A Different Type of Meeting

Chapter 24 - Feyre

Feyre

I lay on my bed, staring at the cracks in the ceiling, tracing their webbed pattern with my eyes. A flicker of shadows appeared at my right and I let out a short laugh.
"If you were trying to be subtle then you're not doing it very well." I said, sitting up and looking at Azriel, standing in the corner of the room. 
"I'm subtle enough for the idiots downstairs to not notice me." I snorted,
"Easy enough, I'm pretty sure I could walk through this place stark naked and no one would even notice me." A smile crept at the corner of his mouth. My face went quickly serious,
"Did you tell Rhys?" Azriel's face went solemn as well.
"He nearly came straight here as soon as I told him, it took me and Cassian to stop him. You need to some back, before it tears him apart." I shook my head, however much I longed to be with him, feel him, I couldn't. Not now, not when we stood a chance. 
"I can't." I whispered, and Az gave me a sad smile, perhaps understanding. Perhaps there was some glimmer of hope there as well. Then I grinned. "How is death treating you?" He smiled slightly, the best I could ever get out of him. 
"Great actually, thoroughly enjoying it." 
"So hell is treating you well?" He didn't get a chance to respond as a knock sounded at my door and he merged back into the shadows, leaving me with two words.
"Three days." I nodded subtly as the door opened, revealing Lucien peeking through the doorway.

"I don't want to talk to you." I growled, falling down onto my back again, praying that he would leave before I felt a stronger urge to burn him and drown him at the same time. 
"Feyre, you need to get over it." He shook his head, I could see it out of the corner of my eye, as he remained in the doorway. "That's not why I'm here. Jurian's back, and he requires your presence." I stood from the bed, slightly irritated. He was back sooner than I expected, and I hadn't yet crafted the perfect lie.
"Fine." I snarled and stormed out of the room, barely brushing Lucien. I stood at the top of the stairs as looked down at the assembled group below. Tamlin and Jurian were discussing something, probably the state of the Court, until their eye contact broke and Jurian looked up at me. There were guards scattered through the entrance hall, each of them marked as soldiers of Hybern, each of them a more and more grotesque version of whatever beast the Attor had been. I walked down the stairs, taking my time, feigning disinterest, despite the confusion running through me. There had never been this many guards before, and I hoped Azriel had stuck around to find out why they were here as well. 
"Feyre, you seem well." Jurian said by way of greeting as I looked him up and down. Taking note of the armour that he wore, the weapons that hung at his sides.
"It seems we have things to discuss." I walked into the dining room turned meeting room, maps now pinned to every available space, each marked with varying amounts of dots and colour. The males all followed me, including two guards. I sat at the table, not quite daring to take Tamlin's usual seat, but instead sitting at the opposite head of the table, which had been considerably shortened since the room's purpose had changed. Tamlin sat where expected, Lucien on his right, Jurian on mine. 
"Jurian wanted to know what happened at the Meeting." Lucien spoke first, breaking the expectant silence. 
"Nothing much, they evidently do not want to be our friends-" I was cut off before I could finish my statement by none other than the Prick of a High Lord who was sitting opposite me. 
"Who's fault is that? Who ensured that we had no allies in this war?" I snarled at him. He might be High Lord, but he wasn't mine. I only had one High Lord, and even he wouldn't tame me.
"I killed the shadowsinger. I ensured that one of our biggest threats was gone, I ensured that the Night Court was weak before our strike." Little did they know, the Night Court was stronger than ever. They were stronger without me.
"You killed Azriel?" Jurian asked in disbelief. I simply nodded and he leaned back in his chair, looking at Tamlin. "And why is it that you question her then? After what she did? What makes you think she couldn't just wipe you out with a thought." Because my death glare hadn't broken eye-contact with Tamlin yet, hadn't ceased its glowing fire beneath. 
"She's not Rhysand, Jurian." Tamlin replied, and ghost talons craved at the surface of the table mere centimetres from where his hands were resting on it. 
"I might not be Rhysand, Tamlin, but I sure as hell am not weaker than him." I snarled back as Tamlin's hands darted off the table. Jurian was smirking now from his laid back position. "What game, exactly, are you playing here Jurian?" That made the smirk fall off his face as he sat upright again. 
"The King will be arriving in two days. He expects everything to be ready for him, and he expects this Court to be in order."
"And? It is." Tamlin replied from his seat, evidently annoyed by the fact that the King did not expect this Court to be ready. 
"This Court is far from order, with you and Feyre sniping at each other constantly, and poor Lucien stuck in the middle of it all." Lucien growled at Jurian's comment on him. It was my turn to lean back in my chair now, keep up the facade of disinterest and boredom. It as getting tiresome now, faking every emotion, faking everything I did. 
"What do you propose then?" Tamlin responded, equally annoyed by Jurian's comment. 
"A change in leadership." The guards around the room knocked their bows and shot an arrow each, aiming straight at Tamlin. Before I could think I was standing in front of him, blocking the arrows with a shield of solidified wind, as the High Lord looked up at me with awe.
"No, as much as I would enjoy seeing that, unless you want your brains splattered across the wall behind you I suggest you don't." I spoke, the voice of a woman more powerful than the pathetic creature that I was. Jurian's smirked at me, lounging back down in his chair, looking past me at Tamlin.
"Is that proof enough that she is on our side?" He asked.
"Yes." Tamlin said, still looking at me. A cold rage swept through my body at the realisation of what they had just done. The anger took over and all of the guards around the room misted into nothing, as if blown apart. I was shocked by myself when I realised it was me who had done it. The males seemed to agree. 
"The shit I have done for this court. The shit I have been through." I said, my voice nearly shaking, not from what they would think it was because of, but because I was talking about what was happening to me here. "I killed Azriel, and male who is loved by the Night Court, effectively putting a target on my back, just so we stand a chance in this war, and what do you do?" I was shouting at them now, tears streaming down my face. Desperation, not from the emotions I was describing, but because I was remembering how Cassian had looked at me when he thought I killed his best friend, his brother. I cried at how I had broken myself, how much I deserved the hate that they had thrown at me. How much I didn't deserve the mate I had been given, and how sorry I felt that he was stuck with me until I died. 

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A/N

Hey everyone, hope you are enjoying the Chapters. 
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Also, a quick question I would really appreciate you answering, do you want this to just be one book (around 30 chapters or so), or do you want it to be two books (around 25 chapters in each)?

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