The dresses Rhys had packed away for me now lay across the bed. He was whining and complaining about me making him choose for me. The dresses I had selected followed the traditional colours of Vallahan, dark blue, gold and red. Further research we had did had also shown that the gold symbolised royalty, dark blue symbolised the people serving the family or rich and powerful people in the country while the red symbolised the citizens of Vallahan.

Rhys frowned as he took in the disarray on the bed. "I didn't sign up for this," He muttered.

I rolled my eyes. "Does it matter? It's not like you could choose which parts of 'this' you wanted," I said, making quotation marks. "And besides, Cerridwen and Nuala aren't here, you'll have to fill in for that job."

"Ah, but there's a difference. They dress you. I do rather the opposite, really," He smirked.

I grabbed a random dress off the bed and chucked it at him. "If you continue, you won't get to do much of that," I sniped.

He clicked his tongue, tossing the dress back to the bed. "Now don't bring our nightly adventures into it. And don't ruin a dress in the process."

"You're the one who usually ruins my dresses," I muttered.

He grinned, mischief lighting up his features.

"We're in another land right now, a land with different laws from ours. I don't think a good first impression would be us being late," I said, grabbing a random dress from the bed and started to head to the bathroom to change.

Rhys stopped me with a touch to my wrist. "No," He reached past me and took another dress. "This one."

xXx

We were introduced to dozens of parties and courtiers during dinner. It shouldn't even be considered a dinner but a party instead. Tables surrounded an empty space in the middle for dancing and they seated guests according to a certain number. We, Rhys, Lucien, Elain and myself, sat right in front of a stage, together with Adonis, Valloria, the Head of Wealth and the Head of Social affairs. I felt uncomfortable under all their attention. It seemed like they had been planning this ever since they had heard of our arrival.

The whole event was quite grand, much like the royal gatherings Tamlin had held for his guests days before our wedding ceremony. The food was marvellous, of course, together with the decorations and other fancy items littered around the room. Right now, many people were dancing on the dance floor, neglecting the food they had on the table.

There were no royals that ruled in Vallahan, merely a court which oversaw the entire of the kingdom, Adonis being the head of the entire court. Some of these courtiers that were around the room were either scrutinizing us with disgust while others did so with fear, some with confusion in the midst of their expressions, possibly confusion to why we were here.

We were currently discussing the issue of the relationships and wealth of our two lands. Vallahan didn't need any taxes or what the Spring Court had for its subjects, it was fairly wealthy and sustainable, wanting a relationship with another kingdom to improve its status. Rhys seemed incredibly bored of the subject through the bond, although he appeared to be focused and serious throughout the entire conversation.

Valloria placed her feelings on not being focused at hand more openly, staring at the dresses Elain and I had on. Both of our dresses bore the traditional colours of Vallahan. My own dress had dark blue as its base colour, strips of red and sparkles of gold on it. It had thick and flowy sleeves and a V cutline, the back fully covered but slightly transparent to show off the curves of my shoulder blades. Was she jealous?

Of course she is.

I hid my smirk at Rhys's voice in my head.

I mean, I did choose the dress for you after all. I've been told I have impeccable taste, especially in women.

And what proof would you have to back up that opinion?

If a person could be counted as proof, I believe I'm speaking to her at the moment.

Hmm. And here I thought you were bored?

I am. I'm still a High Lord, Feyre darling, it would be incredibly rude to not listen to the interesting politics we have to discuss here today. You're listening yourself, aren't you?

Of course I am. You're not the only High Fae around here who's a royal from other Prythian lands Rhys.

Touché.

Huffing at him in my mind, I turned back my focus to the conversation at hand- which had apparently ended. The two heads were muttering to each other, Valloria was busy glancing from Rhys and then back to me and Adonis was busy scarfing down food.

Valloria's voice cut in through the awkwardness and silence at our table. "Rhysand, would you like to dance?"

I saw him raise an eyebrow at that request.

Do you think she knows what sort of relationships we have in our lands?

Jealous, Feyre?

I scowled. Yes, there was this feeling inside of me that was annoyed at Valloria and something else with it that felt a lot like ripping her head off-

My own primal instincts, I guessed. I then realised I hadn't felt such a horrible feeling since my first visit in the Summer Court- my unhappiness and being naïve at what had went on between Rhys and Cresseida.

"Maybe later-" Rhys started.

"No, Rhys, go ahead," I said, smiling wickedly.

What are you doing?

Dancing would ease the awkwardness and tension, wouldn't you say?

And if you rip out her head later?

I scowled. Stop going into my head.

If I'm going to dance with Valloria, you have to dance with Adonis.

Before I could answer, Rhys extended his hand to Valloria who smiled and took it. Sighing, I watched them as Rhys lead her to the dance floor and they disappeared into the throngs of people.

Fine, then.

Turning back to the table, I was relieved to see that Adonis had stopped shoving food down his throat. "Adonis," I began, to which he snapped his head up, startled. "Since Valloria and Rhysand are dancing, perhaps we should too ourselves."

To his credit, he didn't seem frightened by the request.

"I-I- Of course, it would be an honour," He stammered.

Still keeping that smile of my face, I gave Adonis my hand and he lead me after Rhys and Valloria in the crowd of people. Tilting my head slightly back, I could see Lucien and Elain smiling at each other while the two heads were looking at the both of us with a mixture of worried and horrified expressions on their faces.

Adonis had, of course, gotten live musicians to play at this dinner. A gesture from him had the music turned from a lively tango to a waltz. I fought the urge to raise an eyebrow- did he think he could sway me with sweet smiles and fancy music?

"Thank you once again for honouring Vallahan with your presence. It's been a very long time since anybody from the other Prythian lands has graced us with their presence. And another thank you- to you and your sister- for honouring the traditions of Vallahan and for wearing its colours," He said.

"It's nothing, "I replied, "Really, it's my honour to even be allowed to wear the cultures of Vallahan."

Adonis's eyes widened at that. "No, no, you wouldn't need any permission to grace us with you honouring our traditions; that would be rude and we wouldn't want to disrespect you- at all."

I forced a blush to my cheeks. "How thoughtful of you."

He grinned back. "You're our guest. We want your visit to be the best- especially since this might be our one and only visit from such important guests like you and the others."

"Well then, thank you" I said. "I-"

And I yelped as he stepped- hard- on my right foot.

"Oh, lord, I'm so sorry- Are you alright?"

I brushed it off with a wave of my hand. "Yes, I'm perfectly alright. Waltzes are really not your thing, I assume?"

He laughed nervously. "No, not really."

"Perhaps dancing wasn't such a good idea," I said, laughing back.

"Perhaps not for us, but for your other friends," He said back, his eyes flitting somewhere to my back.

Letting go of him, I turned to where his eyes where and laughed myself. There was Rhys and Valloria at the far end of the room and Elain and Lucien closer to where we were located and both pairs were dancing- much better than Adonis and myself.

I turned back to face Adonis and found him gone. Frowning, I turned back to face the table and saw that the two heads were not there either. I turned back to where Rhys and the rest were dancing- none of them had noticed. Slipping out the back door, I used my magic to track down where Adonis had ran off to.

The hallways were emptied of any people- were everyone inside the room where the dinner was held? I tracked them to one of the many rooms that were at the sides of one of the dark hallways.

I cloaked myself in the darkness before attempting to eavesdrop on their conversation.

"-doesn't matter!"

"Why not just ask them for their opinion, then?"

"Have you gone insane, Adonis? Have you forgotten the reason why Ianthe and her family and many others escaped here? It was because of one of the fae from those lands."

"That fae was from Hybern, all the more reason we shouldn't be having this conversation right now!"

"And the people there killed that dangerous fae- wouldn't that tell you that they are much more dangerous than they could ever be."

"None of us are on your side, Crihstia. Why would we be on the side of the person who wishes to destroy the wall that has always kept the peace?"

"Because the wall means no chances of peace and negotiations between our people and the humans. Don't you see?"

"Crihstia, stop it. Your statements are insane, nothing you say will sway us. It's impossible for such a thing."

There were then sounds of furniture and crashes and the door slammed open. I darted to the sides, watching as a female walked out, her eyes murderous. She was obviously the Crihstia who had what? Wanted Vallahan to ally with Hybern?

Crihstia looked like one of Amarantha's relatives. She had very similar red eyes and pale skin, although her hair- thankfully- wasn't red. Instead, it was straight and extended to her elbows, brown with pale golden highlights.

She had most probably had her mind set on storming her way out of the hallway but stopped.

Move along, Crihstia.

I eased past her mind shields easily, implanting the thought into her brain. She started walking down the hallway again, but then stopped, shaking her head as if clearing it from a fog. She retraced her steps and looked around. Nothing happened even after many of my tries in planting suggestions in her mind to leave. She was immune to daemati magic, I realised, which would give a reason to why her mind shields were kept so openly.

I clung to the shadows even more now. I could have winnowed away but I had to know if she could look past even more magic than mere daemati magic. She looked around for a few more moments before shrugging and headed down the hallway.

Feyre? Where are you? FEYRE.

I went out from the room for a moment- Adonis disappeared.

I'm heading to our room.

I'll meet you there.

I winnowed to the room myself, waiting patiently for him. As soon as he arrived, I told him everything and highlighted the part where she was immune to daemati magic.

"It's not the first I've heard of it and its most definitely not a surprise," He said, flopping down on the bed. "And the fact that even here, in Vallahan, the leaders are going through decisions on allying with Hybern shouldn't be a surprise."

"And yet we're surprised,"

He sighed. "I mean, from what you've told me, only this Crihstia wants to be allied with Hybern and the rest have no wishes to."

"It all starts from one person," I muttered and continued, "We'll be getting more information tomorrow anyway. And if it's not sufficient, we could always make this trip longer."

"You're forgetting Lucien and Elain," He reminded.

I ran a hand over my hair. "They don't share a room, which means we'll have to tell them separately tomorrow."

"Yet. I hear your unspoken yet after your words," He said, smiling.

"Rhys…"

"Shhh…" He replied, winnowing to the back of me, slowly brushing my hair to the side of my neck and kneading the tension there. "You're very stressed."

I hummed. "I am," I murmured.

He pressed a kiss to the side of my throat. "You need a distraction," He said, his lips moving further up.

"Mmh," I sighed. "What were we talking about?"

I felt his smile. "Very serious things, perhaps we should continue that discussion." I felt him move slightly away from me.

I turned and draped my arms around his neck, pulling him closer to me. "No, maybe tomorrow."

His smile grew even wider and he pressed his lips to mines. "Maybe," He said when we parted.