Page 57 of The Queen The Fae Forgot
No.
Deep down, I knew why.
Those riots were not the first ones in this city. I’d known that the minute I first laid eyes on Rayner. What we’d witnessed was not what had sent the city into lockdown and called his emergency council.
I froze, knowing who was about the enter the council chamber the moment before he did.
Icarus.
It still wasn’t until the dark fae Lord of the Wildness swept in and took the last remaining empty seat at the table that I understood.
Icarus was no longer just the Lord of the Wildness.
Icarus was now the Lord of the Northern Court, too—and there was only one way he could have convinced the queen, or any of these other new treacherous lords, to allow that.
He’d bargained for it, and I had an idea what he’d used to win his seat by their side.
“What is the meaning of this?” Shiel demanded, next. He’d fixed his advisor with a mutinous glare, but the advisor only looked to the queen. Every other eye followed, except for me.
I couldn’t bring myself to look away from Icarus.
He, in turn—and for perhaps the first time—refused to look back at me. A cold shiver ran through me. Was this what Ada meant when she said I owed her nothing? Had she been trying to warn me?
Surely not.
It didn’t matter though, not now. Not with the cold silver of the collar around my throat, my power somehow stripped from me just as it had now been stripped from every rightful ruler of this kingdom.
The queen straightened herself up, her shoulders pulled back as she surveyed her new council.
“This is a terrible mistake,” I said, taking a step towards the queen. As soon as I did, the arms holding me tightened, restraining me in place. As if in a final act of treachery, I recognized the tumble of red hair falling over my captor’s shoulders. I swiveled slightly, twisted between the hands that held me until my uncle was forced to meet my eye. “Now is not the time for a coup. Our kingdom is in danger.”
All I earned in response was a dismissive hiss from the queen.
“Did you not see the riots last night? I did,” I gasped, turning back to her. “I was there.”
“They’re humans, we’re fae, they’ll fall in line,” the queen said. “They’re always upset about something or other. This too will pass.”
“Not from the humans,” I said, despite my uncle’s tightening grip. “From fae.”
“Fae?”
The queen’s eyebrow rose.
“From Avarath.”
She let out a laugh that was soon mirrored by the other lords seated before her. When she sobered up enough to speak, the pity in her voice was enough to make a new layer of rage awaken in me.
“The veil between our realms hasn’t been crossed in centuries, silly girl. If you were truly fae, you’d know that. But just as I told you …” she said, gesturing to all gathered before us. “She’s nothing but an imposter. She might have the king’s blood running through her veins, but she’s not one of us.”
Shiel’s advisor nodded, one hand slamming down on the table in agreement. “It’s about time we were finished with that old king’s line, anyway. No one fae should have that much power.”
“And now that my daughter has mastered the new glamour enough to create her own version on Tongues, then that will be enough to keep the people happy,” the queen agreed.
I swallowed, hard, as I watched my world crumble before me. I’d known the queen planned something, some kind of treachery, but never this. It was one thing to depose me, to join the scrabble for power in the old king’s absence, but to ignore the true danger staring us in the face?
That was madness. That was the surest way to make sure that terrible vision of bodies I couldn’t banish came to pass.
“But the prophecy …” I started again.
