Page 35 of The Court the Fae Forgot
They meant the fae courts.
Something prickled at the back of my neck, but it wasn’t fear. It was excitement, curiosity, and dare I say it … hope?
Of course, if I was fae, I’d belong to a court. I’d have a place. A home. And more than that, a family.
A true family.
The very thought made my head start to swim again.
If Shiel and the others were right, then that family might have actually wanted me, might have placed me here to protect me. They had no idea the monsters they were placing me with. Even the blanket, glamoured to make me feel content and compliant, wouldn’t have been such a weapon against me if the circumstances were different.
It had been a curse to me, sure, but it had probably been meant as a blessing.
This was somehow the most unbelievable part of all. The part that made me stutter in shock, my words as broken as the thoughts refusing to form properly inside my head.
“You can’t be serious,” I said, shaking my head. I pulled against Shiel’s hand, but he held fast. “Me? The fae princess? I hand-grind grain to make flour. I ownliterallyone dress. I—I grew up eating stale bread and scraps from beneath the table. And you’re trying to tell me I’m not just fae, but … royalty?”
“That’s what we’re hoping to figure out, Princess,” said Finch, cutting in again, eyes sparkling. It was clear he’d already made up his mind. “We want to set things right, restore the balance that’s been lost.”
“The world is changing, quickly. We must change with it if we wish to survive.” Shiel nodded once at his side. “But we need to do it before anyone else, anyone who might want to hurt you first, gets the same idea.”
In a sudden, unexpected flurry of movement, Zev suddenly lunged forward. He dropped down to one knee again, his head bowing toward me. Unless I was mistaken, his hand shook slightly.
“I’d never have left you here, not for a second if I’d realized how bad it was,” Zev said, his voice thick with regret. “It’s my fault you were beaten. I went ahead of the others and brought the coins back this morning. I thought it would make you happy, but clearly, I was in the wrong. I’d not blame you if you ordered me dead on the spot.”
He started reaching for the sword at his hip, as if to do the deed himself, on the spot, but both Shiel I lurched forward to stop him.
“No, no … that’s not necessary. I forgive you,” I said, quickly.
Zev looked up at me with such gratitude that once again color sprung into my cheeks.
“There’s still time left to determine if Aurra is the lost heir,” Shiel said, clearing his throat from where he now offered Zev a hand up. “Maybe wait until then before you offer up your life again.”
He was right. What was a fae like Zev doing, putting his life in my hands like this?
Shiel’s words, meant half in jest to his companion, were what finally made what was happening sink in. These fae, they really thought I was one of them. More than that, they thought I belonged in a placeabovethem. Ruling them.
It was enough to make my knees grow weak.
Strangely, however, I found a strength in them that had no right to be there.
I leaned into this strength to steady my words when I lifted my eyes back up to meet Shiel’s. “You say you’re here to rescue me, but how do I know you’re not the very fae my mother was trying to protect me from?”
As much as I’d been taught all of my life not to trust the fae, I couldn’t find it in myself to outright refuse their offer.
Their words for what they were doing, rescuing me, couldn’t be more accurate.
They could have shown up as three devils, three demons, three literal skin traders offering to sell me off to the next family in need of cheap, expendable labor, and still, it would have been preferable to the alternative I’ve been offered.
My parents had been prepared to sell me off to be murdered by the stablemaster, before they tried to murder me themselves.
There was no place for me here.
No place left for me anywhere in this world, the human world.
I had no money, none of the coin I’d planned to steal to jumpstart my life once I escaped. It had been a doomed plan to begin with, but without it, and in my current, broken state, I’d be a fool to think I’d make it a week, let alone a single night in the forests, if I chose to leave now on my own.
“What reason do I have to trust the three of you?” I asked, finally. I lifted my chin and met Shiel’s gaze first, and then the others’, trying not to show the way the very core of me shook. That momentary strength I’d found was failing, leeching out of me with every racing beat of my heart.
