A Court of Love and Healing {ACOTAR}

Breaking the Cycle

Elain holds her forehead as soon as they land at the Dawn Court border. Lucien wraps an arm around her waist to steady her and kisses her temple. "Are you okay?"

"Yes. It just—it still takes me a moment to recover from winnowing still. Makes me lightheaded whether I do it on my own or with someone else."

Lucien tugs her close to his side and rubs her shoulder soothingly. "It's okay. Take a breath."

A small smile tugs at her lips and she peers up at him. "I'll be okay. Thank you for your concern though." Leaning up on her toes, she places a kiss on his cheek. Looking towards the Dawn Court castle, her expression suddenly goes stormy.

"What's wrong?"

"Hm? Nothing."

"Elain..."

She sighs softly. "It's Briar."

"What about her?"

"She's—well, she may not always be this sweet."

Lucien's brow pinches together. "You've only met her, what, twice? Does this have to do with what happened at the Winter Court? How you told Rhys and Feyre that she was Tamlin's mate?"

Elain sighs and looks down at her hands. "Yes. But I...I don't know how my power works. What I'm allowed or not allowed to do with them. If I can talk freely about my visions or if talking about them will change them for the worst. It worries me."

"But you already told them."

"Not everything", she whispers.

His unscarred eyebrow raises. "What exactly does 'not everything' mean, mate?"

Swallowing hard, she wraps an arm around him as a guard comes to collect them, walking feet in front of them to lead them to the entrance of the castle. "She's like me", she whispers.

"Like you...? A seer?"

"No. No not—not a seer. Cauldron-blessed. I could sense it. Much like I sense it when I'm around Nesta."

Lucien draws in a breath. "Wow. Three of you."

"But that still isn't all. I had a vision. It must be of the future. I just saw...roses and people dancing and—what looked like a navy blue dress, like Feyre's. But I don't think she would ever set foot in Spring again. She's still so bitter about it, about Tamlin and what he did to her."

Lucien takes her hand as her arm falls away from his back and gives it a squeeze. "It wasn't a good time to be there after...after..."

"I know", she whispers.

"Feyre is impulsive, and stubborn, and independent. Normally that isn't a problem, and in many situations it's enviable. But after what she went through, and after she realized she was fae, it's like she went on overdrive. She thought she could take on the world; slay every enemy simply because she lived after Amarantha. And in lieu of seeing her fall by enemy hands again, Tamlin was extremely terrified of seeing that again. He was in love with her, but his fear controlled every aspect of his mind after..." Lucien shakes his head. "He was ruled by the horror of her dying in front of him every day and every night. Both of them thought ignoring their trauma would make it fade away, but it only made it worse. They didn't communicate. She tried to speak with him, and he doesn't like being vulnerable. He tried to gift her paints and encourage her to paint again, and she couldn't find the motivation. So they kept miscommunicating. And eventually, it made for tense and angry conversations when they did speak.

That day, Feyre wanted to jump in and help us slay Hybern monsters at the border. Tamlin needed to see her safe. It made for messy yelling matches. One day, she refused to listen to him. Refused to make a compromise to roam with guards, and refused to acknowledge his fear for her. You know Feyre...when she wants something she wants something. She basically told him that no matter what we said or encouraged her to do to be safe, she would follow us to the monsters. So yes. Tamlin got angry out of pure panic for her life and when she stormed inside instead of going with guards, he shielded her in the house to hide her from Hybern, who was knowingly tracking her for being the first Made fae. He wanted her and it was no secret.