Rattle the Stars

Chapter 2

*All credit for the art above to the original artist. Not mine.*

    
Aelin took a deep breath, and subtly shifted into a defensive position. The female beside the male was pregnant, so she would never fight her. However, Aelin wasn't above throwing a few blows at the dark male to get out of a sticky situation.

She was an assassin after all, even if she no longer had enough magic to do any real damage. Damn those gods.

The two fae had far away looks in their eyes, and Aelin strongly suspected that they were somehow communicating. Still, no words had been uttered.

But when she felt a scrape of claws on the edges of her mind from the male, she exploded. Flinging an impenetrable wall of fire up in her mind, she lunged for the female. Careful not to harm her too much, Aelin pushed her against a tree.

"Daemati." She snarled. Rowan had told her about the rare mind-walking type of fae when they were at sea. Oh, she knew Rowan would be going out of his mind at the situation. Lost in another world- but still alive.

The male threw out a deadly lash of power, but it stopped when the female pinned beneath Aelin shouted. "Rhys! Don't! It's ok. She's not hurting me." The male, Rhys, growled softly.

"Feyre, she has you pinned against a tree." They did that weird mind talking thing before Rhys sighed, his eyes full of feral wrath.

"Put her down, and I won't hurt you. Then we can talk about why you suddenly fell out of the sky." Aelin snorted.

"You couldn't hurt me even if you tried." Lie. She had no doubt that whoever Rhys was, he could hurt her very badly, and make her life a living hell.

She huffed out her nose. Maybe it hadn't been a good idea to push his pregnant companion against a tree. Cautiously, she let go of Feyre, who stumbled a step. Rhys was instantly at her side.

Wrapping an arm around her, he turned back to Aelin. "So, let's start off simple. A question for a question. What is your name?" She bit her lip. There was no way in hell she was giving these strange fae her real name, in a world that she didn't understand.

Running through her many names in her head, Aelin spoke. "My name is Lillian Gordania. Now, I already know what your names are, but care to explain where I am? As you have probably already guessed, I'm not from this world." Rhys nodded slightly.

"Well, Lillian, this is Prythian. We're in the Illyrian forests. They are a species of winged warrior fae. What you probably should know, though, is that I'm the High Lord of the Night Court, and this is my wife and mate, the High Lady of the Night Court."

Aelin felt her brows furrow. Court? Not kingdom? Obviously, these two were rulers- and powerful ones at that. Suddenly, she watched Feyre's eyes light up.

"Rhys, what if we took Lillian to Amren? She might be able to help somehow."

"Is it really safe to take her to Velaris?"

"I'm right here, you know. You don't have to keep talking about me as if-" All of a sudden, Rhys nodded, then stepped forward and grabbed her wrist. A great blanket of darkness surrounded her and flashbacks to her time with Maeve flooded back, ripping open wounds too new, too raw. 

She let out a wordless, soundless scream. Dark dark dark, so much darkness. Cairn and the whip, Maeve and her tricks, Conall on the floor dying and- she trembled as the light came flooding back, clearing her head. Aelin dropped to her knees, hands over her face. She wasn't trapped in an iron box. She was safe. Rowan and the others had rescued her. 

Finally, after a few moments of slow, deep, breathing, she rose to her knees. The weakness she had just showed to Rhys and Feyre was a mistake. A terrible mistake. As Aelin stood, she realized she was no longer on the pine coated earth of the forest. The ground beneath her was smooth and carved of light wood. 

Too angry and scared to let the full implications of that sink in, she whirled on Rhys, her eyes burning. "Don't you ever do that to me again without warning, or I will skin you alive." The couple was staring at her, wide-eyed. Rhys only nodded when she finished her outburst. 

Aelin was shaken out of her trance when a loud, purposeful cough sounded from behind them. She turned, to see three more fae. Two males, both with wings, and a female with golden hair much like her own. 

The first male with wings raised an eyebrow. He had hazel eyes, and hair tucked into a man bun at the back of his head. "Who the hell is this, Rhys?" 

Rhys only rolled his eyes. "This is Lillian, Cassian. Be nice." Cassian sent her a feral grin, and Aelin grinned right back. The female rolled her eyes and pushed between Cassian and the other male. 

"Oh my god, another female.  I don't care where you came from. We need more females in this court. Also, my name is Morrigan, but you can call me Mor." Ah. So this was Rhys's court. It reminded her painfully of her own. 

Cassian snorted. "What with you, Feyre, Nesta, and Elain, this place has too many females." Mor's only response was to stick out her tounge.

Aelin chuckled. "Trust me, I know how bad it is to be stuck with a bunch of territorial fae beasts. They're such brutes, aren't they?" Suddenly, the second male seemed to melt out of the shadows and extended a hand towards her.

Hesitantly, she took his hand, wary of the shadows floating around him. "I'm Azriel," he said softly. "The only sensible person in this court." Cassian called sharply from across the foyer of the townhouse they appeared to be in.

"Damn right he is." Azriel only grinned, before melting away again. Aelin, suprisingly, felt right at home in this chaotic, familiar court.

Then, Feyre piped up. "Lillian, here, is from another world." Gasps echoed from Mor and Cassian. "So we figured we could get Amren to step in and help." Aelin still didn't know who this Amren was, but she sounded like her only chance at getting back to assist Terrasen.

Rhys's eyes gained that far away look again, and she assumed he was doing whatever Daemati did to communicate with others.

He nodded quickly to his court, before speaking. "Amren is on her way here as we speak." Cassian shuddered, turning to Aelin. "I sure hope, Lillian, that you are ready to handle the tiny ancient one." She only raised her brows, smirking.

She decided to anwser her earlier question. "Please explain how one minute we were in the forests, and now are in a townhouse."

Feyre laughed. "You really are from another world, aren't you? It's called winnowing, and it's like teleporting. All fae can do it."

It sounded just like what Fenrys could do.

A knock sounded on the door. "I'll get it." Rhys jumped up, pushing open the door to reveal a short, tiny fae, with cold features and silver eyes. "Oh, thank goodness you're here Amren, we-"

Aelin didn't care who they thought Amren was. She jumped across a low stuffed couch, and caught Amren, putting her in a chokehold against the wall. "How are you here?" She snarled.

XD Writing Mor and Class's dialogue was so fun! Who do you think Amren is? I said this fic would be different, so it won't be who you think. 😉 Did I do alright?

Also: Shameless self-promotion- I have the starts of a story called Guardian Angels that I would really appreciate if you checked out. Anywhooo, -RubyLegendxX