Page 42 of The Queen The Fae Forgot
Did I even plan to make threats?
I hadn’t come up with a strategy, exactly.
But, from the glance the first guard gave me as he appeared in the door once more, it seemed that lack of strategy had already come back to haunt me.
I knew, before he spoke it, I was not going to see the queen today. Not unless I was willing to force it.
He hardly gave me a glance as he took his post at the side of the door, forcing me to step back a bit as he did.
“The Queen won’t see anyone else today.”
He kept staring forward, even when the other three fae broke out in angry huffs.
“This is an urgent matter, most urgent. It can’t wait.”
They tried arguing with the two guards, but were given only silence in return.
I left them to their argument. Their voices carried after me until the echoes of them made their words jumble together into incoherent noise. I should have been angry that I’d been turned away, but instead, I simply felt that new resolve from earlier rise up in me again.
Sure, I could march back to those doors and use my glamour to command myself entry, command myself an audience. But I wanted answers, truthful answers that didn’t require me to use the glamour the way Icarus had not just allowed me to but asked me to. I wasn’t yet ready to rely solely on my powers. I knew it would be all too easy to grow lazy and complacent, to grow so dependent on them that they’d become a crutch.
But more than that, the reason I turned on my heel, was pride.
That pride could have easily gotten the better of me, but as I turned that next corner, already half determined to storm the rest of the way back to my rooms and sulk, I spotted something that gave me a much better idea. The fae that had interrupted my lessons with Phina yesterday had just stumbled out of a door himself, and upon spotting me, immediately got that same confused look that all the fae did when they tried to look at me too closely. He lost his footing and though he caught it, he didn’t do it in time to stop the armload of scrolls he was carrying from tumbling out of his arms to scatter across the hallway.
He looked up at me, his face turning red with embarrassment. “I’m so sorry,” he muttered as I approached, bowing his head in shame.
I stepped forward and bent down to help him gather the scrolls. “No need to apologize,” I said, trying to mask the amusement in my voice. “Are these the scrolls that were missing yesterday?”
I had half a mind to thank him for the break his interruption had provided me. If it weren’t for him, I’d probably already be roped into another sleep-inducing lesson. Though, then again, I also wouldn’t have embarrassed myself beyond hope not once, butthreetimes since then.
He looked up at me again, his eyes meeting mine as he seemed to struggle to remember me for a moment before I saw a flicker of recognition in his gaze.
I instantly regretted it.
“You shouldn’t be here,” he muttered, again. “Phina’s been looking everywhere for you.”
Of course she was.
One of the scrolls I reached for had started to come undone, and I saw some of the letters scrawled on there—it made me pause just long enough to read the top line before the fae beside me snatched it up and tucked it neatly into the pile of papers he’d regathered in his arms.
I recognized the handwriting at once, but I didn’t have time to read it.
He saw me looking, and for a second, he hesitated before straightening up.
“These are for the queen’s eyes only,” he said, stiffly.”
Of course they were, too.
“Those scrolls …” I said, straightening up to. “Those are letters, aren’t they? From Shiel’s advisor, in the West?”
“Standard reports, nothing more,” he said, but something about his voice sounded off. It was like he was repeating something he’d been told time and time again, but wasn’t entirely sure he believed it himself.
“Is Shiel aware that he’s sending reports to the queen?”
The advisor blanched a little. “Of course—”
I held out my hand. “Then you wouldn’t mind if I took one of those to Shiel, would you? I’ve just seen him. He was asking about these directly. It would save you time.”
