Page 50 of The Court the Fae Forgot
My eyebrows raised. “You forbid me? So, am I your captive, then?”
Once again, Shiel’s jaw worked as he struggled to respond. “I’m just trying to protect you.”
I tried to shake him free of me, but he wouldn’t let go.
“I ask you again,” I said, slowly, carefully this time. “Am I your captive?”
Only then did he let me go.
I looked up into his face, a mask of frustration that he took no pains to hide.
“You think I would be here, with you, wasting weeks on the road if I had any other choice?” he asked, his throat bobbing as he at least struggled to keep his voice even.
“Then go. I don’t need you.” I crossed my arms over my chest.
Shiel, in turn, lifted his head up to the sky and let out a roar of frustration. The shout echoed through the listening forest. He looked back down into my stunned face, teeth bared and breathless.
“You have no idea what you do to me, Aurra. No. Idea.”
This time, he was the one who stormed off. He took off up the road, neither Finch nor Zev moving to follow until he stopped some ten paces ahead, his footsteps digging into the dirt so ferociously that dust billowed up behind him.
“I thought you wanted to stay in an inn. Now, unless you want to waste half of this single, precious night of yours arguing instead, I suggest all of you get a move on.”
CHAPTERNINETEEN
Night had fully fallenover the city by the time we’d passed through its outer gates—though gates were a strong word for what they were. There were no doors or drawbridges, not even a guard in sight to keep an eye on those who came and left their city.
Though, to be fair, calling it acitywas a bit of a stretch, too.
Shiel kept pace ahead of Zev, Finch, and me, but I could practically read his thoughts thanks to the anger that had made his movements all too obvious. In all the time we’d travelled along the roads, he’d been so careful to keep us in the shadows. Now, he brazenly shoved through the middle of the crowd, not caring who turned to swear at him—only to freeze when they realized what he was.
At least, I thought, it left a wide trail behind him for the rest of us and the horses to follow, unimpeded.
Finch leaned close to Zev as we passed beneath the abandoned gates in Shiel’s wake.
“A bit optimistic, isn’t it?” I heard him say, both of them turning to look up at the empty guard’s towers with concern creasing their foreheads.
Zev shook his head. “Foolish. They have no idea what’s coming.”
I shot one glance up toward Shiel, before slowing my steps to fall in between them.
“What’s coming?”
They mirrored my own glance, each of their heads turning to look up at Shiel, too, before Finch dared an answer.
“You are,” he said, simply before tugging the horse’s reigns a little faster.
That was it, all I was getting, I knew.
But it was enough to make me have to swallow back the lump that had formed in the back of my throat.
There was no time to slow and demand more from Finch and Zev, not with Shiel shoving forward at an ever-increasing pace. Not when I knew they wouldn’t go against his wishes and tell me anything more. It seemed even Shiel was finally becoming uncomfortable with the heads that continued to turn our way, watching, wondering, keeping us in sight for long enough to make my skin begin to prickle beneath the weight of their stares.
At least in the darkness, lit only by lamplight, we drew a little less attention than we had in my home village. Here, though the humans stared, they didn’t behave as if we were the only fae they’d ever seen.
I wasn’t sure whether that fact made me feel better, though, or worse.
I didn’t know who to fear more now—the humans, or the fae.
