CARDIGAN, acotar ¹

chapter thirty

₊˚ˑ༄ؘ͏͏͏͏͏͏ ͏͏͏͏͏͏

CHAPTER THIRTY

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DUSK ERUPTED, HUES of amber and cobalt spreading across the skies as she made her way back to her father's estate.

every step was hurried as she hoped to confront nesta, to demand what she knew. her mind flashed to days ago when elain was speaking — how nesta had watched for carson's reaction, noting every wince, every blink. she had reached the gardens when she spotted her twin, talking as feyre dug out a new square for elain's garden.

her simple, pale lavender gown flowed with the wind, along with her half-up hair. beautiful and imperious — as regal as one of the high fae.

she looked like a mad woman, storming across her father's estate with three scrunched up letters in hand. the earth flinched as her boots dug into the earth, reaching her sisters just in time to hear nesta lift her chin and say with quiet steel, "your beasts little trick didn't work on me."

carson's breath hitched.

nesta whirled, eyes a furious shade of gray-blue, then halted.

her stare drifted from carson's expression, twisted with both confusion and shock, towards the letters scrunched in her hand. carson clutched them tighter, remembering everything she had said and revealed about prythian. not to elain, not to her father — but to nesta, who apparently remembered everything from the night they were taken.

carson met her cautious gaze. "what do you remember?"

nesta stated flatly, "all of it."

somewhere, deep down in here, that gilded wall she'd held to keep away all sense of pain and sorrow chipped. "how?" 

nesta stared at her blankly for a moment longer before she revealed herself. "apparently, an iron will is all it takes to keep a glamour from digging in. so i had to watch as father and elain went from sobbing hysterics into nothing. i had to listen to them talk about how lucky it was for you both to be taken to some made-up aunt's house, how some winter wind had shattered our door." she shook her head. "and i thought i'd gone mad — but every time i did, i would look at that painted part of the table, then at the claw marks farther down, and know it wasn't in my head."

she wasn't even sure if humans could see through glamour, but this was nesta — whose mind was entirely her own. she had put up such strong walls of steel, iron, and ash wood that not even tamlin, a high lord, could pierce them.

"elain said — said you went to visit me, though. that you tried," feyre countered quietly, staring at the chunk of wood in her hands.

carson peered down, her breath once again failing her. painted on its smooth surface was a pretty tangle of vines and foxglove — from the dining table at the cottage. nesta's only reminder of that night.

nesta snorted. "he stole my sisters away into the night, claiming some nonsense about the treaty. and then everything went on as if it had never happened. it wasn't right," she said quietly. "none of it was right."

the sky reflected against carson's eyes, flashing dusk. "you went after us to prythian," she repeated. nesta just nodded.

"through the winter woods?" feyre pushed, raising a shaking hand to her throat.