𝐀 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐀𝐬𝐡

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾ 𝟏𝟎.

Feyre P.O.V

All 3 of the retched fae had been thrown into a makeshift...dungeon of sorts, though the pain and memories that must have come back to my mate in those moments of her presence must have been unimaginable. I wanted to kill her this time, Tamlin could go to hell for all I care but Amarantha, I wanted to be the one to rip her throat out. This time? Though the seek for revenge a second time was overpowering at moments, the questions wouldn't stop coming.

How in the cauldron were they still alive? What were they planning? What did they want? Why were they here? Was Audra safe enough? Should we contact all the other High Lords? Why did me and my sisters faint? What was that place that we were all trapped in?

Everything in my head halted when my gaze landed on Rhys. He looked so broken. More broken than I had seen in a long time. I walked over to him from the doorway that I had been leaning on moments ago and sat down, placing a hand on his thigh. He didn't look up, just continued staring at the same spot, so lost in thought. He was sitting on 1 of the many couches in the lounge, hands intertwined in between his knees and his hair falling halfheartedly over those gorgeous violet eyes that seemed to be lacking the stars that I cherished so dearly. Every trace of the male that had been teasing and joking with me mere hours ago were gone.

I looked up to see the rest of the inner circle sitting or standing across from us. I didn't know when Alintia arrived, Mor's female lover. Mor had told us about her preference of females over males days after Azriel's and Elain's marriage, deeming it the right time to come clean to all of them. The males to say the least were shocked but welcomed her in and were glad that she had finally told them her secret after 5 troubled centuries of complicated relationships. Mor had her arm wrapped protectively around Alintia's shoulder while Alintia had one of her arms tightly gripping Mor's waist. Both their focus however was on Rhys.

Everyone in the Court of Dreams knew what Rhys had given and what this did to him. I wanted to know what was going on in his wicked mind. Wanted to know how this affected him though I had a pretty clear idea. I was scared of asking him however, not of him, rather if he was prepared to respond, ready to face those memories again.

I leaned on his shoulder, hoping to ease some of his pain as he almost automatically put his arm around me, pulling me into him. We stayed their for some time, Rhys still lost in his thoughts. I was just about to go find our guests when Aelin and her court walked in, beating me to it. They had been in another room, giving us some privacy to sort things out though I knew well enough that they needed the time to talk things through just as much as we did, not that we had necessarily talked .

I met Aelin's gaze which seemed to burn with an icy flame, her eyes softened when meeting mine and lingered on Rhys before she sat down on 1 of the couches. She opened her mouth and closed it as if she was fighting an internal war on what to say. Finally deciding, she broke the dreaded silence, "What are we going to do?"

Rhys looked up, as if he just noticed that there were other people here. Those violet eyes that held galaxies within them guttered, whatever emotions that had resurfaced were gone within a blink filled with rage, such an unyielding promise of death that promised to kill that female that had put me and him through so much. Before he could respond, I said,"We hold a meeting, with all the High Lords, tomorrow. We say it's urgent and we explain everything that's happened."

"And when they say we're crazy and that there's no way that that's possible?", Cassian asked, leaning back on the wall behind him as if all his energy was drained from this 1 very unexpected hour.

"We show them. Maeve, The King of Hybern and...her...", I said, avoiding saying Amarantha's name though I knew we were all thinking it.

Everyone nodded in agreement as there wasn't really much we could do.