Sorry about the delay, and the format of the last two chapters.

I tried a new format and it didn't work, so thank you to everyone for pointing that out to me, and I have fixed it.

To make up, here's two chapters.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Chapter 6

Raey

"Hello Darling."

The words echoed through the room. So familiar, that purr. But so different. Harsh. Cold. As if I was a stranger. Which, I guess, I was. He no longer cracked jokes and smiled at me. I could feel the difference, too. The most powerful High Lord in history. He was so different. A few hundred years would do that to a person. And I'd changed too, I guess. Mostly for the worst.

I realised I had been staring at him for far longer than was appropriate, but I couldn't stop. He was still as beautiful as the day I'd left. But something was missing.

"Your wings…"

Instantly, they shut down. The kind open face of Cassian turned to cold stone, impenetrable and closed. Ice formed over Rhys's eyes, and the shadows swirled around Azriel, lurking behind Rhys. The shadows swirled around me, and he winnowed us all away.

A dark room formed around us, stone walls and a long wooden table. A council room. And an interrogation room. I knew what I had done wrong. An outsider wasn't meant to know about the wings, especially a runaway Spring Court servant. I decided to play it off, to pretend that I was talking about Cass or Az's wings.

Rhys sat forward and looked at me. Three figures appeared beside him. Before I knew it, dark bonds wrapped around my biceps and legs, securing me to the dark stone chair. I would be intimidated by the scene, the dark High Lord flanked by his general and spymaster, and his second in command. And the Morrigan. I could sense her huge power even though she'd out a damper on it. I would be intimidated, but I'd seen them all drunk out of their minds and laughing together, teasing and free.

"Who are you?" The smooth voice boomed through the room, deadly and toned. I swallowed. Speak softly, perfectly meek, perfectly broken. An act.

"I-I'm just a servant, sir. From the… the Spring Court." Lie.

"Why are you here?" From Azriel this time, his voice like the shadows that curled around him.

"I-I needed to escape, sir. I lived there for almost my whole life. Tamlin is falling apart. He's abusive and doesn't help his people. Please sirs, I needed to get out." Truth.

"Why come here?" Rhysand again.

"I didn't know where I was going, I just picked a random tunnel and left." Lie.

"Are you human?" Cassian, his voice rough and deep. This was interesting. I supposed I seemed human, but surprising they couldn't scent it on me. My glamour was holding up well to fool all five of them. Morrigan tilted her head, her golden hair shifting, and scented me. I decided to play into their deduction.

"Yes. My parents were slaves in the court. I was raised there. That's why I asked about your wings," I gestured to Cassian, "I've never seen wings like them before." Lie, lie, lie.

I could tell none of them really bought it. There was no way a human could survive an infection like the Naga had given me. Then there was the matter that when I'd mentioned the wings the first time, I'd been looking directly at Rhys. I didn't know what to do. I didn't know how to get out of this. I'd just have to escape the court entirely. Leave my home again. I couldn't face them.

I felt a shift. Rhys's eyes darkened sightly. Then I felt it. A probe in my mind. I had to make a decision. Should I a) use my power to make it seem like there were no shields around my mind and create a fake life for him to peruse or b) let him meet the barriers in my mind, barriers that no human should have. I steeled myself. His probe of darkness slammed into a wall of adamant. I saw him reel, his eyes flickering but his body never moving. I wonder when the last time was he'd encountered a more powerful daemati. Perhaps never.

Chapter 7

Rhysand

I'd had a crap day. I'd had a meeting with the Illyrian warlords with Cass, arguing about the females right to train. Their extremely backwards ways had worn my patience thin, and I wanted to go home to Velaris. But then I had a meeting with Keir in the Court of Nightmares. More frustratingly backward males, more masks and coldness.

And then the wards. I'd been discussing normally, planning their eventual deaths when something of immense power cleaved the wards. Just one place, at the edge of the territory, a small doorway. But to have been able to break his wards, it would need to be a being of huge power, an unencountered foe. Then a life force slipped through, and I'd immediately notified Cass, who'd gone to get the girl. I excused myself from the meeting with Keir and had gone to meet Cass.

The girl was odd, and clearly lying or hiding somethings. When she saw me, her eyes flashed with recognition and unspeakable sadness and pain. And then confusion entered her eyes and she'd spoken. About something that no-one should know. She must be a Spring Court spy, or in contact with one. I immediately transported all of us to an interrogation room in the Court of Nightmares and called Mor and briefed her on the situation.

Now, she was answering our questions compliantly, but she was lying, or hiding something. She was clearly a very skilled manipulator, but she seemed a little rusty, a little unsure of herself. As we asked more specific questions, she was getting more and more uncomfortable as her lies grew depth and became easier to break. I could wait until she gave in and told us everything. Or I could tak it out of her no doubt unprotected human mind. I decided on the latter.

I snaked a tendril of my power towards her mind, expecting to find an unprotected mind. Indeed, there was no barrier I could sense. I flung the tendril of power into her mind, and-.

Slammed into a wall of adamant.

This didn't make any sense. I tried to break through it, go over or under it, find a chink in the armour of the wall, but there was nothing. I put more power into it, but there was nothing. An unbreakable wall. I glanced at my Inner Circle, perplexed. We'd done nice mode. It was time for a harsher approach.

"Okay," I said, "I'm going to ask you some questions. And you are going to have five minutes alone to collect your thoughts. And then you are going to answer them truthfully or I will break into your mind and get the answers myself." The girl winced but did not look afraid. Odd. I winnowed the three of us away from the room, giving her a moment alone, and us a moment to discuss.

"She's lying." Cass said immediately. "She's hiding something."

"Let's go around and say what we've gathered from the conversation so far," Mor commanded.

"She's lying and hiding something." Mor.

"She's not human." Azriel.

"She's probably a spy." Cassian.

"She's in league with someone powerful." Mor.

"She's a powerful daemati herself." Me.

The room fell silent, and I could feel their eyes on me.

"Before I offered her the ultimatum, I tried to break into her mind. She has the strongest shields of anyone I've ever met." I explained, "I couldn't get in."

"So," Morrigan started, "we have a supposed 'human' who can keep out the most powerful High Lord in history, and she is, or was, a skilled manipulator. She's clearly very powerful, so it's possible she broke the wards on her own. That means she's definitely not human. Why would she be in the Spring Court and why would she come here? None of her story is adding up." We all considered it in silence.

"Also," Cassian spoke up, "she has scars. On her back, hire scars. I don't know if they are from the Spring Court"-I almost snarled at the image – "or from before, but they felt old. Like decades or centuries old. She showed no signs of continued discomfort from them either, so that adds to the theory."

I thought about her story, and about what my court was telling me. I declared that she'd had her five minutes and winnowed us back into the room.

''You are not human. Your story does not add up. You know things you shouldn't. Who are you?"