Page 27 of The Queen The Fae Forgot
I felt myself step back from him before I realized I was doing it.
“Speak plainly, Icarus.”
“I thought I already was.”
“Speak plainly—” I reiterated, “soIthink you are.”
A slight smile pulled once more at the corner of Icarus’ mouth. He dipped his head slightly, advancing one of his own steps forward with each one of my own that I took back.
He was upon me in an instant, his stride so far outpacing my own.
“I’m here to start a war, My Storm. Eitherbeforethe queen learns to equip her court, or after I’m able to weaponise them myself.”
That image, the bodies and the red, red sun, forced itself to the surface of my memory once more, as it had all too often since the moment I first saw it. That image, the bodies and the red, red sun, forced itself to the surface of my memory once more, as it had all too often since the moment I first saw it. I swallowed hard, trying to shake the image away, but it was no use. It had already taken root in my mind, more real than ever before. I could feel it growing around me, turning from a vision into something more. Something imminent. Something all too real.
I felt the heat of that red sun. I heard the screams of the dying, the crushing, crunching weight of bodies bearing down on one another as they piled higher and higher. The stench of war, of blood and iron and sweat filled my nostrils, threatening to overwhelm me.
I took one last step back, trying once again to shake this thing that had taken hold of me, but misjudged my own weight. Before I even knew I was falling, Icarus’ hands were upon me, reaching out to catch me with a firm grip on my upper arms. Though I couldn’t feel his skin on mine, the fabric wasn’t enough to keep me from feeling that ever-preset bond that had stretched between me and him from the moment we met.
As I stared up into Icarus’ eyes, the image of that vision, of the prophecy the Oracle had spoken over me, over both of us, it flickered and faded away. All I saw, in that moment, was him.
Icarus.
The Dark Fae.
My enemy.
But I didn’t see my enemy. I didn’t see the rogue, villainous fae of the Wildness that I’d been warned of time and time again, even by himself. All I saw was that strange, beautiful creature that had rescued me from his own Wildness that first day when I first faced the fae and knew them to be real.
“Why are you doing this?” The fear was gone from my voice when I asked it, but there was a new weight that hadn’t been there before. “Why are you doing this to us?”
“Because,” he said, his own voice so soft, so sweet, not the voice of a monster that had just admitted that his grand plan was to start the bloodshed I’d so feared, “it has to be done.”
My brow furrowed. “Just because that’s your truth doesn’t mean that’sthetruth.”
For a second, Icarus mulled on his. His arms were still around me, my body only held up by his own strength.
“You can’t stop fate, My Storm.”
He was no longer talking about visions or prophesies. My heart raced with a forbidden excitement that I couldn’t deny. I looked into his eyes, and I saw something in them that made my heart race. It was a look of desire, of need. He leaned down, his lips only inches from mine, and whispered, “And fate brought us together for a reason.”
But even as we were so close to once again giving in to our desires, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was coming, something that would change everything.
My breath hitched, and before he could lean in closer, close that gap as we already had one too many times, I had to ask one thing more.
“Why did you bring my sister here, Icarus?”
His grip on me tightened slightly. “For you.”
“You brought her here to antagonize me?”
“I brought her here to make sure you couldn’t drive me away.”
It was a fair enough answer. But I needed more.
“But as your fiancé?”
His answer was quick and sharp. “As her protector.”
