A Court of Echoes and Embers

i.

The icy winds raged through the clearing in the trees as I laid in my own blood and tears. The snow beneath me bit into my skin as I sobbed, silently begging the Cauldron to save me. I stared at the dull, grey sky above me, still seeing their faces on top of me, strands of their blonde hair brushing my cheeks as they held me down and-

My mother.

I turned to her limp, shattered, wingless body, her face stuck in a look of anguish and despair, her unseeing eyes gazing at me. Blink. Just once. Blink. Please. But she didn't. I tried to shut out the sounds of her screams and cries as the High Lord of the Spring Court tore her wings from her beaten body. I tried to shut out the sound of his sons' laughter as they watched. Watched as they ripped off my own clothes and took turns holding me down. My whole body ached. My naked, bloody, bruised body.

Once the High Lord of the Spring Court had ended my mother's life, he ordered his sons to do the same to me. To rip off my wings and leave me to the harsh Winter conditions and hungry creatures that lived within these mountains. So they did. The pain was unbearable. I could feel every nerve, every muscle, every membrane, every bit of skin and flesh slowly being torn from my body. My throat was hoarse from the screaming and begging. I could still feel my wings beneath me, but they weren't there. They had taken them. Those monsters had taken mine and my mother's wings. I may as well die out here. My phantom wings seemed to twitch at the thought of never flying over Velaris again. I let out a cry that burned my throat and I felt my wings being ripped off me all over again. 

My eyelids became heavy, and my breathing hitched. I managed to drag myself through the snow and blood, the warm, red liquid oozing from the two stumps on my back, towards my mother. Her body was already cooling. I wrapped myself in her arms, my heartbeat becoming unsteady.

A woosh came from some trees and I turned my head slightly to see where two dark-haired males had winnowed. The younger one, my brother, Rhysand, cried out my name, bolting towards me. But before I cry back, my eyes slowly shut, and my heart stopped. 

Darkness swallowed me whole, and I welcomed it.