Page 22 of The Queen The Fae Forgot
He knew I’d not yet been given that title. He knew it still remained outside my grasp.
I shook a strange feeling from my shoulders as I stepped inside.
It hadn’t been hard to find Icarus. I was almost ashamed to admit that I hadn’t needed to ask for directions. I didn’t want to alert the guards to my presence, since it was better if no one knew I was out wandering the castle on my own. If word got back to my mother, the queen, or Eckhardt—who was always lurking if not by her side, then somewhere close by mine—then she’d be sure to know what I was up to. I’d promised to keep to my studies, but that was just what they wanted.
And now that I’d started to come back to my senses, it was time for me to figure out what they were really up to. I hoped Icarus might know, at least something.
If he was willing enough to share with me.
If he wasn’t willing, then … well … I might make him.
I felt no pride at the thought of using my powers. I had no desire to overpower the will of others, even Icarus. If I could have asked for another power, another way to protect myself, then I’d have taken it in a heartbeat. But for better or worse, it was what I had, and even if it made waves of guilt wrack through me each time I had to use it, I would use it. I was the only advantage I had.
When I had it.
This time, when I stood before Icarus, my veins no longer ran dry. I felt that spark of magic, however small it still was, and felt keenly how different it was stand before the dark fae of the wildness with it in my grasp again.
I felt something else, too, the same thing that had drawn me to him, led me to his door through winding corridors and twisting stairs. That bond between us remained, stretched thin but somehow stronger than ever.
He’d told me of that bond the first day that we met, a bond of fate he’d called it, and here it was, once again pulling me towards the one creature in this world most dangerous for me.
He was the spider, and I was the fly.
I would remember that this time. Should remember that this time.
But still, somehow, the moment I opened my mouth, I forgot what I came here for.
“I know why you’re here,” I said, instead.
Icarus smiled, but it was a cold smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “You already know why I’m here,” he said softly.His smile widened as he stepped closer to me and his voice softened further.
Instead of backing down like every instinct begged me to, I stepped forward and looked him straight in the eye, determined that he understand how serious I was, that he might be playing a game, but I was not.
“No,” I said. “Why you’rereallyhere.”
As if to punctuate that, to make him see just how unafraid of him I was, I nudged the door shut behind me, waiting to hear it click before I took one more step towards him. The anger that had been simmering in my veins since the moment I’d entered the room suddenly surged within me.
I thought I came here for answers, but I came, instead, to make an accusation. It was not just the queen I needed to worry about, the queen who would use this new power against me in my own court, with my own fae.
Because Icarus had done it once already.
“You realized I won’t let you use my powers, that I’ve already chosen the glamour I inherited instead of this new one you’re so obsessed with,” I said, “so you’ve come to the one place in Luxia that you might find another fae willing—or evenable—to do your bidding.”
I felt my lips curl up as I took him in again, the shadows around him drawing ever tighter, the hollows of his cheeks growing more pronounced as even the circles under his eyes seemed to darken.
“You came here looking for another innocent fae to use, a fae to corrupt in your never-ending quest for power.”
That smile of his warmed, and somehow that was more terrifying than the cold.
My stomach churned at the thought. He’d nearly corrupted me, nearly convinced me to give up the greatest power of all, one that only I could possess.
That was what he did. Icarus had been doing this for centuries, longer than any other fae was able to even live, all the while taking advantage of unsuspecting fae who had no way to protect themselves from him. He was a master manipulator and a powerful foe, not someone anyone wanted to cross paths with—least of all me.
But now that I knew what he was up to, I couldn’t just stand by and do nothing. My mind hummed and my heartbeat drummed as I looked into those dark eyes of his and felt the weight of his gaze on me like a physical force. Whatever happened next, whatever I expected him to say to my accusations, it wasn’t what dropped from his still-curled lips.
“You’re absolutely right. Well done, Little Queen.”
Little Queen.There it was again, even more mocking this time.
