All recognizable content is credited to Sarah J. Maas, the most wonderful author in the world, even if her books make me cry. Not the most happy with this chapter, but it gets the job done. Serious changed will become obvious in the next chapter, which should be posted next Sunday! Hope you enjoy reading this, and thank you to the one guest reviewer I've had! I couldn't stop smiling all day after reading your review. Lots of Love, ~Auna.
On my walk home, I spotted a few rabbits and brought them down. Only two small ones, but it should be enough to last my family a day. When I got in, this evening was the same as the last one, seared forever in my memory in it's every detail: Nesta refused to chop wood (again) for fear of breaking her nails, Elain was convinced Nesta was getting married to Thomas Mandray (A weird thought after everything with her and Cassian. How any of us ever thought Thomas Mandray might be able to handle Nesta is a mystery I will never solve) and Father was sitting in his chair by the fireplace, uncaring for anything. It was strange, seeing the girls in human for again, but I brushed it off easily.
The next day, I brought the rabbit pelts to the mercenary I met last time, and she overpaid for them just the same as the wolf and the deer. I almost just gave all the money to Nesta and Elain and set them on their way, but it would have been suspicious. When Issac met my gaze and tilted his head in that ever familiar gesture, I shook mine and went off to wait for my sisters. Aside from wanting to stay faithful, Andras was hiding in that shed. When we got home, father was still in his chair by the fire and Nesta and Elain were going on about something or another. Tamlin's arrival, if dramatic, was something of a relief.
"Murderers!" He screamed. I studied the way he moved, the familiar voice rolling over me and calling up memories both terrible and great. My hunting knife was in my hand as I stood in front of my sisters. "MURDERERS!" He yelled again, hackles raised.
"P-please." My father said from behind me as I stepped forward. He finally decided he would take some sort of action to protect his daughters. Pity it was much too late. "Whatever we have done, we did so unknowingly, and-"
"W-w-we didn't kill anyone." Nesta's voice was firm as she raised the arm with her tiny iron iron bracelet over her head, pushing Elain behind her. I snatched the butchers knife off the kitchen table and brandished it at Tamlin, pushing my grief inside me and pulling forth the anger.
"Get out. Get out and be gone." He just bellowed in my face. His neck was exposed, and I threw my hunting knife at him. An action expected by a sister who spent her whole life taking care of her family. The knife clattered uselessly to the floor, and he took a swipe at my face. I didn't have to force the flinch, but I did have to push away the memories.
"WHO KILLED HIM!" Tamlin stalked forward, in the direction of my sisters and father. I pursed my lips as I stepped to the side, guarding them, and bravely questioned him.
"Killed whom?" My voice was too calm, and I felt like a fox trapped in a rabbits body.
"The wolf." He snarled viciously, the words cutting short and angry.
"A wolf?" Elain's eyebrows were pinched together as he fear was replaced with rightful confusion.
"Hush, Elain." I admonished softly. Nesta pushed Elain back behind her. I turned my attention back to Tamlin, although I never showed him my back. "If it was mistakenly killed, what payment could we offer in exchange?" He barked out his response, shifting towards me on his feet.
"The payment you must offer is the one demanded by the treaty between our realms."
"For a wolf?" I raised an eyebrow, although nearly snorted inwardly. Who does Tamlin think he's fooling? My father muttered my name in warning, but stayed firmly in his chair by the fireplace. Tamlin, whose attention had been on my father, whirled to look at me.
"Who killed the wolf?" I stared into his jade eyes and turned my chin up defiantly.
"I did."
"Feyre! You don't have to say that!" Elain cried to me. She then turned to Tamlin and pleaded from around Nesta. "There wasn't any wolf. We didn't kill anything."
"Yes there was, Elain." I gazed into his bright green eyes unflinchingly. "I wanted to surprise you all with the money and the meat, so I didn't let you see it. I killed him yesterday, skinned him and sold his pelt in the market. I think the lady I sold it to is going to make it into a cloak of some sort." I said, thinking quickly. I could get Andras to put some of his scent onto a wolf cloak later on, and use it to taunt Amarantha maybe. "If I had known it was faerie, I wouldn't have touched it."
"Liar! You were even more tempted to kill it when you knew it was one of my kind."
"Can you blame me?" I shrugged, unrepentant even in the face of his ire. He got one thing right: I was indeed a liar.
"Did it attack you? Were you provoked?" He asked in an almost desperate voice. Oh, how much I wanted to say yes.
"No. But considering all that your kind has done to us, considering all that you kind still likes to do to us, even if I had known beyond a doubt, it was deserved." His answering growl shook the house. The derisive way he called it a hovel echoed in my mind and my vision faded some. I shook my head to clear it. It did me no good to dwell. I stood even straighter. "What is the payment the treaty requires?"
This encounter was taking too long, I felt stuck almost, trapped. I forced my breathing to remain steady as he bared his teeth at me.
"A life for a life. Any unprovoked attacks on faerie-kind by humans are to be paid only by a human life in exchange." My hands shook and I clenched them into fists, not even realizing that I skipped a few lines of our conversation.
"Do it outside. Not... here." He laughed, like I knew he would, and I swallowed the taste of bile in my mouth as discreetly as possible.
"Ready to accept your fate so easily? Just for having the nerve to request where I slaughter you, I'll do you a courtesy and let you in on a little secret, human: Prythian must claim you life in some way, for the life you too from it. So, as a representative of the immortal realm, I get some say in how you are claimed. I can either gut you, or... you can cross the wall and live out the remainder of your days in Prythian." I hadn't noticed, that first time, how hopeful and nervous Tamlin was asking me this. But really, my decision would influence the history of all of Prythian, whether he was aware of exactly how significant this moment was or not.
"Do it Feyre. Go." My father said weakly. I pursed my lips slightly.
"Go where?" My eyes remained on Tamlin, like my father never spoke. "Every inch of Prythian is lethal to mortals." He seemed to stiffen and relax at the same time, making no note of my strange wording, the fact that I didn't call myself mortal.
"I have lands. I will grant you permission to live there." His eyes almost have a glint in them, but I can't pick out what it means. I nod tightly and reply.
"Very well. When do we leave?"
"Now." He growled. I ignored him and walked to the front entryway, putting on my jacket and boots.
"The rabbits should hold you for a few days, and the wolf meet is hiding out back under some snow." It had snowed the night before, so they wouldn't not find the meat easily, and hopefully they would have their money and move out of the house before they figured out I was lying. "Start on the fresh meat before working your way through the jerky; you know how to make it. I left the money from the pelts on the dresser. In the spring, hunt in the grove just south of the big bend in Silverspring Creek: the rabbits make their warrens there. Ask Isaac Hale to show you how to make snares for them." I ignored my father and sisters as they said my name multiple times, trying in vain to interrupt me. I also ignored the giant beast pacing my my entryway as I laced up my boots, propping them on a kitchen chair. I turned and finally looked at Nesta.
"Whatever you do, don't marry Thomas Mandray. His father beats his wife and none of his sons do anything to stop it." As I walked out the door and past Tamlin, who followed me quickly, I delivered my final sentence. "Bruises are harder to cover than poverty." And then I shut the door and walked into the snow.
I followed Tamlin into the tree line and to the white mare mare that was awaiting me. he gestured to it with a clawed hand and I climbed on. Since I was now in my human body and using my powers to shape shift my eyes would have given me away, I had to let the mare follow Tamlin into the dark, dark woods. We walked for quite awhile before I got too bored to simply sit in silence. I might as well begin setting up my act as the poor, oblivious mortal.
"What manner of faerie are you?" He ignored me completely, not even a twitch. I raised an eyebrow. He was good. But I was better.
"Do you have a name?" My voice held a tone of innocent curiosity. He chuckled and responded to me just like I remembered, the words forever marking me in his thoughts as insignificant, a disgraceful bother he didn't want.
"Does it even matter to you, human?"
I waited a moment before opening my mouth again. He let out an annoyed growl and I felt the tang of magic washing over me. The magic was weak, like a ripple in a tide pool rather than a cresting ocean wave, and I realized with a slight start that I currently held more magic than each of the High Lords put together. Then I realized, belatedly, that I was supposed to be asleep. I slumped forward on the mare and then let the magic push me into a mindless slumber.
Let me know what you think! The next chapter is technically written, but definitely needs to be revised! I'll have it out next Sunday night, as promised!