A court of Night and Fire

Some very emotional explanations

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This chapter was a little rushed - sorry but I do have a spicy chapter coming up that took me almost two weeks to write because I've never written one before lol

Hope ya'll are enjoying this so far!

Ash POV

My eyes flutter open. I'm lying in a bed I recognise and a room I remember. I sit bolt upright. The first thing I see is the face of my father. Is this some kind of dream? How is he here? This is Terrasen! Rhys must have found a way I suppose. I look around and catch sight of my mother standing behind my father looking grim. "Asterin" I whisper and my father smiles "she's alright" he says, answering the unspoken question. 

I go to get out of bed but my father holds me back. I growl at him. Now is not a good time to get between me and my mate, parent or not. "calm down, Ash" my father says, gently. I glare at him and he chuckles slightly. "the others are aright, although you all came back pretty beaten up." he says. It would explain why it feels like my stomach has been torn apart. "where are they?" I demand. I have been kept from my mate for far too long.

"they are safe" my father says, pushing me back gently so I'm leaning back on my elbows. "you can see them when all of you have had a chance to rest" my mother says, those steely eyes fixed on me, arms crossed. I glare at her "you can glare at me all you want, Ash" she says, sounding amused "it will not change my decision. Unfortunately, you have the same stupidity as your father at times" she glances towards Cass at that who grins unashamedly at her "so if you feel the need to try to fight your way past us, just know that you are still considerably weaker than normal and we are still your parents" 

I scowl at her and she chuckles. "can you at least tell me what happened?" I ask and Cass's grin drops. "for us, Asterin's mother came into our world and told us you'd been taken by Maeve to another world. She took us back over here. We went through hundreds of worlds and we could not find you. You were missing for months. We had no idea how to find you." my father says. He closes his eyes "We thought you were lost. Months, Ash. Months. We had no way to find you. no idea if you were even still alive" he continues. He opens his eyes and hazel eyes that match my own stare back at me. 

"but we would have kept looking. We would have kept looking until the day we died. We would have destroyed worlds to reach you" my mother says "and then four days ago you just appeared in the throne room. Asterin passed out pretty much straight away, you refused to let her go though. Cass had to physically remove you from her and carry you away, you passed out in his arms and Nyx collapsed as soon as Rhys had a hold of him" she explains, watching me carefully.

"how are they?" I ask, relaxing ever so slightly at the knowledge that both my mate and cousin are okay and made it back. "Asterin was in quite a state when she got here. She was covered in blood, it looked like she'd been stabbed multiple times, some were fresh and some were healing. It looked like..." my mother paused, debating how to phrase it "it looked like someone had slit her throat." I closed my eyes. That had destroyed a part of my soul. The orders she had given me were the only thing that had stopped me reining death upon that world.

"It also looked like she had been chained at her wrists" she continued, running a hand through my hair. I opened my eyes. "I know" I said, my voice laced with deadly calm. Identical scars were also present on both mine and my cousin's wrists. Maeve had hurt us as a way to get to Asterin. I held a few scars too, courtesy of the Valg queen. I knew for a fact that Nyx did as well. 

"All of you were drained" my father says gazing at me "you came back with a hole in your stomach. It took Yrene two days to heal you fully." I vaguely remembered Yrene - she was the healer who'd killed Erawan, husband to Chaol and father to Henric. "I want to see my mate" I demand.

Nyx POV

I can hear distant voices, muffled sounds. My eyes snap open. I am lying in some kind of bed. My mother is sat in a chair next to me, my father is leaning against the opposite wall. He catches sight of me and straightens up. "Asterin" I mutter. My head is pounding, I can't quite think straight. "Asterin" I repeat, trying to sit up. My mother pushes me back but I fight her and she releases me enough to allow me to remain sitting.

"what the hell happened?" I ask, looking around for my carranam. "why don't you tell us?" My father replies, scanning me for any sign of further injury. "we searched through hundreds of worlds to find you, and then you all appeared in the throne room" All. That mean Asterin and Ash were still alive. Thank the fucking gods. "I don't know what happened" I say, closing my eyes. "All I know is that we were somehow drugged. We went to sleep in Asterin's room and woke up in different cells in that gods forsaken hell hole."

"We know about the drug - an imposter was found in the kitchen. They killed one of the guards and drugged your food. My guess is that made it possible for Maeve to world walk and take you." my father explains, walking over to me. "what we don't know is what happened to you afterwards." my mother says. I look away from her. How can I possibly explain? 

"you don't have to tell us now" my father says, gently, placing a hand on my shoulder. I don't look at him. I can't. I close my eyes and begin to explain "we woke up in separate cells. The drug suppressed our magic as well as sedating us, the first few days were bad. The loss of my magic was horrendous, it made me physically sick. I know that Maeve let Ash see Asterin. Ash was alright because the power he possesses isn't like ours, but Asterin was really bad. Ash helped her to get through the worst of it as her body adjusted but it took over 5 days. Maeve took Ash away and... forced him into a blood oath."

My father is about to make for the door, no doubt to warn people but he stopped dead when he heard the next bit. "but it didn't work" I say and he turns to me "why?" my mother asks. I look her in the eye "because he was already blood sworn to Asterin."

There's silence for a moment. "he had to pretend that it had worked. Maeve took me next. She let me see Asterin, before dragging me off. She also forced me into the blood oath." My father and mother looked like they could destroy worlds. "But, I was also blood sworn to Asterin" I look away again. "she forced us to watch as she hurt Asterin, forced us to watch whilst she hurt Ash and forced them to watch when she hurt me." I try to shut out the memories. "The first order Asterin gave me when I took the oath was to act like I was under Maeve's control and not to break that act for anything, not even her."