LPOV

I froze, my gaze snapping to Tamlin.

He stood amongst the flowers, eyes fixed on Rhys. Slowly, his claws slid out from shaking fists.

There would be no words. The offence was too great. High Fae had one way of settling this vendetta.

Rhys' mouth curved upwards in a perfectly cruel smile.

And I wondered if he wasn't crazy as Tamlin roared loudly enough to shake the ground and lunged.

The boom that sounded as they collided was the sound the earth might make as it cleaved in two.

Then they were whirling and snapping and snarling, smashing everything in their path. I knew better than to intervene – when the High Lords fought, it was to the death.

Tamlin had knocked Rhys back into the far wall and crashed into him. Fast as a bolt of lightning, Rhys ducked the swipe of his claws for his head and kicked Tamlin off him. He slammed a fist into Tamlin's gut that threw him through the front wall of the house. Debris and dust rained down and Rhys howled as he followed Tamlin from the house. Within seconds, they had moved from the front of the house to the surrounding lands.

I stood there, stunned. Rhys must have had a death wish to face Tamlin.

Or…

Slowly, cruelly it dawned on me.

Shit.

Rhys must have heard about Feyre's 'death'. He'd thought it was real.

I had planned on escaping Spring with Feyre after Tamlin placed her in the crypt. I would have retrieved her once the poison wore off and we would have run.

I hadn't counted on the news spreading – Tamlin had told me that he'd purged all the spies from the Spring Court.

And like a fool, I'd believed him.

Ringing through my head were those fateful words Hybern had spoken many months ago; words which changed everything and nothing.

Mate.

The mating bond was strong. I'd thought it was unbreakable, but Hybern had broken it.

Hadn't he?

Rhys had come for Feyre. Whatever his motivations were, he was serious enough to commit an act of war to get to her.

If it had been my mate, I would have ripped apart whoever - whatever - had dared harm her.

I had no interest in seeing what power like Rhys' might do if unleashed on the world in wrath.

I had to wake Feyre up. Now. She was the one person who might stop the destruction.

I turned to where Feyre was lying, racking my brain for how to rouse her.

Only to find Rhys's standing over her.

RPOV

It had been easy to glamour Amren. She stood before me before we entered the manor, a perfect replica of myself.

I knew she was more than capable of holding her own – but I couldn't lose another one of my family.

"I need you to distract him – keep him far away. If anything goes wrong, winnow out." She nodded gravely and I could feel her eyes boring into me. I avoided her gaze. "Don't wait for me."

With that, I turned to go.

"Rhys."

I paused, then turned slowly.

"Be careful."

Before I could react, she turned and strode towards the manor doors.

As she disappeared, I slipped around the side of the house. This close, I could feel my mate – feel her very being calling to me.

Not much longer, I whispered down the silent bond between us. I'm almost there.

A roar thundered through the air, followed by thunderous crashing and howling. It was an effort to remain where I was until I was sure that all the guards had followed the source of the commotion. I rounded the corner of the manor silently and shattered the wards on the doorway with half a thought.

The cloying, suffocating scent of the flowers hit me first. All around me were riches – gold and jewels piled high, interspersed with fine silks and all the flowers of springtime.

And in the middle…

There she was.

All I could think was how much she would have hated the red roses in her crown.

The world had fallen silent around me as I drifted towards my mate. It had been so long since I had seen her – how many times had I imagined our reunion?

She would be smiling, happy and free and I would have run to her, able to do so at last. Then, there would be nothing between us at all – no space, no lies, no duties to keep us apart.

I had waited for her for centuries. When I found her, I knew it had been worth it.

She was before me now and I reached for her. My hands caressed her face – so cold, and pale – and she didn't move.

She was gone. Truly, irrevocably gone.

And then I was falling, falling into an abyss with no end.

Slowly, I leaned down and kissed her. It was soft and sweet and I lingered there, committing to memory the lines of her face and the feel of her next to me.

"Let's go home." I murmured.

LPOV

I felt like an intruder.

The scene before me was perfectly peaceful – Rhys cradled Feyre in his arms, whispering to her. Still, she remained lifeless. He swept his arms under her legs, lifting her bridal style to him and straightened.

He spotted me.

I cried out for him to wait, to listen but I barely uttered a sound before an icy wind forced me to my knees.

"You," he snarled. He remained standing, unmoving with Feyre held against him – as if he wasn't prepared to put her down.

"Did you try and stop him? Or did you just watch?" His voice was like ice, as if he burned with fury and grief from within.

I widened my eyes, trying to stop him, just for an instant to tell him the truth. If he killed me, he might very well continue to rampage through the Spring Court before realising Feyre wasn't dead. The death and destruction that ensued would be my fault for causing this mess in the first place.

The fury in those violet eyes grew as he looked at me and I felt his magic rallying to strike.

RPOV

He could have stopped this.

He must have known that Feyre's magic had been stripped from her as she was hunted down. He had let it happen, had not tried to help her.

I remembered Feyre's pain as she spoke to him at the Night Court; how he had betrayed her trust out of loyalty to Tamlin, again and again.

I could feel my rage building, threatening to unleash my power across the world. This hopeless world, which had taken so much from all of us – which had demanded such a sacrifice of the one in my arms. Maybe it deserved to be ended by a monster like me.

If you're a monster, so am I.

Feyre's words, echoing in my head.

A better world – that was what I had wanted to build. A world for the dreamers who looked at the stars and wished. Like Feyre – and Mor and Cassian and Amren and Azriel.

We were dreamers – who knew that there was a price for our dreams. One worth paying.

Feyre had made the ultimate sacrifice for her world – because she believed it was worth saving.

The faces of the gaunt faeries of the Spring Court flashed through my memory. Bigger – this was something bigger than me, or Feyre, or any one of us.

We had lost much already. We would lose more. But we would keep going – for that dream.

I released my hold on Lucien and turned away. He fell to the floor, gasping for me to wait but I was finished here. I needed to go back to my court.

I looked at Feyre's face, the face of the woman I loved so fiercely.

Only to find her beautiful eyes wide open and staring right behind me.