Page 6 of The Queen The Fae Forgot
Not one word.
My eyes met the queens’, and even before speaking, before the words dropped from my shuddering lips, she knew.
“I’m too tired,” I rasped, at last. “I have nothing left.”
Her eyes searched my face for a moment, reading me with that same unchanging indifference on her own.
“Well then,” she said, after a moment, her gaze once more returning to Shiel instead. “Then the validity of your claims still remains to be seen. Fornow,I will retire. You’ve given us much to think on. And no, Lord Shiel, you’re notprisoners.You’re guests.”
Then she looked at Icarus next, and for a moment, that indifference on her face wavered, just a bit, before adding, with an almost inaudible shudder in her own voice, “For now.”
There was no point in stopping Eckhardt and the queen as they stepped from the room, their servants and guards slipping in just as quickly to usher the rest of our parties out, too. Somehow, in the shuffle of movement, I was the last to be cleared from the room.
The last besides Icarus, that dark fae Lord of the Wildness.
For a moment, we were left alone in the study, just the two of us.
And a moment was all it took.
CHAPTERTHREE
Icarus was not so mucha vision as he was a nightmare.
It was hard to believe that this creature standing before me was the same one that I’d encountered at the edge of the Wildness, let alone the one whose dark wings had enfolded me in the river as he awakened in me a desire I’d tried—and failed—to forget ever since.
His form remained the same, of course. He stood like a sentinel bred for power and precision, the hardened muscles of his lithe body visible beneath the drape of his dark clothes. He was built differently from the muscular fae warriors of the Western Court that had finally led me to the place they’d promised, but there was no doubt he contained the same power. Even without the magic he possessed, the twisted magic of his court paled in comparison to this new—or veryold—glamour that he commanded with more skill each time we had the misfortune of laying eyes on one another.
For me, it had only been days.
But something told me, from the hungry, distant way his eyes roamed over me, for him it seemed much longer.
I couldn’t help but shiver as his eyes finally met my own. Inside his dark gaze, I saw all the hunger and desire that had been simmering beneath the surface between us since our first encounter. It had become, once more—perhaps more than ever—a raging inferno. Despite his treachery, his betrayal, his cruelty, there it was, unmistakable, threatening to consume us both. I could feel his power pulsing through the air, crackling with an intensity that left me breathless.
“Icarus,” I managed to say, my voice barely above a whisper. He took a step closer, his eyes never leaving mine, even as I continued. “Icarus, you have no right to be here. What do you think—”
He didn’t allow me to finish.
“You have no idea how much I’ve been waiting for this moment.”
His voice was low and dangerous. It plucked at a new kind of danger, pulled the strings of something that sparked a different kind of fire between us.
I swallowed hard, trying to push down the fear that was clawing at my insides. I knew that I was no match for Icarus, even with all my own power intact, I was laid bare before his mastery. If he chose to end me now, there would be nothing I could do to stop it.
But even as the thought crossed my mind, I felt a strange sense of calm wash over me. It was as if a part of me had already accepted what was about to happen … because I knew, deep down, that if Icarus simply wanted to kill me, he already would have.
That meant only one thing.
Icarus needed something from me, still.
“What are you here for, really, Dark Lord?” I asked, using the twisted title Finch had lent me. “What have you so desperately been waiting for? Surely, you’re not here to offer another all-too-altruistic warning of omens and oracles.”
Icarus smirked, his eyes glittering with a twisted amusement. “I have my plans, my designs,” he said, eyes bearing into mine with enough intensity, it almost felt as if his mere glance was enough to glamour me. “But above all that, I have mydesires.”
The door behind him, abandoned only for a moment, began to open—only for Icarus to throw back his arm, and with a mighty force, sealed it shut again. From the groan of the wood, it was a small wonder it didn’t shatter.
Before I could react, Icarus lunged forward, his hands gripping my waist as he lifted me off the ground. I gasped, my hands instinctively clutching at his shoulders as he pressed me up against the wall. His lips crashed down on mine, rough and demanding, and for a moment I was lost in the sensation. It was a brutal kiss, the kind that promised to leave my lips bruised if it weren’t for the sudden way the dark fae stiffened.
It was a moment later, still, when I realized why.
