They said a Beast roamed these forests now. They said his once beautiful court lay in ruin from his own hands. They say…they say do not set foot on this land if you wish to remain alive. Only those with a death wish ever would enter The Spring Court now. But I was running from worse than death. I had looked death in the face and sneered as I fought out of its icy grip. He did not frighten me.

I did not know how long I had been walking, but as I entered into a ransacked village, I felt a shift suddenly. A tight knowing began in my chest, almost constricting me and I could sense I was close to where there once stood the massive wall that divided Pyrthian and the human realms. The remnants of small cottages were all that was left now; large wooden planks were ripped apart, laying the insides bare to the elements. How sad I thought, as I approached a dilapidated house whose wooden door hung sadly from its hinges, deep claw marks gouged down the middle. Hesitantly, my fingertips stroked the cleaved wood-suddenly I was standing looking at a bestial creature. He was constricted in the wooden room, body tensed and face snarling as he glared at three young girls and an elderly man with a crippled leg. I could taste their horror and shock as they gaped at him. Smell the tang of unwashed flesh, and hungry bellies. He was "speaking", but the snarling words weren't human, they were guttural and purely primitive in nature…

Shapes swirled around me, and I gasped as I returned to the present, pulling my fingers quickly from the door. I knew whose house this was now. Feyre Cursebreaker, the High Lady of the Night Court. Rhysand's unexpected mate who had saved the Fae realm and who with her sister's help had shown off the King of Hybern's head as though it were a trophy. The woman who had shattered Amarantha's cruel and incessant reign of these lands and beaten all odds thrown her way. This was where her real story had started, when she had unknowingly killed the wrong wolf in these very forests. I shuddered to think of all that had transpired since then. Everyone in Pyrthian knew Feyre, but they no longer remembered the one who had bought her into these lands in the first place. I shook my head and moved on.

The forest was so silent, I knew something wasn't right. Birds did not chirp from trees, and the dull crunch of my footsteps were the only sound for miles around. This forest used to be home to all manner of animals and nightmares alike. Creatures who had ripped through weak holes in the wall to terrorize the humans that dwelled on the other side. This was how life had existed for over 500 years when the Old War was raged, humans against Fae until the Treaty was signed and the wall was erected. However, Humanity and Fae still lived on the tight brink of war to this day even with a recently past war with Hybern still freshly felt, and another looming in the rapidly approaching horizon. With the removal of the wall tensions had become even higher amongst both the Fae and humans alike as many plotted on new geographic borders for their kingdoms and courts.

The closer I got to where the old wall stood, the harder it became for me to put one foot in front of the other. It was as though I waded through a thick quick sinking mud, but I knew it was lingering magic that dissuaded humans to cross over to the Fae lands.

I could smell the scent of roses. However, something disastrous lay beneath the lovely floral fragrance, as though the flower lay over a decomposing body, dying on the vine themselves.

Suddenly, I stumbled and fell hard on my hands and knees as the illusion of the thick mud vanished. The scent of roses hit me full force and I gagged as the underlying scent of decay also intensified. Something was very, very wrong. I had smelled this scent before, a long time ago. Bodies had lain broken, grotesque and twisted out of shape…blood and intestines had flowed like rivers, feeding the very essence of The Planet. No-I was no longer there. I was ok, the sun shone down on me…I was not in that cursed place.

I got up on shaking legs and began the mind stilling techniques I had adopted from the Valkyries of long ago. Instantly, I was back to the present, and able to properly observe my surroundings. The human woods were silent, but the Pyrthian woodland was…eerie. Even my footsteps were masked as I continued throughout the brambles and fallen branches. Trees bore large bestial claw marks down their trunks and the scent of the roses lingered as I wove deeper into the wood.

As I progressed, I quickly identified what the scent underlying scent was. Large tendrils of flesh lay scattered in varying stages of decomposition on the trail in front of me. Dried, rusted blood was congealed in numerous places, and the maggots that feasted happily were quick and efficient in cleaning through large pieces of bone and remaining flesh. It was so mangled; I could not even tell what manor of creature it had been. The kill could not have been more than a day or two old. I stood for a moment, closing my eyes and listening intently, even as I knew who, or rather what, had done this. I shook my head once more, sadly this time as I continued on to my destination.

The trees grew denser, and I knew that I was getting to the middle of the wood. I still had not heard stirrings of any creatures and my apprehension deepened. The beings of this wood were keeping away from being slaughtered ruthlessly. As lengthening shadows swept across the forest floor, I knew I had been walking for hours. I had to take a break soon, rest and possibly have something to eat before moving on. I had not entirely anticipated spending the night in these woods, even with the silence and lack of life. Somehow, it was slightly even more disturbing. It was as if the Earth knew what stalked her grounds.

I froze. As if on cue, there was no sound to mark an approach, but I felt something was coming. The fine hairs along my neck and arms rose in unison and I knew when I turned around, I would indeed see the creature behind me. I remained stark still; eyes closed as I continued to feel rather than hear the soft imprint of The Beast. Every nerve in my body screamed to run, to flee, but I continued standing there as my heart beat heavily in the silence. I breathed the even one two, inhale, exhale that I had long ago mastered and finally I turned around.

The Beast made his final prowling step through the high brambles of a bush, revealing a pair of iridescent green eyes and snarling elongated fangs as he emerged. He had to have been at least 8 feet tall, and the width of a small dwelling. He was shockingly much more bestial than I had seen him in the memory of the night he took Feyre. Long curved horns disappeared into the canopy of the trees he crouched under, and his golden fur was matted badly in places, with all assortment of twigs, leaves and dirt stuck to it. A terrible rumble could be heard emanating from deep within his chest, trembling the earth and the claws that had ripped apart trees lay exposed and ready to strike.

I forced myself to hold his horrifying feline gaze, marveling at the complete transformation he had finally reached in his bestial form. There was no trace of humanity in his contorted face, only hot rippling fury. This was the look of a killer as he sized up his prey, a hairsbreadth away from ripping me to ribbons as he had done to the creature I had stumbled upon. The origin scent of roses emanated from his form, half near stifling me as he took yet another slow precise step towards me. He knew he had rooted my feet to the spot I stood in.

"Who are you, and why dare you step foot into my lands?" The cold snarling words snatched me from my hypnotized reprieve. The "words" were worse than the guttural sound that he had spoken those years ago in the cottage, and I could only understand him from the ancient tongue. I was thoroughly surprised he had even spoken to me at all.

Closing my eyes once more, I ever so slightly pulled from deep within myself. Taking a step towards him, then another, I finally opened my eyes. As I stood right below his widened gaze, I knew he was shocked that I had broken out the bonds of his magic, I knew he could see the burning as he stared deeply into my golden eyes. Ever so slightly, The Beast recoiled.

I bowed, deeply. "Tamlin, High Lord of The Spring Court. I am Celeste, and I have come here for you."