Chapter 469

Feyre looked confused. That was evident. But, even more than that, Feyre looked shocked at what Elain had just said to her, and that only pushed Elain to want to keep going. Always, she had held her tongue, rarely letting anyone know what she truly thought, and that was what they had become to expect. That was, she knew, if they even considered that she had thoughts she was keeping to herself. Elain knew that often when someone had the restraint to keep themselves in check, others often forgot that they were there, or that they had opinions or feelings. Often, others just assumed that the silence meant acceptance and compliance. That was what she felt her sisters had come to expect of her, and Elain had had enough of it. She was not going to just stand there while Feyre used Ianthe to silence Lucien.

"You always just do and say exactly what you want…" Elain went on when her younger sister did nothing but blink at her. "It's always about you, and you don't pause for a moment to even consider how it would impact others."

"That's not true…" Feyre protested, frowning.

"It is." Elain replied, "You just did it…" She shook her head when Feyre looked as if she were about to speak. "There was no reason at all for you to bring up that…" Elain swallowed, choking down inappropriate descriptors, "… Priestess." Feyre frowned, her eyes flicking to Lucien and then back to Elain. "You did it because you wanted to one-up Lucien. There was no thought to the impact on him, just like when you used him before."

"When I…" Feyre frowned and lay a hand on Rhys' arm. Elain didn't dare look at her sister's mate, afraid she would see the coldness in his eyes directed her way again.

"When you used him to manipulate Tamlin." She could see Feyre swallow, even from that distance. "He could have died." Elain said, "But you didn't think about that, did you?"

"I… It was important that I stay focused…" Feyre murmured, "With everything that was going on…" Elain understood what her sister was saying. Lucien wasn't important in her list of priorities.

"Even if the life of your apparent friend didn't matter to you…" She said, eyes locked on her sister's face, "You knew that he was my mate…" Feyre blinked, meeting her gaze, and Elain could see that her sister had no reply to that. "You would have let my mate die, knowing everything that would have taken from me, everything that I would never find…" That was something her sister should have considered. Feyre knew exactly what it was like to have a mate, and she should have considered how Elain would have suffered if her own mate had been taken from her, let alone if that had been the fault of her own sister.

"You were engaged…" Feyre replied, and fire burned through Elain. She took a step toward her sister.

"You, of all people should have understood." She breathed, "The Bond snapped into place the instant Lucien and I looked at one another… You should have known what that meant…" Elain took a step back, toward Lucien, when one of his hands came to rest on her shoulder. "You did not think."

"You are right." Feyre said, "I did not think about any of that. I was focused on trying to do whatever I could to manage the situation I was in."

"That's what I am saying." Elain replied, "You only consider your own situation, and the rest of us just have to live with the consequences." She stepped back again, into Lucien. "You all do it." She said, leaning into her mate, "You all look down at Lucien and treat him as if he is expendable." Elain cast her eyes about the room, taking in the gold and blues of the Day Court décor Helion favoured. "You will not do that any longer, and you will certainly not that that here."

"As you say." Feyre was watching Elain with a curious expression on her face, and Elain couldn't quite read it. She thought she could almost see her sister's brain recalculating her perception of her.