Hi everyone! I'm sorry it took me so long to update! Work was just crazy, and then I went on holidays in France to see my family, it was my first trip home in two years so I was very busy hahaha anyway, here's chapter 10, I hope you'll like it!

It had been thirty minutes since Rhysand Morgan had come into the living room, and Feyre had no idea how she hadn't imploded yet. He'd kept it breezy when he'd seen her, and the only real exchange they'd had had been when he'd hugged her quickly on what was supposed to look like their first encounter. She could still feel the warmth of his breath against her ear when he'd whispered 'don't tell them anything until we've talked privately.'

So here she was, making small talk with the drug dealer who had helped her boyfriend cover up a murder only a few weeks before, hoping that the rest of the people present would just disappear and leave them alone. It was probably going to happen soon, seeing as Azriel was half asleep on his chair, and Nesta and Cassian were growing more handsy with every passing moment. She felt like her dress was too tight, crushing her lungs and impeding her from thinking straight about what was happening. What was he doing here? How was he Cassian and Azriel's brother, when one of them was an assistant district attorney? How didn't they know about his illegal activities? Or did they know, and let him go free anyway? What was he hiding from her? And them? She had to -

"Feyre?" her sister asked as she was getting up, "I was just suggesting we all go to bed, are you coming?"

"What? Yes, yes of course."

"I need to go anyway," Rhys said as he got up and went to hug her sister. "Nesta, I'm glad I got to meet you tonight. Congratulations on the wedding." He let go of her and gave Feyre the quickest of looks.

"Thank you. Can I get you back to the front gate?"

"Oh it's okay, I can go with him," Feyre cut in.

"I'm glad you could come by," she could hear Cassian say from the hall, "I know it's complicated for you but it meant a lot."

"Hey, I wouldn't have missed it."

"Are you… okay?"

"I'm as good as someone could be in my place. But don't worry about me, go upstairs and enjoy your wedding night!"

"Oh, I'm planning to! So what do you think of her?"

"Nesta? She seems… intense! But no less than what you need in your life, Cass."

They both laughed, and said their goodbyes, and then he was coming out the front door, and without looking at him, she knew Rhysand was staring at her. She started walking towards the gate quickly, the lights of the inn fading behind her. She could feel him following, but she wasn't sure she had the nerve to face him yet.

"Feyre -"

"Shut up."

"Feyre, look at me."

"I said 'shut up', I can't think when you're talking."

She was nearly running now, but he didn't fall back, and they reached the gate in seconds. Finally, when there was nowhere else to go, Feyre turned around to look at him, actually look for the first time that evening. He was wearing very different clothes from the jeans and leather jacket she was used to, and the dark blue shirt and black pants made him look like a completely different man. His eyes were the same though, that beautiful deep blue she never seemed to be able to look away from.

"Explain yourself," she blurted out, suddenly eager to talk.

"Explain myself?! I'm sorry, Darling, you're gonna need to be more specific."

His usual smirk was painted on his face, but she could see it was only for show, his clenched jaw and twitching fingers were telling her another story.

"You want me to be more specific? How about your brother told me you worked with the police?! Is that specific enough for you?"

He ran his hands over his face, and she could hear him muttering. "Shit. Shit. I can't believe this is happening right now. I take a half hour break on a two year mission, and I run into the freaking girlfriend."

"Oh, I'm sorry, am I an inconvenience?"

Finally, he looked at her completely, and when he spoke, it was in an angry voice she'd never heard before. "Yes, you are, Feyre. You're compromising everything!"

"Is it true? Are you a cop?"

"I can't believe this… After everything I gave up for this, I had to run into you here, of all places."

"Are you a cop?"

"I mean, seriously, what are the chances you would be my brother's sister in law, for god's sake. It's just -"

"Are. You. A. Cop."

"... unbelievable. I should have just stayed home and -"

"ARE YOU A COP?!"

"Yes! Yes, I am a cop! Are you happy now?"

The silence after this was too much, almost deafening. She just wanted to disappear, to undo the last half hour of her life, the last two months of her life, even. Rhysand had been a constant presence in her life for almost two months now, he'd helped her get through that horrible night at their house and she had started to rely on him, to confide in him, somehow. And here he was, standing in front of her, admitting that everything that had happened had been a lie. She felt her throat closing up and her vision blurring with tears, at the same moment her legs gave up from under her. She was nearly on the ground when she felt strong arms encircling her, and when she managed to look up at him, his face seemed to have shifted from anger to worry.

"Feyre, calm down. Please, try to breathe, ok?" He held her like he had that night in their living room, breathing in and out slowly until her rhythm was matching his. When he resumed talking, he was whispering.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have gotten angry, it's not your fault. But I need you to stay calm, and listen to me. Can you do that?"

Unable to speak, she simply nodded.

"Good. Feyre, I'm sorry that you were here tonight, you should have never been involved in this. But now that you are, I'm going to need you to stay quiet about what you learned."

"Stay quiet? Stay quiet? I've just learned that a man I thought was a friend is actually a cop that is probably going to arrest my boyfriend and throw him in jail, and you want me to stay quiet?! I just, I need to -"

"If you say anything to him, or anyone, I'm a dead man."

"I can't just lie to him, Rhysand. He's my boyfriend," and she didn't want another office incident to happen.

"I'm not asking you to lie, just… don't say anything to him for a while. Tamlin is not the prime subject of my investigation, he's not at risk, okay? Or if you do say something, tell me in advance so that I can actually have a chance of survival," and there was desperation in his voice, desperation that made her brain finally work again. She stepped out of his arms and wiped her tears away.

"Tell me everything."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, if I'm going to lie to the man I love, you're going to need to explain yourself more than that."

"I… I don't have time for this, Feyre. I shouldn't even be here, I'm not supposed to have any contact with my family. I need to go back to -"

"Oh, I think you'll make time if you want me to stay quiet."

He was looking at her, but she crossed her arms and didn't look away. Finally, after what seemed like a lifetime, he sighed.

"Fine. What do you want to know?"

"What is your real name?"

"Rhysand. We don't change first names, there'd be too much of a risk of making a mistake."

"Your name is Rhysand Morgan?"

"Rhysand Knight, like my brother."

"Who do you work with? What's your real job?"

"I'm a detective with the Velaris Police Department."

"Why are you working for Hybern?"

"I've been working undercover for two years. I spent six months in a federal prison first, to build a credible cover and get enough time to earn a reputation, and I've been with Hybern for a year and a half now. I'm gathering intel, mostly, but I can't tell you more."

"You… you went to prison?"

"I did."

"But… for what crime?"

"None. I went to do my job."

"You actually went to prison?"

"Yes."

"How… how was it?"

"Prison? The worst six months of my life," his tone was calm, but his eyes told her more about the whirlwind of emotions under the surface.

"It's stupid of me to ask you so many questions, I don't even know where I'm going with those. Just tell me. Talk to me."

He stared at her for a long time before answering.

"I've been a detective for five years, and I became interested in all this when a woman on my precinct got caught in a crossfire and died. Pretty quickly, it turned out that this murder was involved in a much bigger drug network, and we built a task force to try and take it down. But it was too well hidden, too well managed, and I got nowhere with my case. So I met with the district attorney, and we elaborated a plan for me to get into Hybern's good graces. I got a new identity, with a large criminal record, and I was sent to prison to start meeting the people I needed to meet. I got recruited in there and continued working for them when I got out. It's been eighteen months now, and I'm fairly close to getting all the information I need to take Hybern and his network down.

"I haven't seen my brothers or my friends in two years, so when my handler told me about Cassian getting married, I negotiated with her to come here for thirty minutes, late at night, meet his bride, and say a quick hi to my brothers. We figured it wouldn't be too much of a risk." She could sense the sarcasm in his last sentence, because he was right, it wouldn't have been too much of a risk to meet his brothers in the dead of night for a half hour, hadn't it been for the fact that she was Nesta's sister.

"I'm sorry. The only shot at seeing your family, and I ruined it."

"Don't apologize, I should've been more careful. It's my job to know as much as possible about the people involved with Hybern. I just never looked too much into you because you're not actually involved in this, you're just someone's girlfriend."

She couldn't help but gently hit him on the arm at that. "Hey! What did we say about insulting me like that?"

He chuckled, and continued. "Sorry. But what I mean is that I never did an actual background check on you, and in two months you never mentioned a sister, so I didn't even think you could be related. I didn't even know Nesta's name before I got here tonight."

"Yeah, well, I don't talk much about my family. I used to see Elain from time to time but since I met Tamlin we kind of… drifted apart. I don't really know how, it just… Tamlin and I always had better things to do together so I stopped scheduling things with Elain, I don't know. Anyway, that's why I never talk about them."

They fell silent for the first time since the beginning of this surreal conversation. She started laughing at the thought.

"What is it?"

"Nothing," she couldn't stop laughing, "It's just… you're an undercover detective set out to bring down a drug network, and yet here we are, talking about my family drama. This is surreal."

He stared at her, his face a mixture of annoyance and astonishment, but then she saw a smile form on his face, and then he was laughing with her. Finally, they managed to calm down, and then Rhys was smiling at her awkwardly.

"Feyre, I understand how hard all of this is, and I'm truly sorry. But I need to be sure about what you're going to do now that you know who I am. I know that you're a good person, and I like to think I know you enough by now to know that you wouldn't risk my life uselessly." His eyes were calm, but there was pleading in them, and she couldn't look away.

"I don't know Rhysand, honestly. I don't want you to be in danger. But what am I supposed to do? I can't just say nothing."

He passed both hands through his hair, bit his bottom lip, and started pacing under the trees. She felt the chilling May wind creep around her and send shivers down her body. She wanted to go back to the inn, to the comfortable bed that was awaiting her, to her life before the party.

"Okay, what do you say we call it a night, and we talk about it more in a few days?"

He turned to her and seemed to think for a minute. "And you won't say anything?"

"Not until we talk."

"Do you promise?"

"I do."

"Feyre, I can't take any risk, so if you don't mean that -"

"Rhysand. I promise you. I don't want to see you dead because of me. I won't say anything until we talk."

The silence stretched out between them, she could feel the electricity in the air surrounding them. She hadn't realized how close they stood to each other, she could hear his heart beating. Or maybe it was her own, beating faster and stronger than before at the unbelievable turn of events.

"Alright," he whispered, " I'll be at your house on Wednesday for a reunion, we'll talk then. I'll contact you. Is this okay with you?"

"Yes."

"If you feel like this is too much, you can -"

She reached for his arm. "Rhysand, it'll be okay. I promise."

He looked at her, really looked, and she could not avoid the violet irises staring at her with an intensity she didn't know how to get away from.

"Ok. I'll see you Wednesday, then."

And then he was gone through the gate, and she was standing alone under the trees.