| BOOK TWO - A COURT OF ASH AND SMOKE | Lovers separated, powers that won't be controlled, a doomed wedding. With the threat of war looming over Prythian, Lucien, You, Tamlin, and Rhysand's Inner Circle must scramble to find allies and prepare thems...
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You snuck out of the manor long before sunrise, leaving Lucien still sleeping in bed - you planted a small kiss to his forehead before sneaking out. Despite the early twilight hours, it was still warm outside in the grounds, a fact you were thankful for in your thin nightgown and dainty robe. To have gotten dressed would take too much time, and you only had a small allotted amount of minutes before you had to sneak back to bed once again.
The grass was wet with morning dew under your feet, and as the sun began to make its first appearance of the day over the hills that made up the Spring Court, you were able to catch a glimpse of Tamlin striding toward an old tree further down the hill. His face was thunderous, and his hands were clenched at his sides. You crouched down as low as you could, sneaking through the meadow at the top of the hill where you had agreed to meet Rhys, and hung low in a place that offered you a clear vantage point of the tree below where Tamlin now stood, under the shade. He paced back and forth, looking up at the sky to, presumably, use the sun to check the time. That same sun was hanging low in the sky by the time a wave of darkness overtook the area where Tamlin waited, and Rhys and Feyre came into view. Tamlin's paces came to a stop and he rounded on Rhys - even from your position way up in the meadow you could see his shoulders rising and falling with each forced huff of anger. Words were exchanged, too far away for your ears, and then Feyre and Tamlin were heading to the manor and Rhys was winnowing away.
"It would seem being a spy suits you," that deep voice chuckled from behind you, and as you turned you found him standing in the meadow a few paces away. He smirked as he took a few strides closer to you. "Perhaps when we all get back to Velaris we can get you into some training with Azriel too, see if those eavesdropping skills might be at all useful."
"Because training with you and training with Cassian isn't already enough?" You asked, raising a brow at him. Rhysand opened his mouth to no doubt offer you a snarky remark in reply, but you held up a hand, bringing him back to silence. "We're not here for pleasantries, Rhys, and I don't have a lot of time."
Rhysand pursed his lips but offered a low nod, brushing a piece of dust from his jacket before shoving his hands into his pockets. "Very well," he said smoothly. "What do you have for me?"
"Amarantha's spell book is gone." You said it flatly, knowing there was no point trying to mask the problem with sugar; the words would still leave a bitter taste in your mouth, and likely in his too. His dark brows twitched into a pinch, and the muscle in his jaw tensed. "It's not where I left it, although how someone found it I'll never know."
"We need that spell book," he said firmly. "You know what's coming, and we need to have the upper-hand. We need any and every advantage that we can get."
"I know," you confirmed, nodding once. "It's still here somewhere, I know it. I'll keep looking. The only person I can think of who might have found it is Tamlin, so I'll start there." You spared one glance to the manor at the foot of the meadow below. "This place isn't that big, there are only so many hiding spots."
