A Different Type of Meeting

Chapter 16 - Feyre

Feyre

I winnowed. Again. Darkness consumed the room, and dropped me somewhere unfamiliar, but somehow familiar at the same time. I sighed, lifting myself to my feet and looking around. It was all trees, and rocks, and dirt. Nothing else, and no sound, just the hush of the forest. 
"Are you trying to screw up everything this Court has fought for, or is that just what you do all on your own." 
"How did you know where I would go?" I asked, because how could he know where I would go, even when I didn't.
"Because you used to come here when you were younger." I turned on my heel and stared Azriel straight in the eye. The rage still radiated off of him, and I didn't know whether being alone with him at this time was very wise, but I had no way out of it. I still had no idea where I was, but something felt different about it. Something I hadn't felt in years.
"When I was younger, as in when I was human and you didn't even know I existed." 
"A much easier time if you ask me, but you'll find that if you look to your left there is your mother's grave." I turned, expecting to see nothing, but instead seeing a grey and cracked headstone, and I fell to my knees, because it was her grave.
"How....." He shrugged, and disappeared just like that. Stranding me with a dead person, a ghost I had long ago buried, both in memories and in the Earth. 
Protect them. I heard her whisper, over and over and over. For years I had heard those words, and forgotten them. But now, there was more than one voice there, more than one way forward. And now I had to choose, now I had to decide whether I would leave behind the hurt and the death and the loss, or whether I would leave behind the only real family I had left. The family who had forgotten me and moved on. The family who probably were better off without the Fae burden that I am now. 
Spring Court Princess, Darkness Incarnate, Cursebreaker. None of it made sense to me, and none of it probably ever would, but it is my life, and it wasn't changing anytime soon. I closed my eyes, and places my hand on my mother's gravestone for the last time. This time, it was definitely the last, because I couldn't bear to look at it one more time. Not now, not tomorrow, not in the eternity that I still had left to live. There wouldn't be time. So I closed my eyes, and winnowed back to the other side of the wall. To the Night Court. 

For the first time, I knew where I was going and I got there. From one place to another, stepping across a continent. I didn't know exactly where I was, but I knew it was the Night Court, because down below, were the lights of Velaris. In the crater between a circle of mountains. 
"A city of starlight indeed." I said to myself, the wind carrying the words away before I even heard them. I watched the city move, the people scurry around like ants, the river moving through and away, the lights. 
"I'm getting a strange sense of deja vu right now, and I'm not sure whether that is a good time." A voice said from behind me, and I smiled slightly when I heard it.
"At least I din't try to run away when I heard your voice." I said back, a peace offering. I knew my plan, and I knew what I would do. I didn't know what would happen to me, but at least all I wanted to protect would be safe.
"Fair enough, Azriel came back and said that he couldn't find you." I spun on my hell then and found myself face to chest with the High Lord, who was a lot closer than I had anticipated. I was surprised Azriel hadn't told him where I was, but at the same time I knew what he was trying to do. Trying to pretend I was talking to the enemy was one way to play it, and it seemed Azriel had chosen.
"Funny." I said blankly, no emotion or hint as to what had actually occurred. Because this would work in my favour. "Now, can we please get off the top of this mountain." Finally starting to feel the cold of the howling wind against my face.
"Don't you like being alone with me?" The smirk on his face helped me realise he was joking, because the words sounded sincere enough to be a real question. I laughed.
"You wish." And, before I could read his expression, he winnowed us back down to Velaris. 

We arrived in the dining room to four familiar faces, all of whom appeared to be stuffing their faces with the food that covered the table.
"Good to see that the absence of me has not affected you too greatly." I said, smirking at them all. 
"You forget, we spent a long amount of time without you. And, might I add, it was a lot easier." 
"Thanks Amren." I muttered under my breath, taking a seat at the table, and Rhys taking his. "Always good to know you can stay positive." I started filling my plate with food that, for once, wasn't the slop I had been forced to eat at that camp of doom. I looked up slightly and watched all of their faces as they talked amongst themselves, taking note of everything I noticed. They all seemed tense, and evidently were not comfortable with the fact that I had just disappeared with no explanation. And, evidently, Cassian did not want to wait until I said anything about it.
"Where, in Cauldron's name, did you just mysteriously winnow to?" For, what I believe to be the first time in any meal I had witnessed, he stopped stuffing his face with the food and actually looked me in the eye. 
"A grave." That seemed to snag the attention of everyone at the table except for, of course, the one who had been there as well. "But that doesn't matter, it's just a grave. A stone." I whispered the last two words to myself,  quiet enough so that the others would not hear.
"Okay, and on that positive note, I have news." Amren stated, her voice emotionless as always. "The High Lords have requested a meeting, considering the recent events. Theyare inviting everyone. Including Tamlin." Anger seemed to cloud the eyesof everyone at the table, except Rhysand, who appeared to be considering thepossible outcomes of the situation. As he always did. 
"I need to go." I stood up from my chair and left the room, a million emotions rushing through my head at the same time, each trying to gain dominance. I could do something, for once in my life, that may actually help the people I care about. But it would mean hurting them now, and I couldn't make that decision in front of them.