Thank you so much for your readership! Things get a lil spicy this chapter, rating is moving up to M just to be safe.
-XXX-
After the agreement was made, everything was a blur. Wasting no time, the Unseelie party lead her away. Phasma made to bind her hands, but both Leia and Kylo stoppedd her. The mother and son exchange a glance before Kylo commanded his right hand to leave the foundling be.
Rey dids not get the chance to say goodbye. As she was lead out of the Great Hall, an uproar rippled through the court. She could hear Poe loudly swearing, and looked back to see tears streaming down Rose's pink cheeks. Finn looked utterly lost, staring after her with a helpless expression on his face. And Leia —
Leia's looked gray and ill.
She was taken to the gates of the palace with only the clothes on her back. Rey longed for her sword, her cloak, anything but the damn flimsy green dress she wore. Before she was helped onto Kylo's pitch black stallion, he removed the dagger at her waist, turning to examine the scabbard. Then he pocketed it before hoisting Rey onto his mount, climbing up to sit behind her. It took everything within her not to quiver as his broad chest made contact with her back. She was very careful not to touch him anymore than necessary. To her surprise, he was also stiff, clearly not relishing the contact.
The party was silent as they move through the Seelie lands. Hux had his perpetually sour expression plastered on his sallow face. Phasma's emotions were hidden by her helmet, but Rey suspected she isn't happy either. Strange. They'd gotten what they wanted.
Her dress was not made for riding. When Kylo had lifted her she'd made the decision to sit astride, causing her skirts to constrict and ride up. Uncomfortable, about two hours into their ride she found herself shivering too. Wordlessly, Kylo used one hand to pull his cloak around her, encasing them both in the black wool. Rey tensed at this gesture.
"You're no good to me cold," he said, a little teasing.
"I'm going to be no good to you either way," she murmured. "Just because I'll be in your court, I'm not going to bend to your will."
The corners of his mouth tightened. He didn't answer.
When she began to nod off, four hours into their journey, she felt his hand slip around her waist, pulling her tight to him.
She was jostled awake when they stopped for rest. Kylo slid off the saddle first, then helped her down. They were in the Wild Lands, the expanse between the Seelie and Unseelie courts. Along the barest cut of horizon through the trees, she could make out a sliver of sunset.
"Phasma will take you to relive yourself," he said shortly. "Then we'll resume our ride."
"We are riding through the night?" she asked, frowning. The Wild Lands were known to be treacherous enough during daylight hours.
"My master requires us to return as soon as possible," was all that he said before he turned back to his mount.
The lady knight took Rey's arm, dragging her away. After an extremely awkward experience, Phasma led her back to the party and passed her an apple from one of the saddlebags. It was somewhat bruised. Rey had eaten fruit in worse shape, however, and quickly polished it off.
Rey watched in awe as Kylo spun a series of small, bluish orbs that glowed softly and drifted carelessly midair. He caught her eyes as he let another roll of the tips of his fingers.
"They'll follow us," he explained softly as she stepped forward to examine one. "Give us a little light and help us keep track of the other riders. If someone unfamiliar comes within several feet, they glow orange. You can touch it."
The blue light reflected in her wide eyes as she watched the nearest orb bob gently a little above eye level. Tentative, she cupped her hands around it, drawing it close.
"It's warm," she said, wonder in her voice.
He had moved closer while she was distracted. A mere two feet in front of her now. "I can teach you how to make your own. It's easier than you'd think."
Rey looked up at him, uncertain. Her face was cast in odd shadow by the angle of the light between her palms. Just as she opened her mouth, Hux interrupted.
"We ought to be going," he called. "We are expected by dawn."
Kylo's nostrils flared. He jerked his head up to stare at Hux, making his displeasure clear. "Then prepare your mount. You can lead us, Hux."
The redhead paled. Rey wondered if he was aware of the lore surrounding the Wild Lands. But he did not protest. Without another word, Hux took to the front, with Kylo and Rey in the middle, and Phasma trailing behind, her crossbow only a finger's reach away. The group rode out, their glowing orbs trailing beside them like beautiful fairy lights.
This time when Kylo took his seat behind her, he automatically pulled her to his chest and wrapped them both tightly in his cloak. Rey stiffened at once, but soon enough she was asleep against him, lulled to sleep by the steady motion of the horse and the warmth.
XXX
"I can't believe you let her go," Poe spat as he paced the room.
Leia's study was, at the moment, crowded with Poe, Rose, and Finn, alongside Leia's closest adviser, Casper. The adviser, dressed in his usual golden robes and skullcap, stood beside his mistress looking fretful.
The queen appeared weary as she watched the captain of her guard walk circles in her rug. "I didn't have a choice, Poe, she volunteered."
"But you could have commanded her!"
Leia frowned. "What do you think I was doing? She insisted. She told me she wanted to buy us time. The best I could do was a year and a day."
"She didn't know —"
Leia rapped the table angrily. "Poe! The decision has been made. Rey is gone. There is no going back. The best thing we can do now is to work with the time we have to honor that decision."
Casper shuffled forward. "If I may, my lady. There was something in the phrasing of your agreement that caught my attention."
All eyes turned on the slight man. He seemed startled by the attention and went on. "You said, once she was out of their custody, she could decide where her allegiance lay. Which, I believe, could be interpreted as if she managed to escape —"
"—she could decide to come back," Rose finished excitedly. "The way you phrased it, if Rey makes the decision to come back, the agreement is void."
Leia's smile was subdued. Finn gave a loud whoop as he hugged Rose and then Casper. Poe simply stared.
"Do you think she understood?" he asked his queen, brow furrowed.
"Oh, most definitely," Leia said, sitting back. "It was her plan, after all."
XXX
She was woken by the sound of a horse shrieking. Rey nearly knocked into Kylo's head as she bolted upright in the saddle. It was difficult to discern in the dark, but one of the guardsmen between their horse and Hux at the front was toppling over. Soon, Kylo's mount began to buck, rearing with a loud scream. Kylo's hands tightened, one on the reigns, the other on Rey's waist. His bruising grip nearly distracts her from the horrifying sight - a great black beast, bringing down the horse ahead.
Kylo called for everyone to break formation. Phasma is by their side at an instant, sword at the ready.
Hux descended upon the beast, sword swinging. It has the rider it attacked by the leg. The light orbs Kylo created flit around, illuminated a horrific scene — the poor dwarf's leg is barely hanging onto his pelvis. Rey bites back a sound. Behind her she feels Kylo shifting and then hears a soft "twunk."
The dwarf's helmet has fallen back and an arrow sat squarely in his heart. Rey realized, with horror, that Kylo had issued the merciful shot. His dark eyes flickered to hers briefly. She saw the ache in him and knew it pained him to have to make that call.
"Get her away," Phasma barked at her commander before surging forward. She was followed by three of their party, their swords flashing in the dim light.
His horse reared once in the commotion, but he followed his second's order. Without a word, he kicked his mount on, spurring the poor creature to side-step the chaos of the attack and venture forward. Hux hung back from the heat of the fight, his terrified horse stomping anxiously, his sword dripping with a blue-black ichor. They rode past him. Rey hoped he felt her hate radiating.
Coward.
"You're just going to leave them behind?" she demanded, voice hoarse.
One of the orbs had followed them. It cast deep shadows on Kylo's gaunt face.
"They've trained for exactly this sort of thing. They know their business."
"That thing tore a man to shreds!" The pitch of her voice sounded alien.
His fingers tightened on her waist again. "It will do worse to you. Those things hunt for magic like a moth hunts light. It would drag you back to its lair and drain you for as long as it could until you withered and died."
Her mouth gaped. "What — you know what it was?"
His mouth thinned to a line. "They are not living, whatever they are. That beast was likely once a wolf. But the thing that has taken over its form may as well be a demon. They are crafted from old magic, dark nasty stuff that no one in their right mind would use."
"Not even you?"
Kylo Ren still. "I'm not a fool. And the price one pays for such magic isn't to my liking."
Rey shuddered. Whatever that creature was, she could hardly believe it had once been a wolf. Wolves alone were deadly if provoked.
"What will they do?" she asked suddenly. The horse was still cantering, but surely it could not run for much longer.
"They will try to kill it," he said simply. "And burn it, if they can. That is the only way."
That was the last thing she heard before she fell off the horse. Something large impacted the side of Kylo's stallion, causing the poor thing to scream. Rey rolled off with a yelp, twisting away so as to avoid being crushed. Kylo was not so lucky — he lay trapped, one leg still in his stirrup. The orb flitted around anxiously.
It was several moments before Rey could focus following the shock to see that the beast — great and black and oozing an indigo fluid from various wounds on its form. Its eyes were a startling white with no iris. Yellowed teeth gnawed at the air as one mangled paw held down the squealing horse. She watched as the cursed creature lowered its maw towards her captor and without a second thought, she flung out one. Her cry echoed throughout the trees, followed by a hard thud.
She didn't know how, exactly, she had managed it. But the sight of those teeth over Kylo Ren's head had summoned up enough power and fear within her that Rey simply shoved it all out. The once-wolf went flying straight into the side of a nearby oak, nearly breaking the trunk of the tree with the force. The creature let out a whine before slumping down.
Rey didn't think — she strode forward with blind purpose, unsheathing the sword still strapped to Kylo Ren's stallion and moving towards the cursed creature. The sword slide through the fur, sinew, and flesh easily. As she watched the vile blood seep forth, she called a flame to her palm and set the poor beast ablaze; whatever was in its blood may as well have been oil, for the thing was quickly ensconced in the fire.
For several moments she stared at the burning pile before slowly remembering the circumstances that brought her here. She turned quickly.
Kylo Ren had managed to work his way out from beneath his horse, who now stood, shivering, beside his master. Both of them stared at Rey.
Wordlessly, she walked past her captor. She wiped the blade with a corner of the saddle blanket, then re-sheathed the weapon. Mechanical. Effortlessly.
Later, when they rejoined the party, they learned that following their attempt to flee the creature immediately made to track them. Only the dwarf guardsman was lost. Everyone else had their fair share of scrapes and bruises. Kylo brushed off questions regarding how he'd managed to fell the beast, saying they were already running late and needed to resume their travel. Only Phasma caught sight of the stains along Rey's sleeves and bodice. The inky evidence of her heroism went otherwise unnoticed.
XXX
Their arrival at the Unseelie Court was a quiet one. Few were awake in the hour before dawn. The horses were left in the stables. Kylo practically dragged a half-awake Rey to the kitchens, where a plump dwarf was just beginning the day's baking. He coaxed a sweet roll and some milk for his charge. Rey ate slowly, observing the room. So far this part of the Unseelie Court was not much different from home.
After she'd eaten he brought her to a small, bare room and instructed her to stay put. Rey curled up on the bed, breathing slowly as she relaxed against the stiff mattress.
It felt like seconds later when she was woken by a stern nymph. The blue-skinned creature tsk tsk at the sight of her.
"You must be dressed," she said haughtily. "His majesty expects you in the hour."
Her dress did look worse for wear after a night on horseback. Mud crusted the hem and there were more than a few holes that had occurred when a passing branch tugged on the linen. Rey allowed herself to be undressed. She cleaned herself from the basin the nymph — Mira — presented, then sat at her hair was dressed.
"Too short," Mira said scornfully, dropping a lock of Rey's straight shoulder-length brown hair. The young knight bit back a retort.
After being dressed in a crimson wool gown that was itchy and more formal than anything Rey had ever worn in her life, she was led down a maze of torch-lit hallways and stairs. They halted outside a pair of oak double doors, where Phasma, Hux, and Kylo Ren all stood waiting.
"You're late," Kylo growled.
The nymph did not appear troubled. "It was her hair. What am I supposed to do with this?" She swatted at the locks that rested on Rey's bare shoulders.
Kylo looked as though he were about to lunge when the doors swung open. He suddenly was at Rey's side. "Behave," he hissed before stepping forward.
Rolling her eyes, Phasma gestured for Rey to follow behind. She and Hux flanked them in the back.
Rey swallowed and stepped into the massive room. Columns lined the walls and stretched up to a ceiling that was difficult to fathom. Bodies lined the aisle in the centered. Rey couldn't look too closely at them. She was too focused on Kylo's back, the smooth motion of his muscles as he walked forward. When he reached the end and bent to bow, she found another distracting thing.
The King of the Unseelie was a surprisingly shriveled man. His pallor was deathly, his features small. His jaw looked as though it had been broken and set improperly. The crown of his round skull had a large dent in the front left, as though something had crushed that side at one point in time. He did not look as though he should be alive.
Hux coughed and Rey realized she had not yet bowed to this terrifying monarch. She curtsied quickly, but straightened soon after and kept her chin high.
Snoke's eye were strangely sharp for one who looked so corpse-like.
"So this is the foundling, back in our fold," he murmured. "The one your uncle trained."
A muscle in Kylo's jaw tightened at the mention of his kin. He gave a short nod. Snoke tilted his head.
"She will do nicely. Tell me, child," Snoke called to her. "You are so keen to claim another court as your own, yet it is known you come from Unseelie blood. Why have you forsaken your family?"
This was an entirely unexpected question. After a silent moment, Rey replied, "Why should I not turn my back on those who turned their back on me? You said so yourself, I am a foundling."
Laughter hummed through the gathered courtiers. Snoke waved a hand and it ceased. He did not appear upset; indeed he smiled upon Rey.
"We are not the only ones with changelings among us. Seelie and Unseelie, we have all left babes behind."
Rey ignored the calls agreeing with his statement. She simply stared straight ahead. "You made a mistake in leaving this one behind. And I intend for you to feel that mistake."
Amusement flickered in the old king's eyes. He made another gesture. Rey was pulled from the center of the room roughly by Kylo, who kept a tight grip on her forearm.
"To celebrate the coming equinox," Snoke announced to the room at large. "And the return of one to our midst, we shall feast tonight."
A cheer rose up. Rey could tell by the expression on the familiar faces — glee on Hux's and irritation on Kylo's — that it would not be a pleasant time for her.
-XXX-
She had never seen such decadence as the Unseelie Equinox feast. Piles of meats, bowls overflowing with grapes, blood oranges, decaying cakes upon pretty crystal pedestals, casks of ale, and a cacophony of drunken revelers greeted the young knight as she entered the Great Hall. The room is cast in a dim glow by tallow candles in dusty pewter candelabras. Dark tapestry lined the boiserie. She passed a pixie with blood-stained lips and a dwarf who had his stubby fingers trailing up the legs of another fairy who was clearly too drunk. A gaggle of goblins was leading a bawdy tune in the middle of the room, clapping as a nymph, clad in little more than cobwebs, dance. Her body swayed seductively, but she flashed teeth that looked like those of a shark. The dance was not for them.
At the head table, Hux sat to the left of Snoke, looking bored. The Unseelie King did not appear to be in a particularly festive mood himself. He held a goblet before his lips and watched the room, face impassive.
Rey scanned the room for somewhere, anywhere, to sit out of the way, unnoticed. She knew she was likely to be unsuccessful, especially in the gown she'd been stuffed into by the gnome woman attending to her.
The dress was corseted, tight, forcing her breasts into a position unnatural and contrary to gravity. It was the color of midnight - too close to the horrible ichor the beast was bleeding last night. The skirt was tight at her waist and hips and flaring out to swirl around her feet. Her spine was lined with black pearl buttons, leading up to the sheer, gauzy material that stretched from her shoulders to her wrists, an illusion of smoke. She was covered in fabric from her neck to her ankles but had never felt more exposed. Eyes of strangers roved her body as she moved into the room. She immediately wanted to flee.
As she made her way to the high table, hands from the crowd reached out. She felt rough fingers on her hips, trace her waist, snag her wrist. Rey tensed as she kept moving, biting back a shout as another hand rested on the small of her back. She gasped softly when her hip brushed the figure beside her. Kylo, dressed in his usual black. Kylo, guiding her through, his eyes a storm upon anyone who dared to even look at her. Kylo, staking his claim.
She wasn't to be touched by anyone but him.
It felt like every second of her time with the Unseelie she was being dragged somewhere against her will. Her gratefulness at Kylo's protection was still tinged with annoyance. She was sick of being led around like a donkey.
He pushed her shoulders to force her to sit, taking his own chair to the right of Snoke. Rey was dismayed to be seated near to the Unseelie King. She tried to distract herself by looking out on the court.
A creature with black eyes and a bluish cast to their skin smiled from the feast table, slowly nibbling on a squirming mealworm. Shuddering, Rey swept her gaze. From the furthest corner, she spotted a gathering of musicians, including a redcap who was keeping time with a drum. The skin was stretched and a bloody red. She could have sworn it was wet. Beside the redcap, a Selie with hair strung of pearls played a lyre. The material it was strung with looked suspiciously like some type of ligament. Rey felt ill.
Someone down the table snickered softly. Hux caught her eye and grinned. It was not a kind smile.
She sat back against her chair. It was going to be a long night.
XXX
When he glanced over and saw her shoulders hunched and tears glistening in her eyes, Kylo made the decision that the evening is over for both of them. With a small bow to his master, he waded through the mass of courtiers to reach her. Hux had her cornered and had been talking, while Rey had simply stared ahead solemnly.
"Rey," he said softly, and she glanced up, startled, as though broken from a trance.
"We were in the midst of a discussion," Hux said, his voice pulling its usual whine.
"A riveting one, no doubt. However, lessons begin tomorrow. She's going to bed."
Irritation itched at the captain as Rey was hauled to her feet. Kylo tucked her arm into the crook of his, ignoring Hux's further protests as he led her along the back wall behind the high table. There was a door inset in the tapestries where servants ducked in and out to bring dishes up from the kitchens. He pulled her inside.
"What was he saying to you?" he asked as they took measured steps together through the moonlit halls. In the silver light, she looked pale and drawn, nothing like a fierce, sun tanned foundling he'd fought in the Wild Lands merely days ago.
"Only everything he was going to do to me to make sure I'd never put a foot on Seelie soil again." She paused. "It might be worth mentioning to your captain the adage about flies and vinegar.
He couldn't help it; he laughed. Despite everything, her humor was still present. It was a welcome relief.
When they reached his rooms, he unlocked the door with a small gesture of his hand and was pleased when she looked impressed. He lets her enter and follows behind, closing and locking the door with another small motion before she can realize where, exactly, she is.
It doesn't take long. Rey took in the room with its large four-poster hung with deep red curtains, the wardrobe half-open in the corner revealing black shirts and pants. One wall of the furthest room dominated by leaded windows and the wall across from the bed contains a large fireplace that was currently alight and crackling. Several swords hand on the wall near the door — not entirely decorative — and there are books piled on a table in one corner in the next room.
She frowned, half turning to him. "These aren't the rooms I was in before."
"These are my apartments," he stated, no emotion in his voice. His curtains were open and the moonlight streamed in like water. In her dark dress, her hair at the crown of her head, she looked lovely. She looks like she was made to be his equal.
"I didn't like the way Hux was looking at you," he continued, pushing himself off the threshold. "And I wanted to talk before you went to bed."
"You said I had training tomorrow and I needed rest," she pointed out.
Kylo smiled. "I'll let you sleep in."
Rey considered him, slowly shifting closer. Her dress made an audible rustle as it moved with her. Kylo watched her, eyes half-lidded as he waited. She stopped a few feet from him.
"What did Hux do, to make you upset?"
This wasn't the question he was expecting. Kylo removed his gloves, watching the hands she left folded at her waist against blue silk so dark it was nearly black.
"He looks at you like a weapon," he said, setting his gloves down on a nearby table. "And he talks to you as though you're beneath him."
"His exact phrase was 'Seelie scum.'"
Kylo's jaw tightened. "I don't see you that way. We're alike, you and I. We're different. We're aligned to Courts that didn't raise us. That makes us stronger than them."
To his surprise, she looks both like she wants to laugh and cry. Instead, she settles on leaning forward, rising up on tiptoes.
"Thank you for rescuing me," she said quietly, leaning up to kiss his cheek softly, lips brushing the angry red flesh she'd created only a few days prior. Under her touch, he froze. Rey moved, her lips catching the corner of his, then working against his mouth fully. When Kylo's brain began to function once more he pulled her closer by her waist, fingers running up and down the black pearl buttons that line her spine. She shivered against him as she pressed a hand against his chest, breath catching when he moved his mouth against her throat.
Rey let her hands skim the space between his shirt and pants, working the hem free from his waistband. Her fingers stretched against his stomach, enjoying what she felt there. When he made to remove his shirt altogether she hissed at the sight of his bare flesh.
"Kylo," she whispered.
He paused, realizing too late what she sees. Scars crosshatch his chest. Bruises pattern his waist. On his left side a vicious black wound, veins surrounding it the color of coal. Rey leaned down to better examine the injury.
"It's old, " he said, voice hollow. "Not from last night. Healing."
Her eyes tell him that she doesn't believe him for an instant. "Who did this to you?
The question hangs between them. There is no need to answer.
"I'm sorry," she said finally, voice cracking. "No one —"
He silenced her with a kiss. Trying to tell her through his grip on her shoulders that he knew and he didn't want to talk about it. He simply wanted this.
Rey got the message and they resume. As her hands roved his marred flesh with unbearable gentleness, he worked the buttons on her back before simply tearing the dress in frustration. The sound of pearls tinkling against the wooden floor as they fall would be seared in his mind forever, along with the laugh that follows, falling from her lips like the sound of the waterfall of pearls on stone floors. Soon she's in nothing but a corset and a pair of loose undergarments
Kylo backed her into the footboard of his bed, groaning when she slid onto the mattress. He stood between her legs and kissed her fiercely. The column of her neck was white in the moonlight. Rey's hands tightened against the back of his neck as he stroked her sides tentatively. Her hips pushed against him, answering "yes, yes, yes."
This isn't how he'd pictured their night climaxing. He had truly wanted to speak to her, wanted to reassure her that this was where she was meant to be. Last night had proven his exact point. She was full of raw power, she just needed to be molded. His uncle could never give her what she required to be truly great.
Hux had it all wrong — you needed to stroke before you slapped. She needed to feel wanted, as though this is where she belonged, all along.
Well, she certainly must feel wanted now, he thought wryly as she gasped against him before pulling him down to meet her lips again.
-XXX-
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