A Court of Shadows and Scars

• Chapter Twelve •

⁌ 𝑨 𝒁 𝑹 𝑰 𝑬 𝑳 ⁍

The townhouse. A place that used to thrive with life and love, now utterly quiet and void of the laughter and chaos that used to breathe within it's walls and long corridors. It was no surprise how I ended up here.

After a tight conversation with both Rhys and Cassian I was instructed that it would be best to isolate myself-take a break for a while to clear my head. I could always go to my cave at the top of the mountain-a little secret place for me and me alone, but I had the feeling that Rhys or Cassian might pay me a visit here at the townhouse and I didn't want them asking questions of where I was if I wasn't here.

For the most part, the furniture was covered in white sheets and every flat surface was covered in a thin layer of dust. The Autumn exile was one of the only people who ever occupied this place anymore and it had been a few months since his last visit.

At the moment, Rhys was trying to concoct a plan to keep Gwyn quiet about what she witnessed in the garden-though I don't think she would talk.

Stupid, I reprimanded myself as I entered my old rooms. Everything was the same but covered in dust. Gazing through the wide window that overlooked the city, I found the House of Wind perched atop the mountain, like a crown of divine art that sat across the high peaks.

I took up a seat on the windowsill, opening up the glass frame to let the night's breeze settle in. I hadn't ever stepped a foot inside Velaris until Rhys became the High Lord-all I knew was my father's estates, the horrors of Hewn City, and the bloodied battlefields in which I lost friends and long forgotten allies.

But when I opened my eyes to this majestic city, so full warmth and light, I fell in love. For all I knew as a grown male of centuries years old was the darkness of the world. I only ever saw the ugly, the pain, the death-but here, in the heart of the most feared court of Prythian laid a haven for the innocent, for the dreamers.

I sympathized with Mor when she expressed her frustrations of revealing this little diamond of light and hope to the world of coal. I too wanted to keep it a secret for just a while longer-to protect it from the eyes of Kiers, of Beron and Eris-of the Human Queens. We had more enemies than we did allies and that was mostly due to our reputation as a court of pure nightmares and hellish dreams.

I didn't think it helped when Rhys showed the High Lords of the small fraction of power he was capable of when he silenced the High Lord of Spring with just a pinch of his fingers. To be reminded who thee most powerful High Lord of all of Prythian was-to know who occupied his Inner Circle.

Amren, merely a rumor, a nightmare in which parents used to tell their children about at night to get them to behave.

Cassian, a general of immense skill and pure, chaotic power that leveled cities and armies.

Mor, a warrior in her own right, blessed with the power of truth and given full authority of all things Night Court during Amarantha's fifty year reign when Rhys was nothing but a rumored whore.

Feyre, the cursebreaker, the protector of the Rainbow, the first High Lady-need I say more?

Then there was me, the shadowsinger, the shadow of the Night Court-the slithering wraith in which sees all, knows all. The person who dealt in shadows and bathed in blood-alas, the most tainted of all the Inner Circle.

Pummeling Eris that day was just a small release of pent of frustration. If I had even thought to go full out then the first heir to the throne of Autumn would've certainly perished then and there.

I had been exercising restraint as best as I could as of late. But I felt like I was starting to deteriorate. I wanted to sleep, the shadows begged me to sleep, but my mind was restless, littered with a thousands thoughts.