𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟐𝟏
" 𝘐 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 "
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╰┈˚ · ° . ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴏɴᴛʜ ᴘᴀꜱꜱᴇᴅ ᴀꜱ ᴀ ʙʟᴜʀ ᴀɴᴅ ᴛʜᴇ ᴛɪᴍᴇ for Feyre's third and final task arrived.
Maiven was escorted by the red-skinned guards to the throne room. Just her gray eyes and forehead visible, as the hood was raised over her head and the veil was placed on her face.
The crowd of faeries and High faes alike parted, as the two guards walked Maiven in front of the dais, where sat on the throne, was Amarantha, and next to her Tamlin in his usual place.
"It seems like my time with you, my little assassin, has come to an end" Amarantha sighed "A shame, really. I will miss your deadly hands." She smiled slyly "Who knew, a human, could have such talent for torture and death" She said looking around the room "Your sister will be here shortly. I am sure you will like to see her before her inevitable death" she told her with a feline smile, before the door of the throne room opened, and Feyre was escorted in.
Maiven moved to the side, her mind swirled with her thought
"Inevitable death" Amarantha had said
Feyre will never get out of here alive. Not even if she win the third task— Maiven realized
"Two trials lie behind you," Amarantha said to Feyre "And only one more awaits. I wonder if it will be worse to fail now—when you are so close. Any words to say before you die?"
"I love you," Feyre said, looking at Tamlin. "No matter what she says about it, no matter if it's only with my insignificant human heart. Even when they burn my body, I'll love you." she concluded as tears streamed down her face.
Amarantha said sweetly, "You'll be lucky, my darling, if we even have enough left of you to burn."
Feyre turned her head to the side and her eyes landed on Mai but words didn't leave her mouth as the two twins just stared at each other.
They already knew, both of them. They didn't need to say any words to know that they loved each other.
Amarantha propped her chin on her hand "You never figured out my riddle, did you?" she said, interrupting the twins.
Feyre didn't respond, and she smiled. "Pity. The answer is so lovely."
"Get it over with," Feyre growled.
Amarantha looked at Tamlin. "No final words to her?" she said, quirking an eyebrow. When he didn't respond, she grinned. "Very well, then." She clapped her hands twice.
A door swung open, and three figures—two male and one female—with brown sacks tied over their heads were dragged in by the guards. With sharp jabs and blunt shoves, the red-skinned guards forced the three faeries to their knees at the foot of the dais, but facing Feyre.
Amarantha clapped her hands again, and three servants clad in black appeared at the side of each of the kneeling faeries. In their long, pale hands, they each carried a dark velvet pillow. And on each pillow lay a single polished wooden dagger. Not metal for a blade, but ash.
Maiven clenched her jaw. This was Feyre's last task. She had to kill them. But she knew that if all the things that happened to her Under the Mountain didn't break her, this definitely would.
"Your final task, Feyre," Amarantha drawled, gesturing to the kneeling faeries. "Stab each of these unfortunate souls in the heart."
Feyre stared at her, her mouth opening and closing.
"They're innocent—not that it should matter to you," Amarantha went on, "since it wasn't a concern the day you killed Tamlin's poor sentinel. And it wasn't a concern for dear Jurian when he butchered my sister. And definitely it is not a concern for your twin. But if it's a problem... Well, you can always refuse. Of course, I'll take your life in exchange, but a bargain's a bargain, is it not? If you ask me, though, given your history with murdering our kind, I do believe I'm offering you a gift."
Refuse and die. Kill three innocents and live.
"Well?" she asked. She lifted her hand, letting Jurian's eye get a good look at her, at the ash daggers, and purred to it, "I wouldn't want you to miss this, old friend."
Feyre's hands shaked as she searched for her twin.
She couldn't do it, Maiven could see it. But she had to.
Maiven lowered her veil and hood and walked towards her sister. She didn't care if she was showing weakness. She cupped her twin's cheeks in her hands, her gray eyes stared at Feyre's blue-gray one.
She nodded once. She had to do it.
"Oh, so touching." Amarantha fakely commented with a hand over her heart as Maiven walked back to her previous spot "But we are wasting time. So... are you going to do it, Feyre"
Feyre's fingers trembled, but the first dagger wound up in her hand.
"Not so fast." Amarantha chuckled, and the guards who held the first kneeling figure snatched the hood off its face. "That's better," she said, waving her hand again. "Proceed, Feyre, dear. Enjoy it."
"Please," the High Fae male whispered, his focus darting between the ash dagger and Feyre's face. "Please. Don't," the faerie youth begged when she lifted the dagger. "Don't!"
Feyre took a gasping breath, her lips shaking as she quailed.
"Please!" he said, and his eyes lined with silver.
With a ragged sob, the human girl plunged the dagger into his heart.
He screamed, thrashing in the guards' grip as the blade cleaved through flesh and bone. Feyre wept as she yanked out the dagger.
"Very good," Amarantha said."Now the next. Oh, don't look so miserable, Feyre. Aren't you having fun?"
Feyre faced the second figure, still hooded. A female this time. A faerie extended the pillow with the clean dagger, and the guards holding her tore off her hood. Her bronze eyes tracked Feyre's bloody hand as she reached for the second knife.
"Cauldron save me," she began whispering, her voice lovely and even—like music. "Mother hold me," she went on, reciting a prayer "Guide me to you. Let me pass through the gates; let me smell that immortal land of milk and honey. Let me fear no evil, Let me feel no pain."
A sob broke from Feyre's lips. "I'm sorry," she moaned.
"Let me enter eternity," the faerie breathed ."Let me enter eternity," she repeated, lifting her chin. "Fear no evil," she whispered—just for Feyre. "Feel no pain."
The human girl gripped the faerie's delicate, bony shoulder and drove the dagger into her heart.
She gasped, and blood spilled onto the ground like a splattering of rain. Her eyes were closed as she slumped to the floor and didn't move.
Maiven could see it all over her twin's face. This was destroying her.
The faerie servant offered the last dagger, and she was about to reach for it when the guard removed the hood from the male kneeling before her.
Feyre's hands slackened at her sides. Amber-flecked green eyes stared up at her. Tamlin.
She whipped her head to the throne beside Amarantha's, still occupied by the High Lord. The queen laughed as she snapped her fingers. The Tamlin beside her transformed into the Attor.
"Something wrong?" Amarantha asked, cocking her head.
"Not ... Not fair," Feyre got out.
"Fair?" Amarantha mused, playing with Jurian's bone on her necklace. "I wasn't aware you humans knew of the concept. You kill Tamlin, and he's free. And then you can have him all to yourself. Unless," Amarantha went on, "you think it would be more appropriate to forfeit your life. After all: What's the point? To survive only to lose him?" Her words were like poison. "Imagine all those years you were going to spend together ... suddenly alone. Tragic, really. Though a few months ago, you hated our kind enough to butcher us—surely you'll move on easily enough." She patted her ring. "Jurian's human lover did. So," Amarantha said "What will it be, Feyre?"
Amarantha would never kill what she desired most. There has to be a trick— Maiven thought.
"I love you," Feyre said before stabbing Tamlin in his heart.
Tamlin cried out as the blade pierced his flesh, breaking bone. Tamlin lurched forward, his face going pale. Feyre yanked the dagger from his chest and lifted the blade. Its tip had been nicked, turned inward on itself.
Tamlin clutched his chest as he panted, the wound already healing. Rhysand, at the foot of the dais, grinned from ear to ear. Amarantha climbed to her feet.
The faeries murmured to one another as Feyre dropped the blade, sending it clattering across the red marble.
Maiven watched the queen intently as her hand rested on the sword on her side.
"She won," someone in the crowd said. "Free them," another echoed.
But Amarantha's face blanched, her features contorting until she looked truly serpentine. "I'll free them whenever I see fit. Feyre didn't specify when I had to free them—just that I had to. At some point. Perhaps when you're dead," she finished with a hateful smile. "You assumed that when I said instantaneous freedom regarding the riddle, it applied to the trials, too, didn't you? Foolish, stupid human."
Feyre stepped back as Amarantha descended the steps of the dais. Her fingers curled into claws—Jurian's eye was going wild within the ring, his pupil dilating and shrinking. "And you," she hissed at her. "You." Her teeth gleamed—turning sharp. "I'm going to kill you. I'm going to make you pay for your insolence," Amarantha snarled, and a scream ravaged Feyre's throat. Her bones were shattering as her body rose and then slammed onto the hard floor.
Maiven took two knives from her corset and expertly threw them at Amarantha. The queen sharply turned around and with a raised hand, she stopped the knives before they pierced her skin.
"You!" Amarantha snarled
A wave of magic pulsed towards Maiven but she dodged it enough to just make it hit her in the arm.
"Maiven!" Someone screamed but the girl couldn't make the mistake of losing her focus.
Maiven hurled other two knives at the queen before running behind the throne.
"Why are you hiding, little assassin?" Amarantha asked with a fake sweet tone.
Maiven clenched her jaw and unsheathed her sword.
She threw one of her knives on the ground towards the queen. The steel blade ruttled on the floor, the noise distracted Amarantha enough for the girl to walk away from behind the throne. A wave of magic stopped Maiven on her spot.
It was agonizing, and it was enough to make her crumble on her knees and make her squeeze her eyes shut.
But not a sound escaped her mouth.
"You really thought that you would be able to kill me? A human filthy thing like you?" Amarantha snarled as she stared at Mai from above.
"Honestly, not really. But it was worth a try" Maiven grumbled out
Amarantha's laugh echoed into the throne room. Her eyes are as wild as the one of a wild beast.
"I wasn't going to kill you, you know. You were gifted to me. But now... " She trailed off, sending another wave of her powers towards Mai.
Pain erupted though Maiven's body, a scream begged to be left out of her throat but the gray-eyed girl sealed her lips shut, and with all the strength that she had left, she tilted her head upwards and glared at Amarantha.
The queen's eyes widened and her anger burned as hot as the sun.
"I guess it will be poetic for an assassin to be killed by her own knife, wouldn't it" Amarantha smirked.
Her hands grabbed Maiven's knife from her thigh.
"This will do" She said contently
Maiven would have scoffed if it wasn't for the immense pain that she was in.
That knife. Always the same damn knife.
Maiven knew that she was going to die. Feyre's sob echoed in the throne room. Her own injuries prevented her from moving. They caused her pain but seeing her sister on her knees, knowing that she was going to die, was the worst thing that she had ever felt.
"Mai" Feyre whimpered with tears streaming down her face.
"Any last words?" Amarantha asked smirking
Maiven's eyes searched the crowd for the familiar red-haired male. Behind his mask a tear escaped Lucien's only good eye. She then looked at Rhysand. The High Lord who cleaned her hands from the blood that she was forced to spill. The only one who was there for her the last two months. Her friend. And then she looked at her sister. Her twin sister.
"I love you" Maiven whispered as a tear rolled down her face.
Love. That was the answer to the riddle.
Her eyes landed on Amarantha, who's hand held Maiven's own knife.
The queen grinned as she positioned the knife to the human girl's throat.
But Maiven wasn't done yet.
The golden-brown haired girl gripped Amarantha's wrist. The knife nicked at her skin and drops of blood started to stain her pale skin. Maiven rose on her feet and stared at Amarantha directly into her eye
"Fuck you" Maiven cursed. A wide smirk on her face.
And with a quick motion she forced Amarantha's hand. The knife cut through the skin of her neck sharply.
The queen, surprised, took a couple of steps back as gasps were hard through the throne room.
"Maiven!" Feyre sobbed
Blood rushed out of the wound on her neck. She was going to die and she was okay with it.
The human girl fell on her knee and then soon her dead body slammed on the cold marble.
Dead.
Maiven Archeron was dead.
✎
˗ˏˋ 𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫'𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞 ˊˎ˗
Hello everyone! New chapter!
Alright, this was something i guess. Maiven is dead.
I honestly don't know if I really like how I wrote this but it will have to do. Just one last chapter and Act 2 is completed!
I'm so excited for the last chapter and for Act 3.
Anyways thank you for reading this and if you'd like, please, let me know what you thought of this chapter with a comment and a star.
𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐲 𝐬𝐚𝐟𝐞 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞!
– 𝐋𝐨𝐥𝐚 ☾