The Crown the Fae Forgot

THE CROWN THE FAE FORGOT ANALEIGH FORD EDEN BECK SABRINA THATCHER The Crown The Fae Forgot by Eden Beck and Sabrina Thatcher © 2023 Eden Beck and Sabrina Thatcher All rights reserved. This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise—without prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of including brief passages for use in a review. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. For permissions contact: [email protected] CONTENTS Chapter 1Chapter 2Chapter 3Chapter 4Chapter 5Chapter 6Chapter 7Chapter 8Chapter 9Chapter 10Chapter 11Chapter 12Chapter 13Chapter 14Chapter 15Chapter 16Chapter 17Chapter 18Chapter 19Chapter 20Chapter 21Also by Analeigh FordAlso By Analeigh Ford Writing As Eden BeckAlso by Sabrina Thatcher CHAPTER ONE (If you’ve received this version of The Crown The Fae Forgot, please connect your reading device to the internet and re-download the file to receive the correct version. Thank you!) With a new court came a new betrayal. Compared to the Southern Court, the Wildness—that dark, deceptive place that nearly ensnared me forever within its borders—was nothing more than child’s play. Because, at least, the lord of that dark forest told some truths. From the moment I stepped into the Southern Court, all I found was a maze of lies. The first lie the court told me was that we’d be in its borders that first day when the guard intercepted us at the edge of Icarus’ domain. She spires that I spotted that first day were nothing more than an illusion—the first of many. For several days, the Southern soldiers guided us south to the Southern Court. Finch and Zev insisted on keeping careful watch over Shiel and me, but though they never left my side, I felt the space between us growing again as the days wore on. Shiel had shifted into his fox form, a sign—apparently—that wasn’t good. Zev and Finch had both tried to reassure me that it only meant his body was focused on healing, but I saw the way their eyes never left their lord. Their lord, in turn, never left mine. His fox’s body, smaller than I remember, spent the days curled up in my lap, the slow rise and fall of his shoulders often the only sign that he still remained with us. His fiery-colored fur had been stained with blood, but he wouldn’t allow even his own men to examine the injury. Every time they tried, fox-form Shiel would snap and snarl and foam at the mouth until we all agreed to leave him be, at least until he’d healed enough to return to his fae form—and at least some of his senses. I didn’t mind his company, but even more, I didn’t mind his silence. I needed it, needed the time to consider all that had passed in the weeks since the fae first appeared in my life and turned it upside down. There were still many mysteries to uncover, many questions left unanswered, but these were the things I knew for sure. I was fae, and not just any fae, I was the heir the throne that ruled this entire kingdom—fae and human alike. Shiel had told me this the day he came to take me from the imposters of parents that had spent their lives relishing in the abuse they heaped on me, so though it hadn’t come as a surprise, I’d yet to have time to process what this truly meant for me. A glamour called Tongues ran through my veins, a power that had allowed me to control Icarus, the powerful lord of the Wildness, despite the spell that kept me from freely accessing my magic. A spell that was another gift, I assumed, given to me by my mother. A mother who despised me, who gave me up willingly, who placed me in the care of humans she knew would treat me without a shred of decency or kindness. A mother that we now were supposed to be heading towards, that Shiel, Zev, and Finch still believed had abandoned me for my own safety—not for the true reason revealed to me by the Oracle in the moments before she spewed the words that haunted my waking moments as well as my dreams. And then, perhaps above all else, I knew this. The fae were not, under any circumstances, to be trusted. Especially myself. I’d been betrayed by every fae I’d placed even a smidgeon of trust in, but no one had betrayed me more than myself. Because I, before I’d even known what I was doing, had broken the bond that meant the most to me. The one bond had had kept me sane all the years I’d been subjected to pain and torture at my human parent’s hands. The one bond that tied me to my past, to my humanity. I’d been warned there would be a price to pay for the Oracle, but little had I known I’d already paid it without knowing. The price had been the breaking of a bond. And the bond I broke? The only one that really mattered. The one I shared with my sister, Ada. The one creature in this world that had loved me unconditionally, and I had used my powers to make her forget me. Forever. I’d known, the moment I laid eyes on that first fae, that my life would never be the same. Shiel had come to rescue me, but somehow, all he’d done was plunged me deeper and deeper into a new kind of bondage. There was no freedom in this life, only more weight, more burdens, more uncertainty. I was not at the mercy of the humans any longer, but I was now at the