Amarantha's Daughter

The Dread Trove

Her gaze flickered between all the shocked faeries in the kitchen. There were way too many people to speak to at once. It was probably best to just get the worst over with. She looked at Rhysand, her father. "Can I talk to you?"

He all but jumped out of his chair. "Of course."

Azriel approached too, but she stopped him with a hand. "Alone." He didn't seem happy about it, but she wanted to talk to her father alone. Give him a piece of her mind.

Feyre threw Rhysand a look, but didn't interrupt. "My office?" He offered.

"Sure." She followed him out of the kitchen, down the hallway and into a lavish office.

Rhysand walked to stand in front of his desk. "Do you want to sit?" He asked and pointed at the sofa.

"Nope."

"Okay."

She looked at him, really studied him and realized many things. She not only had his eyes, but also his lips and cheekbones. Azriel was right when he'd said that he should have realized they were related. Then there was the smell of him. With her inferior fae smelling, she could tell that he smelled similar to her, which was quite strange since they hadn't even met until 4 days ago. "You owe me an apology, and an explanation." She told him frankly.

Rhysand nodded. He seemed distressed. "Of course." - "I don't know what Azriel's told you about Ama... about your mother." He hesitated to even use the words. As if it was the first time he referred to Amarantha as someone's mother, which it probably was.

"That she was an evil bitch." Dianthe crossed her arms in front of her chest. Rhys looked taken aback, so she clarified. "He didn't use those words."

"I see." She could tell he was nervous. A 500+ year High Lord was nervous to talk to her, a 20 year old girl. It felt strange. "Amarantha trusted me to some degree. She made me do her dirty work. I complied so that I could keep Velaris safe from her. Sometimes that meant missions outside of Under The Mountain. The longest time I was away was a couple of months. When I came back she'd given birth to a baby girl. I hadn't even known that she was pregnant. Usually you can smell these things." He paused, dragged a hand through his already disheveled hair.

Taking a breath, he continued. "But Amarantha, she was very skilled and possessed great magical abilities so she was able to hide it from me. To hide you from me." - "But the baby, you, was dead..."

"Yet here I am."

"Here you are." He seemed conflicted about what to tell her. As if there was something he wanted to say that he wasn't sure he should. Dianthe waited.

"I didn't let myself mourn. I was ashamed because I was relieved that you had been stillborn. I couldn't imagine having to grow up Under the Mountain and with her as your mother... I still don't know how she did it. How she tricked me and glamoured you and sent you away. But she did right by you by sending you away."

Dianthe didn't know what to think. Had she actually been stillborn or had that just been a glamour too? And why had Amarantha bothered to show Rhysand if she was just gonna send Dianthe away anyway? Why didn't she just have an abortion then? She wasn't offended by his reaction. How could she? Amarantha had raped him.

Rhysand waited to see if she wanted to say something, and when she stayed quiet he continued. "Fast forward 20 years and I find out my mate is pregnant..."

Dianthe's eyes widened. She didn't know Feyre was pregnant.

"-And I then hear there's a human who has breached our wards. A woman who's after my pregnant mate. I don't know how much Azriel has told you about mates-" Rhysand looked uncomfortable at asking her.