A Court of Dawn and Midnight

The Curse

Rhysand tried to fight the creatures.
But there were too many of them.
So he let them grip his arms and drag him away from Feyre's cell. This had to have been the first time that Rhys had ever lost a battle.
He was used to winning, and losing felt terrible.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The creatures led Rhysand far away from Feyre. He was dragged left and right through the tunnel, soon he lost his sense of direction.

It was horrible, really, having those fleshy hands on his arms. When the creatures' grip shifted, Rhys looked down to find rotting flesh sticking to his own skin. The creatures' flesh had rubbed onto him.
Rhys held back the bile rising in his throat.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hours later, the creatures arrived at a door. It looked exactly like the one at Feyre's cell, but when the creatures brought him inside, the room was much different than the cell.

The walls were slick with water, it ran down from the ceiling and dripped onto the floor and walls. The water gathered in the middle of the room, like a pond. It swirled and misted, evaporating slightly.

The creatures brought Rhysand to the water and held his arms back as they pushed his face into the mist.

It was freezing, the mist. It wafted up to Rhysand's eyes and froze his eyelashes. He gasped in pain and struggled against the creatures' grip.

"What do you want from me?" Rhysand yelled.
One of the creatures leaned down to Rhysand's ear, so close that he could smell the rotting flesh.
The creature hissed at Rhysand, "don't you wonder why your Fae are dying? Why you find decaying bodies in your court?" The creature chuckled.
"I know why," it whispered.

"Why?" Rhysand screamed, "why! Tell me, tell me why." He fought the arms holding him to the mist. He managed to punch on of the creatures in the throat, it stumbled back, gasping for air.

Rhysand pushed the creatures off, backing away from the freezing mist.

But the mist began to swirl together and rise upward. It spun and spun until it created a fierce wind that almost knocked Rhys off his feet.

He grasped the cave wall to keep himself standing, and he stared at the mist as it began to form a figure.

A human figure. But not just a human, a child.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rhysand had never been so surprised. The mist kept swirling until it solidified into flesh, and a child was standing in front of Rhysand.

It's flesh was rotting, like the rest of the creatures. Her eyes glowed blue, framed by long, silver lashes. Her hair was also silver, cascading down her back.

And Rhysand realized that he knew this child. It was the girl that had given Feyre the black rose in the village square.

Rhysand turned his head away from the child. He looked behind him to see another creature, staring at him.

"How did this happen? Why is this child like this? What did you do to her!" Rhysand ran at the creature, knocking it off its feet, and wrestling it the floor.

"Stupid High Lord," the creature said, "you know nothing."
"Then tell me." Rhysand dug his nails into the creature's face.
"Your court is cursed, Night Lord." The creature spat. "When Amarantha died, a curse was released on your court."

"Amarantha?" Rhys hadn't thought about her for weeks. The woman who used him, kept him, and lied to him.

"Amarantha is dead. She died when Feyre answered her riddle and Tamlin slaughtered her." Rhysand whispered.

"Yes, she is dead," the creature said, "but she made sure that you would suffer."

"Suffer for what? I played her games, I did what she wanted." Rhysand said.

"You helped that brassy haired girl, Feyre, and now your court will pay."

Rhysand sucked air into his lungs "What does the curse do," he asked.

"First, we take your Fae, we kill them. And then," the creature pointed to the child, "then they form out of the mist into one of us."

"So you- you used to be a Night Fae?" Rhysand asked, bile rising in his throat.

"Yes."