Amarantha's Daughter

Nesta Archeron

Two days later...

NESTA

She awoke with a start. Someone was snoring. Where was she? Her head hurt as if there were tiny men in there hammering at her skull with heavy clubs. She squinted her eyes open, but someone had forgotten to draw the curtains shut and so the room was quite bright. After getting used to the bright light, she saw that she was in a bed with a red-haired girl. The girl was naked and lay sprawled on top of Nesta, her leg nestled in between Nesta's. She smelled like night-chilled mist and cedar, a familiar scent, but she couldn't place it. She had the nicest ass Nesta had ever seen, and she also had wings that cocooned the two of them. It took Nesta longer than she'd admit to realize that she was lying naked under Dianthe, Rhysand's daughter and Azriel's mate. The woman she'd strangled just days prior. Strangled just because she'd caught Nesta in a really bad mood. She felt really bad about that actually.

Nesta looked around as much as she could from her position to gather some intel. There were empty bottles of wine on the floor. The door to the bedroom was broken and Nesta wasn't wearing any clothes either. She couldn't remember much at all, but that she'd gone on a bender, that much was obvious. She, who'd been sober for a whole week now. She was still in the Windhaven camp, the Illyrian war-camp closest to Velaris. Cassian had taken her there to train. She'd refused. He'd taken her to one of the training rings and she'd sat on a cold rock and watched him. Technically she'd attended training, but he couldn't make her actually do anything. She wasn't going to lift a finger. It had humiliated him. There had been many spectators, and that their general couldn't make tiny little her train was embarrassing for him. It wasn't that she wanted the assholes to get the satisfaction of seeing him made a fool. But she couldn't move her body. She'd drawn her line and she didn't want to yield to anyone. He'd been disgusted by her, she had seen it on his face. But in the end he began his morning exercises alone. Good, she'd thought. Better that he hated her.

He didn't train for long, having to suddenly leave because Dianthe had been reported missing. It was so urgent, he had ordered her to stay in the house that had belonged to Rhysand's mother. She'd been there for a little while, then Nesta had stopped by Emerie to check on the clothes she'd ordered. After that her memories were blank. A whole evening had disappeared. A whole evening that had led to her getting into bed with Dianthe. There were a lot of gaps to be filled.

"First order of business, we eat their food..." Dianthe mumbled into Nesta's neck. Her voice was soft and her words tickled Nesta's neck.

"What?" Nesta quipped. She was making no sense! "What food?!" She asked. There was no answer, and so Nesta realized the girl was talking in her sleep. If only her head didn't hurt so much, she could maybe concentrate enough to remember what the hell had happened. While she'd gone on many benders, many. The amount of alcohol required to quiet her mind this much was... She'd never achieved it. What the hell had happened last night? But the silence did feel nice. And Dianthe's body was a welcome weight on hers. She was very warm and Nesta was cold. But she couldn't stay here. They were looking for Dianthe. She had to notify them. And then find something for the bitch of a headache she was having.

"Wake up." Nesta gently shook Dianthe's shoulder.

"Absolutely not. No! I don't trust fish. They breathe water... that's crazy." Dianthe responded sleepily, followed up by a particularly loud snore. Nesta was pretty sure Dianthe also drooled on her. Charming.

Nesta sighed, and then, with great effort, pushed Dianthe off of her and onto the floor.

Dianthe landed with a large bang and then jumped to her feet. Eyes wide open, wings spread out behind her. She'd gotten into a strange fighting stance.

"Who's there?!" She yelled, but she still didn't seem awake. Nesta stared at her with an incredulous look on her face. How could she be asleep still? Standing up, eyes open, even talking?? She could probably sleep through a war, this girl!

Nesta found a glass of water on the bedside table and threw the water in Dianthe's face. That at last seemed to wake her.

She rubbed her eyes to get the water out and then stared at Nesta. "What are you doing in my bed?" She asked.

Nesta blinked. "Darling. This is not your bed. This isn't even my bed."

"Am I naked?" Dianthe asked.

"Yes." Nesta replied. She didn't mind that though. Dianthe was gorgeous. She had a plump, nice and strong body with golden skin. There was a tattoo on her left thigh, and one on her right hand, but other than that, she was pretty much unmarred. Her violet eyes were unsettling, and she also shared several similarities with her father facial-wise, which made Nesta feel like she was staring at a female Rhysand. Which she practically was. This was Rhysand's daughter. Cassian had also told her it was Azriel's mate.

DIANTHE

Dianthe nodded, she'd figured. She discovered a robe on the floor and put it on, for the sake of modesty. Who it belonged to, she had no clue. She didn't even know where she was. She could tell that Nesta was naked though. She hadn't even bothered to cover her body with the duvet, and Dianthe didn't mind it. Nesta was stunning. She seemed a bit thin, as if she hadn't had a good dinner in a while, but she was still beautiful. Just looking at her, brought back scattered memories of what they'd spent the night doing. Nesta had licked the life out of Dianthe, several times. And Dianthe had done her best to follow up. The images popping up in her head made her cheeks redden, which was embarrassing. Faes shouldn't be able to blush!

As if she'd read her mind, Nesta asked. "Did we fuck?"

"Yes." Dianthe answered. She wasn't ashamed of it, she just wished she'd known how that had happened. The last time she'd seen Nesta, she'd been choked unconscious.

Nesta nodded. "Was it good?"

"Yep."

"Good."

It was at that time, they heard someone shouting from the floor below.

"I think someone's calling for you." Dianthe said. Someone was definitely calling out Nesta's name. They sounded quite upset.

"Ughh..." Nesta moaned and dove into the pillows. "My head is killing me. I can't be asked to deal with this."

"Hungover?" Dianthe asked and approached the bed. She actually felt quite alright herself, strangely enough considering she didn't remember where most of the night and day had gone by. She put her hand on Nesta's forehead. While it wasn't warm, it felt like she could sense the source of pain and so she wished it away.

A couple of seconds later, Nesta's eyes flew open. "How did you do that?"

"Do what?" Dianthe removed her hand.

"You healed my hangover!" Nesta exclaimed and sat up, throwing her arms around Dianthe in a hug.

"Oh!" Dianthe laughed. "I don't know. I just wished it away." She replied.

The broken door flew open.

"What in the...?!" The voice belonged to Cassian.

"Get out!" They both yelled. The door quickly shut.

Nesta let go of Dianthe and gathered the duvet around herself. "We should go talk to him. You've been missing for two days now."

"What?!"