his tongue darted out across to wet them.
“But can you really justify leaving now?” Icarus asked, his black eyes flickering back up to meet Shiel’s, his momentary spell over me breaking. “Or will you agree to be my guests? At least for a while, until yourAurrahere has spoken to the Oracle?”
“If we stay, can you guarantee us safe passage out when the time comes for us to leave?” Shiel asked. I glanced back at him sharply, wishing he’d look into my eyes and see the panic there.
No.No, this was a bad idea. I knew it as my heart quickened and my stomach sank.
