Amarantha's Daughter

The High Lord of the Night Court

Rhys POV

The girl that stepped through the door from the stairs had the black hair and eyes, but she wasn't Queen Briallyn. She was human and she was young, couldn't be older than 20. She bore a certain resemblance to the Queen, but Briallyn was fae now. And this girl was... was she human? There was something strange about her. She seemed familiar somehow, and her scent was... It was strange. She did not smell human.

He'd gotten a message from Rita, the faerie who owned the club with the same name, the message being that there was a human girl running around Velaris. Not only that, but a human that had asked about Feyre. She hadn't used her name for some reason, but referred to her by some of her many titles. They knew Queen Briallyn was scheming with Beron and perhaps even Koschei on the other continent, but they couldn't possibly know that Feyre was pregnant? Why would she send some girl to Velaris? Not to mention how? None of their wards had picked up on her. It was pure chance that she had asked Rita about Feyre. They could have had an intruder in the city without knowing it.

Rita had wisely directed her towards the House of Wind to delay her as much as possible in order to get the message to Rhys, who had been sleeping curled up around his darling pregnant wife.

They'd agreed that Feyre would stay behind with Amren, while he, Azriel and Cassian would investigate. Flying there, he could sense the girl in the stairs and decided they would wait in the hallway. Considering it only took the girl 2 hours climb the steep and treacherous steps, he suspected that Queen Briallyn had sent a trained assassin, but looking at her now, he wasn't so sure. The girl was sickly pale and breathing quite heavy. She was also wet, but he didn't think it was all sweat. Rita had mentioned that she had been wet too. But she couldn't have swimmed all the way here?

He had been waiting for her to speak, to make the first move, but all she was doing was breathing, and Rhys decided he wasn't patient enough to wait. "Who sent you?" He asked, not kindly. He'd wanted to rip her head off for acquiring information about his mate, had been thinking about it for 2 hours, but knew it was smarter to find out what she knew first. She could have information. He'd tried to glean a view of her thoughts, but she was either not thinking about anything, or she was protected against his intrusion by magic. Not a good sign.

Dianthe's POV

She stared at the 3 men with wings. One of them had pointy ears too, but even though the others didn't, she still knew they were fae. They all had dark hair, tan skin and brooding eyes, not to mention the batlike wings. They were tall and robustly built. The type of strong that could break you with a finger without breaking a sweat. Her eyes had been drawn to the one to the right. The one with hazel coloured eyes. It seemed as if he was covered in shadows somehow. But it could just be her mind playing a trick on her since she was so tired, or magic. He was a faerie, it could definitely be magic.

"Uh..." She hesitated, turning to the one who had spoken, the one in the middle. The scariest one with the violet eyes. He looked as if he wanted to strangle her. She got the sense that it wouldn't do to lie to him.

"Who are you?" She asked carefully.

"Answer the question." To say his voice was strained would be putting it mildly.

"Answer mine, and I'll answer yours." Dianthe said without breaking their eye contact.

"Rhysand, High Lord of the Night Court. But I think you already know that. Now. Who. Sent. You?"

Her eyes widened in fear. High Lord. Fuck. Shit. That was not good. She was in the Night Court?! She'd heard that that was the most infamously dangerous one. The stupid sorcerer had sent her into more trouble than she would have gotten had she stayed! Stupid. Stupid. Stupid!

The High Lord took a step closer. Not the patient type. Since she didn't want him any closer she hurriedly answered his question. "Koschei!"

Judging by the look of his reaction, that was not a good answer. His jaw visibly ticked.

"Why?" He growled.

"I have a message from him." She swallowed and looked down the hallway for an escape route. She feared that if she took the stairs, there would be a high chance she would slip, or be pushed. The two unnamed men took to their High Lord's side, blocking off her chance at escape. Dianthe cursed inwardly and looked back up at the High Lord. "It's to the cursebreaker. The lady of the many f..."

She couldn't finish the sentence, because suddenly, there was a hand around her throat, hindering her breathing. She was lifted off the floor and crushed against the door. The hand belonged to none other than the High Lord, of course. His wings had spread out behind him. Rage was pouring from him. She could sense it not only through his energy, but also see it in his violet eyes; They had gone dark. She stood no chance against this mountain of a man. If he wanted to, he could snap her neck like a twig, and it seemed like he wanted to.

"Who are you?" He demanded.

Of course, she couldn't answer when he was strangling her, but that didn't seem to bother him. His hand tightened, she could feel the bones in her neck being pushed to their limit. Her heart was pounding, but it had been already for the last hours. If he didn't choke her to death, she might die from a heart attack. She was beginning to panic as white spots started to appear in her vision. Her hands were clawing on his, trying to make him let go, but his grip was solid. She stood no chance. He would kill her, and she didn't even know why! Tears streamed down her face from a mixture of panic and lack of oxygen. She didn't want to die!

"Rhys, we don't even know what the message is..." She was about to pass out, or maybe even die, when the saving grace came from behind the High Lord. For a dreadful moment, she thought he wouldn't care, but then, seemingly at the last moment, he let go.

Dianthe slid to the floor with a thunk. Her lungs burned as she tried to take a breath. Coughing ensued and then she was wheezing, but at least she was breathing. Her neck hurt, but she didn't think anything was broken. Surely she'd be dead if it was. She wiped her nose with the sleeve of her sweater and didn't care if it looked gross.

"What's the message?" The one with the hazel eyes asked her. His voice was so deep it reverberated through her.

Dianthe opened her mouth to respond, but no sound came out. She tried again, but to no avail. She shook her head to convey that she couldn't speak. The scary murderous High Lord had choked her so hard she'd lost her voice.

The bat faeries exchanged glances, none of them seemed too happy about that. "Throw her in the cell until she can talk." Rhysand said and then walked away.

Cell?! She couldn't say she was sad to see him go, but cell?! No! She just needed to deliver the message and then she would leave. They would never have to see her face again! But with no voice, she couldn't tell them that. Instead, she jumped to her feet and tried to escape through the door that led to the stairs. Rather face the stairs, than be around these violent bat faeries for even a second longer.

Of course, she didn't make it that far. She'd barely gotten her hand on the handle when someone grabbed her, presumably to escort her to said cell. She fought against it, but this man was so strong. She didn't stand a chance. All she managed to do was hit her own head on something while trying to fight back, which caused her to pass out.