Acotar and Tog [Discontinued, Will be deleted]

Things You Might Not Like

The damper on my powers was fully locked down as we winnowed into the wood and I could feel everything. And what there was to feel around us was nothing .

The air was hollow, void of all creature and movement. A sign of how dangerous and deceiving the predators lurking about this jungle really were. It was perhaps the one benefit of being so near the Weaver’s cottage that we wouldn’t run into otherbeasts so long as we trespassed.

Feyre, for one, didn’t need the added pressure.

The moment we touched down, her body stilled and her breath came out sharply. Though my High Lord’s powers were all but non-existent to avoid giving the Weaver even the smallest hint of my arrival, that lethal killing power gifted me by my Illyrian ancestors stalked beneath my skin keeping watch.

“Where are we?” Feyre said, her voice no more than a soft whisper for the ancient, gnarled trees surrounding us to listen to.

I kept my own voice steady - for her sake. “In the heart of Prythian, there is a large, empty territory that divides the North and the South. At the center is our sacred mountain.” Feyre’s heart sped up at that, but her feet continued moving as we began our trek through the woods. “This forest,” I said, sensing her growing unease, “is on the eastern edge of that neutral territory. Here, there is no High Lord. Here, the law is made by who is strongest, meanest, most cunning. And the Weaver of the Wood is at the top of their food chain.”

The silence of the wood did not refute me.

“Amarantha didn’t wipe them out?”

“Amarantha was no fool,” most unfortunately. What I wouldn’t have given for a Naga to come claw her neck out in place of Tamlin forty-nine years too soon. “She did not touch these creatures or disturb the wood. For years, I tried to find ways to manipulate her to make that foolish mistake, but she never bought it.”

“And now we’re disturbing her,” and I could feel the scowl on her face, “for a mere test.”

So not only was she nervous, but she was nervous enough to be angry with me too. And that heartbeat of hers was skyrocketing.

You can do this, I thought, willed in strength toward her.

Feyre would need to master that panic. It was just as important to me as her coming out of the cottage we approached successfully. Her ability to track the Cauldron, the Book, would all be pointless if she didn’t learn how to see the capability in herself.

Cruel .

It was a cruel, wicked test. And where no one else would push Feyre to do it, I miserably would.

Along with a bit of sport to distract the pair of us, if that was what Feyre needed to see past the fear. And she was good at it - playing with me. She always had been.

I chuckled at her comment, preparing to distract her any way I could, and admitted my own shortcoming since it was on my mind anyway, “Cassian tried to convince me last night not to take you. I thought he might even punch me.”

“Why?” Feyre asked, still glancing about.

“Who knows?” I said with a bored voice. “With Cassian, he’s probably more interested in fucking you than protecting you.”

Decidedly untrue. However -

“You’re a pig.”

That temper flared right to life as Feyre’s head snapped at me. “You could, you know,” I said, helping her through a thick patch. “If you needed to move on in a physical sense, I’m sure Cassian would be more than happy to oblige.”