Throne of Glass and ACOTAR Crossover (complete)

Chapter 29 - Feyre

For a long moment I just stare at Tarquin. I can feel the confusion and shock radiating throughout the room, the disbelief. I feel it a bit myself. I glance at Tarquin's companions to try and gauge their reaction to their High Lord's actions. Cressida's eyes are flicking back and forth between myself and Tarquin, alternately filled with incredulity and fury. 

She opens her mouth to say something, no doubt to accuse me of forcing Tarquin into submitting to me, but before a single word leaves her mouth, Tarquin straightens. 

He meets my eyes, and we stare at each other for a solid minute in silence. Then his mouth quirks up slightly. "Don't make me regret trusting you cursebreaker."

I nod, the action making my vision swim. "I won't. Don't make me regret trusting you either."

In response Tarquin says "You said once that it would be easy to love me, easier to be my friend. Did you mean that?"

"I did." I answer hesitantly, unsure of where he's going with this. I can sense Rhys' tension behind me.

Tarquin smiles. "I think we should aim for that second choice, what about you?"

I smile, relief and actual contentment at the sugestion flooding my veins. "I would like that." I say.

Tarquin sighs contentedly, but a moment later I watch his eyes fix on something behind me, and the smile slides off his face. I glance back to see what he's looking at, and find Rhys standing beside me. 

The two males stare at each other for a long, tense moment before Tarquin says, his voice hesitant "My offer extends to you, Rhysand."

Rhys inclines his head in acceptance.  

"I'm glad that's settled." Mor says, her voice cheerful, "This whole blood feud thing was getting annoying."

There is a smattering of laughter around the room, though her comment wasn't really funny. It's as though the tension has made us all a touch hysterical. 

When quiet has returned Tarquin says "We must go. There are matters that require my attention back home. But I hope that, should anything untoward happen, you will contact us."

Rhys nods seriously, his mouth pressed into a firm line. "We will."

With that Tarquin and his companions vanish. 

I hear Aelin sigh loudly from the corner where she is standing. "I will never get used to that."

I turn to face the girl, and find her leaning against a pillar using a dagger to clean under her fingernails. I raise an eyebrow at her and she smiles before sheathing the dagger. Then she walks over to Amren and pulls the book of breathings out of her hands.  "I wasn't going to mention it with the summer dude here, but you lied to me." she says. 

"What?" I respond, my exhausted brain not completely keeping up with her convoluted train of thoughts.

"Wyrdmarks" she says "You told me there weren't any here." 

I look at Rhys, hoping that he will have some idea of what she's talking about, but he looks as confused as I am. 

Amren sighs through her teeth. "The book, you morons, she's talking about the book. The language its written in is called Wyrdmarks. At least it is where she's from."

Where I'm from she doesn't add.

Then she turns to Aelin "They didn't lie Aelin, they just didn't know. As far as I can tell, nobody else here knows how to use the damn things."

Aelin doesn't answer. She runs her hand over the book's surface tracing some of the intricate patterns etched there. Finally she says "I don't understand how it works."

Nobody says anything, but Aelin responds to our unspoken question anyways. "I don't know how it became sentient. I've never heard of Wyrdmarks doing that before."

Amren nods, "I don't think that it was the Wyrdmarks that did that." 

Aelin looks at her and raise's an eyebrow. "Why not?"

"The riddle" Amren replies simply "The 'only that which is made' thing. I think the book is like Feyre."

"Excuse me?" I say.

"I think the book was brought to life by the power of the High Lords " Amren says "It would mean that both of your lives were, in a sense, made by the power of Prythian. It would explain the connection between the two of you."

There is silence while everybody considers this possibility. I look at the book in Aelin's hands. It looks so, innocuous. As though it nothing more than a book. 

But it is so much more than a book. 

It's Aelin who interrupts the quiet. "Regardless, its interesting. And since Wyrdmarks do exist in this universe, at least we know how Erawan created the portal." 

At that she bites her lip, and I can see conflicting expressions playing across her face. I can't decipher them, but I notice growing concern building in Rowan't expression as her watches her. 

After a moment Cass says, his voice forcibly happy "Well, though this trip was interesting what with the new alliance and Feyre being tortured by and possibly related to a psychopathic book, I would like to go home now." 

Rhys lets out a dry chuckle. "I'll second that."

A moment of worry seizes me, as I don't know if my depleted stores of magic and energy will allow me to winnow myself along with Aelin and Rowan back to the Night Court, but I push it aside. It will be enough, because it has to be. There isn't another choice. 

I grab onto the pair, and we melt into mist and shadows. 

Then, suddenly, we have emerged. But not in the Night Court, nor anywhere else I recognize. Instead we are lying in the snow. I can feel the cold prickling my skin. 

Then I slip into unconsciousness and can feel nothing at all. 

Hello all,

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