A Court Of Shadow and Blood

☆ Fading Light ☆

Imillion's gold-white wing brushed against her left shoulder, Requeza standing on her right. Before her, her council had gathered.

The Asp triplets, who were not really siblings, crowded the far end of the table. Amaron, Amerilda, and Asryun bickered and fought, their matching wolf-yellow eyes only just barely drifting to hers at random moments. Next to them, Jace, Yven, and Patrasche sat stoically and silent, merely watching her and waiting. The last of her ten trusted daemati was Wenry and Kilow, but both merely occupied a lone chair across from everyone else, eyes dark and brooding. Wenry was one of the only that Eblis had not raised, and in fact had been delivered to her because everyone feared him-his skin was subsequently cut and scarred as if he were glass about to shatter, for he'd been hurt so many times within the first century of his life simply for his abilities. Kilow, perhaps the only one he conversed with, was mute, and mostly favored glowering at everyone to explain her moods instead of talking mind to mind.

The meeting room was a small, stone affair that valued protection and secrecy more than grand and opulent designs. It was stuffy, with only one window at Eblis's back that displayed the shifting sunset, and one exit. The door was never guarded so no one would know whether they were meeting or not, and their minds were always protecting the room-cast like wide nets to search for other presences. She checked for the third time, feeling the others' minds doing the same, then stood.

The room silenced. She took a deep breath. "I'm going to be straightforward; I'm betraying the Queen to put Madalyn on the throne." Eblis stopped herself, preventing too much information from spilling. Requeza and Imillion, already informed, did not react as a stupefied quiet drifted forth. Even Kilow and Wenry's brooding stopped as they considered her announcement.

Why?

Kilow's silent, prodding question.

"Both I and you have been whipped and beaten more than once in the name of her loyalty. Is that not enough?" Eblis remained standing, shoulders straight. Her wounds ached in reaction. Kilow's eyes narrowed however, and she leaned back in her chair. Her yellow-white hair was shorn close to her skull, her nose flat and flaring as she thought. Even her pointed ears twitched.

"You have served her and the King for centuries. What changed?" Yven asked. She was relieved to hear a merely curious tone, not one that condemned her for her actions. Eblis hadn't quite realized it, but she realized then that if even Yven would not have followed her-Yven who was always kind and loyal to her-she would not have continued with them. Eblis would've taken the Queen by herself.

Still, she only chewed on the inside of her cheek and spoke. "The Queen was cruel before; but the King's death has made her even more cross. She blames me, and I have yet to figure out why."

"Something else happened, though," Patrasche said, lips pursed in a half-smile. "When I saw you in the Winter Court, you were not quite acting. I saw the way you looked at that male, at the others."

Her mouth tightened, dread thudding in her heart. She wanted to coil her words close to herself, protect them from Hybern and war, from them. Eblis knew she trusted them. But with this?

She sighed. She needed to be truthful; that was the only way to sway them.

"My time in the Night Court changed me, as I've been told you might've noticed," she began warily. She was met with nods. "I found my mate-Azriel. He is a Shadowsinger like I, and used to be my closest friend before I was killed by the King. I gave him the me that was broken and hurting to garner sympathy, and sympathy was what I got. That, and love and caring and friendship. Even after I betrayed all of them, they still believed in me. Eventually." She remembered Feyre's words then. I understand now, Eblis. Why you gave up.