A Court of Dreams and Nightmares

☽Chapter One☾

I was weary.

It had been a long day of waiting, waiting for Rhys to return back from wherever it was he had vanished to. Fear had gripped my bones as I paced the Mountain Palace, Mor draped on a couch near me as we waited.

"Oh would you stop that," Mor had snapped, the usually cheery attitude she possessed gone from her face.

I threw a dirty look at her, but didn't respond. I knew she hated being here, in the Hewn City, and that being so close to her parents set her teeth on edge. Mor let her face soften a bit.

"He'll be fine, Aster." She said, this time more quietly "He always returns."

But Mor's words did not comfort me. To have Rhys traveling into enemy lands unprotected made my stomach turn violently. You worry too much, he always said. But he was as rash and stupid as he had been that night 50 years ago, winnowing on the spot as something terrible had crashed into his mind. I hadn't had the chance to peer into it to see what had happened before he had vanished. But I knew that look on his face. It was about his mate. It was Feyre. Nothing, save the safety of his family, ever made him at that way. I wouldn't have been able to stop him even if I'd had time to try; his will was stronger than even mine. After all, he was a High Lord. 

Still, I couldn't bare the thought of losing him again.

So when he had finally returned home, and Mor and I had heard the raging argument between him and their new guest, I had slunk back into the shadows and towards a quieter part of the palace. Feyre was finally here, and none too pleased about it judging from the shouting, but they had both made it back unscathed. Rhys was safe. I thanked the Cauldron for it, and the nightmares clawing at my insides subsided for the time being. 

The reflecting pool that lay in in the grotto of the palace seemed to the be the only quiet place left that night, and its cool waters beckoned me closer as I walked in. I had already left my shoes at the foot of my room, and my nightdress was thin enough that I  didn't see any reason to remove it. I sighed, allowing my body to relax as I  sat down near the water's edge. The glamour I kept wrapped around me slipped away, magic flowing freely from me. A light escaped around me, and the grotto was illuminated in the starry glow. I raised my arms to stretch, feeling the worry leave my bones at last.

Then a twinge of pain shot across my back. I winced, rolling my shoulders back down. The wounds that ailed me had grown old, but they still pained me occasionally. Usually when I was stressed. I gazed at my own reflection in the pool, and hand reaching for that place on I back. My fingers grazed the gruesome scars marking my back lightly, shame and disgust tugging at the back of I mind. While the glamour served primarily to hide the secret might of my power, it also hid this part of me. This ugly, disgraced part. 

I could still hear their voices as they tore me apart. The sound of my wings being ripped from my body. The sound of my mother screaming my name, begging for her daughter's life. Tamlin's anguished face in the shadows, watching. Doing nothing. 

I willed the memory away. Some wounds could not be so easily healed, not even by Madja. The glinting light coming from my neck brought me back to reality. 

It was a necklace, a thin string of silver from which a small ring hung. It was simple and made of the same silver as the chain. Laden in the ring were five diamonds, glittering brightly from my glow. 

"There's five of them, one for each year I waited to see you again," he had said in a voice so unlike him as his strong arms enveloped me. His nose brushed against mine, their foreheads connecting as I stared into his russet eyes. "One day, we'll never have to hide again. One day, you'll be mine forever."