I gasped for breath and clawed at the firm arm that lifted me up against my attacker's body and carried me backwards, away from the edge of the balcony. I had been so close, I could see the jagged rocks far below, could taste the exhilaration and freedom the steep drop down in the windless air offered. My feet touched the ground as the door to my escape was firmly shut in my face, and I was trapped back in the room with my terrible fate. As the arm around my waist softly slipped away, I turned to stare into Cassian's apologetic gaze. "This is ridiculous" the High Lord of the Night Court announced, standing and glaring at my father. "We live in an age where females should be given the same amount of respect as any male. The position of High Lady is now established and recognized" he said as he gestured to the female to his left, "and we work everyday to eradicate the sexist abuse that occurs in the more rural camps in the Night Court. You can't just give her away like she's an object. She has her own voice, she has a say in her own life." Still in shock at Cassian's apparent betrayal, it took a moment for the fact that they were fighting for me to sink in. Only one person had ever done that before.
Despite his intentions, Cassian had hurt me far more than he could possibly understand. He took away my one and only chance of escape, basically serving me to the High Lord of Winter on a platter. I knew I couldn't trust or depend on anyone, least of all the court notorious for it's cruelty. Arguments broke out between the courts, but I knew it was pointless. My father had proven many times the lengths he would go to get what he wants. He would take off the cuffs just long enough to cause me pain, then slap them back on and hand me over to my next jailer. Knowing the inevitable outcome of this situation, I decided to just get it over with. I tried to will myself to go numb, for my heartbeat to slow and my mind to go blank. Unfortunately, I never felt more alive and alert. I walked around Cassian, and silently lifted my wrists to Roy. The room hushed, and I looked to see my father smirking with satisfaction. "Now then, lets get on with it shall we?" he drawled.
The High Lord of Winter made his way around the table and stopped at his second's left. He held out his hand and an embellished silver key was dropped into it. Roy moved to take a position to my right, ready to take me down if I made a move against my father. A completely ridiculous precaution, as that had not once happened in the 200 years I had been shackled. I looked over to see the varying expressions on the four Night Court fae's faces. Cassian was frowning, the High Lord of the Night Court had a faraway look on his face, his High Lady was measuring me up, while the female with the long dark hair to her left took a defensive position with a pensive expression. Odd group. A cold grip at my wrist turned my attention back to my father's harsh face, and he gave me a warning look as the key slowly turned in the first lock. With a metallic clang, the first shackle fell to the ground, and I felt the air shift. I watched the surrounding High Lords' surprised expressions as they began to feel the intensity of my power pulse through the room. "Maybe this isn't such a good idea" Autumn's high lord grumbled "her magic's been locked away for years hasn't it? It could be dangerous for us all to be in the room with her if it's been building up for too long." "Oh, have no fears my friend! I took them off every so often for events and parties. She was sedated of course, but we'll just have to make do. She's quite the conversation starter! You'll see" my father answered as he began to unlock the second shackle. "Probably not wise to sedate someone who already has so little going on up there" the High Lord of Winter chuckled dryly as the lock clicked and he removed it from my wrist "but she has other uses" he concluded as a blast of sunlight and ice shards shook the windows and had every fae in the room shading their eyes.
I blinked as my vision adjusted, and watched snowflakes fall through streaks of soft light. I lifted my hands to my face to see if my outer appearance had changed to match the extreme shift I felt rock through my whole inner being. I turned my head to the left to face a decorative mirror hung on a pillar, and studied my long white hair streaked with gold and copper, my pale skin, and copper eyes. Same as always. What was different was the glow. Warm sunlight leaked from my skin and hit the tiny snowflakes to mimic sparkles surrounding my whole body. A glance at my feet showed there to be no pileup of snow as each flake seemed to evaporate right before touching a surface. Looking back at the mirror, I saw the snow and the glow only seemed to reach a foot around me, the edge creating an unnatural oval encasement. This is the showstopper he kept me around for. I had always been too sedated to stifle it, and hadn't been able to truly study the physical effects of having my power fully unleashed since I was a small child. Suddenly realizing my father was shouting my name, my eyes locked onto his annoyed face. Finally having my attention, he commanded that I draw my power back in a bit. Confused, I looked around the room to see all of the fae in the room struggling to stand upright as the full brunt of my magic pressed down on them. The tension in the air was so high that despite the ache beginning to build in the center of my being, I stifled my magic to the point that a passerby would sense the strength of an average lesser fae.
My father nodded to me, and turned to the slack jawed High Lord of the Autumn court. Effectively being dismissed as my usefulness had run its course, I turned to the Night Court to gauge their reaction. "I'm glad those archaic torture devices are finally off of you" Cassian said smiling kindly at me. "How about we keep them permanently off? What do you say Mor? Want to bust up the old man's prized jewelry?" he winked to the dark-haired female to my far right. She grinned and opened her mouth to speak, and the High Lord of the Night Court cut her off. "How about we focus on getting your new friend out of her situation here, and worry about those cuffs later? Let's not piss him off any more than we must. We don't need to start a war with the Winter Court right now" he murmured, watching my father's enthusiastic discussion with the other high lords. He was quite the salesman.
In a split second the pain in the pit of my stomach multiplied tenfold, as 200 years of built up magic strained to be released. I grimaced, wrapping my arms around my middle, and it took every fibre of my being to remain on my feet. Cassian grabbed my elbow and turned to his high lord "Rhysand, Beron was right. She needs to unleash that power on something or it's going to kill her and everyone else in this room." Rhysand nodded and took my other arm. "Feyre darling can you get the door and check to see if there's any life on that mountain across from us?" The female who was evidently the High Lady of the Night Court nodded and led us to the balcony railing. Overcome with pain, I felt my control over my magic slowly start to ebb away. I watched as she stared intensely at the far away mountain, her eyes roaming its surface. She turned to Rhysand and shook her head, "I can't sense anything, couldn't find anything to connect to. It should be fine" she finished, seeming to know her mates plan.
"What are you doing out there?" my father asked from the doorway, suspiciously eyeing the two males flanking me. "She's going to unleash a blast of pure magic at that mountain over there" Rhysand answered bluntly, nodding to the north, "until everything built up and stored is used up. You have a problem with that?" The High Lord of Winter attempted to intimidate him by staring him down for a few awkward moments before turning to me and saying "Hurry it up and then come back inside. Beron has a great offer for you! I'll let them know you're performing" he chuckled and walked back to the group. Cassian grumbled a few choice words under his breath, and turned to me. "You've got this. Just picture the mountain as someone whose face you want to give a good beating and just push" he said as he extended his arm out, his palm facing the target. I raised an eyebrow at him and turned back to glance at my father, and then back to face the mountain. Cassian laughed a deep belly laugh, clapping my shoulder "You know, for someone who doesn't speak, you really have no problem expressing yourself!" he continued to chuckle until my grimace turned into a moan of pain and I doubled over. "Okay let's do this" Rhysand said, pulling me up and grabbing my wrist to point my right palm to the distant snow peaked mountain. "Just pool it together, and then release. Make sure to concentrate it and direct it so that you don't blow us all up." Great, no pressure or anything. I slowly began to unwind and untangle the magic that threaded through my body, doing as he said and directing it down my arm. The pressure decreased, but the current seemed endless, and it was building up too much in my palm. "Release it!" Cassian said, giving my left shoulder a nudge. So I did.
A white blast of pure sunlight, and the frosty blue light of winter magic weaved together to create a solid beam of raw energy that pierced the mountain in a thin line. It wasn't enough. My power, finally getting the freedom it wanted ran rampant in my body looking for a way out, scorching every part of me. I could no longer handle the pain, or keep a handle on my magic, so I raised my left palm, gathered every single ounce of magic I had in my body, and screamed as I just let it go. The resulting blast knocked the five of us onto our backs and shook the mountain our building was on. I stared straight up at the crisp azure sky as I heard the crash of rock on rock, and stayed laying there for a few more minutes until I was enveloped in silence. Standing up, I first saw the slacked jaws of several high lords, mixed with fear, wonder, and some fury. Most of the fear and fury came from my father, I noticed with chagrin. I turned to view the mountain and what I found was not a mountain at all, but a small pile of rubble.
"You didn't even just destroy the mountain, most of it is just… gone. Wiped off the face of the earth without a speck of dust to remember it by. It's just the bottom layer that was reduced to boulders." Cassian muttered deep in thought as he stared at the distant pile of rocks. I turned to my right to see the other three Night Court fae just staring at me with shielded blank expressions. Interesting. If only I could read minds. "Alright! Enough with the theatrics, daughter of mine, you've done enough. Let's move the party back inside. Roy" my father announced while clapping his hands. The Winter Court's second placed his hand on the small of my back and not so gently guided me back inside.
I sat down at the table feeling completely content and relaxed. A giant weight had been lifted off me, with the release of that built-up magic that had been dragging me down. I felt completely at peace, and I felt my cloud of numbness beginning to return. I vaguely heard warning bells go off in the back of my mind, but didn't particularly care enough to give them any thought, and I drifted into an easy blank state.
A cold hand gripped my own, and my legs mechanically stood and followed where I was led to go. I was suddenly staring into amber eyes framed by burnt orange hair. One of the Autumn Court sons I presumed. More alarm bells went off, and I swept them away. I watched his lips as he introduced himself. Huh. Was his name the same as mine? He seemed to pronounce it funny at the start. Odd, but not odd enough for me to care. I dismissed the redhead in front of me, and gazed out the window behind him. A nice sunny day, perfect for napping. I couldn't wait to get home and- "IRIS!" my father shouted in my face as he shook me alert. I stared at him impassively, not letting my irritation at his rudeness show. "Your fiancé Eris asked you a question. Could you do us the honor of coming back down to earth and answering it?" he seethed. I faced my fiancé and raised an eyebrow in question. I turned my father's words over in my head a few times before acknowledging the bells going off in the back of my mind and going into panic mode. Yes, I could crush a mountain with my bare hands. But was I able to oppose my father's wishes? Did I particularly care enough about my life to try? I didn't think so.
"She is not marrying Eris! We can take her back to the Night Court and train her to control her powers properly. He'll just cuff her again if you are serious about handing them over to him. Do you really want to be around when her magic builds up to that point again? Let her choose her own path!" Cassian ranted, apparently not his first words on the subject as my father just rolled his eyes and ignored his outburst. The rest of the Night Court fae, and the other high lords were silent, apparently content with leaving the decision up to my father, and just wanting the meeting to finally be done for the day. Having heard the horror stories of the Night Court from my handmaiden, I had no interest in going there anyway. I also wasn't particularly fond of this Eris either, if the way Mor and Cassian balefully glared at him was any indication of his character. I just wanted to go home, and have this day be over no matter the cost. As I was about to let myself drift off, I was shocked alert by a sudden intense warmth along the whole left side of my body. The heat was followed by a prickling sensation, and pressure, as if someone was standing right there behind me. "Azriel, you finally made it. I told you to come ages ago. We have a problem" I heard Rhysand murmur several feet behind me. I turned to look over my shoulder in the direction of the weird sensation, and watched as the most beautiful male I had ever seen stepped out of the shadows, appearing right out of thin air. His gaze swiftly assessed the crowd before landing on me. As his dark eyes pierced mine, lightning zipped through my entire body, and my heart felt so heavy that it ached. Our eyes were locked, and I was bombarded with so many foreign emotions, that I panicked, and as my breaths grew more and more shallow the last thing I saw before I fainted was his worried frown as he started walking towards me.