Chapter 7: Never Kill a Boy on the First Date
-Violet's POV

Everyone's heads whipped towards the sound of the intrusion. An unnerving silence fell over the room as Violet walked through the entryway with Azriel following closely behind her. The Princess of the Night Court glided through the hall with a graceful ease winking at Helion as she passed him, then made her way to the vacant seat across from Tamlin and sat down. The spymaster took his place standing behind her.

No one where to look. All eyes in the room were flitting between the catlike grin on Violet's face and the lack of one on Tamlin's. It was so quiet that you could have heard a bird land on a branch from miles away. No one dared to utter a sound as Violet just stared at her former betrothed. Tamlin sat there gawking back. His breath sawing in and out of him.

"Sorry I'm late brother." She said finally breaking the silence. "Did I miss anything?"

"No, I was waiting for you." Rhysand answered softly.

"Wonderful…"

"How-" Tamlin stuttered his voice cracking. "How are you here?"

Violet's eyes trailed back towards him and crossed one leg over the other. "What's that old saying?" She asked snapping her fingers trying to recall the words. "Ah!" Violet slammed down a hand on the marble table. "I remember. I believe it's something along the lines of 'When there is no more room in hell, the dead shall walk the earth." Helion chuckled slightly to her right. "Regardless, you're asking the wrong question Tamlin. Not how. Why? 'Why' am I here?"

"Fine. Why are you here?"

"To see you of course. I'd think that much was obvious."

"No! You're dead." Tamlin spat as he stood from his chair. "This is impossible."

"Clearly it's not. Now I have a great deal to go over and not a lot of time to do it, so it would be in everyone's best interest for you to sit the hell down."

The high lord sat immediately, so Violet continued. "Good. First things first, I'd like to invite all of the high lords to a ball that I'm hosting at the Hewn City."

"A ball?" Tarquin stammered.

Violet turned towards him. "You don't look familiar. Who might you be darling?"

"Tarquin. I'm Nostrus's cousin. He died when he rebelled against Amarantha, so I assumed the position of High Lord of the Summer Court."

"Well, aren't you just adorable?" Violet purred. "I'm Rhysand's sister."

"The dead one?" Tarquin clarified.

"Not anymore." She said with a devilish smile. "It's lovely to meet you. To answer your previous question, yes, I would like to host a ball."

"Violet… we've haven't upheld the ball tradition in centuries." Kallias sighed.

"Which is precisely why I'd like to host one now. I've had a lot of time to go over the history I missed out on. Since I've been dead, you all have been through another damned war, and that's not even counting the near half a century that you spent under a mountain. I think now would be a perfect time for us to gather together, and start working towards peace and unity."

"You expect us to believe you want peace?" Beron thundered from the opposite end of the table.

"Yes, I do." She said simply.

"Why should we trust you?"

"Because I could have killed Tamlin the second I entered this room. Hell, I could have even used those wonderful little powers everyone here knows I have, and made Tamlin feel so much excruciating pain that he'd slit his own throat just to make it stop. He wouldn't actually be in pain you see, but I could make him feel it. And I wouldn't even have to lift a finger."

Beron's eyes narrowed. "You're playing a dangerous game girl."

"Am I?" Violet said standing from her chair and making her way around the table. "If this is a game, as you say, who's winning?" She stopped briefly behind Thesan. "What do you think Tam?"

Tamlin sighed heavily. "At this point, I couldn't care less."

Violet laughed. "You will."

"Is that a threat?" Beron spoke again.

"No, Beron it's not." She continued walking around the table running her fingers on the back of Thesan and Tarquin's chairs until she was directly behind the Spring Court Lord. "You see if I really wanted to hurt anyone here, I wouldn't sit here making idle threats. I'd just do this…"

Without warning, Violet grabbed the back of Tamlin's neck and cracked his head against the table smashing it into the glass that had been sitting in front of him. Beron, Tarquin, Kallias, and Thesan all shot from their seats, but no one moved from their designated spot.

"Now that I have everyone's attention... I want to make something crystal fucking clear. I could kill Tamlin. Right here. Right now." She squeezed his neck slightly for emphasis. "I could kill him. But I won't. Do you all understand?"

There were subtle nods from every lord at the table. Rhysand looked over Beron's direction to find Eris standing behind him with a look of what almost looked like pride on his face.

"Why not just kill me?" Tamlin begged from below Violet.

"Because I'm…not…you." She released the back of his neck, but stayed hunched over him. "Tell me something Tam. When you lie awake at night, do you still hear my mother's screams? Do you hear mine?"

"Yes…" The high lord ground out through the blood that had started seeping through his teeth.

Violet brought her lips down to his ear and whispered, "How loud are they now?"

With that, she stood back up to her full height, and started making her way back towards her brother.

"Then what do you want Vi?" the Spring Court Lord uttered leaning his head on the back of his chair.

"I want a lot of things Tamlin. You'll have to be more specific."

"Why are you really here?"

"I'm here, because you broke your promise."

"What promise?"

"You said you'd never do anything to hurt me."

"That was before you violated the terms of our engagement contract."

Rhysand's head snapped to Violet in surprise, but her gaze never left Tamlin's.

"Well then I guess that makes us both liars." She concluded. "What was that fun little nickname your father called me? The one he spat out while your lovely brothers were carving up my body. What was it?"

The color drained from Tamlin's face. "It doesn't matter."

"It does to me, so what was it?"

"He called you… he called you an 'Illyrian whore." He muttered.

Cassian, Azriel, and Rhys all tensed, but said nothing as the women commanded to Tamlin, "Say it again."

"What?"

"I said, Say. It. Again."

"Why?"

"It sounded good." Violet hummed her lips pulling up into a smile. "I have one more question.

"Which is?"

"Where are my wings?" Tamlin didn't answer, so she continued. "My wings! The ones that you and your family cut from my back. Where are they?"

"I don't have them."

"Don't lie to me."

"I'm not lying. I burned them years ago."

"Why?"

"I couldn't look at them anymore."

Violet scanned Tamlin's face for a moment. "Pity." She took a look around the room. "Does anyone have anything else to say before this meeting ends?"

All of the high lords shook their heads. "Good. Then it's done." Violet took one last look at Tamlin before standing and making her way for the door. "I look forward to seeing all of you in the Hewn City. I promise that our next gathering with be less… violent." She said as she exited the hall with Azriel right at her heels.

Violet and Azriel travelled all the back down the Dawn Court palace to the entrance. The shadowsinger hadn't said anything since they left the great hall, so Violet spoke first.

"Rhysand tells me that you told Lucien I was alive."

"Yes, I did. He figured you might want to see him. Lucien said he had a few things to handle in the human lands first, but he should be arriving in the Night Court in a couple of days."

"Good. I look forward to it. Feyre's other sister, Elain is Lucien mate, isn't she?"

"Yes." Az grunted. "She hasn't accepted the bond though. I'm not sure she ever will."

"That's probably for the best. Females don't exactly fair well on that side of family."

"Hey Princess!" Someone shouted from behind them. Violet turned her head to see three of the Autumn Court sons approaching them.

"Speak of the devils. This ought to be interesting."

Azriel whipped around and prepared for the worst. "Rhys and Cassian are still upstairs. I can wait here with you until they come down."

"No, you can go home. I'll be fine."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course. I can handle them. Thank you though." She stood on the tips of her toes to kiss his cheek.

The spymaster glared at the brothers once more in warning and winnowed away. Violet turned her attention to the males in question.

"Hello, Quinn. It's been a long time."

"Indeed it has. That was quite the performance you had up there sweetheart."

Violet bowed slightly. "I aim to please."

"Yeah, I bet you do." The fifth-born sneered with the other two brothers snickering behind him.

The woman didn't let any emotion show on her face. "What do you want Vanserra?"

"I was actually hoping you could settle a debate I have with my brothers."

"Which is?"

"On which one of us you'd like to fuck next."

"Excuse me?"

"Well we figured since you love rolling in the dirt with Illyrians so much, that bedding us would be a welcome upgrade for you."

"Oh, I see." Violet mused approaching the male. "You want to play with an Illyrian do you Quinn?" She stood tall until their noses were almost touching. "You may have fire in your blood sweetheart, but no one fucks like an Illyrian. You'd be fighting just to keep up."

"She's not wrong." Eris voice rang out from behind his brothers. They all backed away from the woman immediately.

"Don't you boys know that's no way to speak to a lady?" Eris growled stepping around Quinn. "She's Night Court royalty you fucking idiots. Show some respect." All three of the brothers bowed their heads at Violet. "Now get the hell out here. Father was asking for you." Without pause, all of the males started running back towards the tower steps. When they were out of earshot, Eris swiveled to face Violet.

"Well that was interesting."

"I told you it would be." She paused. "You didn't have to do that you know? With your brothers. I had it handled."

"I know you did Princess. But if I had missed a chance to humiliate them, then I never would have forgiven myself."

Violet laughed. "You are such a prick."

"Without a doubt." Eris replied with a smirk. "About this ball, are you going with a date?"

"I hadn't planned on it."

"Do you want one?"

Violet's eyes widened. "Are you asking me to the ball Eris?"

"I suppose that depends on your answer."

"My family would be furious. I can't imagine your father will like it much either."

"I'd call that an upside Princess."

"Fine." Violet shot back. "I'll go with you, but if you call me 'princess' one more time, then I'm going to hurt you."

Eris eyes flashed and he walked towards her until her back hit the wall behind them. He gazed into her eyes for a second, and then dragged his mouth towards her ear and whispered, "You promise?"

Violet eyelids fluttered shut, but when she opened them to reply, he was gone.

Rhys and Cassian appeared at the bottom of the stairs a moment after Eris disappeared.

"You ok Vi?" Cass inquired as they approached her.

Violet took a moment trying to catch her breath. "Never better. Is everything alright upstairs?" She asked her brother.

"As best as we could hope for. I think you made your point. Are you ready to go home?"

"Yes, let's go. I'd like to prepare for Lucien's arrival. We have a lot to catch up on."

So Rhysand took Cassian and Violet by the hand praying to the Mother that his sister's next encounter would go smoother than this one. And then they winnowed home.

Authors Note: "When there's no more room in hell, dead will walk the earth."- George A. Romero 'Dawn of the Dead'.