A Court of Heart and Fealty | Rhysand

Chapter 83: Shattered

Galadriel couldn't tell where this was going. They certainly weren't seen fucking this morning but that faerie who had run could have said anything. Rhys could have said anything. She glanced at him, trying to read the lines in his face, the light in his eyes, but there was nothing. "I cannot disobey a High Lord if he calls for me, my Queen," she said, her voice frail and choked.

"He is not a High Lord," Amarantha hissed. Galadriel shrunk away, heels hitting the door behind her. The queen rightened herself, nostrils flaring with a quiet sigh. "Rhysand forgot himself. He cannot go around, sticking his cock into whatever hole he finds pleasantly warm around and you—you will never accept his advances. When you walk out of here today, that is something you will remember."

Something, a mess of both dread and relief, dropped in her stomach. So many lucky escapes from death on account of a worth Galadriel didn't know how to calculate. It went beyond the titbits of information she brought the queen. That much was for certain. It had been ten years and Beron didn't even bother sneering at her. There was something else that the Queen Under the Mountain saw in Galadriel and it terrified her what that might be. A card that hadn't been played yet.

Amarantha pointed to the chair. "Sit," she commanded.

Galadriel did so silently. Rhys knew what was happening, rolling his lips inwards, shifting to stand in front of her. He was towering and dark and Galadriel swore she could see some flicker, some crack in his High Fae form that let her glimpse at the beast prowling beneath his pale skin.

Surprising her, Rhysand took her right hand in his, stretching out her fingers. The faintest stroke of his thumb against her palm seemed to be an apology, but she did not know what for until he pulled her pointer finger out straight, one of his own on each side of it and put enough pressure on it that the bone curved to the side.

His expression was cold and empty as he said, "You will not touch me."

Galadriel screamed.

She felt the snap of her bone, a solid break right through the middle of her finger. Rhysand slid his grip down to her wrist, keeping her hand still as she writhed and wormed in the seat, her finger permanently crooked. Staring overhead, he grabbed her middle finger next with his free hand, repeating the motion.

"You cannot have me."

Just a simple flick of his muscles and another snap sounded. Galadriel cried out, throwing herself back against the chair but he would not let go. "Please," she begged. "Please! I'm sorry. I will not touch him."

Rhysand looked at Amarantha.

"Continue," she said.

A third snap. Galadriel managed to steel herself this time, screaming, but keeping the sound trapped behind her lips swollen from being chewed on. Tears already fell down her cheeks in droves, soaking the material of her pants.

"You will not lay your skin on me."

Clenching her eyes, Galadriel couldn't stop herself from trying to twist away from him as he broke her ring finger then her pinkie. When he dropped her hand, only her thumb had been left untouched. She let her hand hang down, bones pointing out in all the wrong directions. Agony tore through her hand and arm, each unconscious twitch spiking pain into her shoulder. The sobs had subsided, her cheeks wet, lashes clinging together.

"Rhysand," Amarantha sang.

Galadriel flinched wildly as he picked up her left hand. "No, no, no," she pleaded, trying to rip her hand from his. Rhysand tucked his lips to his teeth tightly, fighting her resistance until he had her arm locked out. "I can't—no more, please I can't."

He broke her first finger. "You cannot kiss me."

Galadriel didn't bother containing herself, screaming until her lungs burned, feeling the crack of the bone throughout her entire body.

"I am hers and hers alone."

He took her ring finger.

The first night they had spent here, ten whole years ago, she had asked him what he had planned for her birthday. By law they were married, their mateship sealed, but they never had the official ceremony. They never stood before a temple priestess and said their eternal vows to one another. Rhys told her that he was going to take her to one of his favourite jewellers. That she was to make the design for the ring he would wear to signal their mateship. They would have their proper marriage sealed in ceremony and she would wear his mother's ring as he would wear the one she chose for him.

Rhysand held the finger as if he had just slid that ring on, as if they'd already said their vows and were impatiently waiting for the priestess to finish her sacred words.

He snapped that finger too.

"Stop. Stop stop stop." Galadriel couldn't see anything now, her entire world blurred by tears and pain. She threw her head back, moans hissing through her gritted teeth. He broke her smallest finger before she had even realised he'd taken it. She slumped in the chair, heaving, her hands shaking limply past either thigh.

Sighing, as if bored, Amarantha strode forward. "You will not heal your hands with magic. If I find out that you do, I will have them broken once again and add your toes into the mix."

Galadriel wasn't entirely sure what happened after that, but the guard from outside came back in and she was being dragged once more. Every yank on her arm, every jostle in her step had her insides feeling like they were being burned over wildfire.

She was tossed back into her room, slamming onto her knees and elbows, just barely protecting her tremoring hands. They were entirely mangled, and she couldn't feel anything in her fingertips. Galadriel bowed her head to the stone between her knees, the trembling migrating throughout her body.