'Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it."
- Terry Pratchett
What if there was another other-worldly being that had...
Rhys was pacing around their room as Seren watched him from the bed. "They were obviously lying to us about the girl being Lucy's fiancee," Rhys mused.
Seren scoffed, "Obviously, did you see the way Tam-Tam reacted when I got close to his pet."
"So if you knew that she was his, why did you not ask for her real name?" Rhys questioned.
"Do you really want to be stuck down here forever? If Tamlin got himself a human girl, there was a chance that she would have fulfilled the other requirements. Give me any chance to escape Amarantha and I will take it."
Unfortunately the 49 years were now up and Tamlin and Lucien, along with the rest of the Spring Court, had finally shown up Under the Mountain. Amarantha had interrogated Seren when she arrived back Under the Mountain. Seren had given her the fake name, assuming she would use it to get under Tamlin's skin. What Seren didn't account for was Amarantha's weird obsession with making Tamlin her's. She sent the Attor to the town outside of the wall and he hunted this 'Clare Beddor' down.
The moment Seren saw Clare she knew it wasn't the human girl they had met in the Spring Court. But she kept her mouth shut as the scared girl was brought in.
Amarantha had tried to get a confession out of her, but the girl insisted she knew nothing about Tamlin or the Spring Court or anything relating to the fae. Later, Rhys told her that he had taken away the poor girl's senses before the torture started and just made her respond when necessary.
Seren was in no way about to damn the other girl she had met in the Spring Court to the torture inflicted by Amarantha and her cronnies. Cauldron knew she remembered what it was like to be under Amarantha's knife. She still woke in the middle of the night, sweating over that horrible night. Clare Beddor's cold body was now impaled against the wall above the door, across from Seren's wings. Everytime Seren entered that room and looked upon Clare's dead body, she wanted to puke. Seren knew that although she never held the knife, she had killed Clare Beddor.
Tamlin continued to sit impassively beside Amarantha on an identical throne. How he managed to show no reaction to Clare's death really irked Seren. The least he could do was at least show a little sympathy for the girl who had taken his beloved's place. She wasn't sure Amarantha was 100% convinced that Tamlin's feelings had been real for the human since it seemed if he could care less about the girl's torture. To be honest, he was probably jumping for joy on the inside. His human had walked away without harm.
The one good thing that had come out of Tamlin arriving was that Amarantha no longer needed Seren. Seren was free to do whatever she wanted, never having to worry about reporting to Amarantha's rooms when she was deemed necessary.
Amarantha still made her dress in red for every party though, still showing her ownership over Seren. Not letting anyone forget that she was Amarantha's whore, and nothing else. If they ever made it out from Under the Mountain, Seren vowed she would never wear another article of red clothing.
She slid on the dress that Amarantha had chosen for her tonight, a dark red floor-length gown with black lace over the dress as an accent. As she finished getting ready, Rhys appeared, "You know, I was thinking-"
"Woah, what a concept. Rhys can think?" Seren interrupted and snickered.
Rhys shot her a half-hearted glare through the mirror as he slid his hands into his black suit pockets, "Anyways, I thought that the human girl would have actually gone quite nicely with fox boy. I know he probably still hasn't gotten over that fae his father slaughtered but it might be nice for him to branch out. You know, move on with his life. I'm sure that his female would have wanted that for him."
Seren thought this over, "Now that you said that, I can see it. They would look well together and it would be nice for Lucien to be happy. I don't think I've ever seen him smile. Tamlin and her together just don't make sense. What do they have in common? What do they talk about? I'm sure if Tamlin wasn't trying to break the curse, he wouldn't have spared a glance for the girl. And she would've been better off without him. Hopefully she can move on with her life. The one good thing he could do for her is send her away."
Rhys nodded, "Hopefully she lives a short, fulfilling life with a nice, human husband and forgets all about Tamlin."
"Are you almost ready to leave?" Seren glanced at him.
"Huh what do you mean? I am ready to leave whenever?"
Looking at the dresser, Seren noted that his black tie was still laying on top of it. Reaching over, she grabbed it before walking over to him. She looped it around his neck before tying it neatly. Her hands came to rest on his chest when she finished and she looked up at his face, "There, now you're ready to leave."
Rhys stared down at her, his eyes dark, "Seren, I-"
"Well," Seren said loudly, "Let's head out."
Looping her arm in his, she practically dragged him out of the room. Rhys kept trying to catch her eye as they walked up to the throne room. But Seren kept her focus on the wall in front of them, not allowing herself to look at him. She knew that if she glanced his way now, she would want to kiss him again. After realizing her feelings were unreciprocated, she told herself that they were just friends. And friends didn't want to kiss each other.
AN: Seren's dress
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