A Court of Night and Shadows

Chapter 11

I slept for an endless amount of time - maybe hours, maybe days. They fed me three times a day with stale bread and water but the meals never felt like breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Instead the food was delivered randomly, as if someone would remember I existed and they had to make sure I didn't starve on their watch.

The boredom crept into my bones as my thoughts dared to wonder in the silence. Thoughts of Elain and Nesta living happy lives without me. Thoughts of Lucien accepting my alliance and his ignorance towards Tamlin. Tamlin... I still couldn't bring myself to think of what happened that night. I'd put myself in a vulnerable position and he...

I changed my train of thought. Rhysand seemed to be staying away. Unless it had truly only been hours since I'd been thrown in here and he was still planning to stop by. After meeting Amarantha, I'd rather he didn't. Not only had Elain's stories included the way fae mates would intertwine their scents as they discovered the bond and grew it, but the rage at seeing her in the flesh, after what she'd done to him... It was too much.

He had friends - more like family - back home who would love to participate in that slaughter.

I thought of them, of the brief descriptions Rhysand had fed me as we regrouped our plan through short messages in the bond over the course of several days while I was back over the wall. Azriel was the quiet one, the one who would see to my safety until I could return to Rhysand - until I would win him back. Mor intimidated me already. She seemed to be all that I would never be, meanwhile Amren was literally a creature from another world. And then Cassian seemed the least threatening, though if you consider him being one of the three strongest Illyrian warriors non-threatening.

It had been a little unnerving to hear of the friends of my mate when I was still just learning about him. I could feel the joy in his thoughts, but I couldn't help but worry. If my own family couldn't find a place for me, why would his?

But after this, even those fears would be a sweet reprieve from weight that Under the Mountain fell on my chest. Having to face Tamlin every day, to fight for his honor... It was a sham, but there was no way to declare my heart for Rhysand and be able to free him. Amarantha would revel in our bond. She would destroy us piece by tiny piece in ways I was too afraid to imagine.

I had to get him out of here. Back to Mor and Azriel, to Amren and Cassian. To his home and his people.

The sound of footsteps interrupted my thoughts. Two plump red faeries opened my cell with a forceful pull before stepping inside and grabbing for me. I started to resist, but decided against the trouble it could cause. I needed to lie low. For Rhysand.

The amulet of storms grew warm against my chest beneath my clothes as they dragged me out into the throne room once more. I observed the halls on the way there, attempting to memorize them and once in the great room I checked for all the exits. I was yanked through the crowd of faeries and I tried looking for Rhysand or Lucien before I was thrown face first on the dias.

The Faerie Queen clicked her tongue. "You look positively dreadful." Lie. I knew it was a lie from the way her eyes tore into mine, daring me to explain my healing. But she didn't ask, and didn't call anyone out from the crowd to blame. Instead she turned her head to the expressionless Tamlin at her side. "Don't you think so Tamlin, dear?"

He didn't reply. Didn't look at me.

"You know," Amarantha mused, leaning against an arm of her throne, "I couldn't sleep last night, and I realized why this morning." I nearly lunged for her at the idea of what she might have been doing while not sleeping last night. "I don't know your name. If you and I are going to be such close friends for the next three months, I should know your name shouldn't I?"

I held myself back from spitting at her - and at Tamlin. But I reminded myself why I was here.

When I didn't reply, Amarantha frowned. "Come, now, pet. You know my name - isn't it fair I know yours?" There was movement to my right, and I tensed as the Attor appeared through the parted crowd, grinning at me with row after row of teeth.

Still, I did not respond.

"Rhysand," Amarantha said - not needing to raise her voice to summon him. My heart pounded as I heard his casual, strolling steps sound from behind me. They stopped when he came beside me, too close for me to hold myself together.

I couldn't even think of what she would do to him or have him do. I just made a show of shrinking away from Rhysand's presence before spitting out, "Feyre. My name is Feyre." I could feel the bond warm and weaving us together. I needed to get him away from me before she saw too much.

"Well, well," Amarantha purred. "Afraid of this High Lord or all of them I wonder?" She tapped her fingers on her chin, making sure the eye could see everything. "I'll have to remember that won't I, Feyre?" Her smiled peeled into my skin, but she waved an idle hand at Rhysand and he wordlessly backed away from me, I assumed to blend back in with the crowd.

It was a threat, of course, but I couldn't tell if it were one of knowing or obliviousness.

"Well, Feyre, are you ready for your first task?"

My arm was broken, that much I knew. And Amarantha would be dead soon, I knew that too. Even if I had to shred her to pieces myself, she was going to die. I gulped burning air as I watched the worm until I was sure it wasn't going to move ever again after it impaled itself in my trap of bones within its den.

I didn't entirely hear the gasps, then the cheering - didn't quite think or feel anything as I edged around the worm and slowly climbed out of the pit, still holding my makeshift bone sword in my hand.

She'd meant for me to die in this task. That massive beast of a worm was supposed to shred me apart with its endless rows of teeth.

Silently, I made my way back through the labyrinth she'd dropped me in, my left arm throbbing, but my entire body tingling with fierce energy that pulsed through the burning amulet around my neck and beat into my bones.

The moment I saw Amarantha perched on her throne at the edge of the trench, I clenched my free hand embracing the pain of shattered bone as nimble fire webbed its way through my body.

I looked up at her from beneath lowered brows and didn't check myself as a feral part of me seeped through, baring my teeth at her. Her lips drew to a thin line. I tightened my grip on the long, thin bone in my hand. I was shaking - shaking all over. But not with fear. Oh, no. It wasn't fear.

"Well," Amarantha said with a little smirk. "Anyone could have done that."

I felt it then - the dark magic pierce my skin through the amulet. For a fraction of a second it startled me, but it was so powerful, refreshing, inviting. I seized the magic, embraced it, and let it fuel me. With a swift motion, I flung the bone sword straight for the dias - straight for Amarantha's head.

It flew faster than it should have and I immediately regretted giving myself over to whatever force was wrapped around my neck. Surely if I could recognize its power, all these fae could smell it from my bed in the dungeons.

To my surprise, she didn't make to block it - or reveal an ounce of her power to me. Instead she tipped an ear to her shoulder as bone imbedded where her face once was.

The faeries gasped again, but their queen only removed the sword like a toothpick and tossed it back down the trench beside me. "Naughty."

Had there not been an insurmountable trench between us, I would have ripped her throat out. Someday I would skin her alive.

"I suppose you'll be happy to learn most of my court lost a good deal of money tonight," she said, picking up a piece of parchment. "Let's see. Yes, I'd say almost my entire court bet on you dying within the first minute; some said you'd last five, and" - she turned over the paper - "and just one person said you would win."

I hid my cringe. Hopefully it wasn't Rhysand who was foolish enough to expose us by betting on me. But my fears were only confirmed after she waved a hand of dismissal toward me and guards were down upon me, pulling me up to take me back to my cell when she called out, "Rhysand, come here."

I cursed him despite the tiny smile I let slide on my face once I was into the halls on my walk back to the dungeons.