ACOMAF (Rhys's POV)

You Are Safe Here (Chapter 14)

"Welcome to my home."

It was a damned miracle to watch Feyre survey my townhouse, the most private space I occupied. And here she was suddenly inside it.

The moment was so surreal, that I had to lean against the oak threshold separating us from the sitting room to keep myself steady. Feyre, despite what I could tell was a decent amount of surprise at where she'd landed and a considerable amount of concern for what she might find beyond these walls, didn't miss a single detail. From the plush fabrics lining the furniture to the woven carpets and open windows, to worn bookcases and soft sounds from outside, she saw it all.

And I wondered if some part of her registered that she was really seeing a glimpse of me .

The palace she had spent two weeks in miles and miles away was easily representative of one half of me - the calculating, regal half that delighted in luxury without apology. But that portion was also who I was as a diplomat, the High Lord .

Here, I was home .

And she was still apprehensive.

"What is this place?" she asked and she sounded almost disbelieving, like any moment she might wake up.

"This is my house. Well, I have two homes in the city. One is for more... official business, but this is only for me and my family."

Feyre kept a sharp eye as her gaze flicked immediately away from me and stared down the hallway behind her questioning. The house replied with a warm, open silence - an invitation of sorts.

"Nuala and Cerridwen are here," I said. "But other than that, it'll just be the two of us."

I waited for her to say something, but her biting commentary never came. Mercifully, it wasn't the silence I'd come to expect that cried out hatred upon my back when I left the room or slashed at my soul with cuts and sneers to keep me out. Feyre was simply frozen in time and space as she stilled to look at the walls. I only hoped it was more from shock than any actual discomfort. Being here - I needed her to be okay with it, with even just this one small part of me, the most honest and normal portion there was. And also, the most human - the most like her.

Too long a stretch of silence passed. I took a careful step towards her, ready to explain further, when a shock of sound slammed into the fogged glass of the atrium door that led outside. I didn't have to look to know who was behind it.

"Hurry up, you lazy ass," Cassian barked behind the glass. Feyre's head whizzed to the sound. She looked exhausted just by the very idea she might have another guest to deal with let alone two more. I knew for Cassian to be here this early, he wouldn't be alone.

"Two things, Feyre darling," I said, interrupted by another pounding.

"If you're going to pick a fight with him, do it after breakfast."

Azriel .

Feyre's brow peaked as if she could feel the shadows that cocooned my brother day and night even with a door between them. Knowing Azriel, he was likely experiencing something similar himself thanks to his smokey friends.

" I wasn't the one who hauled me out of bed just now to fly down here," Cassian said tartly before sneering at Az, "Busybody."

The exchange was so brief, and yet, when Feyre slid her gaze to me at the end of it, it was hard not to laugh - to smile. Even if only a little bit.

The reality of the moment hit me then in full force. Feyre was little more than a handful of steps away from my brothers, my family, my city - people and places I thought she would never see except maybe on a battlefield or in a court room with sentinels from an entirely different court at her side.