A Court of Bastards [ACOTAR]

Chapter 1

Rain dribbled down the windowpane, heavy and urgent. Most days in the Autumn Court were temperate, if a bit crisp - usually thin clouds flecked a bright blue sky, keeping watch over fallen leaves and sprawling forests. But today there was nothing above except grey, and the heavens released their bounty upon the land in endless sheets of rain.

Fiona Vanserra watched the droplets race each other down the glass, blinking slowly in the misty morning light. Her face was half hidden by rumpled sheets, their hems lined with twisting fronds of fern, winding towards a shock of auburn hair spilled across a matching set of pillows.

One hazel eye rolled lazily to the corner of the room as the door clicked, and a green-skinned faerie bustled in. He didn't say a word, setting down a tray of steaming hot tea on her nightstand. As she watched with a wary eye, the faerie began to move around the room, fluffing pillows and dusting windowsills. She didn't move until he grabbed at the corner of the duvet, threatening to lift the sheets.

A naked leg was snatched back from under the covers, and the hazel eye narrowed. The faerie didn't quite manage to suppress his smirk.

"I'll return when madam is dressed and ready then, shall I?"

The eye only glared in response. Once the door swung shut again, there was a wild kicking on the bed and the sheets flew away to reveal a slender, pale body dotted with freckles. Fiona arose rather unceremoniously, grunting as she stretched and stepped toward a grand old wardrobe of polished oak.

Elsewhere it might have looked ornate, its elaborate carvings delicate despite the cracks - but in Fiona's bedroom it seemed to dwarf the other furnishings, straining against the too-low ceiling. The girl whose clothes it held had long suspected that it had been placed there amongst the rest of the knick-knack and forgotten about. Until she'd moved in. 

In those early years, she'd delighted in the odd collection of tatter lining the walls and adorning the faded the shelves. But as she grew, it became more and more apparent that nothing in the room seemed to fit. Time marched onward and Fiona slimmed out, lengthening until she too began to feel out of place. Like an abandoned ornament, cast aside to gather dust amongst the clutter.

"Madam Fiona?"

She turned, a dress of pale green silk brushing against her calves. The green-skinned faerie popped his head around the door, eyeing the delicate trim of the dress. He nodded approvingly. "Breakfast is being served in the drawing room this morning, if you'd care to join?"

Fiona nodded. "I'll be one minute."

The corridors of the Forest House were narrow and tall, much like its residents. The walls were painted in a deep ivy colour that smothered any daylight and gave one the sense that they were underground, even on these few top floors that broke above the dirt. Fiona traipsed begrudgingly to breakfast, passing looming windows that let in what little light the cloudy sky could offer. Servants appeared and quickly bowed their heads, relaxing visibly when they recognised her, and realised she wasn't one of them - the ones to be feared. 

Any variation of red hair likely set the house staff shaking. But just as there are less violent shades of red, there were less important sons and daughters of Autumn - sons and daughters in whose presence the servants made less of an effort. And Fiona didn't mind being one of them.

Most of her cousins were already seated when she arrived, a scattering of pale faces registering her arrival with identical expressions of disdain and disinterest. Their features were all similarly sharp and narrow like her own, their chins jutting out with a sense of arrogance that took years to perfect. Fiona didn't bother to smile or greet them as she took up her usual spot near the end of the obnoxiously long dining table.