Chapter Two

Lucien

I knew from the start it wasn't going to be an easy task getting Tamlin to agree to save the Realm by performing the ritual on Fire Night. Feyre sent him letter after letter, practically begging him to do his duty to balance out the Seasons. At first we hardly noticed the change – a few trees dying could be chalked up to any number of reasons, but then we started getting reports of crops dying on the vine or failing completely. No one noticed how little rainfall we had in the early part of Spring, but by the end a full scale drought had taken hold, and panic set in. By the end of Fall more and more faeries showed up at the Night Court searching for food and answers as to why the Cauldron had forsaken us.

There wasn't a day that went by when some news of droughts or forest fires weren't reported, not to mention the bands of rogue Fae terrorizing whole villages to steal whatever food they possessed. I'd overheard Rhysand talking to Feyre, making threats against Tamlin, and while she agreed wholeheartedly with him, she hoped there would be an easier way to get Tamlin to save the people she'd grown to love and care for. She sent him multiple letters, every one of them saying nearly the same thing. If he agreed to help in our time of need, she would make sure everyone throughout the Realm understood he was their savior. After everything that had happened to her sisters and herself, she balked at the idea of proclaiming him a hero, but if it meant saving lives, she'd bow down to him and would have Rhysand do the same.

When no word came from her latest letter, she summoned me to her chambers. I didn't want to go back to the Spring Court, and made that very clear before I finally accepted the responsibility. Tam had been my best friend, he'd saved my life, and I didn't want to witness firsthand the man he'd become since the war. We were all partly to blame. No one was innocent, and yet he took the full brunt of the backlash after the war. There wasn't a Court in all the land that hadn't taken in many people who once called the Spring Court their home, and the truth was, Tamlin was good to his people. He took care of them and protected them as he protected me, and Feyre took everything from him. I understood her reasoning, and even went along with her as she escaped to the Night Court after she systematically destroyed him from within, but that never stopped me from remembering the man he was before she came into his life.

She ruined him, and I feared her sister would do the same to me. Elain, my mate – she didn't want to have anything to do with me, and I played along for scraps of her attention. As days turned into weeks and then months and then finally a year, I began to wonder if Feyre and her sisters were put on the Earth to destroy the men who loved them. Amarantha said humans had fickle hearts, and Feyre's love for Tamlin would flicker and fade, and she hadn't been wrong. Her love turned to hate so fast, it brought to question if any human could truly love a Fae. It made me sad for Tamlin, and even more so when I returned to the place I once called home.

His entire Court had emptied out, and his manor stood in ruins. He hadn't even tried to repair the damage even though with his immense power, it would've been pathetically easy. It didn't even seem to bother him to walk through broken glass and furniture littering the black and white marbled floor. Maybe everyone was right, and he was the Crazed Beast. If so, nothing would save him or us. Two weeks would never be enough time to undo the damage we'd caused, and we had no one to blame but ourselves.

Except a permanent scowl etching his brow, and the vibrant green of his eyes having dulled, he looked pretty much the same. As he had no one to care for, hunger wasn't an issue, and his well defined corded muscles remained flawless while I looked gaunt and pale. For all his power, even Rhysand suffered from the loss of our food supplies – he couldn't magic food to the table if there wasn't any to be had.

Tamlin dismissed me after pointing out how Rhysand was no different than him. Shoulders drooping, he trudged into the manor, and I heard his bedroom door slam shut behind him. He expected me to leave to run back to Feyre and tell her there would be no ritual. I stayed. When he emerged from his room later that night, he found me sitting at the table, and scowled my way. Slumping in the chair beside me, he muttered under his breath about unwanted guests before an abundance of food, too much for either of us to eat, appeared across the table. My stomach rumbled as I whiffed in the savory, spicy aroma of roasted pork and venison. An array of side dishes, bowls filled to the brim with potatoes, corn, beans, salad and rolls, sat in front of me begging to be eaten.

"Eat," he grumbled, piling food onto his plate, "and when you're finished, I expect you to leave."

"This food," I said hesitantly as I stabbed a thick piece of roast pork with my knife to set of my plate, "what will you do with the leftovers? I could wrap them up, and take them to nearby villages if you'll allow it."

"There are no nearby villages." He met and held my gaze for a long moment then lowered his head and dug into his food. "If you plan to stay against my wishes, you'll have to sleep in the barn. Your bedroom along with hers was destroyed."

I chewed and swallowed down a delicious, perfectly cooked piece of venison as I contemplated how best to convince him to do his part to ensure the Fae Realm survived. "I could go beyond the Wall, and entice human women to join the celebration of Calanmai. They have no idea who you are, Tam. The Children of the Blessed would be grateful to –"

"You have to be kidding, right?" He looked up and pinned me with a stare. "Do not even think to bring another human to my lands. They are not welcome here, and neither are you."

"Okay, it was just a suggestion." Setting down my fork and knife, I picked up the crystal goblet filled with wine, and gulped down a healthy portion. "The High Lord of the Summer Court has offered one of his four beautiful daughters to be your wife if you'll perform the ritual. Naturally they won't be a part of the ritual – it's a good offer, Tam. You should take it under consideration."

"And the Night Court? Have they made any offer of sacrificing one of their own to the Crazed Beast of the Spring Court?"

I winced at the venom in his tone. "No." I shook my head. "Once everyone sees that you've saved us from starving to death, I'm sure other offers will pour in. You will have your choice of any woman you want."

"With assurances from you of countless conditional offers from other High Lords, how could I refuse?" He lifted a golden eyebrow, and smirked. "Eat you dinner, Lucien."

"I'm sorry," I muttered, staring down at the plate of food in front of me. "You have to understand why the other Courts have turned on you. You aligned yourself with Hybern, and that's not something easily forgotten."

"No, it's not," he surprisingly agreed. "However, it seems that when I killed Amarantha to save them from having to live Under the Mountain, it was forgotten easy enough. Perhaps they should try harder."

"Feyre passed the trials Amarantha chose for her," I reminded him. "She's the one who –"

He slammed a hand down hard on the table, rattling the dishes. "No! Those three trials and the stupid riddle she solved only rescued me and my Court. If I hadn't killed Amarantha, your precious Rhysand and every other Court would still be under her control. Rhysand was defeated, crumpled to the ground without any hope of saving his mate. No one seems to remember that though, do they? All Rhysand's scheming and whoring would've amounted to nothing if I hadn't murdered her – Feyre would be dead right now if I hadn't ripped Amarantha's throat out. So don't lecture me about things not being easily forgotten."

"You're right." I sighed, pushing my half-eaten plate of food aside. "I'll beg for your mercy if I have to. I'll do anything to ensure the survival of our people and the insignificant humans."

"I have no doubt you would, but would the High Lord and Lady do the same?"

"You know they would – they have."

"I wonder," he scratched at the short growth of hair on his jaw, "if your High Lady would agree to the same terms Rhysand set before her when she broke her arm and he healed it?"

The color drained from my face. "You would force her to spend one week with you every month for the rest of her life?"

"As I recall, she once enjoyed my company." He smiled, and waved his hand dismissively. "Rest assured in the knowledge that I have no interest in making deals to spend time with the High Lady."

"What does interest you? You have to want something for yourself?"

"I want for nothing. I have everything I need."

"You have nothing and no one," I countered, waving a hand at the food laden table. "You prepared enough food for an army and yet you eat alone. Let me help you gain back some small portion of what you've lost."

"As I said before, the cave has been destroyed," he said after a lengthy pause, sadness dulling his green eyes even more. He waved a hand, and every scrap of food vanished. "It was nice eating dinner with someone again." His chair scrapped against the floor as he pushed it back and got to his feet. "There are blankets in the barn for you. In the morning I expect you to be gone."

XxXxXx

Later that night I met Feyre at the edge of Spring Court. Unnerved by being so close to the place she once called home, she paced back and forth. Moonlight glinted off the daggers she wore, a measure she'd taken to secure her safety, and I rarely saw her without them. The moment she noticed me riding into view, she stopped pacing, and rushed over to me. Wisps of golden blond hair framed her delicate face, and she hastily brushed them out of her green eyes.

"Has he agreed to perform the ritual?" she uttered, looking beyond me to into the darkness toward the manor.

"No," I said as I hopped down from the grey stallion I'd borrowed from the stable. "He's – bitter, Feyre." Anger sparked in her eyes, and with a weary sigh, I went on to explain, "You have it good. You have friends and family, and you left him with nothing." I held up a hand when she opened her mouth to defend her actions. "I know what he did was wrong, but he did it out of love for you. He truly thought Rhysand was controlling your mind, and he would've sacrificed anything to save you. He made some bad decisions which he paid dearly for them, but it wasn't him who caused this famine throughout our land. We did this to ourselves. He waited all night at Calanmai, and no one showed up."

"This is not our fault," she said after my voice trailed off. "We would not have been welcomed onto his lands, and left it to the other Courts to deal with him."

"You know as well as I the mass migration and the words you put in his people's ears to turn them against him. They filled the other Courts ears for weeks and months after the war. You're not innocent in this, Feyre." I looked over my shoulder into the darkness then back to her. "You broke him, and you took wicked pleasure in doing the deed. So don't stand there with righteous indignation when you know in your heart you wrecked him, leaving nothing behind but a shell of the man he once was."

"He helped Hybern turn my sisters into High Fae."

"And he regretted it more than you will ever know. Hybern tricked him just the same as Amarantha tricked the rest of the Fae."

"I can't forgive him." she stubbornly folded her arms across her chest. "Even though he helped in the end, I can't forget what happened to my sisters because of him."

"Then you'll have no one but yourself to blame when the people starve to death. You of all Fae should know what it's like to go to be hungry." I climbed back up on my horse, and scratched behind the ear. "Go home, Feyre. I'll deal with the High Lord of the Spring Court myself."