Page 38 of The Queen The Fae Forgot
“Is there a problem?” he demanded.
“No problem,” I spat out the words. “Besides me, apparently.”
Tears threatened to spill from my stinging eyes and take away whatever dignity I had left. He regarded me with pursed lips before glancing once at the door I’d just fled from and then back at me—dressed in nothing but the thinnest of silk shifts. I was too angry, too hot with rage to care about something so small as dignity, but that didn’t stop heat from flooding my cheeks as he met his partner’s gaze. They shared that brief confusion that all fae did when they tried too hard to place who I was until together, after a moment, the two of them finally stepped aside. That was all the invitation I needed to break into a run.
Desperate to avoid any other encounters on the way back to my rooms, I diverted through unfamiliar hallways, anything that would keep me clear of any more fae who might be wise enough to question why I fled.
Yet once again, fate seemed determined to test me. I knew this when I barged into another hallway and there she was—not Ada, but the source of the second voice that had so quickly set into motion the words that had sent me spiraling down this hallway to begin with.
I discovered the changeling princess surrounded by her courtesans dressed in lavish gowns and gaudy jewelry they had no right to be wearing this early. As if they were waiting for me all along, they slowly pivoted to meet my gaze, their eyes one by one trailing over the state of me. The sun had barely risen, and already the princess’ court was in session.
It was the first time I’d encountered the changeling since I was forced to lift her from the glamour I’d first bound her to. At least the cuts and scrapes had healed, no sign remaining of the torture I put her through—not that she would remember it either way. This was hardly how I wanted to face her again, let alone the small court that she herself still somehow was allowed to keep. It was an insult, standing here before them.
I felt the heat of their scrutiny, but I didn’t care. My anger was still too fresh, too raw, to let their judgment affect me. Instead, I focused on the changeling princess. She stood at the center of the group, her face twisted into a sneer as she looked me up and down.
“Well, well, well,” she drawled. “Look who decided to grace us with her presence.”
I barely registered her words, my mind still clouded by my argument with Shiel. But her tone was enough to snap me out of my daze.
“Thoughgracemight not be quite the right word for it.”
Her band of ladies sniggered behind upturned fans, each one giggling at this fresh insult. I stood still, refusing to speak as their mocking voices chorused around me like vultures that had just spotted a dead carcass. Fauna’s tiara was particularly noticeable this time, towering over her head like it had been designed specifically to mock my insignificance. She stared at me with contempt expecting an answer. Instead, she received only a bored stare.
I had half a mind to leave without saying a word. I owed this creature nothing. She was a byproduct of my mother’s cruelty, though I could hardly call her a victim of it. She’d lived a charmed life, the life destined for me, stolen from me. It was not her birthright that I now came to claim. If she knew I was here to take her life from her, then I might have at least felt pity for her.
But she, too, was now spelled under the glamour along with the rest of the castle. She knew not who I was, nor what I was here to take. This petty princess act was no act at all. She didn’t sneer at me because she hated me for who I was, she simply sneered because that was whoshewas.
Fauna looked like she’d been looking for a chance to shuffle me into my place in her hierarchy here, but so far, I’d managed to avoid her. That seemed to only make her despise me more—for no other reason than the fact that I hadn’t yet fallen into line beneath her. Now, however, was her chance, and from the wicked delight that glinted in her eye, she was eager to take it.
Her charmed life, stolen or not, had corrupted her.
At least it kept me from feeling guilt when I looked at her and knew her days masquerading as the true princess were numbered.
I should have left, should have taken the brand of a coward and turned back instead of confronting her, but that rage still burned too bright within me. So, instead, I met the changeling’s gaze with steel and ice.
“What do you want,Princess?”
She tilted her head, the look in her eyes telling me I’d already made my first mistake. Beside her, her ladies-in-waiting giggled and whispered to each other, the sound grating on my already frayed nerves.
“I want to know what brings you to my presence, dear,” Fauna said, her voice dripping with saccharine sweetness. “You seem … disheveled.”
The heat in my face had no right to deepen at her words, but it did.
I took a step forward, ready to lash out at her, but she held up a hand to stop me. “Oh, don’t bother,” she said with a suddenly exhausted sigh. “You’re not worth the effort.”
I gritted my teeth and tried to ignore the snickering that broke out behind her again. Fauna’s eyes grew hooded as she looked me over again.
“Tell me, though, why are you here? Nothere, here, in the corridors of my wing, but in the castle at all. I don’t remember a proper introduction … which can only mean one thing.”
I let the silence hang between us until I had no choice but to take the bait.
“And what is that?”
At least the boredom had begun to take over my voice again, instead of anger.
“You’re not significant enough to deserve one.”
It was more bait, I knew it, but I took it anyway. The corners of my lips turned up in a smirk, one that I knew would irritate Fauna even more.
