Acotar and Tog [Discontinued, Will be deleted]

The Third Trial

Watching Feyre enter the throne room for her final trial was… a challenge. As with the last trial, I had no idea what Amarantha had in store for her, only that it would be cruel and sneaky and very likely a trick. I still believed Feyre could do it, could beat her, but Amarantha would not go quietly nor without damage and that was what scared me. We would leave this room together today, but at what cost?

And then, there she stood, my Feyre, before our evil queen, chin held high and boldness in her stance. At long last, the end was here.

“Two trials lie behind you,” Amarantha said from her false throne, Tamlin sitting beside her ever the stone mute. “And only one more awaits. I wonder if it will be worse to fail now - when you are so close.”

I almost wondered if Amarantha was silently asking herself that very same question as few in the room laughed. Those gathered here today were not her minions hell bent on doing her biding to survive. No, today’s crowd were the faeries and High Fae of the courts who despised this wicked queen, who wanted nothing more than to see her fall. And Amarantha knew it. Realizing the jeers of her subjects were no longer available to her to torment Feyre, she pressed on with her mockery instead.

“Any words to say before you die?”

Feyre turned to Tamlin and my heart churned as she spoke, for though her words burned in my lungs, the song she sang in her heart for him threatening to poison me, I would not leave her body and soul until the end, not for one moment.

“I love you,” she said to Tamlin. “No matter what she says about it, no matter if it’s only with my insignificant human heart. Even when they burn my body, I’ll love you.”

Instantly, she cried and began to shake, and Amarantha swooped in with her despicable gallantry.

“You’ll be lucky, my darling, if we even have enough left of you to burn,” she said and again, no one called out. I felt Feyre’s spirit lift ever so slightly at the notice that the court was in her favor today. “You never figured out my riddle, did you? Pity. The answer is so lovely.”

“Get it over with,” Feyre spat.

Amarantha turned deliciously to Tamlin. “No final words to her?”

Feyre looked at him, her face hopeful and already broken by what she knew was inevitably coming. Now was his chance. He’d sat silently by all these weeks doing nothing more to help her than offering a few stolen kisses in a dingy hallway. But he could rectify that now, could give her the courage she needed to stand up and defeat Amarantha at last.

The bastard. Was. Silent.

Fury exploded in my chest as Amarantha grinned at Feyre knowing how disappointing this blow would be to her. “Very well, then,” she said before clapping her hands to commence the trial.

I would never forgive Tamlin for that. Another time, another place without Amarantha stealing our powers and i would have killed him for abandoning Feyre when she needed him most. Even after all I knew him capable of, all he had done, watching him stare with feigned interest at the woman who’d fought so viciously to save him through the very bowels of hell as if she were nothing to him shocked me to my core.

But I could not focus my fury for long. Three prisoners with bags to cover their faces were led out into the center of the room to stand in front of Feyre. A guard was given to each figure and accompanying them each was a pillow holding a cursed ash dagger.

My heart sank at the scene. I knew what was coming. Feyre did too, I could feel it. The crowds were dead on their feet waiting to see what the human girl from below the wall would do, the one who had hated faeries so passionately. Would she truly be the savior they hoped for?