"What a pleasure to see you here, Feyre. I noticed you picked out something on your way in," The King smiled.
I took a step back and hit the chest of Jurian, who gripped my arms tightly.
Lucien took a step forward to help me, I presumed, but hesitated when he remembered that his touch was deadly to me.
I rolled my eyes at his protectiveness and snatched my arms away from his grasp with a rather large amount of strength. The surprise showed on his face.
"So you can unlock doors like that," The King mused. "I suspected that day you came in with the book in your possession, that there was a way or something you used to unlock the doors that only High Lords could open. All along you were the key. Both literally and figuratively," He chuckled.
I started to take a step towards Lucien but Jurian blocked my way. "Don't leave so soon. I'm sure your High Lord would like to know what you've been doing down here, and how your powers would be very useful to us when breaking down the wall."
I locked eyes with Lucien who was still behind Jurian and my eyes portrayed what I was going to do. He nodded and I gave a saccharine smile to Jurian and said, "I'm sure Tamlin would like to, but I know what I want and sorry but that's not what he wants. So if you'll excuse me," And I winnowed near the entrance of the prison, Lucien following close behind.
The guards there shouted as they saw us but I rendered them unconscious with a single thought into their minds.
We hurried upstairs where we saw more guards coming down the hallway in our direction.
"Can you winnow us to the Summer Court from here?" I asked Lucien.
He nodded and hesitantly held out a hand. "You'll have to touch my hand for that."
"Can I break the spell on you, then?" I asked.
"I'm pretty sure you could but it would take time," He told me with his unspoken words. Time which we didn't have.
So, gritting my teeth, I gripped his hand. I gaped as I felt the drainage and tightened my hold on his hand so I would not release it by accident.
He quickly winnowed us out and the darkness seemed to go on forever, the pain flaring through. We ended up in a meadow which looked like it belonged in the Spring Court instead of Summer, and like the meadow I had seen during my short trip to where Calanmai had been held.
I withdrew my hand quickly from his grasp and immediately felt like spilling my guts out on the floor, or slip into unconsciousness. Lucien cursed as he took in my surroundings.
I tried to gasp out words but only mumbled breaths came out. He noticed and winced at the sight of me trying to catch my breath on the ground.
"Where… are… we?" I managed out.
"We're not in the Summer Court. We're still in the Spring Court. Tamlin must have put a shield up around the borders," He said.
"I can… break… it," I said, slowly catching my breath.
"You're too weak, the spell just took away most of your powers from you," Lucien insisted.
I glared at him. "Please don't ever say that to me again. Lucien, I'm not a human anymore. She died when I was brought back, when I was changed into a High Fae."
He had the cheek to say, "I don't know, sometimes you still have the traits of your humanity. A little carelessness here, a dash or recklessness there…"
I scowled. "Prick," I snapped at him.
"Well, go for it. And hurry. I'm pretty sure Tamlin is going to show up soon."
I nodded and walked over to where the border was and reached out a hand. I felt the shield- very similar to the one that had locked me in the mansion. Sure, this shield covered a much larger area but it was still a prison that I was trapped in nonetheless.
I hadn't ever taken down a shield before, especially one this big. Maybe I could somehow create a hole in it, large enough for Lucien and me to pass through in time before it recovered itself.
I closed my eyes and imagined my finger, now trailing the shield, were a pair of blades, sniping through the material, burning a hole in it. I imagined how it would collapse on itself and vanish. I put all of my will into the shield, now putting all of the anger I felt towards Tamlin into it, the betrayal and the feeling to just destroy. And the love- the love I felt for Rhys, for Mor, Amren, Cassian, Azriel, for my sisters, my family, even Lucien.
I couldn't feel it working and it was getting tiring as my powers had been temporarily drained and what was left it was being used for the shield. But no. I was the child of the seven courts, with the powers of all the seven High Lords. I would not be so easily defeated by a shield created by the High Lord who had once understood me, who I had once loved and once someone who I would have done anything for.
I poured everything into it, ice crackled in me and it contrasted with the fire running in my veins. The light and the darkness shone through me and out of my hands and I felt the warmth, the Sun, the autumn leaves and its change of colours in every phase, the flowers and the scent of them like perfume.
And then the whole shield came down. Not just one hole in it but the whole thing was destroyed.
When I turned back to face Lucien, his eyes were widened. "You sure you didn't overdo it?"
I hesitated. "Maybe a little," I raised my shoulder and smiled.
"Let's go," He said, once more reaching out his hand.
I had started making my way towards him but was knocked back by another force.
"Feyre?" Tamlin whispered.
"Feyre- what are you doing?" He asked again, voice a bit louder now and stalked towards me.
I pulled myself to stand upright and held out a hand to stop Tamlin from coming any closer. "Don't touch me," I snarled.
His eyes widened and there was a flash of hurt on his face.
"Did Rhys take your mind again? Feyre, I know you're still in there, fight him-"
"Enough, Tamlin! Enough! Stop with all of your useless words and with your promises that you never keep! I've had enough of your lies and what you've forced me to go through. You sat on the sidelines every time I risked my neck for you and everyone else and you don't fight for me. You've never fought for me. You've never thought of my own choices and decided things for me since the beginning. But that was for the human Feyre. She died that night Under the Mountain. What came back, who came back was no longer her. You have your full powers back now and you're different with them. Which makes me wonder whether I loved recklessly with you or not, whether I simply fell in love with the first thing here that showed me the first signs of kindness," I exclaimed, and I realised that when the first of my words came out, I couldn't stop the waterfall that followed it.
His face contorted into a furious expression.
"Feyre, you're coming back with me now," He growled.
"No," I snarled back.
"Rhysand is doing this to you. Feyre, come back! Please. I promise you, I will do everything I can to make him pay for what he's done. The Dawn Court is already on our side and so will the Autumn Court after they've heard of what Lucien has done. Please, Feyre, we can take down the Night Court and its High Lord together, and this city he's been keeping from us all," He pleaded.
My heart skipped a beat. Those mortal queens had sold out Velaris to the King, and he had told Tamlin about it. They would be the next on our list to hunt down. Then, fury raged in me as he spoke about destroying MY court, my home, Velaris, my mate, and it grew until I could no longer hide underneath my glamour.
I could feel my wings spreading out behind my back, and felt delighted at the sight of the tattoo on my right arm, together with the release on my aura of the High Lady.
Tamlin stumbled back a few steps and looked horrified. His eyes darted up and down, sensing something other than just the physical traits I had shown.
"What did he do to you?" He gaped at me.
"He didn't do anything. This is who I am, and I can clearly see that you don't accept that. You never will. You trapped me in that house-"
"I'm sorry for that, I-"
"Yet you didn't do anything other than your half-hearted apologies. When I returned, did you think I wouldn't notice the amount of guards prowling under my bedroom window, the guards that patrolled the hallways that lead to my room? And when we returned from Under the Mountain, you never noticed. You never noticed how I was breaking, how I was broken. I was plagued with nightmares every night, and still am, and you never noticed. I was miserable here, Tamlin, and you took me away from the one place where I wasn't, where I felt like I belonged. I could barely bring myself to do anything, and all you responded with was putting me in those monstrous dresses, never understanding what I truly needed. Until Rhys. He brought me to his home and at first, yes, I did want to leave and hated every second of being there. But as the days passed and each time I returned there and stayed there after the fiasco you caused, I felt at home. I felt like I was understood there, and that I had choices there," I said, and pushed him down with a push of my hand when he opened his mouth to say something. He looked surprised that I could keep him down and struggled against it.
"Don't fight it, Tamlin. I'm much more powerful than you," I said, stalking towards him. "And do you know why? Not only because of me having the powers of all the seven courts, but also because I am the High Lady of the Night Court, something you said was impossible. Well, it clearly isn't, which is something else you lied to me about," I continued.
"And you've never been lied to by Rhysand? Everyone has secrets, Feyre, no matter what you say or believe."
"Do not speak to me about Rhys. You have no right to," I snapped at him, "In fact, you have no right to assume anything about me or what goes on in my life, or my family. My family who I met and adore, who you nearly killed, and my real family who your trusted High Priestess sold out. So I don't think I will ever truly be sorry about this."
And I lashed out with my mental claws. I forced his shields open, dug a hole so deep in them and made sure I still had the entrance open to me. I shaped his mind to follow my commands, I now controlled him and he was my puppet. When I was done with him and after all had settled down, after peace finally returned after this war with Hybern, I would crush his mind like a grape. Now, he would help me and my court to gain the information we needed.
He was now staring off into space, his mind and body fully controlled by me. It still felt wrong to do something like this, to force someone like this but he had done a similar thing to me, and this was how I would take this court down, bring it to its knees, from the inside. This wouldn't do, though, he had to act normal for this to work.
You will act normal like nothing has changed. You will tell the King and Jurian that I escaped before you managed to apprehend me, and you will hide the fact that something has been changed in your mind if Jurian or anyone else senses it. You will report to me every day on what you three plan on doing, everything essential and everything you learn. Find any way of means to report to me, notes which you can transport to me, I don't care what as long as I get your reports. And if I reply with a question, you will answer and destroy every means of communication between us and hide it from anyone.
"Do you understand?" I asked him quietly.
He nodded.
"Good. Go back now. And forget this ever happened."
He followed my instructions and vanished a few moments later, leaving me alone with Lucien. He was currently looking at me with expressions I didn't know he could create.
"Close your mouth, Lucien, your tongue is lolling out of it," I regarded with laughter.
He scowled, something that was so Lucien, so normal that I wanted to giggle and had to stop myself from doing so. So normal, even after everything we had both been through. I wondered how he had fared here with Ianthe after I had left, and I felt a pang of guilt especially knowing that Ianthe had most probably choked him near to death with her desires.
"We should go," I said.
He nodded and stood, walking over to where I stood.
"I would never want to get on your bad side," He muttered.
"You were always on my bad side," I told him, giving him a look.
"Yet you haven't done anything to me yet, you must rather enjoy my company," He grinned.
"If I have to call you a prick one more time…"
"I think you have to."
I was the one who scowled this time and carefully held his hand, wincing at the flares of pain shooting through me. The winnowing was dreadfully slow this time, each second in the darkness bringing another jolt of pain, stripping away my powers, rendering me unable to heal until I was free of the touch.
We finally landed in the Summer Court, in the dining room I had been brought to when I first came here. This time, I did collapse on the floor, shuddering at every breath.
I could barely hear Lucien above the rush in my ears, the blood pounding furiously through my veins, calling my name.
A while later, I could hear a bunch of voices outside the room, and it faded away to silence when they entered the room.
A pair of footsteps thudded towards me and I felt warmth and just pure bliss at something. I felt arms gently hoisting me up, cradling me against their chest. As I looked up, I found myself gazing into beautiful violet eyes.
