DISCONTINUED A Court Of Blood And Night (Tog & ACOTAR crossover)

15 - Feyre

"Moving on," Aedion said quickly, and I wondered if anyone else noticed another drop in temperature when Dorian was talking to Manon. "Manon is a witch-- leader of a group of Ironteeth witches called the Thirteen."

Ironteeth? Well, that explained the claws and fangs. I wondered who would win if pitted against each other in a fight-- Manon, or Amren.

"Galan is the Crown Prince of Wendlyn," Aedion continued, and Galan nodded once in acknowledgement. The similarity of his and Aedion's eyes still caught me. But... It wasn't that they were similar. They were the same. That had to be a family trait. Right? Maybe they were half-brothers or cousins or something. Certainly not full-blooded brothers or anything; their appearances were too different.

"Dorian is the King of Adarlan," Aedion angled his head to the sapphire-eyed man, who nodded in acknowledgement and thanks.

Before he could speak, Nesta said, "There certainly seems to be a trend as far as royalty is concerned. Queen of the . . ." She frowned at Ansel. "Western something." She dismissed it quickly. "Crown prince, King. Leader of a bunch of witches. Let me guess, the silent one is also something similar?"

"Ilias is the son of the Mute Master." He paused at our blank faces and added, "The Mute Master rules over the Sessiz Suikast in self-imposed silence. They're infamous assassins in the Red Desert. So yes, I suppose it follows the . . . Trend."

"And that one?" She stared at the dark-haired female-- Lysandra, her name was-- and the female laughed.

"I'm as far from royalty as it gets." Something about the words sounded bitter. It was barely-there, but there nonetheless. "But," she added, "the Queen appointed me Lady. So. . ." She shrugged, the bitterness in her voice gone. "That's hardly a life to complain about."

"Your Queen sounds like a good woman," Azriel said quietly, and Rowan nodded slowly.

"She is," he said quietly, folding his arms. An emotion flickered in his eyes, but it was gone before I had a chance to figure out what it was.

"And you, Rowan? How do you fit into this trend that Nesta had pointed out?" Cassian challenged.

Rowan sighed through his nose, looling irritated. "Prince of Doranelle," he said shortly to Cassian. "However, I have enough family in line ahead of me that taking the throne is a foolish thought. So I fight."

Cassian grinned. "Is that a challenge?" I tensed and begged the Mother that they wouldn't break out fighting in the middle of the hall.

Rowan gazed at him. "If you want to fight me, do it at the training ground," he said flatly. Then he added, "Now we've all had an introduction."

The servant Rowan had sent earlier came bustling back with a clay cup in her hands. She was still pale, with a greenish tint to her skin, now, and she set it in front of Amren gingerly. She scurried away to the corner of the room and didn't move again. I wasn't sure she was even breathing.

Amren sniffed at it once. "At least it's warm," she grumbled, and tipped some of the contents into her mouth.

"And," Rowan continued, only slightly disturbed, "Everyone has food." He glanced at his companions. "They've agreed to help us for a price. I say we work with what the gods have granted us."

Aedion raised a brow. "I never pegged you to be the religious type, Prince."

He stared back at Aedion flatly. "The Queen has had enough run-ins with them that I've been swayed." Both males, along with Lysandra and Dorian, grimaced as if remembering such a "run-in."

Ansel frowned after a moment of silence. "I want to see what they can do, first. Before we agree to work with them."

Galan and the others nodded in agreement. Aedion made a thoughtful noise in the back of his throat. "I'll see if I can set aside some time in the training ground for later. Maybe not today, but once we get them on a regular eating schedule, and once they've regained their strength, we'll test them."

"And the ones who haven't learned to fight?" Rhys asked from beside me, eyes narrow.

"How many in your group can't fight?" Galan asked.

"Two." Rhys didn't so much as glance at my sisters but Elain was obvious enough.

"Then we'll teach them."

"And if they don't want to be taught?" I asked. "What will you do, then?"

They all exchanged glances. Then an unfamiliar voice spoke, voice hoarse from lack of use. "We can find other things for them to do." I looked up at Ilias to find him looking at Elain. His sea green eyes were oddly gentle for someone with his profession, but I didn't comment on it.

"Thank you," was all I said, and the assassin nodded once. Rhys covered my unmarked hand with his own and smiled at me. At the edge of my vision, I could see Tamlin glaring. If Rhys noticed, he didn't comment on it.

Rowan looked away from us quickly, a muscle feathering in his jaw, and instead glanced to Aedion. "See when you can set aside some time. Testing them will be important. Dorian, Ilias, will you figure out what to do with the ones unable to fight?"

They all nodded.

"Good. Aedion, come with me; I have some questions. The rest of you... do whatever it is you normally do at this time. Lysandra, Ansel, would you--"

Lysandra cut him off with a roll of her green eyes. "We'll take the prisoners somewhere-- though I hope you don't mind that we won't be sticking them in the throne room again, Rowan." Despite her irritability, a smile ghosted on her mouth as she and Aedion exchanged a glance. I wondered what it was about.

Everyone except the two aforementioned females and the Courts left the dining hall, and they sat down in chairs and waited. I wasn't the only one who sighed in relief when the cold temperature left with them.

We hastily finished eating, though I was more focused on water than anything else, and both women silently lead us out of the dining hall. We narrowly missed the onslaught of people that had come in from training, and I was glad we managed to avoid more strange people.

We were lead up stairs and navigated through twisting hallways until we finally got to our destination. "You'll have to share a room," Ansel explained unapologetically. "It's large enough that you'll have your own space to sleep, so I'm sure you lot will manage."

She opened the door for us and we all filed in, even Tamlin subdued after the talk in the dining hall. As if he finally figured out we had no leverage against these people, that we were nothing more than prisoners in a gilded cage.

So nobody fought as we entered the room and saw where we'd be living for a while. Nobody fought as we were told which doors lead to what. And nobody fought when the two females closed the door behind them, and we heard the unmistakeable click of a lock.

So two enemy Courts of Prythian stared at each other as we realized we might not come out of this alive. So two enemy Courts realized we might have to push aside our quarrels, no matter how much we hated each other.

No matter how much we'd wronged one another.