ACOTAR (Rhys's POV)

The Light in the Dark

Hey Guys! 

This is a fanfic I found on AOO. 

*****

I couldn't remember the last time I felt the cool night air touch my skin. Not really. That smirking whore who controlled my every whim liked to keep me close enough that I'd occasionally forget what open air and clear skies felt like, but every now and then, when I played my game perfectly, she'd forget I was really her enemy and let me out to do her biding where I could pretend to be free for a few hours. Tonight was one such night.

Calanmai.

Or Fire Night, as I preferred to call it. The night of lovers and magic amongst the courts. Including my own. She'd make me participate in her own special way later, but for now I was here on business. It just wasn't her business like she thought it was.

I didn't mind a chance to see what Tamlin was up to. Much as he and I were united against Amarantha, we still shared bad blood between us. A chance at spying his movements on a night he would be totally unaware of my very presence was a rare gift.

And if I were particularly lucky, as I regularly was when able to be my usual charming self, some stupid sap would give me ample reason to drag him before Amarantha upon my return and I could avoid the guilt of manipulating an innocent altogether.

But none of this mattered. As I winnowed into the Spring Court's grassy hills and came upon the wood side where the bliss of darkness and starry skies burned my eyes, all thoughts of Tamlin and Amarantha dissipated in my mind as I thought of the girl in my dreams.

I smelled her immediately, her scent coming quickly to my senses. It was easy to spot even at what I could tell was some distance away and countless other bodies lingering about. I had woken up with her scent in my nose, my mouth nearly every morning for a month straight. Her dreams were my dreams, her horrors my nightmares, all of them amplified since the day she crossed the wall into Prythian. Why she had come, I had yet to understand, but I treasured every moment she shared with me, be it good or bad, for the reprieve they gave me from my torturous waking life.

When I saw her dreams of Fire Night and realized what court she was in, I knew nothing would keep me away. I had to find her, even if only to catch a glimpse.

The strength of her scent increased as I edged along the outskirts of the gathering. Best not to intrude into the folds of people lest someone spot me and grow suspicious. Even in my simplest fashion, a plain tunic though still of high quality, I was having difficulty controlling the attraction my powers had to the darkness that now began to cling to every piece of me it could reach. How long had it been since I'd been able to indulge it?

The scent took me further along the trees. A cave in the distance revealed to me where I would likely find Tamlin if I felt so inclined. Had it not been for my desperation to see her, I would have left then and there to avoid running in to him, but I had to know. I had to at least see what she looked like, see the eyes that gave me visions every night, the hands that painted tableaux unlike anything I'd ever dreamt.

And then I turned around a bend in the trees and there she was.

With filth crawling all over her.

I froze, taking in the scene of three fae males encircling her, touching her. One ran his hand along her side and I could almost feel her skin crawl as his hand pressed in at her ribs, her hip. My mind opened up swallowing them whole, allowing every gruesome thought they had to run through me. Such disgusting thoughts they were, even for a night like Calanmai, and here she was defenseless to be so preyed upon.