Back to the present...
My past haunted me at night, and during the days, I would find any distraction that would keep me from reliving horrid memories.
Usually, it was working out, or brushing up on my sword skills in the morning. I would read until my eyes blurred the words on the page, and I would enjoy the fresh air.
Meals were the only time I wasn't alone, although, it wasn't voluntary.
My family slowly prodded me throughout conversations to make sure I could still speak. I just didn't have anything to say.
But there was one Fae's company I did enjoy.
And that was Elaine.
Strangely enough, if I had met her before my entrapment in the mirror realm, I believe I could've broken her with a snap of my fingers.
But after spending time with her, I know she's hiding something. Something large, something that no one else knows.
My favorite parts of the day were when I wandered into her garden, and sat on a bench. I could enjoy the sunshine, or get lost in a book without judgement. Or questions regarding my sanity.
Elaine's garden was coming along beautifully, lush and green and alive.
Elaine sat up, and frustratingly huffed, "Carina, can you hand me the large trowel next to you? These chrysanthemums aren't cooperating today."
"I don't think the flowers are out to get you," I teased her, and she gives me little emotion beyond an eye roll.
Elaine takes off her dirty glove, and her hand grazes mine as she takes the small shovel.
Her eyes become hazed over, and the metal falls with a loud thump into the dirt.
She takes an unearthly gasp, and words fumble out of her mouth, in a voice not truly her own.
"Serpent's bone cut from teller's blade
Stars burn by the seeker's sword
All to stop the undead horde
Fate prevents an ancient strand
Of one who calls to fire
To save his land from decisions dire
Reflections show ghosts
Only so many secrets can darkness hide
Before her river of stars have dried
Shadows mix and visions tangle
Sun shall shine true and brave
Only division shall save
The fate of Fae
Of suns, of clay,
Of flames, of swords,
Of shadows, and of chords"
Elaine falls from her kneeling position, and I catch her right before she lands. She was out cold.
What the—
She was a seer. Elaine was a seer, Feyre told me that. Then why did I just see a prophecy roll out of her tongue? I thought this was what the priestesses were for.
I didn't know what to do, so I yelled, "Help! It's Elaine!"
I checked her breathing, and her pulse, she was alive.
I heard a crash across the House, and loud footsteps making their way to the garden.
They all came rushing, and I was surprised to see an old, familiar face.
Lucien Vanserra.
He brushed me away, and took Elaine into his arms before anyone else could get near.
Mates.
They were mates.
Feyre and Nesta came rushing forward, and I scrambled out of the way. No one should get in the way of family.
Cassian saw me on the ground, and offered a hand to me. I grimaced, but took it anyways. He pulled me up and I gave him a small thank you.
"Are you alright?" He asked me, although he already knew the answer I would tel him.
"I'm fine."
Cass looked like he wanted to ask me more, but his head turned towards Nesta, as she started berating Lucien.
Rhysand winnowed, brushing invisible dust off of his clothes, but looking concerned nonetheless.
He looked upon the throng of people around his sister in law, and then spotted the fiery redhead.
Rhys pulled me inside, and I rolled my eyes at his protective nature. "I don't think he saw you."
I sighed, "Lucien's too busy making sure his mate is okay. Besides, it would be a sin to betray his mate's family. So would rising from the dead."
Rhysand gave me an apologetic look, "This is not forever, I just need time to set everything into place—"
"I know. I have viewed a glimpse of what immortality has to offer. I'm not a child, Rhys." I told him, and then turned towards the stairs.
I hoped Elaine would be okay, but she did not need another person doting over her. She was strong, stronger than people thought, not a flower so easily crushed.
I banished my own thoughts, and started climbing to the higher levels. Rhysand quickly followed me, "Are you okay?"
More of the same, boring questions.
I told him, "I'm fine. Just... spooked."
Rhysand asked, "What happened?"
I stopped halfway up, and turned around to face him. This time, I didn't have an answer. "I don't—I don't know."
"Can you... can you show me?" He asked, trying to test how comfortable I would be sharing my mind with him.
I nodded, then closed my eyes. I opened my mind, and showed him the memory of what happened. And as soon as it was over, I quickly shut it.
"You should probably show Feyre." I told him, almost dismissing him.
"I think you should show it to her." He paused, and then pressed, "Do you want to talk about it now?"
I closed up even further, "No."
I walked up the rest of my stairs, and I was oh so close to the room I was staying in when my brother kept trying to talk to me.
"Carina, we need to talk."
I turn around to face him. "As my brother, or my High Lord?"
He stays quiet for a moment, before he answers, "Brother."
He chose wrong. I didn't have to answer to my brother, but it was my duty to the Night Court to answer to my High Lord. The three stars that descended down my back proved this fact.
I opened my door, to escape my life once more.
"Rina!"
"What?" I exasperatingly asked.
"Please don't go silent again. I can't bear to watch you suffer all alone when I can do something about it."
"I'm not suffering, Rhys. I'm free." I remind him, "Besides. I'm not silent. I'm talking to you right now."
"Did you trade one prison to another?" Rhysand asks, and when I don't respond, he continues, "And you only speak when you are addressed to first. You don't go out of your way to talk to others. I'm afraid your going to turn into your old self."
"My old self." I repeated. Tears form in my eyes, and they threatened to spill. "The one who murdered without conscience? Whom the Court believed was as evil as their former High Lord?"
He denies his implications, "No, a ghost of yourself. Never making a mistake, or fearing what would happen under father's rule."
Or his whip.
I shrug, my hand still firmly on my doorknob, "I guess we'll never know. It's a good thing he's dead."
Rhysand's eyes haze over for a moment, and I know he's speaking to someone else. "Elaine is alright and awake." He informed me.
I have a sigh of relief, "That's good to hear."
Rhys says, "Feyre wants to know what happened to her sister."
"Now?" I ask.
He confirms, "Now. It's the third episode of this month."
As much as I didn't want to do this, a small part of my heart still survived after all the cruel things that was done to it over the years. I hated to admit it, but I cared.
"Fine." I shut my door, and breeze past my brother in the stairs, to my High Lady.
Feyre greets me with a smile, while Nyx is giggling in her arms. I can hear shuffling behind them, as Elaine walks to one of the sitting rooms, Nesta in tow. Lucien watched helplessly for a moment, before he angrily marches outside.
Cassian whistles. "That is not going to end well."
"If someone was separating you from your mate Cass, I don't think you'd be very happy either." Rhysand saws, walking over to his wife and son.
I rolled my eyes, "What he means is that the House would be destroyed by now."
Feyre fails to hide her laughter, and Cassian narrows his eyes. "Since Lucien can't, I'll go check on my mate."
I shrug, "How Nesta deals with him, I'll never know."
"You give her too much credit. I don't know how Cassian deals with her." Feyre says, while Nyx reaches out to his father. Luckily, the child looks more like his mother.
Feyre gives him to Rhysand, and all I can think about is how natural he looks as a father.
A voice echoes in my head, he does.
My eyes widen, and I set up my shields. Sorry.
Feyre chuckled. "No, no, it's fine. Sometimes it's easier to live inside our heads." She gives my brother a curt look, and he walks away. I know he'll be listening from another room, but I appreciated some sense of privacy.
I sigh, "I—I don't know where to start."
Feyre looks like everything the High Lady of Night ought to be. She didn't need a crown to prove her regality, but she did it with every action. Her eyes held the same hue of the stars that were held in our very own skies.
I could tell why Rhysand and her were mates, they had both suffered through hard trials. But that only made them stronger, and got them to the point they were today.
I was jealous, I will admit that. But I had to hold on hope that I could have a life like theirs. With a mate, a self made family, with happiness. Things I'd never dared to think of when I was around my father.
Feyre sighed, and she looked tired and stressed. "I just want to see what happened. I don't know how else to help her."
"I'll show you. Elaine has been so sweet and understanding to me, I want to help her as well. But it's not your job to fix everything." I reminded Feyre. We did not always need to carry the weight of the world on our shoulders.
She nodded, but I knew that she did not believe my words. I closed my eyes, making the memory resurface once again. I pushed it towards her, and she saw.
"The bones... again?" Feyre muttered, trying to put the words together.
Carefully, I said, "I thought she was just a Seer. Is she... more?"
"She has power from the Cauldron. And I don't think she has unlocked all of them. I wouldn't be surprised if she was stronger than half of the High Lords." Feyre confided in me.
I nodded. I knew how they got their powers, how they had been captured by Hybern.
Feyre cleared her throat, "Rhys said he told you everything that happened when you were gone."
I nodded, "He filled me in. I'm sure he left out some parts, and skimmed over others, but I'm mostly up to date. 80% of the time he talked about you." She laughed at that, so I added, "How you went from a human to High Fae. And how you saved him."
"He saved me as much as I saved him." Feyre said, and I swear there had never been a better matched mates than the two of them.