Amarantha's Daughter

The River House

FEYRE

Feyre hadn't talked to him when they got back to the river house. She was so upset. That poor girl had looked utterly terrified when they entered the dining room, but considering what shape she'd been in, Feyre couldn't blame her for that. Rhysand had left quite the mark on her. She was so disgusted she could barely look at him. She had run straight to her studio and thrown herself into painting.

She wasn't aware of how long she'd been painting for until the sun suddenly made an appearance and she realized she'd painted the night away. The subject of her painting was staring back at her with accusatory black eyes. It was the poor girl whose only crime had been having a message for her and being related to a Queen. Feyre sighed. While painting really helped her work through her feelings, the paintings she created when she was in these moods always ended up haunting her.

She heard the door open and didn't have to turn to see who it was. She could sense his presence. He walked up to her and studied the painting. "It's... You really captured her." He said in a tired voice.

Feyre turned to him. He looked as weary as she felt. Her arms were aching and her eyes felt dry, as if she'd forgotten to blink. "I don't even know what to say to you." She admitted and put her arms around herself.

They'd both been awakened by Cerridwen and Nuala, the half wraith, half fae twins that worked for them, when Rita had come knocking on their door. They'd both gotten dressed to see her and were both quite shocked to hear that there was a human in Velaris looking to deliver a message to Feyre. Rita had directed the human towards the House of Wind, knowing it would hopefully take her quite some time to climb all those 10,000 steps. Enough time so that she could find the High Lord and Lady and let them know. Rhys was enraged, but worse than that. He was scared. Scared that a human had breached their wards. It was pure luck that she'd asked Rita for directions. Otherwise they would have never known there was an intruder in Velaris.

After the attack on Velaris they'd completely changed their wards, implementing more powerful ones. But how could none of them have picked up on one puny human? The question led them to believe that this girl could potentially be quite powerful, and not puny at all, and maybe up to no good. It didn't take much convincing on Rhys' part to agree that Feyre should stay here with Amren while he, Az and Cas would go and investigate. Those hours had been the slowest hours of her life, and when he returned with a haunted look in his eyes, she hadn't known what to expect. She'd asked him about it, obviously, and he'd truthfully told her what happened. The story had shocked her, but not as much as seeing the poor girl in person.

She had looked so tiny and weak and her neck had been utterly covered in bruises. Bruises caused by her mate, her husband. The father of her unborn child. That he was able to cause so much damage to someone that defenseless scared her. And while she knew he'd done it because she was pregnant and he was extra protective, it wasn't something she could so easily swallow. It was so unlike him to lose control like that.

He nodded. "I don't know what to think of myself either." - "I can't believe I saw her as a threat to you." At least he was very disturbed by his own behaviour too. She was willing to bet he hadn't had much sleep either. He certainly didn't look like he'd rested.

Feyre took his hand and squeezed it. "You should have apologized."

"I know." He rubbed a hand down his face. "But when you were there, I still felt that she could endanger you somehow. She looks human, but she isn't. I can smell it. There's something so familiar about her too, but I can't put my finger on it, and that worries me."

"Helion is coming today to find out, right?"

Rhysand nodded and lifted her hand to press a kiss to it. "Will you let me serve you some breakfast? You've been her all night, darling." He looked worried. She was happy he'd let her paint undisturbed, but understood his concern. She was his pregnant mate, his instincts were probably going crazy at the thought that she hadn't slept or ate.