A Court of Sunlight and Shadows

Falling for you was my mistake

"We will keep it a secret, and send the servants away. With spring approaching they'll be happy to go home."

"She might have convinced them," he concluded.

Rhys's shoulders tensed as Cassian continued pacing back and forth on the ledge.

"Feyre has given... she's been giving for years. Now it's our turn to help her, and others..." the softer voice continued*. Elain.*

The older seemed to agree*, "Tomorrow we will send the servants away."*

"Today," Feyre insisted*.*

He heard the sound of a cup banging on a ceramic saucer, then footsteps as Elain spoke again.

"I'll take care of it."

The conversation continued between the two remaining sisters. They were discussing the human male Elain was to marry.

His shadows followed her, without his command, from room to room in the large house. Her voice became even more soft and melodious as she asked each of the servants to leave the house. She started with the gardeners, then the maids and finally went to the kitchens.  Every word that left her mouth was a lie so well formulated and sweetly uttered that even he, despite knowing it to be lies, was for a moment tempted to believe what she was saying.

There was no man, he realized, who would not bend to such a sweet formulated request, whatever it was. And though he had not yet seen her face, if she looked even a little like her sister Feyre, Azriel was certain that Elain Archeron could bend the whole world with a simple smile and a moine.

The sun began to set as the first servants started to leave the house. Despite the nerve-wracking wait, he had found the way to entertain himself: after hours listening to her through his shadows, he had now memorized almost every detail of her persuasive techniques.

He even found himself restraining the instinct to smile when, with some of the more insistent ones, Elain went so far as to offer a bag full of money provided they left, tinging it all with enough pleasantries and smiles to wipe every last trace of doubt from her interlocutors' minds.

When the time finally came to enter, night had fallen outside.

As soon as they crossed the threshold of the main entrance, the smell of fear of the two humans filled his nostrils to the very depths, mingling faintly with that of the food laid out on the large dining table in the room.

When she turned from her spot in front of the fireplace, for a single, very brief moment, Azriel felt as if someone had punched him in the stomach, knocking the air out of his lungs.

Now he was certain: Elain Archeron, with her gentle manner, her sweet smell and that face, could have the world at her feet simply by asking for it.

How she was promised to the son of a fanatical fae hunter, and not to a prince or even a king, was beyond his comprehension. Even her bearing, despite her current fear and the years spent in poverty, was regal.

His eyes scanned the other girl at her side, who wore an amethyst-coloured dress. Unlike Elain, she possessed the same blue irises as Feyre, although her gaze was much sharper. Cassian beside him was as alert as if he were facing a mortal enemy and not two mere human females.

"Nice to meet you," she spoke, her voice shrill with fear, different from the affable tone he had heard her speak in for the entire afternoon.

After a simple nod, he followed Feyre and his brothers to the long table set for dinner, which nevertheless had all the impression of being a battlefield.