Feyre's POV:
I dipped my brush in a blob of paint. I continued painting the vines of flowers around the baseboards of the first floor. Rhysand spoke into my mind, What are you doing?
Painting. I answered curtly. I twisted the paints into the right shades and shapes until I was satisfied. Rhysand continued, How do you paint? I paused before my brush hit the baseboard. I pressed my lips together and sighed. I don't know, it's like a whole inside me. That is flowing with things that need to be told.
There was silence and I continued bringing my paint brush across the boards. I rose from the floor when the hallway was done. I glanced at a clock in the sitting room. Sometime after noon.
Kana was doing paperwork, and resting. Water stung my eyes, she just let that bitch fae sell us out. I shook my head and cleaned up my painting supplies.
I walked into my room, and set my supplies down in my art space. I was quick to clean up in the bathroom. I came out dressed in leggings and woolen socks. We'd be fighting in the dead of winter. The fae would be okay, but our human soldiers would be hit hard.
I opened the door and left Brandelis standing like a fool who'd been prepared to knock. He entered the room silently, and shut the door behind him. I said flatly, "What's the update?"
"The forest is blocked off, and no fae have been seen. General Nesta sent a few Illyrian females out to scout yesterday and they came back as scheduled."
I nodded and brought a brush through my hair quickly. Brandelis sounded soft, "Commander is everything okay?"
Weeks had passed and everyone was restless. I'd been training with Nuan most of the time. "I'm fine, is there anything else that is important?"
"No, Commander." Brandelis saluted and left quickly. I glanced down at my shaking hands. They quickly folded into fists. I walked out of my room and knocked on Kana's door. "Enter."
I stalked through the doors, Kana glanced up at me. She'd die soon, not even the strength the reaper was giving her could save her now. I declared, "When will Amarantha be here?"
"Very soon." Kana answered roughly. She rubbed her chest, the poison seizing her. I sighed, "And frostbite?"
"Will be treated accordingly, the soldiers are being kept warm." Kana answered quickly. I pressed my lips together and glanced at Hava. I gazed back at my sister. "Kana what if we lose?"
"We won't." Kana declared signing off on a document. I shook my head. "When will she be here?" I asked again. Kana paused and stared at me, "The order goes out tomorrow to be on high alert. Nesta's legion, and the Illlyrian's will start moving to the wall tomorrow."
"And my legion?" I asked, Kana wouldn't keep us out of a fight like this. It was idiotic. "You all will leave tomorrow as well."
I stood straighter, "Where will we be going?" Kana's lips pressed together, and she rubbed her temples. "You'll be going to the front. Push comes to shove, you and your unit will push Amarantha's aerial followers."
Push would come to shove. This was Amarantha. A messenger walked into the room, "High General there is an army coming from the East. It's not Amarantha."
Kana nodded, "Make sure they get here without trouble, they are our allies." I was still staring at my sister. The messenger left and I asked, "Who are they?"
Kana explained, "Viviane traded the information she got on us in exchange for the freedom of a high lord. The High Lord just so happens to be Helion. Who we marvelously are now allied with."
I blinked at her, "Why didn't you tell us?" Kana shook her head, "Amarantha picked up her pace, I thought she'd be here early spring. I didn't think Lord Helion would make it in time."
I shook my head, "So the end is here?" Kana glanced at me. And in her eyes I saw all the times she picked me up and loved me after our mother tossed me away. I saw all those beatings she took for us. "The end is far from here, Feyre."
I left her office.
Amarantha would die, and that would be her end.
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It was time, Helion arrived yesterday. Many greeted him, happy to see that it was possible to free their High Lord's. My legion stayed far away from the High Lord. Matt kept an eye on him though.
Clearly my legion wanted nothing to do with the High Lords. I almost burst out laughing when Matt grimaced as Helion shook hands with my sister.
I asked as we sat around the roaring fire, "Why do you all no like the lords?"
Matt answered quickly, "Kana broke down the lesser fae lines easily here in the human realm. The Lords will want to put those back in place."
I nodded, "They'll have to go through hell first." The elder glanced at me, "And how's that?"
"Because Kana will drag them all down with her should they try." I grumbled taking a spoon full of my soup. The elders smiled, and nodded. They understood Kana perhaps better than anyone.
The first time she met with an elder fae, they described her as an elder too. She merely explained that she wasn't, the elders wouldn't have that. So she's been defined as an elder fae ever since.
No one dare argue either.
We sat near the wall, not bothering to hide our position. We blended in with Nesta Legion perfectly anyways. Emereie came and sat down beside me, I bumped her with my elbow and she grinned. "We just caught a scout creeping over the hills. They are close."
I nodded and finished off my soup. Matt took my bowl for me, I rose in my winter armor. I scaled a tree near the wall and looked out over the Spring Court. I hated winter, yet no seasons seemed horrible. My nose scrunched up at the thought of having to live there.
A watched line of soldiers top the hill, and set off the flare. Amarantha was here. Rhysand's voice was steady, Should I expect you to stab me i the thigh again? I answered him smoothly, Only if you're in my way.
I felt his amusement. I scanned the lines looking for Amarantha. I watched her top the hill. She was adorned in her armor, she was bland. She wasn't a goddess of darkness and spite, and it made her all the more terrifying.
She shouted, and her voice echoed through the woods. "Surrender! And perhaps you all can die with some honor intact!" I pulled back my arrow, I watched Rhysand a steady force behind his captor. Shift to the right.
Rhysand's head was on a swivel, yet his weight shifted to his right foot. Regina had all of our minds linked now. I spoke, Nesta may I make the first shot?
As long as you don't miss it. Her voice was cold, colder than the winds surrounding us. Silence echoed as Amarantha waited for our surrender. I pulled my arrow back, and fired.
The horns blew just as I fired. Our soldier slammed down their shields forty paces from the tree line. No one would risk getting caught by the traps. My arrow hit Amarantha, skimmed her rib cage, and missed Rhysand's thigh by a hair's breadth.
I felt him laugh in my head, Amarantha's soldiers charged. Some of them fell to the holes we dug. Others were blown to hell from the explosive powder we'd set up.
Rhysand was quick, he winnowed in and out testing the grounds for traps. I pulled an arrow, It's nothing personal. I shot him in the thigh with an ash arrow.
He kneeled pausing, I watched the Lord of Dawn slowly make his way toward him. Rhysand ripped the arrow out. I snapped, Stay down, you'll get killed.
You sound like you care? Rhysand purred and he winnowed passed our shields, slashing a throat then winnowing back out. I snarled, You sound like you don't want to see your brother again.
I didn't even know if he had a brother. But I remember him mentioning one, when he first met me. I felt Rhysand pause, our connection dispersed into silence. I shot at him again, this time he sntached it from the air.
Amarantha made her way across the field. She swatted arrows from the air with her magic. Her power was of curses and spells. Yet she did not fully control the High Lord's powers. I watched spurts of flame come for the trees.
Chaos had erupted, My quivers ran out too soon. But she had come. And her power was more terrifying than Amarantha ever hoped to be.
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Reaper's POV:
I walked past my fallen soldiers. The bone scythe was light in my hand. Soldiers paused as I walked out past the safe lines. A fae snarled and charged for me, I gripped him by the throat.
It's snap echoed, louder than it should have been. A lordling's son came for me next. He swung his sword at my head, he got stabbed by Nuan's blade. A blade of which had never been seen.
It could be used as a whip, pieces that are attached and detached from one another. A beautiful weapon. Thesan's face was a portrait of shock. Kallias's ice came next, Cyrus waved his hand and it was nothing but melted water. Beron's face predicted Cyrus would die.
I felt Helion come up behind us, Amarantha roared. And she came at last. I jumped, using the power that remained within me. Amarantha drew her sword back. My scythe and her sword collided. A boom of power filled the field knocking soldiers on both sides back.
She swung at me again. I winnowed, a limited power, and spun my scythe. I struck her arm easily. She snarled and hit me with the power she'd been hiding. I was launched into the air. Landing I used a small knife to slow me from sliding back any further. Arrows reigned down upon her ranks.
Amarantha and I clashed again. I kicked her hard, and she stumbled back. I drew a bone sword. Amaranha grinned, "The dead will welcome you with open arms!"
"Yes." I plunged my sword into the ground. The piece lost, the ground gained, everything had been pushing this battle to this field. The ground shook with a force only a monster could unleash.
Power, poison, and pain filled me. I screamed, screamed, begging them to help us. To join us. The world paused as the ground split open. The dead emerged from their hell. The blood running down my face felt like war paint.
The dead kept the enemy away from The False Queen. I charged. I swung my sword angling it to work with my positions. Just as Xerxes had told me so long ago. Your sword is a part of you, not a blade to be used with you. But a force that you use to extend the reach of your own hand.
I jumped back avoiding her sword. I brought my sword up, my magic flowing through it. I brought it own upon her own sword.
Her sword shattered. She stumbled back from the force of it. Shards of her ruined sword cutting through her armor. I glanced up and Tamlin used his magic. The bastard sent me flying. My armor cracked, from the force of the stone pillar he'd pulled from the ground.
Someone roared at him, that he was a fool. I knew before it happened. I smiled, let them see me now. The Reaper died.
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Feyre's POV:
I watched as the bastard ass High Lord Tamlin launched The Reaper meters into the air. Rhysand roared, "You're a fool!" I paused and screamed, "MOVE!"
Something of terror, of one's loyalty to another. Amarantha was grinning as she missed the Reaper as she fell. Nothing. Her blood was a mist in the air. I felt Amarantha's power weaken drastically. It would be the only time she used it, in the fight.
I fired an arrow. Tamlin's eyes were blown wide as my arrow bulged through his chest. Amarantha screamed, her power came out at me. The whole front of the forest seemed to collapse. I fell from the tree.
I landed on the ground with a slap. My lungs struggling to recover. Someone roared for me to get up, I couldn't. Amarantha kicked me, with all of her fae strength into the tree behind me.
Pain was a steady constant as she neared. She snarled at me, "I will give you all one chance. Answer my riddle, any of you, and I will release the High Lords."
Her words were a curse and a damning.
She smiled as she spoke, "There are those who seek me a lifetime but we never meet, and those I kiss but trample me beneath ungrateful feet.
At times I seem to favor the clever and the fair, but I bless all those who are brave enough to dare.
By large, my ministrations are soft-handed and sweet, but scorned I become a difficult beast to defeat.
For though each of my strikes land a powerful blow, When I kill, I do it slow."
I roared silently in my mind as she spoke. Amarantha glanced down at my crumpled for when she was done. "Nothing else to depend on."
I smiled at her a I forced myself to my knees. "Just my hope." Shad tore into her with a ferocity of a mother defending her cub. Gaia roared as Tamlin stepped near. Cloud was beside me, and started licking the slash on my arm. WIth her own powers the cut sealed shut quickly.
I stood on shaking feet. Rhysand was staring unmoving, Helion however was grinning like a damn fool. His soldier's and Helion himself kept tearing into Amarantha's forces. Some had started fighting with Helion's men. Revenge in there own way.
Shad winnowed back to me once Amarantha stood away from me. I saw Nesta, her sword bathed in the blood of her enemies. Amarantha tilted her head, "Your sisters will die, I have forgotten nothing."
I snorted, "Except the one behind you." Nesta's sword went straight through Amarantha's chest. Amarantha screamed, and with her power sent Nesta flying, the sword clutched in her hand. I rolled away as a wave of power aimed for where I was standing. Regina spoke in my mind, Feyre no one knows what the answer is.
Then kill her. I snapped. Regina went quiet as Amarantha lunged at me. I moved just barely, enough of a glimpse in Nesta's direction showed me that Ray was with her.
I slid scooping up a quiver and a bow. I pulled an arrow, Amarantha snatched it from the air. I shot again, slowly crawling away from her. She'd kill me. There was know other way around it.
I fired my last arrow and she swatted it away like a fly. Her magic flung me through the air again. It forced my wolves away from me. Her first punch was an awakening.
Her kick launched me into another tree. My lungs lost the air they previously held. I coughed blood, my weak arms trying to carry me away from her. She landed another punch, a kick.
She was killing me. And all I could think was that Kana would destroy herself. She'd destroy the whole world. I doubted even that fucking poison would be able to keep her contained then.
The poem was an imprint. A beautiful stamp carved into my mind.
I smiled, Amarantha would die.
Because even in death she would never truly leave.
Because Amarantha killed, but she had never been friends with death.
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Kana's POV:
I stalked up through the blood and gore. I looked like death, and it stood behind me like a looming shadow. Soon. It called. Yes, I had not even a year left. My face was grim as I saw Amarantha grinned down at my sister's limp form like Feyre was a trophy.
Amarantha heard me as a twig snapped under my foot. She whirled using Feyre as a shield against me. Amarantha laughed at me, "You? What could a weak little bitch like you do?"
I tilted my head at her as the crowds of the High Lord's pushed in on me. Shad and his pack were snarling and snapping, keeping them away from me. I declared, "The answer to your riddle is love. It's an old Raskian child's story to describe the mating bond, how marvelous it could be should The Mother will it."
Amarantha's face paled, she gripped my sister's neck. "I never said when I would free them! I'll kill her. Because right after I kill her, you'll have seven high lord-"
"Six, Helion's my ally." I corrected her quickly. She snarled, silence greeted her.
I continued, "Truthfully, I never really knew why people were so afraid of you. I mean you killed people. But who doesn't die? You look like you need seventeen hours of sleep, but who doesn't? You didn't just walk into Prythian and conquer us like a true Queen. No, you tricked and schemed your way to the top."
Amarantha was glaring at me now. I knew what would happen, next she threw my sister to the ground and lunged. I pulled a dagger, and swifted my weight.
My dagger went straight into her chest. It hit her heart. Just the right spot where the only thing I had to do to kill her was remove the knife. The snapping noise I assume was a twig echoed through the clearing. She smiled, "I still won."
I tossed her aside. My eyes found Feyre's neck at an awkward angle. I felt Helion behind me. I turned very slowly toward the High Lord's. Tamlin paled, the calmness, the savageness that covered my features was fatal to anyone.
I declared, "You owe me the debt of your lives, I kill Amarantha." I snarled when Beron's face twisted with disgust. "Resurrect my sister. Or I will replace High Lord. After High Lord, until I find the ones willing."
Helion was the first to place that speck of power down upon my sister's chest. Rhysand was next, "For her sacrifice, we shall give what has not been given before."
I caught Regina and the rest of The Crows hovering in the trees. I watched the Raven's she'd befriended land around her. Guarding her. Tamlin was nexxt, his spect of power seemed a bit more willing. Tarquin and Thesan placed their seeds of power next.
Beron was unmoving, I set a hand on the sword at my side. "Which one of your son's is the most powerful?" Beron snarled and stepped forward. His power at last flowing to place a seed on my sister's chest. I said nothing, and kneeled down next to her.
"When all is set and done, please forgive me." I whispered. I summoned a tiny seed, from deep within me. It would protect her from my demons. I said softly, "Please come back Feyre."
I pressed the magic into her ches. A light, a light like the sun itself spread across the feeling. My power reached out for it, for her. Even now she is watching. Tears streamed down my face, whatever she wanted with us it would not be good in the end.
Shad sat next to her head as feyre first moved. She glanced around at first. I smiled at her, I hugged her tight without asking. She didn't move, feeling the new strength of her body was incredible.
I glanced up at the sky through the branches of the forest. I would die, and they would never forgive me.
Hey guys! I know this was a pretty short chapter. But I promise this is not the end of the book. This was more like a set up for the main plot ;)
I hope you liked how this part of the story ended. If you all are enjoying this story don't forget to like, follow, and comment!
Word Count: 3375
Happy reads everyone!
:Dragon-Fly