A/N: Once again, a big thank you to my fabulous Betas - Infernas81 and inuverse.
I will be publishing 2 Chapters this week - here is the first and hopefully Chapter 9 will be up before Christmas Eve.
Enjoy!
Chapter 8
As we were descending the main staircase we heard a shout of "Amren!", followed by Varian bounding up the stairs towards us. "High Lady," he said bowing to me.
"Hello Varian." I said, whilst I inclined my head to Amren, giving the signal that she could break rank with us, and she stepped to Varian's side. "When do you two plan on going to Night?" I asked. "I know Rhys is waiting for you."
The look in Amren's eyes was enough to strike fear into the heart of many hardened warriors as she said, "when we feel like it." I laughed with her as Varian looked agog that she could talk so frankly. I'd have thought he'd have known better by now. "You can tell our fearless leader that we will arrive in about 10 minutes."
Giving her a hug I whispered, "I hope you enjoy Calanmai." Her grin told me that she definitely would. She then stepped away with Varian and we continued to the dining room.
Inside, the table had been moved to under the window and was adorned with various platters of finger foods and goblets with different beverages. A cursory look and I could see Helion, the High Lord of Day and Tarquin the High Lord of Summer had arrived, in addition to Thesan (High Lord of Dawn), who arrived earlier. Tamlin was doing his best to blend into a corner. We were waiting for Rhys, Kallias & Viviane of Winter and Beron of Autumn to arrive before we could begin.
As I was about to step over to Tarquin I felt arms wrap around my waist. Panicking at the sudden shock I let my Night magic have free reign. I felt a voice whisper in my ear, "so dramatic, darling." Whirling around, I grasped Rhys and pulled him into a strong hug, that elicited in painful kicks. "Careful now, you don't want to break me, especially before tonight." I noticed his cheeky grin as I pulled away. "You certainly know how to make an entrance," he said. I laughed, and as I reigned my magic back in, Rhys crouched down and whispered to the baby, "I take it you missed daddy? I really missed you," he said, straightening up and giving me a passionate kiss.
I tried to pull away, "Rhys, we're not alone!" I hissed.
"I don't care," he responded, kissing me again. After a few minutes, he finally relented and pulled away from me, leaving me breathless and somewhat embarrassed.
Tarquin had been watching, and now deemed it safe to come over. "Rhysand, Feyre," he greeted. We nodded a greeting to him. Indicating my necklace, he said "I knew that would look good on you." Fingering the necklace lightly, I thanked Tarquin yet again, whilst silently hoping that he wouldn't bring up the theft of the Book by Amren and myself. True, he'd rescinded the Blood Rubies, but I still felt bad about what happened. Tarquin excused himself and went to talk to Tamlin. I was just about to turn back to Rhys, when Helion bounded over.
"Oh, look at you all!" he said. "So many possibilities," he mused. I must have looked blankly at him as he laughed and elaborated, "Well, there's the Trio there; although they keep refusing me, I can but dream. Then there's you two," he indicated me and Rhys, "you know, I've never been with a mated couple before; it would be something to experience, especially with the female being with child. And then, there's the 'not quite accepted their bond' couple at the back there," he pointed to Elain and Lucien. "So, does anyone fancy it?"
There was a loud, resounding 'no', to which Helion laughed, having expected nothing less. Nesta was indignant at his blasé requests. "Feyre….." she didn't seem able to continue.
Placing my hand on her arm, I tried to steer her away from an obviously gleeful Helion. "Never mind Helion, it's just who he is," I whispered to her. She shrugged out of my grasp and marched up to Helion, placing her hands on her hips in her indignation.
"How dare you! Just who do you think you are to try and bed my sisters?"
"If you're feeling left out, I'd be happy to invite you to my bed too. I love feisty females!"
"You're not helping, Helion," I hissed at him, as Mor did her best to pull Nesta away. Nesta was steadfastly refusing to move though. I leaned over to her again, "why don't you and Azriel go and check the Illyrian's are in position," I suggested.
Tearing her eyes away from Helion only enough to give me a quick nod, she then threw him another look, before prodding him in the chest. "You will leave me and my sisters alone. If the rest of them want to debase themselves with you that's their business." She then spun around with a swish of her dress and was out of the door without another word.
"Helion, I'm sorry - " I began.
"It's fine, honestly. I'm used to getting…rebuffed, in such a fashion."
Cassian strode over to Helion and clapped him on the shoulder, making Helion visibly flinch at the strength of it. He offered to get a drink with him and they went away together. I was just looking around the room, wondering where to wander to next when I heard "MOR! FEYRE!" as Viviane ran into the room and hugged us both at same time. "Mother, Feyre, you're so big!" she told me. I muttered a half-hearted thanks under my breath. "Oh, you know what I mean! You look great!" The smile she gave me was so genuine that I knew she was telling the truth. Mor introduced her to Elain and Lucien.
We were talking together – Rhys and Kallias had their heads together – when I noticed a visible change in Lucien. I knew what had brought it about, and this was confirmed as Beron walked in, along with his wife and eldest son, Eris. He had other High Fae with him, who I assumed were Lucien's other brothers; a couple of them looked vaguely familiar. I disentangled myself from Viviane's arm and carefully walked over and stood beside Lucien, Elain was already stood at his other side. I noticed Rhys watching closely despite appearing to be deep in conversation with Kallias. I looked over to Tamlin in the corner, who had been talking to Tarquin and Thesan, but was now making his way over towards us. I gave Lucien's arm a gentle squeeze, to let him know I was there.
"Welcome Beron," Tamlin said, when he reached them. Beron looked around the room.
"I see we're all here now, let's get our little chat under way, shall we?" Tamlin gave a nod and left the dining room. Rhys stepped to my side and offered his arm as we followed.
As we were about to enter the sitting room Beron turned around and looked at those that had assembled. Aside from Beron and Tamlin, there was myself and Rhys, Kallias and Viviane, Thesan and Trevyn, Helion, and finally Tarquin. "What are they doing here?" he demanded, pointing to Viviane, Trevyn and myself.
"Well, Feyre and Viviane are both High Lady's, so they have every right to be here as much as any of us. Trevyn is also welcome, being Thesan's partner. You may of course bring the Lady Sienna of Autumn to accompany you, if you so wish," Helion told him. Beron didn't respond and threw the door open and went into the room.
We'd arranged the main sitting room with chairs around the edge in a rough circle. I sat next to Rhys, with Viviane on my other side. Beron was sat opposite me with the others taking the remaining seats. When everyone was seated, Beron indicated he wanted to speak first. I couldn't stop myself rolling my eyes, I knew what he was going to say – he said it at every meeting.
"We need to talk about her," he said, indicating me. There was an audible groan from everyone else – I was right!
"Cauldron, Beron. We've been through this before. Frankly, I'm fed up of talking of it," Thesan told him.
"Well, you shouldn't be!" he spat. "Just because you lot are idiots and can't see the danger – "
"Danger," Viviane scoffed, "Feyre is as much a danger as the rest of you, of us."
Looking like he didn't want to address Viviane directly – and he didn't – Beron's indignation got the better of him. "You don't see it do you? He's the most powerful High Lord in history," he pointed to Rhys, "who just so happens to have a mate who has all of our powers, because she stole them," another groan from those assembled, "and now, now they're spawning. How long before they decide that Night Court isn't enough for them and they decide they want the rest of Prythian?" His face was as red as his hair in his ire.
"Oh, come on, Beron, this conversation is old - " Helion began, before Beron interrupted.
"You shouldn't be fed up talking about this, this is important!"
Fed up with having to listen yet again, I decided to have a bit of fun. I started weaving my fire magic – Beron's fire magic – around my fingers and changing the flames between my hands. Beron's face got more red.
"You see how she mocks us!" he roared, indicating to me weaving my flames. "We need to do something about her, and do it now!
Rhys stiffened at his comment. "Do what about her?" he managed to get out between gritted teeth.
"Get our powers back!" This was the first time he'd out and out said this – normally he wanted me 'watched' as he put it, and the others had thankfully always refused. Rhys growled at him, baring his teeth.
"You can try, if you want Beron," I told him as I used my ice magic to quench the fire writhing around my fingers; a nice, dramatic example of what I could do to his fire. "I would have you remember though, that I didn't ask for these powers, because I was, you know, dead," Rhys visibly flinched at my words, "you all resurrected me, and I am truly grateful for that, but what I have is now mine."
"Beron, you have to stop this. As Feyre has again pointed out, she didn't ask for our powers. Besides, it's thanks to her that we're all sat here and not still Under the Mountain," Tarquin pointed out to him.
Beron stood up so fast that we were all shocked, and several things happened. Rhys had also stood and placed himself in front of me, Tamlin had shifted into his beast form, Helion had grabbed Beron and Viviane had unleashed her magic and the temperature of the room plummeted as ice formed all around the walls and furniture.
"Stop this Beron," Kallias told him. "We can't get our powers back, and you know it. Feyre and Rhysand have never given any indication that they are anything other than happy within their own borders."
"That," Thesan joined in, "and Feyre has been here all week trying to help Tamlin, of all people, get Spring sorted out. These don't speak of the actions of someone bent on the domination of Prythian."
Tamlin, who had been pacing backwards and forwards, still in his beast form, stopped and looked at Beron. "The whole point of this meeting, was that it was informal," he growled out the last part. "We're here today to celebrate Calanmai, and this was a quick catch-up whilst we were all assembled."
Viviane applauded Tamlin's words. "Now, let's discuss the boring things," she said, trying to get the meeting back on track.
The meeting seemed to go for ages, and when it was finally over I couldn't wait to leave the room. I darted from my chair and left as quickly as possible, just wanting to get outside. As I was walking down the path I heard the gravel crunch as spun around to see Mor following me. Her face looked haunted and I knew it was because of Eris. I stopped so she could catch up with me.
"Meeting went well, I take it," she said sarcastically. "From the look on your face I take it Beron opened it in his usual manner."
I nodded and explained what had happened, telling her that I couldn't stand being inside with Beron much longer. She had offered to leave me alone, but I knew she needed a break too. Mor was never good at opening up about herself, especially when it came to Eris, so I decided to keep quiet and allow her to confide in me if she wanted to. We continued walking and after a few minutes she spoke, "I know that we want Eris to get rid of Beron and take over Autumn, but I wonder if we got rid of Eris too if that would be a bad thing," she mused.
I looked over at her. "What did he do?" I simply asked.
She shook her head, "nothing, just kept staring at me. I know it sounds stupid, but he just gets to me."
Giving her a hug, I said, "I'll let the others know and we'll make sure he gets nowhere near you." She gave me a small smile and we continued on, making our way steadily back to the manor.
On our return to the manor Rhys was waiting for us in the hall. Mor gave him a small smile as she stepped around him into the dining room. "Eris," I said simply. Rhys nodded his understanding.
"Right, seeing as we're all assembled, this is the plan for tonight," Rhys said. We were all gathered in our suite, ready to start our getting ready for tonight. "Firstly, either Cassian or Azriel is to stay with Feyre at all times." I was about to object when the look gave me silenced me, "you heard Beron in that meeting, I'm taking no chances. If you're not with me, you're with one of them. Second, Elain and Nesta, you need to stick with one of us; some faeries don't know when to take no for an answer." He looked at me again and I noticed Mor look quizzically at me. "Thirdly, Eris doesn't get anywhere near Mor."
Mor stood up, "come on Feyre, it's time to get you ready for your starring role," she said with a wink. Elain and Nesta followed us to my room.
In my bedroom Mor went over to my trunk and started rummaging in it again. She was muttering to herself as she dug around in it, clearly looking for something in particular. After five minutes, she seemed to have found everything she was looking for, as she stood up and grabbed the pile that was next to her. She set it down on the bed. "Right, I got you a new dress, as your favourite one won't fit you at the minute. I hope you like it."
From the top of the pile she produced my dress. It was black, ankle length with a plunging neckline, that would show off my slightly engorged breasts. It was accentuated with diamonds along the straps and neckline and had matching diamond-silver ribbons that provided the lacing at the sides. It was nothing short of stunning. I couldn't respond, and Mor took that as a good sign. She reached in the pile to show me something else – some rather scant undergarments! "Rhys should like these," she said with a sly grin, "I got them from his favourite shop."
We got dressed, helping one another – although, truth be told – I was the one that needed the most help. By the time the four of us had our dresses on, Alis had arrived to do our hair. She plaited my hair and coiled it around, so it was in a bun on the nape of my neck. As she moved onto Elain, Mor clasped my diamond star necklace around my neck and then handed me my crown. I sighed inwardly, I didn't like wearing it, it felt too ostentatious, but it was the matching one to Rhys' crown and was the official one for the Night Court, so I had to wear it.
When we were completely ready we thanked Alis, telling her to go and get herself ready. We then entered the main room, to find the four males all wearing their finest attire. They all had on white shirts with heavily brocaded black tunics with delicately stitched stars and black formal trousers. Rhys was also wearing his matching crown, and Cassian and Azriel still had their gauntlets with Siphons on.
Turning to look at us, Rhys walked over to us saying, "you ladies look lovely." As he reached me he embraced me and whispered in my ear, "I can't wait to properly celebrate Calanmai with you later, mate," then gave me a kiss. As he withdrew, he reached into his pocket. "I have a gift for my High Lady," he said as he produced a box, and opened it to reveal a bracelet with charms. A quick look and I could see the were seven. As he took it from the box and was fastening it around my left wrist he said, "these all represent you." There was a rose for Spring, seashell for Summer, leaf for Autumn, snowflake for Winter, Lark for Dawn (which he said represented the dawn chorus), Sun for Day and "moon with stars, for the great and noble Night Court," he said, as he secured the clasp. I was so overwhelmed with love and gratitude that I grabbed him and kissed him vigorously. I refused to break away until Mor cleared her throat, and I looked around to see the other's trying to look in every direction but at us. "Is this what I can expect later?" Rhys cheekily asked.
That's for me to know and you to find out, I told him through the bond.
Can't wait, darling.
"Will you two please stop making eyes at each other and talking kinky stuff through your bond, the rest of us don't need to feel ill you know," Mor said.
Flashing a cheeky grin at me, Rhys looked at his cousin and told her, "fine, Mor. If I'm not allowed to use the bond then I'll just have to tell Feyre out loud how I plan to worship her body with my hands and my tongue and - "
Sticking her fingers in her ears Mor shouted, "I don't need to hear this, la la la la la la la."
I playfully smacked Rhys for winding Mor up, especially as it meant embarrassing me in the process, but his words had ignited something in me, and I knew that I wanted him now, and it wasn't going to wait until later. I grabbed his hand and dragged him towards my bedroom shouting over my shoulder, "we'll meet you downstairs."
I just caught the incredulous look on Mor's face as she shouted, "Feyre, you'll ruin your hair and make-up," she spluttered.
"I don't care!" I shouted, as Rhys kicked the door shut behind us.