Wings of Ink by Angelina J. Steffort

Author:Angelina J. Steffort
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Angelina J. Steffort

Twenty-Three

My skin is still prickling where his wing pressed against my arm when I sit in one of the chairs he had brought onto the dais after the fairy left. I scan the Crows discussing the most recent developments in hissed and cawed statements while trying to ignore the itch to steal a glimpse at Myron’s face while he is focused on the meeting rather than on me. He sits a few feet away from me in the other carved chair instead of his throne, listening patiently to the demands and claims his people make.

While the rest of the Crows broke into a clamor the moment the fairy walked out the door, he explained to me in a murmur that the King of Askarea likes to check in on the Crows every now and then and that he likes to remind them that this bargain is at his convenience. I don’t know what sort of king would do anything like that, but then, I’d expected all Crows to be monsters, yet I found myself in the middle of a triangle of friends who seem to not want me dead as much as they want something else from me. What that is exactly, I have yet to find out, but it all seems to have something to do with the way they keep referring to my role as a bride.

Myron’s eyes snap to mine, and I realize I failed at keeping them away from him. A small smile lingers on his lips that is slightly out of character for the cruel king he intends to portray, and I can’t help noticing how much more regal it makes him look, how good, even with the wings, as if the self-loathing monster he believes himself to be has retreated to give him a break.

Before I lower my gaze back to the conversing Crows, I give him a tiny smile of my own and watch his eyes go wide for a heartbeat as they warily follow the movement of my lips as if he can’t believe I’m actually smiling at him.

“It doesn’t change a thing,” Royad’s baritone carries above the hisses, drawing my attention back to the conversation. “If the high fae believe we’ve broken the bargain, they’ll send Shaelak himself after us.”

Again—that mention of a foreign god that I have never heard of, a reminder of how little I belong with this species who either need me or hate me or both. Something clenches in my chest at the thought that this is the only reason I’m here. Not because anyone wants me here but because I’m part of a bargain I never agreed to. I’m a tool to be used, a pawn. Nothing more, nothing less.

A bride. A chance.

“No one is leaving the Seeing Forest.” Myron’s smile has disappeared as he rolls over the rising voices. “No one but Ephegos and his spies.”

Ephegos inclines his head. “We have more reports of fires in the surrounding villages,” the spymaster reports, ignoring the caws of upset from the Crows at the other end of the table.

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