─── · 。ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
"You can call me monster."
─── · 。ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
TWO DAYS passed.
Two days of waiting and watching and helping Amren decode the Book even when she started cursing at me for nagging on her.
Rhys and Mor had left in the early afternoon to visit the Court of Nightmares—to return the Veritas to Keir without his knowing, and to ensure that the Steward was indeed readying his forces. Cassian had reports that the Illyrian legions were now camped across the mountain, waiting for the order to fly out to wherever our first battle might be.
And there would be one. The realization had set a sick weight on my mind all day. Another war. More battle. More bloodshed. More bloodlust.
Even if we nullified the Cauldron using the Book, even if I was able to stop that Cauldron and the Kingvfrom using it to shatter the wall and the world, he had armies gathered.
There was no word from my sisters, no report from Azriel's soldiers that they'd changed their minds. My father, I remembered, was still trading in the continent for the Mother knew what goods. Another variable in this.
There was no words from the queens either. It was of them that I frequently thought. Of the two faced, golden-queen who held such a stark resemblance to my friend—to Astrid. And the fact that she did not just have a lion's coloring, but a lion's heart, too. That I admired.
Part of me hoped I saw her again. Part of me loathed the idea.
With Rhys and Mor gone, Cassian, Azriel, and Feyre came to stay at the town house—Feyre and I hold up in my room and giggling like we used to. Mainly making fun of everyone. Cass and Az mainly planned for our inevitable visit to Hybern and I tried to butt in when I could. Tried, being the key word.
Yes, I knew it was very, very important. But I also knew it was dreadfully, dreadfully boring.
After that first dinner, when Cassian had broken out one of Rhys's very bottles of wine so we could celebrate my our mating in style, I'd realized they'd come to stay for company, to dine with me and Feyre, and...the Illyrians had taken it upon themselves to look after me.
A gesture that was greatly appreciated, and warmed my cold, dead heart. But also unnecessary granted I was perfectly capable of looking after myself.
Rhys said as much when I'd written him a letter that night and watched it vanish. He didn't mind if his enemies tracked him to the Court of Nightmares, that much was clear. And why should he? If anyone tracked him there...good riddance.
I'd written to Rhys, How do I tell Cassian and Azriel that I don't need protecting? Company's fine, but I don't need bodyguards.
He'd written back, you don't tell them. You set boundaries if they cross a line, but you are their friend—and my mate. They will protect you on instinct. If you kick their asses out of the house, they'll just sit on the roof.
I'd rolled my eyes, You males are insufferable and they can sit on the roof. Scratch that. I'm going to buy them a dog house to put in the backyard. P.s. I'm going to buy a dog.
He'd said, it's a good thing us insufferable males make up for it with our impressive wingspans. P.s. you're not buying a dog.
The pen had scratch on the paper, echoing through the quiet room as I'd written back, still insufferable even if I miss you. P.s. I'm going to name the dog Rhysand.
He'd replied, Of course, you do. P.s if you get a dog and name it Rhysand I'll throw it out a window.
I'd hissed, jotting down, Prick. P.s. If you throw my dog out the window I'm going to throw you out the window. Then you and Rhysand can be matching just like your names.
Moments later the note had appeared again, You're a menace. We're not getting a dog.
Too bad. I'm getting one, and sticking you in the dog house with Cass and Az, I had replied.
He'd written back with a simple, Cruel. But a midnight laughter followed down the bond—our mating bond. And I couldn't help but smile.
I fell asleep thinking about Rhys, wishing he was there and hoping he'd finish up at the Court of Nightmares and return soon. Gods, I had become a lovesick fool. It was awful.
The next afternoon, Rhys was still gone, Amren was buried in the Book and I was unable to annoy her, Azriel off on patrol of the city and nearby shoreline, and Cassian and I were—of all things—just finishing up an early afternoon performance of some ancient, revered Fae symphony I had dragged him to on the other side of the Sidra.
I had wanted to go since I got home. Had wanted to finally go to the theater I had seen each and every time I walked down town. And I had finally gone, and by the Cauldron I had forgotten how much I loved it. The music, the show, every single facet of it.
Everything in my sung with joy at the sight. Even Cassian had sat in awe.
The music had been ancient, such rich history conveyed through such powerful notes. Written at a time, Cassian had told me, when humans had not even walked the earth.
And when it had finished, Cassian had offered to fly me home—on offer I declined, instead opting to walk along the bustling streets.
Walking back across the river, we remained in a comfortable silence—my eyes drinking in everything as though it were the sweetest wine. We'd dropped off more blood for Amren—and to get the hell out, to which I'd replied that she was a grumpy troll and she'd nearly torn my head from my body. It was fun. And Cassian and I headed toward the pet shop
Rhys be damned, I was getting that dog. And I'd get one of those little viscous ones too.
I paused, center of the marble bridge, Cassian halting beside me as I peered down at the blue-green water idling past. I could feel the threads of the current far below, every bit of life in the water as it flowed past.
Cassian braced his forearms on the broad stone railing, his red siphons like living pools of flame.
I said, perhaps because I was a busybody who liked to stick my nose in other people's affairs, "It meant a great deal to Feyre and I—what you promised our sister the other day."
Cassian shrugged, his wings rustling, "I'd do it for anyone."
Maybe. But not like this.
"I know it meant a lot to her, too." Hazel eyes narrowed slightly. But I casually watched the river. "Nesta is...different from most people." I explained, "She comes across as rigid and viscous, but I think it's a wall. A shield—like the ones we have in our minds."
"Against what?"
I sighed in thought. "Everything. Feelings. Fear. I think Nesta feels everything—sees too much; sees and feels it all. And she burns with it. Keeping that wall up helps from being overwhelmed, from caring too greatly." And that I understood more than anything.
"She barely seems to care about anyone other than Elain."
I met his stare, scanning his face, "Nesta will never be like the others," Isaid, "She will never love freely and gift it to everyone who crosses her path. But the few she does care for... think Nesta would shred apart the world for them. Shred herself apart for them. She and I have our...issues. But Elain..." my mouth quirked to the side, "She will never forget, Cassian, that you offered to defend Elain. Defend her people. As long as she lived, she will remember that kindness."
The general straightened, "Why are you telling me this?"
"Because you should know. For when you see her again and she pisses you off—which she will by the way. Of that I'm certain. But know that deep down, she is grateful, and perhaps does not possess the ability to say so. Yet the feeling—the heart—is there."
I paused, debating on pushing Cassian into the river, but the water beneath us shifted. And the air tensed.
Not a physical shifting. But...a tremor in the current, in the bedrock, in the skittering things crawling on it. Like ink dropped in water.
Immediately, I went on alert.
Cassian felt it too, his body tensed and both our eyes began to scan the river, the banks on either side. Both of us looking with a hawk's eye for every minor disturbance.
"What the hell is that?" he murmured. He tapped the siphon on each hand with a finger. Scaled black armor began unfolding and slithering up his wrists, his arms, replacing the tunic that had been there. Layer after layer coating him like a second skin, flowing up his shoulders. The additional siphons appeared, and more armor spread across his neck, his shoulders, down his chest and waist. Then his legs and feet.
Without hesitation, I followed.
And just as I was able to shift my hands and teeth, I shifted my clothes. The tight navy blue long sleeve I had been wearing was gone. Veining from my chest to the rest of my body my attire changed. Now decked to the brim in silver and black Illyrian fighting leathers. My hair drawn up in a loose, intricate braid on the back of my head.
The sky was cloudless, the streets full of chatter and life.
Both he and I kept scanning, covering where each other may have missed. Something was wrong. Something was very, very wrong.
The river beneath us remained steady, but I could feel it roiling, as if trying to flee from— "From the sea." I breathed. And Cassian's gaze shot straight ahead, to the river before us, to the towering cliffs in the distance that marked the raging where it met the ocean. Where my gaze already lingered.
And there, on the horizon, a smear of black. Swift-moving—spreading wider as it grew closer.
"No." I whispered. No, this couldn't be happening. My power flooded my veins, and I curled my fingers into fists, the strain to leash my magic growing ever stronger.
"There's no Illyrian patrol that supposed to know about this place..." he said. His gaze cut to me. Scanning the leathers that now adorned my body just as his own did. "We're going back to the town house right now."
I cast another glance to the horizon, the black smear increasing in size with every second that passed. Infinitely bigger every time I blinked.
"No," I said, "We're not." the smear of black separated, fracturing into countless figures. Too big. Far too big.
People began shouting, some pointing. And yet all of them held panic on their faces. Raw panic.
Cassian reached for me, but swift as the wind I dodged his touch. White lame licking at my fingertips, lightning roaring in my blood. I'd pick them off one by one— "Get Azriel and Amren—"
They reached the sea cliffs. Countless, long-limbed flying creatures, some bearing soldiers in their arms...an invading host. "Cassian."
But an Illyrian blade had appeared in Cassian's hand, twin to the one across his back. A fighting knife now shone in the other. He held them both out to me. "Get back to the town house–right now."
I cast another glance toward the threat. Toward the winged creatures and soldiers in their arms. Toward the people now screaming on the street, such raw terror racing through their veins at the fact their home had been invaded.
And I would not sit by and allow it. Would not sit by and allow these people—my people to be killed.
I looked to Cassian, the ring around my pupil lighting with a white flame, my mind made up and my gaze forged from molten metal.
"Like hell." I practically snarled and raised my arms to my side, without a second thought I flung my power out in waves. The world shuddered beneath me. A warning to those who threatened us—and a call. A plea. An instruction.
Without so much as looking in Cassian's direction I stole the Illyrian blades he offered and took off in a sprint toward the broad stone railing just beside us, his shouts of protest echoing through my ears. No more than a distant rumble as nothing other than silence ran through my mind.
And then I leapt, diving off the edge as though I intended to swim within the icy waters of the Sidra. But instead, I flipped, my feet barreling under me as I braced myself for the chilled waves. But I was not met with the river below. Just as I had hoped.
Bending my knees to absorb the impact, I collided with something hard and powerful. Lean and muscled. My feet found placement on something scaly and moving. And despite the direness of the situation I grinned, situating myself on the monstrous creature's back as it swept up from below the bridge, water misting around us as monstrous wings touched the water ever so slightly.
We ascended in an upward spiral, rising in a vertical line as the wind tore at every bit of my body. The midnight black wyvern and I rose above the crowd. Azail climbing the sky faster than any creature could. A force. A reckoning. A promise. The deadly creature released a roar that could shatter worlds. Crashing in the air around us and carrying through the city below. Through its streets and people.
And through the howling wind, I whispered to the Wyvern, "Bonum est videre te, vetus amicus." it's good to see you, old friend. Again the creature bellowed, shaking its head. This time in answer to my words.
In a swift movement, Azail settled out, flying straight and swift as I kept low to his back. And without doubt, without fear, we raced straight toward the raging chaos of the black, swirling mass. Straight toward the winged creatures and soldiers because, if anything, we could buy the them time.
So fast, they were carried on a fell wind, the force reaching further and further near the city. But they would not get so far. Not while I was still alive.
Arrows began to hail from the skies, cast from the soldiers in the arms of the creatures. The weapons whistled as they flew through the air. And I acted on pure instinct. No other thought other than rational.
Fast as the wind itself I flung out a hand. Power slicing around the city wards like an axe barreling down to the ground. And as one, the arrows lit aflame with the shield I wrought, ash raining down upon the city like a storm.
Red light exploded from a space in the city, obliterating the arrows that had showered after my pulse of power.
Seconds. Seconds away from the army, Azail and I, but we barrelled forward not slowing an inch as they neared and neared. And just as the army was barely a hair's breadth away, the wyvern jerked and I let out a cry. One of promise and strength.
We flew sideways, and I clung to the wyvern with a force, trying to keep myself attached to it rather than plummeting into the sea below. I didn't dare cast a glance to the waters below me for fear that I might let go.
The monstrous, midnight creature opened its jaw and revealed the wide, sharp rows of teeth. Pure, white fire spiraled within the depths of its mouth and then unleashed itself upon the world, burning the Hybernian soldiers from the air, melting the flesh from their bone. Their screams like a melody weaving through my mind as we glided. One by one they dropped, falling through the air and crashing into the water below, their screams silenced forever.
Azail and I cut down the front lines of the aerial legion without mercy. Starlight. Pure starlight burned the skin from their bones, all coming from Azail as I used my power to stop all those escaping the wyvern's fiery fate.
They were all like the Attor.
A long-limbed, gray-skinned, with serpentine snouts and razor sharp teeth. But there were those who did slip past, ilk punching through both Cassian and I's shields as if they were cobwebs. I beheld their spindly gray arms gauntlets of that stone I'd seen on Rhys, glimmering in the sun.
Stone that broke and repelled magic. Straight from the unholy trove of the King of Hybern.
One after one after one, they punched through our shields. Azail and I trying our best to catch those who escaped us but...there were too many. And we could not burn them all.
Even from the edge of the city, I could hear the shrieking, the screaming and fleeing. Our shields would not hold—
"Get me close to the city." I commanded in the old language, urgency in my tone. Such undeniable desperation that the wyvern moved immediately.
Leaving the legion behind—not far enough for my liking. They stayed at our heels, arrows shooting from behind us and slamming into my shield of invisible fire.
We moved swiftly, and in a matter of moments we reached the highest buildings. An I knew what I had to do.
I'd have to jump, hopefully landing on a rooftop on not the ground where my inevitable death awaited me. Defend the streets while Azail controlled the skies.
"Keep them busy." I said, and the wyvern swerved giving me the opening I needed—
I leapt.
I fell through the air, plummeting as the wind roared around me. A drop a human would have died completing—but I was no human. I braced myself preparing for the death that might very well greet me as I aimed for a nearby rooftop. One crawling with those monsters invading our city.
The ones I would kill first.
My feet collided with the cool stone and faster than any mortal I rolled to absorb the impact. And in mere moments I was on my feet and staring at the creatures that would soon lay bloodied on the floor.
I stood. A predator assessing its prey.
"Worldbreaker." one of them whispered and the creatures looked between each other, a silent conversation conveying between them.
"Surrender." One hissed as it looked back to me. "And maybe the King will grant you mercy when we take you back to Hybern." A step toward me and the others followed en suite.
I smiled, a wicked show of teeth that looked as bloodthirsty as I felt, "I think there's been some confusion," I said, voice smooth and icy, "I'm not the one in trouble here."
Again, they looked amongst themselves, "What?" one dared to ask.
"There are only nine of you." I said, my grin turning absolutely feral as iron nails pierced from my fingers and fangs protruded from my mouth as I smiled. "You'll need more than that."
I lurched, ripping out the first's throat with my teeth in a matter of seconds. And then I was upon them all. Tearing, ripping, killing, blood poured staining the rooftop with its crimson coloring.
Mere seconds. Seconds was how long it took for me to rip each and every one of them apart until bodies were strewn along the roof top in a tattered mess.
I felt no remorse. No guilt for the loss of these creatures. One's who terrorized an innocent and beautiful city and took the lives of those who did not not deserve it to be taken from them. One's who served an evil King intent on sacrificing those who opposed him.
No. No, I did not think I would feel anything regarding their deaths.
Blood spilled from my mouth. The red liquid splattered across my clothes and face. I was sure I looked no better than them. No better than the monsters. I didn't care. Not when my home was under attack and lives were at stake.
I plucked a bow and quiver from one of the downed creatures, continuing on without so much as a spared glance. I ran, jumping along rooftop after rooftop in search of a vantage point. A way to kill the creatures more precisely as they invaded the city. As they attacked.
I found one in minutes, the bloodshed still fresh and raging as those on the streets were attacked. I didn't waste time, raising my bow, notching an arrow and shooting a creature that had cornered a woman in the street. The arrow pierced clean through the back of its head, protruding from its eye on the other side as he fell to the ground.
I shot another, a creature raising its weapon toward a man holding someone behind him. The arrow pierced its heart clean through and it toppled to the cobbles.
I kept going until I saw none in sight, and only then did I begin running again, running until I found more. Running until they were all dead.
A rhythm, a repeat. And I did so until the screams of my people ceased.
But as I reached the edge of the city where the creature no longer flew in, it...everything there was dead. All of it aside from the injured on the streets. Velaris citizens tending to wounds beside the bodies on the streets. Bodies of loved ones and attackers alike. The stones ran red, stained with blood and would be for a very long time.
Azail still flew in the skies, burning down any who dared to try and cross the borders of the city again. Terrorizing those who tried to leave. Roaring, the sound carried through the full wind.
I think it may have been the worst sight I'd ever seen. The devastation, the loss, in such a beautiful place. Such art tainted with the violence bestowed upon us by our enemies. A sight I never wished to see again.
Some soldiers had been frozen, others cut down. Some drowned, some hunted, some burned. A clash of all of our powers and abilities melding together in the worst of ways. Forged from the beginnings of war.
It was then that I ceased to hear the screaming of my people, and the screaming of the attackers became a song in my blood. One of the soldiers rose up above the brightly painted buildings...I knew it.
The Attor was flapping, frantic, blood of the innocent coating its gray skin, its toneless gauntlets. I sent an arrow shooting through the air, but the Attor was quicker.
It evaded it. And then next. And the next. It clawed its way through the air, soaring high. Away from me; away from my power—from Cassian and Azriel, holding the river and the majority of the city, away from Amren, using whatever dark power she possessed to send droves of them crashing down without injury, from Feyre, using her water magic to freeze and attack all those who remained.
None of them saw the Attor sailing up, sailing free.
It would fly back to Hybern—to the King. It had chosen to come here, to lead them. For spite.
Where are you?
Rhys's voice sounded distantly in my head through the sliver in my shields.
WHERE ARE YOU?
The Attor was getting away. With each heartbeat, it flew higher and higher—
WHERE—
I dropped the bow. The wood clattering to the ground in a rippling sound, forgotten and discarded. I dropped the quiver. And in a fluid movement, I had already unsheathed my knives.
I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be, I replied.
And then I winnowed into the sky.
A/N: Hi, my friends! You have all spoken and I will be posting the Hybern chapter all at once, but we have two more chapters until then so I'll probably post those last two within the next few days!
And as an estimation for the Hybern chapter and how long they'll take, It's hard to say because I've written quite a bit of it but there's also a lot left to write. I'd say no more than two weeks, but that's just an estimate.
Also, if the prequel was in 3rd person's pov, would that be confusing? I've just been trying some different stuff, and might do that, but I also don't want it to get confusing, yaknow?