A Court of Shadows and Lies / ACOTAR FF

Chapter 32

Shaw sighed, massaging his forehead. Another black throbbing vein appeared on his right temple, nearly bursting through the skin. I wasn't particularly sure what he was looking frustrated about because I still couldn't comprehend looking at the male in front of me. He had been 'alive' – whatever that meant for him – for decades and I hadn't known. "Jez, you really didn't have to tell them that."

I pulled my head back, crossing my arms and blinked at him. "Did you expect me to pretend I don't know you? After you died in front of my eyes?"

"When you put it like that..."

I scoffed at his audacity. He was acting like the male I had grown up, matured, with. Shaw didn't have a bad bone in his body, none of the High Lords did. They had all worked together when it came down to it, when we all faced off at Dusk Court. The male in front of me wasn't the same Fae.

He couldn't be.

Abruptly, I felt cool claws tap around my shields and I quickly swung my body around, facing the Fae behind me. My eyes narrowed at each of them, settling on Rhysand who was staring hard at the three eerie males. Not a single one was paying an ounce of attention at me, besides Azriel who had furrowed his brows at me.

Another tap.

I swivelled on the spot again, just as the elevator came back up and a dozen feet cautiously entered the room, positioning themselves closely behind us. My eyes darted to the three females who weren't looking at me either, but at Shaw, Carpus and Videntes. It wasn't them either. Slowly, my attention sat back on Shaw, Videntes and Carpus who had positioned himself in front of the two.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Carpus was smiling widely at me, like he was excited for something that was coming.

Tap.

"What's wrong, youngling?" Shaw asked.

"How?"

"It's similar to how you came back."

I stared at him coldly, the air still. I told him that in confidence, and I only ever told those I trusted that I had died.

Just like I had told Azriel.

But this, right now, was different. The admission of my death in front of Rhysand was dangerous because it opened a whole world that I didn't know the answer to, or couldn't give the answer to. The magic used to bring someone back from the dead, someone who had already passed the threshold, was dark, powerful stuff. All Beings who had attempted to bring one back from the dead were normally killed on the spot nine times out of ten.

The Shaw in front of me wasn't the Shaw I knew.

The Shaw I knew would never have admitted that in front of an audience, he also would have known that his revival was damning.

I wasn't entirely sure how I was brought back but I knew that Mother and the Dark Mother had. Mother had never really expanded on that day, nor had she ever referred back to that day except for when I had levelled out a part of Spring Court. A cool shiver ran down my spine as her words rocked around in my cornered off brain from the incessant tapping, I should have let you die that day.

Everything that happened after, my magic awakening, the death around me, the situation I was in right now, would have all been avoided if I had just died. That was never lost on me. Nothing ever was, to be honest.

"I'm sorry, what in the actual hell is going on?" Tarquin demanded. I raised my eyebrows in agreement. I wanted to know what was going on as well. "Haen, are you seriously admitting that you are the...first High Lord of Autumn Court?"