Author's Note: Okay guys, real talk: I was working out some plot shenanigans yesterday and I got mega distracted by the idea of a Throne of Glass x ACOTAR crossover and I am trying super hard not to act on it because I am not very good at writing two stories at once. I am very one track mind. BUT OMG I WANNA SEE FEYSAND AND ROWAELIN FIGHT IN A WAR TOGETHER OMG SOMEONE FANGIRL WITH ME PLS.

Also, I'm like constantly cackling like Amarantha while writing this because of my plot changes and the things I have in store for Feyre and you guys. You might notice Feyre almost being a little OOC which I have aggressively tried to avoid but as I've reworked the plot I just feel her being like, no bitch i ain't taking this crap anymore... So yeah, Feyre is slowly becoming a little more...confident in my story, but I promise I will continue to work at keeping her character true to her personality - not making her too outgoing or expressive. She's always had that bite to her, I'm just sort of pushing that out. Plus there are some surprises ahead that sorrrrt of justify the boldness... :D

One last thing, forgive me, please review if you like the length of my chapters! I started reading a fic earlier and honestly their chapters were sooooo long I couldn't make it through, but that might just be my limited attention span again. So! How long do you like your chapters?

Please review! Let me know what you think of EVERYTHING BUAHAHAHAHAHA!

Ok sorry, I'm done.

-Jordan

All the bitch said was, "Oh?"

I swallowed the bile in my throat before my next words came from my lips. "I've come to claim Tamlin, High Lord of the Spring Court."

A gasp rippled through the assembled court. Amarantha tipped her head back and laughed like a dirty old crow.

The High Queen turned to Tamlin, and her lips pulled back in a wicked smile. It was difficult not to look at the two of them and sneer. The bond pulled in me, and feeling Rhysand brought my face back onto the plan - sending my features into crumpled place, ready to snarl for my mate.

"Let him go," I said, trying to keep my voice steady.

Amarantha laughed again. "Give me one reason I shouldn't destroy you where you stand, human." Her teeth were so straight and white - almost glowing.

My blood pounded in my veins, but I kept my chin high as I said, "You tricked him - he is bound unfairly." The words Rhysand and I decided on - that I'd rehearsed in my head a hundred times in the carriage with Azriel. Tamlin had gone very, very still.

Amarantha clicked her tongue and looked at one of her slender white hands - at the ring on her index finger. A ring, I noticed as she lowered her hand again, set with what looked like… like a human eye encased in crystal. I could have sworn it swiveled inside. "You human beasts are so uncreative. We spent years teaching you poetry and fine speech, and that is all you can come up with? I should rip out your tongue for letting it go to waste."

I clamped my teeth together. I knew we should have gone with Rhysand's more colorful ideas.

"But I'm curious: What eloquence will pour from your lips while my Attor peels you apart to show you your bones?"

My insides twisted; it was a concentrated effort not to empty my stomach onto the stones.

The Attor took a step toward me, but halted at my shoulder grunting toward the guard on my opposite side. The sentry got the message and reached for my arms, pulling them behind my back to leave me exposed while the Attor stepped in front of me. I squirmed, unready to give in to the idea that I might have only walked into a trap where I'd spend the rest of my living days tortured by this wretched creature. I felt a hum in my bones and a burning at my hip before I ripped my arms free from the faerie guard's grasp. My hands flew to my daggers as I stepped back from the henchmen only to knock into another body of muscle.

Muscle I'd felt at my back before. Rhysand, my breath whispered as it whooshed from my body.

Mine, he said back and I steadied against him before stepping away, keeping a distance between us.

Amarantha hummed at the scene. I wasn't sure what she thought of me slipping away from the guard or Rhysand's approach, but she made no mention of it. Instead she leaned back in her throne and crossed her legs. "Well, Tamlin," she said, putting a proprietary hand on his arm, "I don't suppose you ever expected this to occur." She waved a hand in my general direction. A murmur of laughter from those assembled echoed around me, hitting me like stones. "What do you have to say, High Lord?"

I looked at the face I'd only been able to bring my eyes to once since our last encounter the day Rhysand had stripped me from his possession. I could have laughed when he said, "I've never seen her before. Someone must have glamoured her as a joke. Probably Rhysand." He must be an idiot if he thought denying me would do me any good at this point. I was already in her clutches, his words only decided how fast I would die.

"Oh that's not even a halfway decent lie." Amarantha angled her head. "Could it be - could it be that you, despite your words so many years ago, return the human's feelings? A girl with hate in her heart for out kind has managed to fall in love with a faerie. Amd a faerie whose father once slaughtered the human masses by my side has actually fallen in love with her, too?" She let out that crow's laugh again. "Oh, this is too good - this is too fun." She fingered the bone hanging from her necklace and looked at the encased eye upon her hand. "I suppose if anyone can appreciate the moment," she said to the ring, "it would be you, Jurian." She smiled prettily. "A pity your human whore on the side never bothered to save you, though."

Jurian - that was his eye, his finger bone. Horror coiled in my gut. Through whatever evil, whatever power, she somehow held his soul, his consciousness, to that ring, the bone.

Tamlin still looked at me without recognition, without a flicker of feeling. I could have spat in his face.

"Things have been awfully boring here since my last guest had to go and die on me. Killing you outright, human, would be dull." She flicked her gaze to me, then back to her nails - to the ring on her finger. "But Fate stirs the Cauldron in strange ways. I've grown quite bored with the High Lord and his sullen silence… I'll make a bargain with you, human," she said, and I dared hope for something that might be doable. "You complete three tasks of my choosing - three tasks to prove how deep that human sense of loyalty and love runs, and Tamlin is yours. Just three little challenges to prove to me, to darling Jurian, that your kind can indeed love true, and you can have your High Lord." She turned to Tamlin. "Consider it a favor, High Lord - these human dogs can make our kind so lust-blind that we lose all common sense. Better for you to see her true nature now."

"I want his curse broken, too," I blurted. I needed Tamlin to regain his full power so he could shred her and free the rest of the fae too - to free Rhysand. "I complete all three of your tasks, and his curse is broken immediately and we are allowed to leave here together to be free forever," I added, hoping to avoid any of her possible loopholes.

"Of course," Amarantha purred. "I'll throw in another element, if you don't mind - just to see if you're worthy of one of our kind, if you're smart enough to deserve him." Jurian's eye swiveled wildly, and she clicked her tongue at it. The eye stopped moving. "I'll give you a way out, girl," she went on. "You'll complete all the tasks - or, when you can't stand it anymore, all you have to do is answer one question." I could hardly hear her over the blood pounding in my ears. "A riddle. You solve the riddle and his curse will be broken. Instantaneously. I won't even need to lift my finger and he'll be free. Say the right answer and he's yours. You can answer it at any time - but if you answer incorrectly…" On cue, the Attor stepped closer to me, its rotten breath in my face.

I turned her words over looking for loopholes but it all sounded right. "What if I fail your tasks?"

Her smile was grotesque. "If you fail a task there won't be anything left of you to play with."

A chill slithered down my spine and I felt the faintest warmth flow from Rhysand's presence behind me through the bond and into my blood. "What is the nature of my tasks?"

"Oh, revealing that would take all the fun out of it But I'll tell you that you'll have a new one task every month - at the full moon."

"And in the meantime?"

"In the meantime," Amarantha said a bit sharply, "you shall either remain in your cell or do whatever additional work I require."

"If you run me ragged, won't that put me at a disadvantage?" I knew she was losing interest - that she hadn't expected me to question her so much. But I had to try to gain some kind of edge.

"Nothing beyond basic housework. It's only fair for you to earn your keep." I could have strangled her at that, but I nodded. "Then we are agreed."

Then, his face ghastly white, Tamlin's eyes met mine, and they almost imperceptibly widened. No.

I shuddered. I'd rather him look at me with that cold indifference.

"Agreed."

Amarantha gave a small, horrible smile, and magic sizzled in the air between us as she snapped her fingers. She nestled back in her throne. "Give her a greeting worthy of my hall," she said to someone behind me.

I realized then that I was surrounded by the Attor, two of her guards, and Rhysand. The bond went taut within me and suddenly I was floating, but my feet were still firmly on the ground. The air vanished around me and my clothes were weightless. For a moment I wondered if she'd crossed me, and this was death. But no, I hadn't moved a muscle.

I was just numb.

The Attor's hiss was my only warning before my jaw sent me flying to the side. I'd been punched, but I felt nothing. I was thrown sideways and then I watched the second blow to my face as it landed. I heard, rather than felt, the crunch of my bones. My legs twisted beneath me as the soldiers took turns punching me again. I ricocheted away but met with another fist of a faerie whose face I didn't glimpse. Rhysand and the Attor stood back and watched. My mate's face was twitching and I grabbed at the bond, willing him to stay strong, letting him know his magic was working - I felt no pain.

Crunch. Crack.

Then there were three more and I was their punching bag - passed off from blow to blow. I couldn't tell if I was screaming.

Blood sprang from my mouth and I caught sight of Rhysand slowly shutting his eyes before he tugged through the bond and sent me into blackness.

When I awoke, for a moment, I felt the numbness again and almost wept with relief. But it was short lived. Slowly, my muscles returned to me and they were all screaming at me for reprieve. The pain blurred into a massive experience of stings and stabs, my throbbing face the focal point.

My cell was what I'd expected: bars sealing me in tight quarters with only a wash basin of water and a bucket for my waste. At least there was a thin mat on the floor, where I was currently crumpled. I waited for the sobs to come again as they had for weeks now. I cursed Tamlin, my thoughts sinking into dark places at what fate I hoped for him. I flinched at my own evil desires, but I doubted there would ever be forgiveness in my heart for what he'd done to me - what he'd taken from me. He was my friend… He was my friend and knew I'd had too much faerie wine - offered me more even - when my mortal body couldn't handle it like he and Lucien could. My body had failed me and Tamlin had taken me for himself.

The tears never came.

I rolled a little on my mat, a raspy groan escaping my dry cracked lips at the aching in my bones. All my weapons were gone, but something hard dug into my hip and I shifted off of it, heat pulsing against my skin. I barely remember the necklace I'd found in the cave leading to the mountain. It beckoned me with its soft, sweet beating pulse and I reached a sore arm down to pull it from my pocket. The troubled jewel was warm in my grip, pulsing still. It's colors were so intricate and always on the move, like there were dark oceans and black crackling clouds trapped inside. I imagined a canvas covered in its colors.

I wondered if the Attor couldn't touch me because of this, or if perhaps it was repelled by me alone. The shock and rage on its face when it'd first recoiled from me in the alcove was proof enough that it had never experienced such a reaction. The jewel, then. I attempted a deep breath, and I was sure at least one rib was broken, before slipping the amulet of storms around my neck.

The pulsing stopped. In its place a deep heat like iron over flame crept into me from where it lay between my breasts. It webbed through my chest and then my limbs until there was a sharp layer of heat over every inch of my body. Gradually, my pain diminished as if it had been scared away. My breathing deepened and, after minutes went by, I could stretch my legs. Even the pounding of my head eased.

I drifted off into a soft sleep only to be awoken by the screech of my cell door on the stone floor. I didn't bother cowering. I, perhaps foolishly, trusted Amarantha's word on her deal. I wouldn't be killed unless it was in a trial. The trials, I scoffed to myself. I wouldn't waste time guessing what wicked games the queen Under the Mountain had in store for me. Someone slipped into my cell and swiftly shut the door - leaving it just a bit ajar.

"Feyre?"

I stood on weak legs, heat still burning strength into their wounds. "Lucien?" I breathed. Hay on the stone floor crunched as he stepped toward me.

"By the Cauldron, are you alright?"

Actually, I was slowly starting to feel alot better. What kind of magic had I stumbled upon when I found this necklace? I nodded to him in the dark, my nose feeling heavy at the movement.

A small light flared by his head, and his eyes swam into view, the metal one narrowed. He hissed. "Have you lost your mind? What are you doing here? At least after Rhysand barrelled through he'd sent you home to safety. Why would you come back?"

"Someone has to fight for your freedom, Lucien. Tamlin certainly isn't going to do that, now is he?" I spat.

His mouth hung open.

"I'm going to free you," I continued. "You and everyone Under this Mountain. I came back to assassinate Amarantha."

Lucien choked. "Who are you, Feyre? Where is the girl who spent all her time painting in a garden? Who…" he trailed off. "You don't really love Tamlin, do you?"

The jewel's heat was almost done with my healing and I felt my nose stretching into the wrong place. "Set my nose, will you Lucien?"

He balked at me. But then, too swift to follow, his fingers latched onto my nose. Pain lanced through me, and a crack burst through my ears, my head, before the jewel branded my chest with fire sending it straight up to the source, dulling the pain.

"Thanks," I said, settling down to sit on my mat again.

Lucien knelt before me, moving too slow with his eyes wide. "You knew about this - about all of this - all along? Before Rhysand came you- you told us to call the blight by her name… Did you kill Tamlin's sentry wolf on purpose? To… to gain access to Tamlin?"

"No," I said, feeling the strangeness of power in this conversation. This is what my freedom tasted like. Power. Courage. Audacity. I flared my nostrils filling my healed lungs with breath. "It doesn't matter anymore. I'm here now and I'd like for you to join me during my escape."

"Of course," he blinked. "If the curse were broken, we could all go back to the Spring Court together-"

"I'm not going back to the Spring Court, Lucien."

"What?" he snapped too loudly. We both paused for a few breaths, listening for guards, before he went on. "Feyre, what is going on? Tamlin loves you."

I clenched my teeth. "He thinks he loves me. But the things he's done to me, Lucien… Those things are not love."

He watched me for a moment, considering. "I will not betray you, but I will not betray Tamlin either. As long as we both may leave freely when you finish whatever you have planned, then I will do whatever I can to aid you."

I nodded my thanks.

"Tamlin-" He started, but then shot to his feet at a sound my human ears couldn't hear. "The guards are about to change rotations and are headed this way. Try not to die, will you? I already have a long list of faeries to kill - I don't need to add more to it."

Lucien vanished - winnowed as Rhysand had once called it. I smiled in his wake, hoping Lucien might come to be a true friend for a long while. A moment later, a yellowish eye tinged with red appeared at the peephole in the door, glared at me, and continued onward.