Axios looked around, he was one of them who were allowed to follow along to the Spring Court. He, one of his brothers and his father. It was always two of them that followed his father, and the rest stayed behind. His other brothers would stay behind and keep the Darkness around the Night Court. This meeting... Something had made Tamlin rethink the alliance, around the same time as Axios realised where Luna was... And this meeting felt weird... Something was up.
He couldn't tell his father, not without risking exposing himself and the lies...
His father came walking towards him and the rest of his brothers waiting to leave.
"Change of plans. Axios you are the only one to follow me, the rest of you have a different assignment." His voice boomed in the room and his brothers scrambled to get ready.
"What assignment?" Axios asked. The weird feeling was growing.
"Not one you need to be concerned about." His father walked out of the room and Axios followed. "You will come with me, Tamlin already has his eyes on you, and you will be recognised if you go with your brothers."
"I see..." He didn't. Axios' mind was working fast trying to understand what was happening.
"I have received words from Beron that the other High Lords will appear when we are down in the Spring Court, including Nyx. That leaves the camp open and vulnerable for an attack." Axios swallowed. They were going to do it now... With Luna and the son in the room "You and I will be a distraction." He winnowed them to the Spring Court.
"I understand." He needed to talk to Luna, needed to convince her to come to his side. Then maybe... and only maybe that she would forgive him for what his brothers was about to do. His father winnowed them.
The Manor in front of them looked the same as last time, but now the daylight lit it instead of the moon. Tamlin stood on the path way, behind him in a pale pink dress, stood Isa. Or as Axios now guessed. Luna.
He saw some similarities, like her chin and cheek bones, the way she carried her body. Sure she let her shoulders hang forward, but it looked forced. And her eyes... The two light blue ones had the same intense stare as Luna had.
I see you. He sent out. Isa didn't react, instead she walked behind Tamlin like some sort of scared animal. Hoping for the big High Lord to save you? Tamlin and his father started to talk. But Axios only looked at Isa. The blue eyes locked with his.
Staying behind him so I don't rip your head off. She said, the coldness to her words made him shiver.
"Only the two of you?" Tamlin asked. The High Lord looked stressed.
"Yes, this meeting only requires the two of us." his father replied. "Isa, how wonderful to see you again!" His father focused on the female. Unknowing of who she was...
"Isa has a lot of things to do, so I hope you will excuse that she won't be able to attend all of our meetings." Tamlin informed them. Axios just made a subtle shake of his head. She was going to attend, listening in...
Where are the rest of your brothers? She asked, walking slightly behind Tamlin as they all got inside.
I don't know. A lie...
"You will stay in the guest room, second floor. Elia will show you the way." A brown haired female came up to them. "Now, we will see you later at dinner."
Axios followed his father up to the guest room. Finding that two rooms had been prepared.
"If you need anything, just ring the bell and I will come." Elia told them and disappeared.
"He is a terrible actor." Axios' father said and walked around in the room. "Pretending that I didn't notice how stressed he was over this meeting."
"He has all the reasons to be stressed." Axios said back. Sitting down. "Two instead of three, and if your intel is correct, all the High Lords are coming. That makes it stressful."
"Are you defending him?" His father dropped his voice.
"No, I am just telling you that not everything is like it looks." Isa was Luna.... Like he had been Tirian, a spy hiding in plain sight.
"If you say so..." His father walked around, hands behind his back. "We are so close now... So so close..."
___
The days pased, and just as Tamlin had said, she wasen't there for any metting. But Axios felt her in his mind, like someone waching over his sholder. On the third day he started to walk around, sertching for her in the anor. He found her in a big spacious room. Standing among tables of fabric samples, flower arrangements, dresses... Axios would not deny that he was impressed, she was going in for it.
"Why put up this charade?" He asked and walked between the tables.
"To make my dream wedding." That was Isas voice. Sweet, innocent, insecure. If Tamlin was a terrible actor, she was a master. "He wanted to make it quick, but I have dreamt about it for so long, why not make it a wedding of my dreams?" She turned towards him, and the small hints of Luna were all gone. Nothing in her face or features betrayed her.
"I heard that you have been home visiting some family?" He asked. Why did you return?
"I don't have many living relatives left, and I wanted the few I had to know that I am getting married." Why are only two of you here? She held her face in a care free mask and moved around some plates.
"Are they not invited?" Changed plans, my father heard that the High Lords are coming.
"No, they are not." She took a step back to studie the way she had arranged the plates. Tamlin walked into the room, the green eyes burned into Axios and the darkbringer took a step back.
Does he know?
Know what? Luna walked up to the High Lord, lovingly draping her arms around his neck. "I made some adjustments to the way we set the table." Then she kissed him right in front of Axios. His Luna kissed another male... A High Lord... He looked away, hoping to still the raging storm on the inside by not looking.
"Sounds good..." Tamlin said back. To Axios surprise he did sound like he meant it. "Have you remembered to rest today? We can't have you too tired to take care of our guests tonight."
"Thank you, love, for reminding me." Axios was still facing away from them. You are not the only one with secrets, Axios. Her words came as a warning, and behind him the sound of her skirts rufeling as she left was heard.
"I would appreciate it if you don't walk near my fiance, Darkbringer." Tamlin growled, " I don't like males near her."
"It was never my intention." Axios said back, looking slightly down on Tamlin. "But she knows what she is doing. I can see that."
"I know." A hint of sadness came from the High Lord. "Now, leave this room, and never walk in here again."
"Understood, High Lord." Axios left the room, only to find Luan standing in the stairs, the pink dress looked so wrong on her. And he remembered the black and blue dresses she had worn that last spring.
How she had walked around like a goddess descending from the other worlds to guide the living on this earth. He still had dreams about her in the one she had carried on the night of the Gala, and the one she had during the visit to the Court of Nightmares. Sometimes even the one she had on during that first meeting...
She moved from the stairs, disappearing like a pink wind. Leaving Axios to be reminded that he had been staring. He walked out, hoping to clear his head. The garden was filled with flowers, and the overwhelming scents of them made his head dizzy. But so did being near her... He walked around, taking in the roses of all shapes, sizes and colours. Dark, light and clear red. Yellow with pinks and without, oranges, white. He continued to walk then the more unique roses started to come. Almost blakc roses, blue shades, green, purple... Some had three or even four different shades mixed together.
"It is a marvellous sight, isn't it?" A male voice said from behind him. Axios blood froze in his veins. "Tirian? Or is it Axios now?" Helion stood behind him, the High Lord of the Day Court was here.
"Axios." He tried to sound calm.
"I don't like having spies in my court."
"In my defence, I never planned on going there." True, but he would have followed Luna to the end of the world.
"I still don't like it." Helion walked up to his side. "I have been aware that you already knew that we all are coming."
"My father doesn't tell me his sources."
"I didn't ask about that." Helion left, walking away. The air started to get filled with energy as more and more High Lords arrived. Soon it was buzzing, and the four Lords all stood with their complay in the grand entrance hall.
"What is this?" Axios' father asked, looking around at the Lords and Lady. He played the role of being confused well.
"We have some things to discuss." Helion told them. "Tamlin informed us that you were coming here." Axios' eyes searched for Luna, she must have known too.
"I was under the impression that you wanted an alliance?" The way his father spoke... Axios swallowed, sure they had anticipated this. But the way he spoke...
"I am." Tamlin had a similarly cold tone. "But for that I need to know that you are the rightful owner of the title."
"I see..." His father backed down, "Then let's start, shall we?" The other Lords and one Lady nodded and together walked in for the meeting. To his surprise Luna was not attending. No, Tamlins so-called fiance did not show up at all. Just as she had done for the erlier days. Axios hoped his shields stood high and strong. But a wage feeling of being watched came over him soon after the door was closed. Luna, a Daemati so powerful that she barely knew the limits of her own powers. He tried to make his mental walls higher. And as if she knew, a dark claw scratched against them.
"For over a year you have been claiming the right to the title of High Lord of the Night Court." It was Helion who spoke. "But during that time the title has not formally moved to your ownership."
"I had the right to it before I was even born. It was my family that placed the first stone in Hewn City, it was my Family that created the first borders around the Court of Darkness." Axios' father said back.
"We are aware, but the title left you, fifteen thosand years ago. Borders have since been redrawn, and a different family has been the one to claim the title and crown." Helion waved his hand and books opond books landed on the table. "At this point you can't claim a blood right."
"Rhysand has been a weak leader for centuries, not to mention the last seventy years." His father hissed.
"Yet the magic has not left his bloodline." Helion concluded.
"Even more so." The High Lady of the Winter Court started to speak. "We have evidence to suggest that you have sabotaged his son's attempts at getting help. Lied to us about the situation. You claim that High Lady Feyre is dead, but we have not felt her death. Neither has her son."
"Who isn't here?"
"That is not the point, is the High Lady alive or dead?" Axios knew the answer, he had talked to her, he had spread the lie his father wanted. But now...
First he needs to kill the child, then Luna, The son, before killing her... Axios looked around at the others. The dark skinned, white haired High Lord folded his hands in front of him, resting his chin on them.
"Rhysand may have been less than honest with us in the past, but he never lied to create a conflict, we also always knew what we should expect from him. To some degrees." The High Lord of Summer said. "I see no reason to trust you, and I will not vote to give you the right to the Night Court. Not if you are taking it with force." Some of the others nodded in agreement.
"You can't decide on who holds the crown." His father spat out. Axios tried to stay calm. The room was filled with the most powerful Fae in all of Peryntan... And they had still not made the decision to kill them both...
"Father..." Axios dared to open his mouth. "I think it is unwise-"
"Don't speak!"
"Your occupation of the Night Court is not acceptable, and we will ask you to end it." Now it was Tamlin who spoke. "Your crimes against the Night Court will be in the hands of the High Lord and Lady."
What are you planning? Luna's voice boomed in his head. Where are your brothers? She sounded stressed.
I don't know. His father started to smile all of the sudden.
Liar! Axios looked around and found her standing in the doorway. Her eyes scanned the table. Tell me know or I will find it! Her grip on his mind started to hurt.
Or worse...
Father sended them on a mission to kill the youngest in the blood line. Axios locked eyes with her. Information I got from you. Fear danced in her clear blue eyes.
You have it all wrong... She turned and left. Not long after Helion stood up.
"I was just told that your other sons are attacking the camp!" He screamed. "A camp protected by my borders and law! This will be seen as an attack on the Day Court."
"Very well, High Lord." His father rose from his chair. "Soon we will have a meeting again, and then you will see me carrying the crown of the Night Court." His fathers powers wrapped around him and they winnowed away.
____
Not my favorite chapter, but still like that we get to see Luna as Isa again, through the eyes of others.
Also realized that I still have not finished writing the epilogue to this book .... Oops ....
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/Mymymoon