Page 68 of Steel Heart Iron Claws

The crowd falls into a bated hush as they wait to see if Immortal Vale will crush Beneveto like coal for the insult, but my father remains stony-faced. Iyre cackles to herself as she licks sauce off her fingers, and the Blades—no,Artain, Samaur, and Woudix—paint smirks on their handsome faces.

My fingertips dig into the bricks on either side of the windowsill as my heart gives a seismic shift. Wind rushes up from below to whip my thin cotton shift around myknees. My toes curl around the ledge’s rim as I glance over my shoulder at the river below.

A soft sputter escapes my lips as I lean an inch further out.

One step, and I’m free…

Beneveto steps forward cautiously, trying to catch my gaze like a lifeline.

"Let’s talk, Highness. Human to human. I know more about the gods than you’d ever learn from fae tales. There’s a reason I turned my back on Astagnon and am ready to put the Red Church’s full weight behind their rule when the time comes." He pushes back his white streak of hair. “We went to so much trouble to bring you here. Don’t make us hold your funeral tomorrow.”

I curl my toes around the ledge.

The last person I should trust is a traitor with the reek of opium on his breath, but Beneveto’s words make me pause. Beneveto is the second most powerful man in Astagnon, after Rian. He wouldn’t gamble away that position if he weren’t certain.

A squeak overhead catches my ear. I jerk my head up to see the forest mouse poking her head down from the hole in the ceiling.

Mouse-talker?she frets.Don’t leave me! If you jump, I cannot follow this time!

As the wind blusters at my back, I realize I can’t risk jumping. The birds might catch me—or I might crash onto the rocks. Either way, I can’t abandon the mouse. She’s been with me since Mag Na Tir Forest, stowing away in Basten’s knapsack, to his supreme irritation. And what about Myst? My brave girl is a kingdom away, a prisoner of Rian’s stable, when she deserves to stretch her legs, free and wild. I can’tjust leave her there. And the goldenclaws? The cloudfox? Even though it tricked me, I promised it a name. I can’t name it if I’m dashed against river rocks.

Let’s not forget about Tòrr.

That prissy monoceros has the power to destroy kingdoms. Of all the powerful men whose hands he could fall into, did it have to be Rian Valvere’s? Once upon a time, I trusted Rian, at least enough to believe he’d honor a bargain. I even thought he might love me in his twisted way. But he sold me out with the same careless indifference as a coin flip.

So, what horrors would he inflict upon a fae horse?

As I perch on the windowsill’s precipice, dozens of eyes burn through me until sweat drips down my brow.

Stay?

Or jump?

With the wind whipping my nightdress, I slowly hold out a shaky hand to Beneveto.

Relief washes over his face as he steps forward to help me down, but then, Immortal Vale shoulders him out of the way to seal his own large hand around mine.

“Human to human?” Vale rasps. “No. Fae to human. If anyone owes her an explanation, it should be her father.”

My stomach draws tight as a button as I stare at my hand in his.

I…don’t know what to do.

“My father?” I finally murmur. “Is that what you are to me?”

“I am many things to you. But I am your father above all other titles.” He steps back, sweeping out his hands, and like a gradual dusk, his true fae appearance melts away. His dark gold eyes fade to the dull shade of rust, and the silver in hisbeard settles into a salt-and-pepper gray. His shoulders, wide as an ox beneath his fur-line cloak, recede into a normal human male’s width.

Nerves as soft as butterfly wings flutter over me, lifting goose bumps all along the length of my arms. The darkness still roars at the edge of my vision.

I feel faint…

A distant thought stirs in my head: If he is fae and my mother was human, what does that make me?

Before I can follow that line of thought, he continues, “Before you judge us—” he nods toward Artain, Woudix, Samaur, and Iyre, “—Let us talk. That’s all I ask. A chance to explain. All of you, raise your glamour. Can’t you see you’re frightening her?”

He snaps his fingers, and one by one, the rest of the fae shift back into their human glamour as effortlessly as changing into a new set of clothes.

Now, they’re simply flesh and blood.

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