Page 43 of A Deception of Courts

Drifts of snow fell upon Duncan’s head, tangling with his dark hair. I was mesmerised by him. Intricate flakes caught in his eyelashes and littered his broad shoulders, soaking into his leathers, making them glisten in the dull light. For those that fell upon his skin, it took a moment for them to melt upon impact with his warmth. Once evaporated, they left a glistening sheen of moisture across the sharp lines of his face.

The muscles in Duncan’s jaw were set with concentration. His brows furrowed over narrowed eyes as he tried to make out the shapes through the mist and darkness before they revealed themselves as our ship drew closer to the land. “You’ve done us all a service, Robin.”

“I only did what was required,” I replied, although my body sang with my exhaustion. If I wasn’t sleeping, I was doing as Rafaela requested, calling upon cold winds to rip across the ocean and press our ships forwards.

I wasn’t the only one. A handful of fey with elemental magic had helped, too. Some guided waters to help push our ships. It was a joint effort, and one that had worked.

After days of travel, Wychwood finally loomed before us. It was only a shadowed smudge across the horizon, hidden by a cloak of late dusk and the blizzard that ripped across the landscape. Regardless of our inability to see what waited for us ahead, I knew with no doubt that we were in Icethorn territory.

Ifeltit, deep within me. The cord that tied me to these lands had thrummed back into existence earlier that very afternoon. And it tugged within me ever since. From that moment onwards, I could think of nothing but reaching our destination and letting my feet touch solid ground. My land. My home. A place I had spent little time in yet was intrinsically linked to. It was as though my skin was Icethorn’s earth, my blood was its waterways and my bones were the rocks that stitched it together.

I raised my face skyward, closed my eyes and exhaled. The kiss of cold snowflakes against my face was refreshing and calming. I smiled against their graceful brush, revelling in the cold bite that pinched my cheeks and turned them red.

“You’re smiling,” Duncan said.

I tilted my face until I could see him again. He was looking at me with the same intense concentration he gave the land ahead. His gaze flickered between my eyes and my lips as though he couldn’t decide which was more interesting than the other.

“Regardless of everything we’ve left behind and still have yet to face ahead, the relief I feel knowing I’m almost home is enough to make me feel happy,” I admitted. “If only for a moment anyway.”

A silver cloud of breath burst beyond Duncan’s lips as he sighed. His hand snaked around my side and pulled me in. His warmth was as clear as one of Althea’s conjured flames. “It’s one of life pleasures to see you smile, Robin. Now I know what to do to grant you one, I will utilise the knowledge going forwards.”

Duncan turned his attention back to the view ahead, clenching his jaw and sealing his lips closed once again.

“Is something bothering you?” I asked, sensing something brewing beneath Duncan’s surface.

His fingers drummed across the side of my waist. “The unknown has always been a terrifying concept to me. And we are about to dock into the heart of it.”

Reluctantly, I tore my gaze from his tense profile and scanned the shadowed outline of my court. “At least we will face it together, right? As much as this place is my home, it is still a strange place. My experiences in Icethorn have not been as… welcoming as you’d expect.”

I almost lied and said memorable. The memories I had of my court were not kind. But the potential was there.

Icethorn had been the place I’d built a pyre and burned my father’s body to ash. Another image overwhelmed me, a memory of kinder times that now spoiled in my stomach. Erix and me in Berrow. Both of us, entangled as one as a winter storm whipped the abandoned town beyond the rundown house we hid within. Such little time I had spent this side of the Icethorn border, and it had brought nothing but a discomfort in my gut.

And yet I was smiling, because reaching Icethorn meant I’d won at something. I’d saved the fey from Aldrick.

“You’re shivering,” Duncan accused. He didn’t ask if I was cold, because that wasn’t why my body shook. He knew that my affinity to winter prevented such an ailment. “Here.”

Duncan lifted the thick cloak and draped it across my shoulder, its brown and grey fur edging nestled into my cheek. I pressed in closer to his side. He closed the heavy swash of material over me like a wing and kept me in place. It wasn’t the warmth of his body imprinted on the cloak that comforted me, but the concept that it was his.

Iwas his.

“I wish I could promise you that everything will be all right,” I replied, fingers weaving among his, which lay upon the ship’s railing. “But lying to you is not a habit I wish to take up.”

“Nor do I want you to ever feel you need to lie to benefit me.”

I’d not exactly lied to Duncan, but neither had I been entirely truthful. Something about what he said wedged its way into my soul like a splinter of iron. With everything going on, I didn’t wish for the added discomfort of half-truths.

“Has Kayne spoken to you at all?” I asked, pondering our last encounter days prior. I hadn’t seen him since.

“Nothing of credit. But I plan to interrogate him when we reach safe land. He’s been avoiding me. I don’t think there has ever been this distance between us.”

“That’s odd,” I said, feigning ignorance.

“I know. To be honest, I’m not sure what I have done, but it must be something. At least he has the fey to focus on. It seems he is making up for lost time. Never thought I would see him so interested in helping before.”

Guilt uncoiled within me. I was the reason this barrier had built between them. Even if Duncan didn’t recognise it yet, I did.

Noticing my lax expression, Duncan dipped his chin toward me. “Should Kayne have said something to me?”

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