Chapter 5
Raey
I dreamt of wings.
Flapping, dark, propelling through the sky.
The cold air twisted around me, and I shivered. I curled tighter into the blanket, the warmth. I frowned. There was no blanket, just a warm hard- body. A person.
That was when I realised I was awake. And – flying. Pressed against a warm body. My eyes snapped open, but all I could see was darkness. I quickly checked, but my glamour was still secure. A hand rested over my eyes, an arm curled around my back, holding me tightly. My back. I tensed, hoping for a miracle, that the person wouldn't feel the raised scars across the plane of my back.
"Don't worry," a deep voice boomed. I jumped. It must think I'm afraid of the flying.
"We're almost there." It said. Almost where? I hoped somewhere friendly. I just wanted to escape Tamlin, not land myself in more trouble. We landed, jolting slightly, and the hand over my eyes moved away. I gasped, shaking slightly.
Moonlight flooded the palace, the white marble glowing on the mountaintop it sat on. Around us stretched mountains, snow glowing on their peaks. I shivered, even though the air was warm inside the palace. Vases of flowers lay strewn on side tables, couches sprinkled around the room like droplets of rain, random, but orderly nonetheless.
The arms holding me set me upright, and I swayed, my exhaustion taking over. The hands caught me. I looked up into the face of the man who held me. No, not man. Illyrian.
Cassian
The girl was odd. She reeked of spring court and was wearing their clothing, so definitely from there. She wasn't anyone I knew, no one important, so a servant probably. But those scars on her back. What could have given her those? I was reminded of a time during the War, when I saw a lesser faeries wings ripped off. The stumps looked like the way her scars had felt. Ropy and lumpy and full of pain.
The girl herself was quite plain. Looked about 20 in human years, but that didn't mean very much. Unless she was human. Which was quite possible. The ears, rounded, the appearance, with no scales or claws, and no magic. Or at least any I could sense.
But those scars.
I set her down, her warm brown eyes taking in the palace around us. Rhys needed to see who had cleaved the wards for her and sent me to retrieve her. He would be meeting us here, as soon as he finished some business with Keir. I didn't envy the girl, Rhys was never pleasant to deal with after interacting with the Court of Nightmares.
Her short blond hair floated on the balmy breeze that drifted through the palace's halls. She wsa pretty, in a plain sort of way. She wore a tunic and leather pants, and sturdy boots. She had had some nasty wounds when I found her, but I had healed them during the flight here. She had nothing else.
Then she turned around.
And her eyes.
They flashed, flaring with recognition, with fear, with anticipation, trepidation, anger, misery, frustration, sorrow, and above all pain. Tears welled up and she stumbled back a step, her breath catching in her throat, a strangled sob tearing out of her body.
She knew me, but I didn't know her. And by the looks of it, I had done something terrible.
"It's alright," I said, trying to soothe her. "I won't hurt you." Those damn eyes shined with such misery at that statement, I almost stepped back. But I was the general of Rhys's armies. I would not allow one lesser faerie to subdue me.
I could see her pulling herself together, a mask of carefully concentrated fear, a show of perfect wariness. A tiny, scared façade.
"I-I'm sorry… please don't hurt me," she said, her voice rough, but too perfectly broken, too perfectly stuttering. She was hiding something. Lying. I decided to let it slide, Rhys would find it anyway.
"I won't hurt you, I promise. None of us will," I soothed, hoping to calm her down. "Rhysand will be here soon. He just needs to ask you some questions, and then we will send you on your way."
She looked like she was about to say something else, but at that moment, a clap of thunder boomed through the room and shadows seeped into the corners. In middle of the darkness, two figures formes. Az, the shadows swirling around him, his blue Siphons glowing, and Rhys, in all his dark glory. I felt the girl sway, shaking and fretting.
"Hello, Darling."