A Court of Lies and Secrets | ACOTAR fanfic [Girl x Girl]

Secrets

The second the door closes behind me I stride toward the dark wooden desk, fine sheets of paper and ink of many colours are piled in front of me - calling out for me.

My hand hover– frozen over the paper, ink in hand. I'd promised Adara I would write immediately and tell her about my travels, about the court and it's rulers and warriors. My adventure would be a dream of Adara's - the young fae back home would squeal with excitement at the arrival of my letter, regardless of what I write on it's pages. I just want Adara to know I'm fine - content - with my new home.

As the tip of the pen hits the paper, everything I wished Adara to know about (which was basically my entire past couple of days) was filled onto pages. I wrote about my travels through the mountains and the slight glimpse of Dawn as Cassian and Azriel appeared, I told her everything about them - all of the rumours and stories she'd believed, finally finding out the truths.

I kept the beauty of Velaris to myself, the town isn't exactly a secret as much as it used to be, but I didn't want my family to believe I was too happy here and tried to make it explicitly clear that I was missing each of them terribly - leaving each one a little note of their own.

I leaned back in my chair and rolled my neck - the aches barely floating away, aches only sleep will cure now.

~~~

"Good morning everyone." I smile gently and receive nods, bows and smiles from each of them.

"How was your tour yesterday?" Rhysand spoke up as the others sat silently digging into their plates. I catch a glimpse of Renae - her eyes bouncing away from mine as they meet.

"I enjoyed it very much - you have a beautiful home-" The scrape of chair legs against Rhys and Feyre's wooden floorboards interrupts my compliments as Renae stands from her place and marches out as if she remembered plans, or simply because she didn't want to be here.

"Is she-"

"She's fine." Feyre waves her hand dismissively and I look at each of them practically trying to pry an explanation from them with my eyes.

"How about you spend another day exploring Velaris - or familiarising yourself with the house - and I'll introduce you to the healing wards tomorrow?" I nod, not taking in every bit of his words, my mind racing with concern for Renae.

"So what is everyone's plans for the day?" My attempt at  moving the conversation to find out where Renae ran off to so suddenly.

"Az and I have training with young Illyrians, Feyre the usual painting with toddlers-"

"Cassian-" Rhys warns him with a glare.

"And what about Renae?" I mumble, looking down at my plate.

"I have her running errands." Rhysand speaks as each person opens their mouth to do the same - make up an excuse no doubt.

"Do you know when I'll be able to catch her? I have a letter that she said she'll handle for me."

"A letter for back home?" Azriel questions. I give him a gentle nod in response.

"Feyre is supposed to-"

"It doesn't matter Az," Rhys ploughs into the conversation, "I'm sure you'll catch her later today, I'll try not to keep her too busy." He laughs and they all return to their meals as if none of them are acting weird.

I decide to leave the conversation there - deeming is too much effort to dig any deeper for information they clearly aren't keen on letting slip.

I don't know whether they usually act like this, or whether they're all hiding something from me. Either way, I can't say anything, being the new female to their group.