A Court of Fear and Longing

Chapter 20

A/N I thought, since we're exposing deep secrets from the Throne of Glass side, why not some more from our beloved ACOTAR characters? If there are typos or other mistakes, please feel free to let me know! Enjoy 

For an hour every day, the pain calmed, allowing her to sleep. The sleep was restless, but still welcome. Tonight she dreamed of when things were easier. Even before Nehemia died. 

She touched a lower note. It was deep and throbbing, full of sorrow and anger. 

She tapped out a simple, slow melody on the higher keys.

Echoes- shreds of memories arising out of the void of her mind. 

The notes fell from her fingers, hesitant at first. 

Then the emotion in the music took over. 

She pushed once on a pedal, and was gone. 

It was a mournful piece.

But it made her into something clean and new. 

She voiced the unspeakable, opening old wounds. 

The sound forgave and saved her.

She was surprised that her hands had not forgotten. 

That after a year of darkness and slavery, the music was still breathing. 

That somewhere, between the notes,

Was Sam.

Sam appeared in front of her. Aelin let out a chocked sob, forgetting, for a second, it was only a dream. 

"Hey, Celaena." 

"Sam," She sobbed, "Sam." 

"You have a country to fight for now. You need to get up."

She remembered those words. 

"Get up. Remember what your mother told you. Rise up. You're ready." 

Aelin knew she was. She was ready to shed the old skin, to be born anew, to be what she was born to be.

"The gods didn't want me dead did they?" She asked. Sam only smiled. 

"You already know the answer to that. Now get up. Your mother gave you the answers already. You've used it before." 

She remembered. The reason she had lived so many times, despite the odds. The spell she put around any place she ever stayed in. 

"Skin be steel

Flesh be stone

Nerves be strong,

as gem or bone.

Let pain be but kisses,

or breaths of air.

Magic be my armor,

for I will not bear

Neither the sufferings of the dead

Or the agonies of hell

Runes of blood,

serve me well."

Sam nodded. "I love you, but it's not time to come with me. You have others waiting before you see your family." 

He faded, and Aelin woke up to the agony. But it was less. It started slowing down, dissipating... if only she had a little longer before what was coming... 

.......

They came like a dark cloud over the land fifteen days after the Settling had started. Rowan saw them from where he sat at the highest point of the castle. Erawan's main army. The one that was supposed to be heading for Orynth. 

In the center, the King and Queen demons themselves walked. The army parted to let them to the front as they stopped in the center of the field. Rowan, Armren, Rhys, Feyre, and Gavriel walked out to meet them. 

The two groups halted feet from each other. 

Mave smiled the smile of a victor. "Where, Whitethorn, is your queen today? Hiding behind walls like a coward? Or perhaps something's happened to her?" 

Rowan growled. Maeve ignored him, instead turning to Feyre. Rhysand stepped in front of her protectively. 

The dark queen clicked her tongue, shaking her head disappointedly. Pointing her finger at Rhys, she had him sliding away from the high lady. 

"Let me talk to her. Feyre, I've heard so much about you." 

Feyre stepped forward. "I'm not from here. You know nothing." 

"Is that so? Well, if you really would like to think like that. Tell, me where has your mother gone?" 

"My mother is dead." Feyre said angrily. 

"Really? Then why did she attempt to have your birthday on a different day those few times she remembered?" 

Feyre thought. "She... thought it was a bad omen to be born on the longest night of the year. She was embarrased. But this has nothing to do with right now." 

"Hmmm," Maeve looked thoughtfully upon Feyre. "How would you react if I told you I knew your mother, spoke with her on several occasions?" 

Feyre was silent. 

"What if I told you she was after my Athril, so I banished her to another world? That I stripped her of her tittle as a fae and sent her there human? That I promised she would have a child born on the longest day of the year... promised that child's life would be mine to take?" 

Feyre took a step back, Rhys standing in front of her again. 

"Yes, hide from me. I am creature of the night as well. What was it you said? 'When you spend so long trapped in darkness, you begin to find that the darkness begins to stare back.'" At the last word, Maeve's face changed, her raven hair changing to a red-golden hue, her lips turned red as blood, the features of her face warping into something sickly sweet. 

Feyre fell to her knees. "No," she whispered. For it was the face of Amarantha that now smiled down at her. 

"You thought that pathetic lord of flowers could really kill me? I may have been there for Hybern, but they did not control me." Maeve's face warped back to its original form. "Your mother's screams were music to my ears when I had no more use for her." 

Maeve turned her attention back to Rowan now. "It's simple, really. Give me that half-breed queen, amd I will leave. All the armies will be gone. You'll never hear from us again."

"Never," Rowan snarled. 

Maeve nodded like this was what she expected. "Then it's to war. I look forward to seeing you on the battlefield tomorrow. Should you change your mind, you know where to find me. I hope your dear queen doesn't lose any powers when she settles. But I'm sure you don't have to worry about that for a few more years."

The demons turned and walked away, leaving the group to tend to the internal wounds reopened.