The people disappeared in front of her. She felt her body falling, the floor beneath her no longer existent. She watched limply as the black smoke consumed her, letting in the darkness. And then she was gone.
Her body was gone. And all was left was a man. A man huddling in front of her, under a badly-pined up roof she couldn't recognize. He was beautiful, if only he didn't have the scars and gashes and torture written all over his body. His skin was so red that it was unnerving, as if he had spent weeks in the blithering heat. His body, with wide shoulders, and long limbs, were gaunt and lifeless. He had heavy chains stuck to his wrists, with red and purple rings that underlapped the chains. There were parts of his legs that looked like were slowly skinned off, a cruelty that Selene had never imagined. She couldn't help but stare at his genitalia, where everything was intact but there were still thin cuts and light bruises. His dark hair laid limply over his forehead, overshadowing his purple-black eyes. But even past the dark, dirty hair, she saw the shining. His head was up, starring around quietly. There was hope – even just a little bit, on his face as he digested the shack he was in. Light, unfamiliar light she had never seen, shone through a large hole in the corner. Not large enough to be a window, but large enough to see the outside. Large enough to see what was he missing.
Was it a vision? Or was it a dream? She couldn't tell. She was used to dreams such as these, seeing horrible scenes of various people she had never met, but not like this. This was different. This felt real.
But her body was still gone. She had nothing to see of herself anyways. Instead, all she could see was the chained man. He was no doubt a prisoner of some sort. Stripped of any clothing, breathing raggedly as if he was trying to catch his breath. And as the scene became clearer and clear, she noticed he had wings. He was an Illyrian, and he was a solider. No – he had to be more than a soldier. Even an Illyrian soldier didn't have the will to stay alive to the extent that he had. He was something far greater. Like a fallen angel.
There were a loud boom. A scream – no, multiple screams. The man - the beautiful man, had stopped breathing raggedly. For the first time within the entire vision, he looked afraid. Sweat was pouring down his face. His face twitched. He tried moving to the door,as if he had forgotten that he was chained up, but he was pulled back harshly. Clearly, there was an amount of magic involved.
The door opened with a bang. Not just a bang – the door flew six feet before hitting the ground. At first, Selene didn't recognize the man in the doorway. He was wearing pitch black armor, his hair long and pulled back tightly. But then she realized who he was. It was Tobias, her own husband. But he looked different – possibly older, though he was immortal. He also looked furious – angry, livid, as if he could kill a thousand men. And maybe he had, but he was clean. Not a single drop of blood on him. There were a number of men following him, wearing the same dark armor.
The Illyrian was quiet as the man walked in. Quiet as a mouse. His eyes were wide, and he opened his mouth but quickly closed it. There was more than shock on his face – initially relief, but dread filled his face. Like he wasn't entirely sure if it was a good thing that the High Lord of Night had barged in. His body, larger than Tobias's, grew smaller. But Tobias crouched down in front of him, his eyes filled with rage. His jaw was clenched, his eyes murderous as it nailed down on the prisoner.
"Look at me," Tobias demanded, his voice low. "Don't you fucking look away from me." It was chilling, even for Selene. The prisoner had initially fixated on something else – nothing more but the intent on not meeting Tobias's eye. But the prisoner forced himself to look at him, to look at the most powerful man on the planet. He was clearly unhappy about it. But he held onto his eyes just as tightly, reflecting back the bottled up anger that the prisoner held inside of him. But his anger looked deeper than just his capture, as if he knew Tobias personally.
And then the Illyrian smirked. It looked forced, not without a specific purpose.
"Did she finally-" Tobias slapped him. He slapped him so hard that the Illyrian had grunted. The Illyrian seethed, pain flickering across his face. But it wasn't a physical pain - it was something else. Something far greater. For a moment, a flash of anger flickered on his face, but when he met eyes with Tobias, his face softened. The Illyrian breathed in sharply.
"She cried for weeks," Tobias hissed after a moment of ticking silence. "She kept asking me 'Tobias, why the hell is he still over there? Why have you done?' Until she realized that this whole damn thing was your fault. She's embarrassed by the cowardice you have shone on her line…and so am I. She has no reason not to disown you." His eyes widened. His sparkly, violet eyes.
"She's at the estate?" He choked. "Did you lock her up?" His words were meant to come out harsher, but he let them out feebly. Broken, like a shattered porcelain doll.
"She chose to come back," Tobias said slowly. "She realized where home really was. With me. She ran straight into my arms." The Illyrian looked like he was going to puke. If he wasn't broken before, he sure was now.
"What about my friends? Ca-The soldier? The spymaster? Have you seen them?" Tobias rose up, rolling his eyes dramatically. For a moment, she didn't think he'd reply. But his voice was filled with so much vain that it was stupid to think otherwise.
"Cauldron if I know," Tobias snarled. "I had used half of my resources to find you." Tobias had tore from his gaze but Illyrian shook his head fast.
"Let me look for them. Give me a small amount of men. You won't regr-"
"I'll do no such thing!" Tobias yelled, his body tightening into a straight line as he looked down at the Illyrian. "You have lost all my trust. I gave you one chance, and you blew it. Most likely because your stupid mother insisted on hanging out with those runts your entire childhood. I told her they were bad news, yet she insisted that they had a good heart. But for your sake, they're better off dead." Illyrian, shifted from a broken man to a tornado of fury. All the pain that filled his face had dissolved and for the first time, he looked terrifying. Like if he was capable of breaking through those binds, he could have killed him. But he clenched his teeth, forcing himself to stay calm.
"So, Father, tell me - are you here to gloat or are you here to take the bullets out of my wings and let me finish what I started?" The Illyrian spat. Humor flickered across Tobias's face. Cold, cruel humor.
Father. That was her son. She could see it now – her blue eyes mixed with his black eyes. He had her nose, the curve of her lips. The wings she so dearly worshipped.
"Neither, actually. The war is over, Rhysand. I'm taking you home," Tobias said. Rhysand shrunk back against the wall, his body going limp. "You, there. Get my damn son up. And don't you dare take out those bullets." Rhysand's eyes narrowed, reflecting the same look his father had given him earlier.
"It can paralyze me if you don't take them out," Rhysand said dryly. Tobias smirked.
"It's either that or I cut both of your wings off, Rhysand. You get to choose."
And that scene, that horrifying scene between Tobias and what must have been her son, would have stayed with her. She would have acted upon it as soon as she opened her eyes, saving the cruel relationship between him and their future son. Her son, not her daughter. She would find a way to stop that from happening. If only she hadn't forgotten about it right when opened her eyes.
When her eyelids fluttered open there was nobody – just her in a lifeless room, with unmoving bodies surrounding her, shaking in the darkness. In the beginning, everything was blurry and her head was beating harshly, but then she felt the ribbon that laid limply in her palm, somehow still in her hand. There was a cool breeze whipping through the room as the stench of blood grew stronger and stronger. It hadn't occurred to her that she had been covered in Clythia's men's blood until a group of healer hustled into the room just as the savior said. Some gasped at the bodies laying out but they must have been tipped off because they went around them swiftly. One of them tried to grasp Selene as she finally staggered to her feet, but she ripped away jerkily. Her hand clenched the ribbon tightly.
"Don't touch me," she hissed. "I'm fine. My husband…" Four to five healers were already around him. At a distance, someone was asking her questions. She should've answered, saying as she was pregnant, but her eyes lingered away. Bodies were being moved around to help others fit into the room easier and nobody seemed to question on why there were so many body parts lying about. She counted the seconds that neither Rosalie nor Tobias replied. As people shook them and prodded them and shoved medicine down their throats, she counted the seconds. She couldn't do this without them, she realized. She couldn't live in this world if both of them were dead – she needed them. She needed them more than they would ever need her.
"Get the fuck off me," A gruff voice snarled. "Get away from my wife!" Suddenly, Tobias was standing upright. The healers inched away but as they tried to persuade him to sit down, he stumbled to his feet. His eyes were wide. Behind him, Rosalie began to reply as well. Selene was about to call out to her but then Tobias shoved the healers around her and he grasped her shoulders.
"What happened?" He demanded loudly. "What the hell happened, Selene? Answer me!" Her mouth was dry.
"Clythia," she said simply. Her voice didn't crack as she responded. "It was Clythia." His hands fell down from her body. The intensity that had filled his face disappeared. His face slackened. His body scrunched forward. It was like the power inside him had dulled – his face filled with absolutely nothing. His jaw unclenched wordlessly, something unreadable flashing behind his eyes.
"She-" And then she heard the stumble in the doorway. Leon was clenching the doorframe tightly, his face beaten and blood running down him. She went towards him, ripping away from Tobias's gaze and Leon nearly fell into her arms as he clutched her tightly. He buried his face into her hair, as if desperate to hold onto her. To hold onto something.
"You're okay," she said, and her eyes began to burn. "I thought you were dead." He loosened around her and put her head between his hands.
"Me too," he responded. "I thought…I thought I'd never see you again, Selene." His words hung in the air as he held onto her, truly making her wonder what her life would be like without him. Without all of them.
"How did you survive?" Tobias asked. He was hovering behind her. Her eyebrows scrunched downward when she saw the tense look on Tobias's face. For a moment, there wasn't a hint of relief. Just coldness. Like he was calculating something in his head that didn't quite make sense, as if he was trying to fill in the pieces but didn't have the information he needed to do so.
"I was trampled," Leon said, his eyes falling away. "There were so many – they didn't even notice me when I went downstairs. They were rushing into the building and one of them rammed into me. I must have hit my head on the wall and gone unconscious. They didn't even notice that I was there." When Selene looked over her shoulder to meet eyes with Tobias, he was quiet. Chillingly quiet. She opened her mouth to say something, but then she turned back to Leon.
"Are you injured?" She asked softly. "Are you hurt?" A feeble smile appeared on Leon's lips.
"No," he said, his voice a whisper. "But…we must talk about who that was. Because that wasn't rebels." Tobias shook his head stiffly.
"No," he said, his voice hard. "It was Clythia. And now I see that home is the safest place we can be."
~*~ discidium ~*~
"They found the last hub of them last evening. Don't worry, beautiful Selene – they were hanged this morning. And I made sure every child of theirs, every lover, watched with a knife to their throat. She won't dare touch the Night Court ever again." It had been two days of tenseness. The ride back was quiet, aside from Tobias's aggressive squibbling on countless letters, and when they arrived back at the castle, Tobias projected a rage that Selene couldn't quite describe. All of the direct attackers were dead, but it wasn't unknown that they had immigrants from Hybern's kingdom living amongst the mountains and sympathizers of Hybern and Clythia's values. So he, because he couldn't take back what had happened to Selene, made it a goal to execute all of them. It didn't matter if they weren't the ones who committed such treachery – Tobias needed revenge, and he got it.
"Tobias, you're kidding," Leon breathed. "In front of their children?" He sat across from him on the large kitchen table, nibbling on a piece of toast. He had been quiet since the attack, as if he was walking on egg shells as well when it came to dodging Tobias's fury. But Selene recognized the horror in his eyes.
"What? You expect me to just let them live on naturally?" Tobias snarled back. "No, I want them to remember. I want them to remember the Night Court's unforgiveness and flee like ants. I won't have them in my court." Selene wasn't surprised. She meant what she said to those men about him taking away everything. And a part of her wanted to be angry, sickened by Tobias's actions, but there was a cold anger in her as well. They tried taking off her wings. Surely, people like that didn't deserve anything.
"They didn't commit those acts," Leon said, even quieter. He was angry too – reflecting the same fury, but instead his anger was shown by his quiet whispers. A silent, shivering anger that was just as powerful as Tobias's because nobody knew when it was about to burst. "They were innocent." Tobias's face didn't even flicker.
"They're brainwashed bigots who believe that there is such thing as an inferior race and would easily enslave my people if they had the chance," Tobias replied snappily. "People like that aren't innocent. Being prejudice is not a personal right."
"And how are you going to fix the problem now?" Leon said, louder. "What? You think Clythia will just take her defeat and walk away? She doesn't care if they died. She's just as damn stubborn as the rest of us." And his eyes hawked around the table – from Rosalie to Selene to Tobias.
"Leave her to me," Tobias replied. "She'll come to me, don't worry. She'll walk right into this castle because her beef is with me." Leon stood up jerkily.
"She will not walk into this castle," Leon said, snarling. "Not with your pregnant wife here. You need to stop playing games, Tobias!" Tobias didn't have to stand up to stare Leon down. His eyes grew darker.
"Oh, she won't be here," Tobias said silkily, a small smile on his face. It was a venomous smile – a cold, cruel smile. This time, Selene inched forward.
"Where will she be then?" Leon asked shrilly. "What? You're just going to send her back to her ash-filled village so that you can win this goddamn unneeded competition with Clythia?" Rosalie clasped onto Selene's arm tightly, as if suggesting that they would have to go through her first. Selene's eyes nailed on Tobias pointedly.
"No," Tobias said calmly, his eyes not looking away from Leon. "I'm sending her to the Court of Nightmares. The Hewn City."
"The Court of…Nightmares?" Selene said, her voice distant. "What is the court of-"
"You are not sending your wife to the Court of Nightmares!" Leon bellowed suddenly. His face was flushed with redness and his body was stiff. "Your thing with Clythia isn't worth it!" Selene stood suddenly, her back straight. Finally, Tobias looked at her. His face, almost seeming beastly for a moment, seemed to soften when he looked at her.
"Tobias," Selene said, her voice stern but calm. "What is the Court of Nightmares?" Leon opened his mouth but Tobias interrupted him by standing up.
"The Court of Nightmares is what it sounds like, beautiful Selene. It's filled with our most cruel, infamous elites. The elites that are widely known across other courts for their brutality, the same exact elites that don't know of Velaris's existence because they're too damn barbaric for me to trust," Tobias drawled. "A long time ago, the High Lord of the Night Court would rule in the Court of Nightmares himself. It was so widely known elsewhere that even after Velaris was born, the Court of Nightmares was kept to discourage people from being curious of our court and how we live. It helped Velaris remain a secret."
"You would allow your wife to live with the cruelest people on this planet?" Leon asked, each word clipped shortly. "Your mate?" And something flickered in Tobias's eyes – a sense of defense, maybe?
"If there's one place in this world that is untouchable, it's the Court of Nightmares," Tobias said. "She won't need bodyguards or soldiers or even an extra eye. Nobody would dare check that hell hole. Even if Clythia knew she was there, she wouldn't have the balls to invade it."
"And for good reason," Leon said. "For damn good reason!" Tobias's eyes went away from him, holding onto Selene's again. His dark eyes held swirls of determination and promise. Of pure, raw honesty. But not a single hint of regret.
"It'll be over before you know it. You'll live amongst the richest, and every person there will be under the order that you get whatever you need whenever you want it," Tobias said. "And I'll make sure that you'll have a whole team of physicians, beautiful Selene. You won't be alone." Selene blinked rapidly.
"For when the baby comes?" Selene asked, confused now. "How long am I going to be there?" Leon looked like he was going to be sick.
"You would let your wife give birth in the Court of Nightmares?" Leon interjected, his voice nearly inaudible. His words were filled with disgust. "You're okay with your child being birthed in the worst place known to Prythian? In hell?" Rosalie didn't say anything but her face grew paler.
"Does it matter where she's born? She's not an heir," Tobias said dismissively.
"None of our ancestors have ever given birth there," Leon continued, as if he hadn't even spoken. "Not even when the High Lord resided there. Their wives always gave birth in the light – in a place of beauty."
"I'll take care of her," Rosalie interrupted quietly. "She'll need someone next to her if she's going to give birth there." Leon shook his head. His lips pursed tightly.
"No," he said in surrender. "I'll go. I'll go with her. Just because you don't want to be there, Tobias, does not mean-"
"You will not," Tobias barked. "You will stay here, at the castle, with me. I need you here." Leon looked like he was going to burst into darkness. Like a thousand things were swirling around in his head and he was struggling to stay calm. His hands were shaking.
"I'm not leaving my family. I am not giving up-"
"Unfortunately, you don't have a choice in the matter, do you?" Tobias hissed. "Because you aren't High Lord." Leon's nose flared. There was a moment of quietness, and Selene couldn't help but hold her breath.
"Why?" Leon demanded after a moment. "Why must I stay? Why must I live here, in this grand mansion, as Selene is stuck in hell?" Tobias rolled his eyes.
"You have an actual position, she's just my wife," Tobias said coldly. Selene shrunk at the comment. Just his wife? But she didn't interfere.
"My position doesn't mean anything if my family isn't here," Leon argued. Tobias scoffed at this.
"She's not your family," he muttered under his breath. "She's my wife. You wouldn't even know her if it weren't for me." Leon nearly flinched at this. He was looking at him crazily, sickened.
"Why are you doing this?" He asked quietly, but this time his voice was fragile. "Why do you feel the need to separate us like dolls? Clythia has the ability to destroy our court and you aren't even thinking of that. Why are you more focused on sending Selene away, and forcing me to be locked inside this castle, when you should really be fighting Clythia and ending-" But then his voice choked. Selene's palms, she realized, were sweating as she watched Leon stumble on his words. His eyes widened.
"You selfish bastard," he whispered. "You selfish-"
"What?" Selene finally bursted. "Could one of you tell me what's going on?"
"You don't think there won't be any casualties in this family so instead of fighting together, you're separating us," Leon said aloud. "Instead of keeping us together and fighting her as one family, you're separating us so that you don't have to deal with multiple loses. Because you can't lose both of us, right? Maybe one of us, but not both, am I correct?"
"Is that true?" Selene asked, her voice sharp. "Are you separating us because you are certain one of us will die?"
"You don't understand," Tobias snapped. But there was something that casted in his eyes – something pleading, something only she could see. Like he was speaking with his eyes, begging her in silent communication. And she remembered now what he had said, not so long ago. That there was a darkness looming in the castle, and that it was close to suffocating him. That it was too dangerous for her.
"You have a duty. You both have a duty," Tobias said to both of them, casting each one a long look. "Hate me, curse me, but you both walked into this castle with a duty. And you will follow that duty." Leon didn't even blink.
"You do too," Leon said. "You have a duty too, Tobias." Tobias didn't even twitch.
"I am not going to hear anymore of this," Tobias said, fuming. "Leon, call a meeting with the highest officials. Selene, go pack-" But then Leon raised his hand and a stream of blackness beamed from his palm. Terrifying, ruthless blackness. She saw the darkness spread into the air, just before hitting Tobias in the chest. Before she knew it, it had covered everything – there was not a hint of light. And with that darkness, came a freezing, whistling wind that hit her ears sharply, with a sea of air that was as strong as the night skies in a stormy night. That was the only way she could explain it – like she was thousands of feet in the air in the darkest of stormy nights. The chair behind her flung away, hitting the wall with a bang. She felt a thin hand grab her, letting out a yelp. Quickly, Selene released her wings, covering her and Rosalie as she felt Rosalie's body begin to fling into the air. Selene couldn't hold herself down – not in the blackest of nights, not in a world of cold wind and darkness. She let the wind take them both as Rosalie grabbed her, allowing her wings to steer both of them erratically. Glass shattered at a distance, she could hear the splintering of wood from the walls. She felt like she wasn't even in the world anymore – they were between the world and some place far, far away. Fear was bursting inside of her. This was worse than death. The coldness, the world spinning around her, the darkest of nights, the feeling that she was nowhere but everywhere at the same time. That she was trapped between nothingness.
But then she saw colors. Beautiful colors – stars, an entire galaxy. It wrapped around them like a blanket, the prettiest display she had ever seen. And though the darkness was still there, this darkness was protecting her. The colors soothed her. The dancing stars and the swirling night reminded of all the times that she felt safe, the only times she felt like she had something worth living for. The gust of wind slowed so suddenly that she couldn't steer anymore. She was projected out in a random direction, her nails digging into Rosalie's arm as she prepared herself for the deathly impact. But rough hands grabbed onto her, a body enveloping around her and Rosalie as they flung against something hard and prickly. Whoever had grabbed her, pushed her to the floor with him, and she held onto Rosalie deathly.
When the darkness disappeared, and the night sky swam away, she looked beside her. Tobias was holding onto her tightly, his eyes scrolling her desperately. Everything seemed to hurt her– from the glass that layered the floor beneath her, to her back that collided with the broken wall. But she saw that Tobias took the most of it. There were cuts all over him from the glass that blasted across the room, and not a single thing on her. His clothes were shredded and there were large red marks across his body as if pieces of chairs and decorations and broken bits of the table had repeatedly hit him.
It was clear, as Selene looked up towards Leon, what had happened. Leon had lost his control – had tried attacking him with the vicious blackness. But Tobias saved them. With his stars and soothing night.
Though everything was still, his hands were still around her, holding onto her deathly. She couldn't even move.
"I…I am so…" Leon was shaking. He wasn't harmed – not a single thing had touched him. He hadn't even moved from where he stood. "Are you okay? Are you-"
"Get away from her," Tobias spat. "Don't you take a step closer." To her surprise, Leon didn't move. He looked like he was in tears.
"Tobias, I didn't mean to," Leon said. "It was an acc-"
"There is no such thing as accidents!" Tobias shouted. "You could have killed her. With that intensity of power, you could have killed her!" Tobias let her go slowly, standing on his feet. The glass crunched beneath him as he took slow, steady steps. Leon looked at Selene desperately.
"Selene, I am so sorry," Leon stumbled. "I lost my cool. It won't happen again. It wasn't intentional. I promise, I would never-"
"I'll go," Selene said softly. She was talking to Tobias. He looked like he had lost all humanity in his face – as if he was no longer intending on holding down the irrational beast inside him. Except, when she spoke, he turned to look at her. After all, she was his humanity. She was everything. "Rosalie and I will go immediately. I'll stay there for as long as you need, Tobias. But fix this. Fix it."
~*~ discidium ~*~
"I have a plan." She hadn't even noticed the bedroom door had opened until Tobias closed it with a bang. She swung around, watching as he locked it. He looked spun-up, like he had buckets of energy inside him begging to come out. While she, abnormally calm, was slowly folding her clothes in a suitcase.
"I know. I heard the plan, Tobias," she said coolly. Tobias's lightened face darkened. She saw him shake his head in her peripheral vision as he walked towards her.
"I'm not actually going to make you give birth in the Court of Nightmares, Selene," Tobias said dryly. "I'm not a monster." She stopped folding and looked at him. He looked certain, truthful. Alive. While she looked tired and lifeless.
"So why did you tell Leon and Rosalie that I was?" She asked robotically, clearly not interested in his response but only asking because she knew he wanted her to ask. He rolled his eyes dramatically.
"Because there are spies in this castle, Selene. I can try cleaning them out however times I want, but there will always be spies here. Spies from different courts, from rebels groups, from anything," Tobias said. "And usually, I speak freely because the spies here are typically just from other courts who are only listening to alert their high lord in the case that we consider going to war, but I don't want to risk it. Just in case Clythia has someone here listening, I don't want anyone knowing of our plan. Not even our family. I want it to be only between you and me." Her eyebrows slowly rose.
"He has a point though," she said. His eyebrows rose.
"What do you mean he has a point?" He repeated, this time harsher. She didn't stammer when she replied.
"That we should be fighting this together. That we should stay in the same place. I shouldn't be sent to some underground hell hole, Leon shouldn't be ordered to remain here. Rosalie-"
"I told you there was darkness looming, Selene," he hissed. "I told you there were things that you had no idea was going on."
"Oh, I remember," Selene said. "But I am also carrying your child, Tobias. Thus far, your only child. The child you so dearly wanted to not be an heir, and I am giving that to you. So forgive me if I believe someone else's advice is worth considering." His eyes darkened.
"Someone else's advice or someone else's word?" She opened her mouth but then closed it stupidly. She wished she could retort his accusation with a scoff, but he was right. His face tightened.
"I thought you trusted me," he said, his voice lower. "Fuck, Selene, are we really-"
"He threw the dark, night sky at you," Selene said, her voice rising over his. He flinched at the words. "I've never seen him do magic, Tobias. Never. That was power that could only come from a High Lord. He was so sure, so positive, that he reached into instincts that should never have even existed-"
"Don't you ever question my claim!" Tobias's voice rose. His voice boomed so suddenly that she jumped.
"I am still your High Lord! I may be your husband, but I am still your High Lord!" He continued. "And I will not tolerate disobedience. Especially from my own wife." His face was red with anger, his hands clenched at his sides. Selene's hand immediately went to her bump.
"I didn't mean that," Selene said quietly. "I just thought…it was like a fight or flight moment. He was so sure, so needing for you to listen to him that he reached into a part of him that doesn't exist. Isn't that worth considering that possibly he is right?" He looked away coldly.
"He is wrong," he said simply. He turned towards the door, his face still tight. "You leave in fifteen minutes."
~*~ discidium ~*~
The mountain itself wasn't that spectacular. As she stared at the interest, her eyebrows up in mild surprise, she glanced behind her. There were four bodyguards staring in front of her harshly and Rosalie was extremely quiet as she stared ahead of her.
"Well, I'll go in first, then," Selene said, not without looking around her in annoyance. But when she walked into the pitch blackness, thinking she had possibly even walked into a trap, her mouth dried.
"Keep walking," she heard someone hiss. So she did. She kept walking in the blackness, not seeing anything. And each step felt like she was walking a mile, because surely, this blackness had to be the worst part of the Court of Nightmares. Not anything else.
Until she saw the red glow in front of her, blinding her for just a moment, and saw the world of darkness that Tobias resented so bitterly.
She had almost ran into a slave. The slave, having handcuffs on them tightly, so skinny that his rags dangled off him, was following the chain of people in front of him aimlessly. He didn't even look at her as someone's thin hand wrapped around her arm and pulled her away from the chain of people. The chain went on to twenty or thirty people. Tobias had once looked Clythia in the eyes and said it was illegal. But she saw now that the Court of Nightmares was a different place, a place that didn't obey Tobias.
As Rosalie pulled her away from the chain of people, she could finally digest what she was looking at. Everything seemed to be engraved into the mountain. They were standing at the top of the mountain, miles above from where the Hewn City lived. The stairs that she was standing on were long and thick, spiraling around the mountain continuously. It would be a long walk down that was for sure. She couldn't see much, but as Rosalie pulled her down the steep, uneven stairs, she began to depict what was below her. There were vendors, and small dots of people humming around them. She noticed that the slaves she ran into weren't the only ones – she could see the lines of them from where she stood, the little dots walking uniformly. The only thing that stood out from where she stood was the large, black castle that took up most of the base of the mountain. It was probably identical to the one that Tobias had, except as black as night and a crawly feeling went down her back when she saw it. As she stared, Rosalie was adamant at pulling her down. They passed little homes that were engrained into the walls of the mountains, and the occasional citizen that was obviously not a slave, yet just as skinny and sick as the rest. Nobody smiled, nobody seemed happy. The walk was long, and it was only when the base of the mountain began to look clear that she stumbled.
Rosalie had stepped over it absent mindedly – or maybe just hoping that Selene wouldn't notice it at all. But it was the corpse of a child. A naked boy, probably seven or eight, with marks all over him and a gashed wound over his heart. Nobody was around him, nobody cared. But his eyes were wide open, parts of his skin beginning to turn green. A child, of all things. And nobody cared. A nausea rose in her stomach, and she thought she might even barf, but Rosalie pulled her tightly. The picture would forever remain in her head, but it didn't get any better. She passed over men, shoving random women to walls and fucking them viciously. There were random bodies slumped over, missing body parts and cut open jaggedly. There was bile and bodily fluids on the ground consistently.
"Are they eating-"
"It doesn't matter. You won't be out here. Tobias has arranged for you to live in the castle. You'll get your own wing and he'll send you food every day," Rosalie said under her breath. Selene blinked at her rapidly.
"I'm supposed to live in that castle and never leave?" Selene said. "He'll send me food like a…like a prisoner?" And she guessed she deserved it. She did, in fact, question his claim. Maybe she hadn't realized it when she said it aloud, but deep down, now that she saw the power Leon had, she did.
"Kier and his fiancé have been advised to give you anything you want," Rosalie said, and there was a touch of bitterness on her tongue. Selene's eyebrows rose.
"Who's Kier?" She asked. Rosalie stopped for a moment, almost as if she was surprised that Tobias hadn't told her.
"Kier the Darkbringer. He's the…he's the leader of this place," Rosalie said. "He thinks he's a king." Selene scoffed at her.
"Every man thinks they're a king," Selene countered. "But, in the end, my husband outranks them all." Rosalie opened and closed her mouth, as if she was tempted to warn her, but Selene walked past the vendors and the starving citizens. She didn't even glance at the soldiers who protected the double doors to the kingdom. Instead, she opened the doors herself, with Rosalie teetering behind her, and walked in without a single permission.
She was mildly impressed with the place. Not only did the outside look like a darker, more unwelcoming version of Tobias's own castle, but so did the inside. It was like the inverse of the estate she lived in, with the same beautiful rugs but instead patterns of torture and death. The beautiful staircases, carved with beautiful designs, yet instead they were a coal-like black and the designs looked far more dreadful. She didn't look twice at the death-like flowers that rested in ugly vases and didn't stare at the oil-paintings that were painted scenes of hell. The marble floor was black with specks of red, and she couldn't help but notice how nice everything was, the luxury of the castle, and yet everybody outside was starving. But she didn't have time for pity. She wanted to get this sentence over with.
She began hearing the chatter about half into the castle. She knew it must have come from the grand hall. Clearly, nobody had invited her to the grand dinner. Maybe they had…forgotten? But Tobias wasn't someone who people forgot. She made her way to the closed doors, the doors so alike to Tobias's own grand hall. But she opened them herself, walking in grandiosely as she met eyes with the hundreds of eyes that turned to her all at once. Clearly, this was where the elites lived.
She eyed the opposite side of the grand hall. There were two people – a woman, dressed in black, sipping on a cup silently and beside her. It almost all seemed normal. The elites, though selfish as they may be, were chatting together peacefully. The guards were standing at the doors, not to kill but to protect. Yet, when she met eyes with the man at the head table, her stomach churned. He wasn't even looking at her. Surely, he saw the grand doors open. She was positive someone had alerted him of her presence. But he was more intrigued by the near-naked woman at his side. Quickly, before she lost her nerve, she began walking to the front table. She walked past the number of people, ignoring their stares. She didn't stop until she was at the head table. The man was still speaking to the girl, certainly a whore, as Selene stood in front of them. The woman on the opposite side stopped sipping. The grand hall had gone quiet.
"You must be Kier." Her voice was colder than ice. Finally, he stopped paying attention to the girl. His smile dropped. Something hardened on his face.
"The people here call me Lord," Kier said, just as cold. Her smile, thin and cruel, lengthened.
"I'm struggling to see why," Selene said slowly. "This place is a dump." His face darkened. He stepped away from the table, going around it to grow closer to her.
"What can I do for you?" Kier said. His voice was emotionless, with no intent of caring.
"Firstly, when the Lady of Night walks into your home, you bow," Selene hissed through her teeth. Kier was quiet for a moment, holding her stare. Clearly, there was something she hadn't seen. Some unknown grudge she couldn't have predicted, now expected. His face was tight.
"The Court of Nightmares does not bow to lesser creatures." And when he said that, she didn't know if she meant by the fact that she was Illyrian, or because she was a woman. Either way, her chin rose, staring him down as if he was dead vermin rotting on the ground. She didn't have to grow closer to him to intimidate him. Instead, she held his gaze tightly.
"My stay here is indefinite, Kier. You'll learn very fast that my word goes straight to your High Lord's ear. There is no voice that whispers louder than my own, no heartbeat that can effect the world so disastrously. I can turn this place to dust within a matter of seconds, and make it flourish with a single word to your dear High Lord," Selene said, her voice not rising a bit but she knew everybody could hear her words. "You will bow. You will bow or I'll leave. And you don't want me to leave, Kier. Because the Court of Nightmares was created to be a prison, and if this can't be a prison for me, then your High Lord won't see a reason for it to exist at all." Kier had lost all blood in his face. His shoulders slumped forward and for just a moment, he looked like he might get ill, but then he smirked.
"What did you do then? For him to lock his own wife into this prison?" Kier asked hungrily. She didn't even stammer.
"I made him love me," Selene answered. There was a stir amongst the crowd. Kier's smirk dropped and the audience looked at one another. And then Kier, along with the rest of the audience, sunk to their knees. Even she was struck by the sudden decision to obey, but then she heard a silky, humored voice behind her. A voice she recognized well.
"Well, wasn't that one hell of a speech." She spun around, and she tried not to seem surprised when she met eyes. But her body stiffened, her eyes grew wider. At her side, she heard Rosalie exhale sharply. Her eyes narrowed. And when she spoke, she couldn't help but be a little disappointed.
"Jameson," she drawled. "Your alive." His smile, lengthy and cold, spread across his face.
"Isn't it a miracle?" He replied surly.
This was a wee bit shorter. Mostly because I kinda just wanna post it. Plus, I don't know how I'm going to transition it right now. Also, I am a few pages into my next chapter of Red & Gold, which I plead more people to read. I feel like, personally, it's one of the best I've written. Possibly a bit too angsty, but angst is always good.
Also, forgive my horrible grammar. I know it's awful but it's a fanfiction. It's not like I'm publishing it.
Now, thousands of people read this weekly. Surely, more than four people can give me a review. It's not that hard, I promise ;)