When I'd killed the wolf in the woods, I'd expected the predator to snarl and fight me for his life, maybe even kill me. His eyes had bore into my mind, those depthless, knowing eyes that watched me as he died in the snow that day. Now I could admit there was a part of me that knew that beast had been a faerie and yet I did not care. Not back then. Not when the survival of my father and sisters weighed on my shoulders. Not when the shackles of my mother's promise were bound around my ankles to protect them all. Not when fae were nothing more than monsters, a danger to myself and my family.
But then when my ash arrow pierced his hide and that wolf's eyes landed on mine, I didn't see a beast, rather a weary being accepting of his fate gifted to him by the Cauldron. A reluctant martyr.
I could relate to the sacrifice.
The predator that stalked toward me now was nothing like that wolf in the forest. Tamlin's long hair looked like gold melting down his chest in the light of the bonfire. Invisible forces tore through the space around him prickling my skin even from the distance. He looked like the monsters described in the stories from five hundred years ago. Vicious faerie soldiers that destroyed and pillaged, murdering humans in ways my mind had never been strong enough to imagine. In this moment, Tamlin's face had twisted into this wicked Hunter, even with the jewelled mask still cursed onto his face. He looked like an ancient warrior ready to tear the heart out of my chest.
Though maybe it wasn't my heart he was currently imagining within his fist. The chest behind me was as still as mine while I held my breath. Our bond was taut and I felt the tension reverberate through me to the beat of his heart. We were still at the edge of the thinner trees as Tamlin continued his slow approach. His eyes were looking past me, slicing into the male behind me.
The audience of faeries had grown since Lucien had taken me back to the Spring Court. They stood as a mass behind Tamlin in silence, mesmerized.
A deep rumble grew through the sounds of the crackling fire and just as I realized it was coming from Tamlin he was suddenly in front of me. I bit back the bile in my throat. Chills surged down my body as I felt my blood drain into hiding. I tried to step back but there was hard muscle behind me, covering me with his presence. I was encased between the two males. Trapped.
"I claim this woman," Tamlin snarled. "She is mine."
I felt a chuckle against my back but the bond didn't loosen its tension. "Well it seems I got here first, didn't I?"
Tamlin lifted his head and roared an animalistic roar that I would never have believed came from the lips of a man. "How dare you interrupt my ceremony with your petty games. You are not necessary here, whore. I'm sure your services are needed back at home."
They glowered at each other drenching me in their potent magic, the stench filling my nose until my head felt weightless.
"Even I'm allowed to have a little fun," he said, dragging a hand gently down my arm. Tamlin bristled. "I mean, I'm a High Lord too aren't I? Do I not get to participate in my own Rite tonight?"
The colors began fading around me tunneling into the darkness of the stained blood on Tamlin's chest. I couldn't look away. My knees buckled as I fell, but unseen hands held me up. I leaned back against the unnamed High Lord.
My mate.
"Let her go," Tamlin spat.
The hand on my arm tightened. "When I'm done with her."
And then there were shadows and stars in my vision as my body ripped through darkness. When I could see again, Tamlin was gone. The bonfire was gone. The watching fae were all gone. The beating drums clamored in the distance. My savior had let go and was pacing around me, his jaw clenched and fists tight at his sides.
Before I could beg to be spared from his own Rite, my legs collapsed beneath me and I vomited in the grass. My fingers dug into the dirt, staining my nails as I waited on the ground for his hands to grab me, forcing me to whatever will he had for me on this night. I felt his touch pulling my hair from around my shoulders, looping it around his wrist. I waited for a sharp yank but it never came. Instead, a second wave of nausea barrelled through me as I emptied my stomach again. When I'd finished I slowly wiped a sleeve across my mouth and he released my hair letting it fall from his grip.
Warmth puddled in me through the cord that bound me to this man.
"Do you even know what he would have done to you?" he ground out at me.
I stood slowly, not trusting myself not to collapse again just yet. He wasn't looking at me, rather eyeing the hills off toward the drums. "Aren't you going to do the same thing?" I asked.
He looked at me then, holding my gaze for a few eternal seconds. "My blood wants me to, but I won't. I haven't performed this ritual in years and I don't plan on committing it ever again."
"Don't you have to? In order to keep your power as a High Lord?"
He ran his hands through his hair, dragging them down his face before looking at me again. "Not anymore. The Spring Solstice is a powerful night, especially for the Spring Court, but this Rite was birthed from dark magic centuries ago," he said and slipped his hands into his pockets. "There are ways around it."
I watched him walk away from me, lost in thought. My shoulders sagged while he listlessly checked in on my face then the distant drumming before coming to lean against a tree facing me. He blended into the shadows easily, night consuming his features. His violet eyes burned like dying stars.
"What court are you from?" I whispered into the starlight between us.
For a second, I saw him - a glimpse of him, probably. I felt the glamour fall for a few precious seconds and his power was startling against my skin, like pins warning me to stay away. The night sky plunged to the earth, swelling around him as darkness seeped toward me. Stars sprinkled around his presence and his eyes - oh his eyes were other-worldly. "I am the High Lord of the Night Court," he said, then lifted his glamour taking his astronomical presence with him. His head hung for a brief moment before he returned to watching the hills behind us.
Unconsciously I tugged on the bond and immediately there was a tug back.
"Do you know what this is, human girl?" he breathed, his words so quiet I almost didn't hear them.
"Yes." I didn't hesitate.
His eyes fell shut. After a heavy breath he looked at me again. "No one can know this exists."
"Why not?" I asked.
He started toward me, but saw me flinch and settled after a few steps. "This is incredibly dangerous." He sighed and rubbed his neck.
Cradled between my hips, my hands were fidgeting unbeknownst to me. I swallowed a dry gulp feeling a cold sweat dotting my neck. I was at his mercy. Was Tamlin still hunting me? Did Lucien see what happened?
"Tamlin is still searching for you." My head jerked toward him then to the drumming. "I'm going to keep you here until he moves on to someone else."
My gut twisted at the idea of him settling for another woman.
"Even if he tried to be gentle with you tonight he would break you," he went on. "You would not like it."
I paled. He knew my innermost thoughts. Was this from the bond that secured us together? Would I never know privacy again? I exhaled and rubbed the back of my neck mirroring his gesture. He was watching me, his face rigid. Then slow claws tapped at my mind, slithering against my thoughts braiding into my head. I began to tremble and my fidgeting hands fell slack at my sides.
"It is not because of the bond that I know your thoughts." And then the claws squeezed a quick embrace before I winced and the claws were gone. "I can teach you to shield your mind," he paused going over something in his mind. "From me and anyone else with my kind of gifts."
The idea of others preening into my thoughts disgusted me. I'd seen a few of the dangers around the Spring Court; the bogge still crept into my nightmares with its taunting fantasies and the Suriel whispered its ancient truths into my dreams. Stay with the High Lord, it had said when I'd trapped him in the forest on the outskirts of Tamlin's estate. I'd been asking him about Tamlin, about how to escape and return home to my sisters and all he'd told me was Stay with the High Lord.
"What if Tamlin finds us?" I asked softly.
He turned his head. "I would winnow us away again. If it came to a fight I would win, but the consequences would be far too great."
"What kind of consequences?" I walked over toward his tree he was still lingering around needing to put some distance between myself and the discarded contents of my stomach.
"It could start a war between our courts, though that's not my main concern," he said watching me near him. "It's the attention it would bring that would do the most damage."
I crouched at the trunk of the tree, bringing myself to sit at its base beside my friendly stranger. My mate, shuddered through me again, just as it had been doing since I'd first laid eyes on him earlier. "Why are you hiding from attention? Will your woman be upset?"
He made a displeased noise. "She is not my woman. She is my captor. The captor of Prythian. And she cannot know you exist - cannot know we are mates." The word purred off his tongue and rolled through the bond and slowly burned through my chest.
It was true. He was my mate.
He continued. "She would torture you. She would do despicable unthinkable things to you just to get to me. She would keep you alive as long as she could - years even - just to watch me suffer. Even if she found you in the Spring Court she would take you from Tamlin to torment him too..." He paused then, his face falling. His eyes darted to mine then he dropped down to sit at my side. "Why are you in Prythian, really?"
I considered lying, but no doubt he could just peruse through my thoughts to find the truth. Besides, there was something sour about the bond when I thought of lying to him - especially now that I knew he knew of it too. "I killed one of Tamlin's men... Tamlin burst into my family's hovel the next day in the shape of a beast I've never seen before. He... he was going to kill me. A life for a life," I murmured. His face was emotionless as I told my story. "But he offered me a loophole. He said I could come back to Prythian to give my life to him in exchange for the life I'd taken from him. At first I was constantly trying to escape, but well, the Spring Court has become homey. I was petrified of my sisters starving to death without me there to provide for them, but Tamlin saw to it that my father's career was invested in and thus taken off to bring them their riches back. Supposedly they are doing extraordinarily well without me. It seems I don't have a place with them anymore... But I've started to really enjoy being around Tamlin..." my voice wandered into thoughts of dinners and paintings and witty remarks.
His face was blank staring at my own. Silence went on for minutes and I knew he wasn't going to respond. Undoubtedly he was torn by the knowing that my life belonged to Tamlin because of my actions. I owed Tamlin so much. He'd housed me and provided something for my family I could never have done on my own. He had been so kind and so selfless. A part of me had wanted more from my relationship with Tamlin for a little while now. I could see myself opening up to his quiet sweetness, offering him pieces of myself the way he offered his home to me. But with this awoken bond it was difficult to picture anything beyond the eternal pull in my bones for the male faerie next to me.
In the stories I'd known the mating bond was coveted and respected as above the law. Surely Tamlin would understand, wouldn't he? This thing I had was the material of myths and legends, respected and cherish even in my mortal world. Tamlin and I weren't by any means committed to one another.
But then there was the matter of him. My mate. I didn't even know him. My blood now called for me to be with him, but who was he? Was this bond to be trusted in that it knew what I needed even before my mind did? Before my heart? Was I to put myself in the hands of this stranger because of the magic of his people? I didn't even know his name.
"Rhysand," he said softly. He shifted his weight on the trunk of the tree and it was then that I noticed my head on his shoulder. I'd been so lost in thought I'd lulled myself towards sweet slumber. "And your name?"
"Feyre," I said, lifting my head.
"Feyre," he repeated with a small smile, as if tasting my name on his lips. A mirrored grin pulled across my face. He watched it form, studying it wordlessly. He reached out a hand and caressed my cheek with a single knuckle. My lips parted and his hand hovered there, but his features fell solemn. "Feyre, there are some things I can't tell you. Important things that have to do with Amarantha."
"Your captor?" I questioned.
He nodded and dropped his hand from my face. "I can't tell you of her plans. I am bound by magic not to. But I will do anything I can to protect you. I won't make you go back to Tamlin, but I can't bring you back Under the Mountain with me. Amarantha would kill you. Slowly. Excruciatingly slowly. I can try to find another place for you to go, but it would be easy to go back to Tamlin. He might consider sending you back home with your sisters if you wish."
I muddled that over. I'd never thought I would leave this night with him. With Rhysand. With my mate. But the idea of going back to Tamlin after meeting Rhysand seemed... colorless. "What about you?"
"What about me?"
I moved my legs out from under me and stretched them forward before pulling my knees up to my chest. The drums still pounded in the distance and the darkness around us had settled as the night grew deeper. Still the shadows seemed darkest around Rhysand. "When will I see you again? What will you do?"
He reached over to my folded legs letting his fingers drag down my skin. Thin hairs raised on tiny mountain peaks in his wake. "I will be bound to Amarantha for as long as she rules."
"No," I blurted surprising myself.
"No?" he countered.
"Tell me what I can do. Please," I begged. "Anything."
He watched me. Time stilled and I found myself growing edgy. My skin felt restless ready to jump toward the nearest scrap of information he could give me. He said nothing.
Finally, I spoke again. "Does Amarantha rule over Tamlin?"
He leaned his head back against the tree. "In a way."
"Is she the one who cursed the masks onto his face and the faces of all the faeries in his court?" I prodded.
He kept his eyes on the feathering leaves overhead. "Yes."
I knew even when the thought went through my mind that it was pure stupidity, but I had to find a way to save them. Tamlin deserved freedom and happiness from his curse and Rhysand... Not only did I need Rhysand for myself - for the bond that grew stronger and stronger the longer I sat in his presence, but he did not deserve to be caged.
My chest heaved as the cord pulled between us. His eyes had closed tight and he pulled his knees up to his chest as I had done, holding himself together.
And then it was like a floodgate opened. The cord dragged me through myself and into another world. There was a dark-haired woman wearing a deep velvet dress sitting high on a dias surrounded by hundred of people all laughing and dancing in swirls of color each wearing a mask. No one noticed I didn't belong as I walked through the crowd not of my own will. Whispers and slurs and wicked hushed laughs touched my ears and wandering hands pet and groped my body.
"Rhysand," a woman's voice boomed through the crowd and the whispers roared before simmering into a hush. My body moved toward the throne.
I was in Rhysand's body. In his memories.
"Come, stand at my side Rhysand," Amarantha purred. She was strikingly plain for how I'd imagined a woman with the prowess to conquer the entirety of Prythian's seven courts.
My body did as I was told without responding to her. If she noticed the apathy she didn't show it as she moved on, addressing the crowd. "Thank you for coming everyone. As a gift to you all, I have a surprise to end the night. Oh Tamlin dear?"
Rhysand's eyes found Tamlin quicker than I would have. He was in fine clothes of a bright green shade. I saw a glimpse of a large smile that had adorned his face before she'd called his name. It was gone now. Tamlin stepped forward, but said nothing.
She snapped her fingers and Tamlin collapsed. Fae screamed all over the room. Amarantha grinned. Rhysand didn't even flinch.
"I'm so glad you deigned to come tonight Tamlin. My spell has been breathing in your essence, leaching you of power from the moment you wandered Under the Mountain..." Tamlin jerked his head up and a desperate rage warped his face. "Now I'm willing to forgive you of your history of misbehavior if you surrender to me immediately. What say you?"
"Never," Tamlin growled. "I'd rather die than surrender myself or my people to you."
"I thought you might say that. Let's play a game then, shall we?"
Tamlin lunged for Amarantha with claws descending from his hands. Amarantha just turned to look at me - at Rhysand. And then Tamlin was frozen feet away from them. He dropped to his knees clutching his head.
Rhysand had stopped him.
"Alright then, now that's out of your system here is how we play," she crooned practically giggling with excitement. "You have seven times seven years to prove that with all your experience, your pitiful way of choosing a wife may actually work. You must find true love by the end of forty nine years or you are mine, forever. If you find true love before then, you and your people are free to do as you wish. What do you think?" She inclined her head toward his waiting for the obvious acceptance of her proposal.
It wasn't until Tamlin dropped his head to the ground screams retching from him with pain that he finally choked out a reply. "Fine."
Amarantha had the gall to clap her hands. "I'm so glad you agree. You see, in order to find your way of choosing a wife you'll have to find a human woman, as I'm sure you expected since your late friend is gone now. But she has to be a human woman with such hate for faeries that she would murder one... Then turn around and love you." Amarantha cackled as Rhysand withdrew his power from Tamlin who sunk to the ground. "Until then you will be trapped in your masks and disinvited from the rest of Prythian. Good luck, High Lord."
And then I was gasping for breath back in my own body. "What was that?" I nearly shouted. My head was spinning.
Rhysand was looking far off into the shadows. "I'm bound by Amarantha not to speak of his curse or its solution," he took a deep breath. "But you are my mate. You have entry into my mind and my heart and with my powers, even my memories."
My legs flattened against the earth beneath me and I leaned my head back against the tree. I was a pawn and a key. Tamlin needed me to free himself and his people... But you can't force love. It was strange feeling so close to Rhysand now as he sat next to me while in his memories he'd tortured Tamlin, hurt him. Led him to his slavery.
The drumming stopped.
"If you still want to go back to Tamlin, I've got to take you back to the Spring Court now. This is the only time I'll be able to slip through the wards without him being around for it." He was already standing, reaching his hand out for me and stuffing the other one into his pocket.
I searched his eyes for someone who would hurt me, for the person who forced Tamlin to bow to Amarantha as she tricked him into a curse that would last half a century. But his eyes, endless as the night sky, looked nothing but sad to me.
"I've done many things to keep my people safe that I am not proud of," he answered my thoughts. "But I will keep doing them. I will do anything to keep them all safe. You might see things from me that you do not like or that don't seem right, but you'll be able to feel me through the bond. You can speak to me there. Always."
I reached for his hand and we were gone in a crash of shadows.