A Court of Night and Shadows

Chapter 20

There was a reason this territory was called the Night Court.

Above us, the sky was an infinite sea of diamonds, enveloping everything in sight with its endless glittering dusts of stars. It gleamed with so much more life and omnipotence than I'd ever imagined in any of the paintings I'd ever attempted in its honor. And next to me stood the embodiment of that very limitless grace.

Rhysand had taken me to the roof, eager for a distraction from my discovery of my new siren's body. I noticed his aim, but let him lead me to the small seating area, if you could call two white iron chairs a seating area, anyway. At first I hadn't noticed why his smile was slow birthed across his face, but then it called to me. One look up and I was mesmerized, entirely enchanted.

Exquisite emptiness and the stars.

That's what I would call the painting I would attempt for the sake of this view. I couldn't help but imagining painting the ceiling of the room I'd woken up in - or perhaps I should figure out if that was my room or not first.

Through the bond, I could feel the glimmer of his pleasure at the sight of the sky - of the night.

Of his home.

And when I turned to look at him, he was already looking at me.

"I want to show you something," he said, his voice a soft reflection of the night around us.

I pulled my brows together.

He flexed his wings, stretching them out behind his back in answer. I sent my tentative feelings through the bond, unsure of how to tell him I was afraid of pushing him too far. He'd flinched when I tried to touch his wings. I didn't want him to think I needed that from him if he wasn't willing to give it, if there were too many wounds where his wings were concerned.

And then the idea of his wings injured...

Amarantha was back in my mind and it didn't take a full second for my chest to take up a beat that I'd gotten used to not feeling. Instead of the pounding of my heart, the rage of the amulet was an assault on my blood, thick enough that I could feel it oozing through my veins. One look down at my wrists and I could see the webbing black vines beneath the thin skin.

Before the panic could strike me, before the rage could overtake me, I was being pulled into the air.

I held in my scream as the rush of my weight being hauled into the sky within thick, familiar arms. These arms holding me were my first memories of him, catching me as I fell twice in one night, beginning this adventure with him. Would we have found each other if he hadn't been able to come to Calanmai? If I'd never been taken and brought over the wall? Were we a coincidence or something so much more?

Rhysand was climbing higher and higher into the sky only to hang me above the greatest city I'd ever seen. Nowhere, not even when we had all our riches, had I seen a more beautiful place with so many buildings... So many homes for so many people. Safe people. People spared from Under the Mountain. People Rhysand had sold himself to protect. His grip loosened and it was all I could do to not squeeze him in desperate fear of being dropped. I turned my head to see his face, only to be caught off guard by the beauty of his wings melded of night, keeping us in flight with their massive glory.

How would I ever be able to compare to someone so impressive?

Just then, Rhys dropped us. We free fell through the star-kissed sky.

I held in my scream.

The brick roads beneath us were getting so close I could count them before he threw his wings out, gliding us along their surface, spinning so we could see every angle of the streets as we flew near to the ground. We evaded citizens who must have preferred to live their lives to the light of the stars in this town where it nearly demanded it of you with all its beauty. There were High Fae, but just as many lesser faeries mixed in. They laughed and waved as we shot by them, recognizing Rhysand.

He flew us around wordlessly until morning light.

We'd decided to have brunch in the House of Wind and I was glad I was already used to flying now because it was a long trip to the mountain home within Rhysand's arms. His grip seemed tighter than last night and I couldn't help but worry.

As if in answer, he said, "We're meeting with all the others."

Oh, I thought at first, but then, "Why does that make you nervous?"

"When did I say I was nervous?" He replied with an even tone, even looking into my eyes.

But he couldn't pretend I didn't feel him through the bond. "You do realize I can feel you, too, right?"

He watched me for a few heartbeats before I heard him say through the bond, Having us all in the room together for the first time makes me...apprehensive. I haven't even sat down with them all for a meal since I came home.

"Really?" I asked, feeling the weight of his pain - both the pain of not seeing all his friends in the same place at the same time and the pain that kept him from doing so.

His eyes grew thoughtful. "I'm sorry, I've just... I was recovering while you were asleep too."

And my own pain at missing it, not being there for him, was endless.

We landed on an outside balcony facing glass walls. The crisp cold of winter bit against my skin despite the layers I'd dressed in. I'd chose a wintry sweater and pants beneath my overcoats, unable to imagine myself in a dress ever again. Not with the stone that resided within the skin of my chest.

"Are you ready for this?" he asked me as I turned around in his arms, which still happened to be on my body. I felt a flutter at the sight of his wings enveloping me slowly. The tenderness of it...

"Are you?" I asked in return.

To my surprise, his brows furrowed. "What do you mean?"

I dared put a hand up to his cheek, and mercifully, he leaned into my touch waiting for my reply. "You said you hadn't been all together with them since we got back."

"No I didn't."

I broke his eye contact. "You sent it to me through the bond, earlier. You said you'd been recovering, too..."

"I hadn't meant for you to hear all of those thoughts," he said, trailing off toward the end thoughtfully before moving a hand to the small of my back covered in my puffy layers. "Let's go."

The rush of warmth inside was incredible. I started to pull of my coat when someone's magic made it disappear completely.

"You know you didn't have to wear a coat," Rhysand said, leading me into a room with a large dining table. "I didn't wear one and I'm a perfect temperature."

"Then why was I freezing the whole flight?" A minor lie. There was a bite, but I was far from cold.

He gave me a confused look, and I realized he'd been using magic to keep me warm.

I smiled.

He narrowed his eyes at me as he realized my game, but before he could respond we heard the mighty flap of Illyrian wings.

"Yeah, yeah I got it. I'll never fly you up here ever again."

Footsteps sounded from the balcony we'd just exited.

"Not sure why we thought tonight would be the night Amren and Cassian might be able to share such close quarters," Mor said to no one in particular as the four of them came into view. Only Cassian and Azriel had wings. They must have brought Mor and Amren with them.

As soon as she was in the room, Mor crushed me into a hug I was not expecting. The Illyrians approached their friend and gave him those handshake hugs I'd seen human men doing over the wall. The hug parts lingered a little longer than I think any of the guys would admit. Amren stood back, staring at the both of us with that edgy softness that she'd looked at me with when I'd first awoken, over a month ago.

Just as I thought she was going to say something thoughtful about all of them coming back together, about us, I realized, Cassian blurted out, "Let's eat!"