A Court Of Shadow and Blood

☆ Unveiling ☆

Her words echoed in the silence.

Ice danced across the small room, flakes crusting the lithe fingers of Feyre until they turned a pale blue. Bone-chilling cold wrapped around Eblis, even Cassian shifting his wings tighter into his back. The blue-gray of Feyre's eyes turned distant, and then a far-away tremble rocked the very rock beneath them. Eblis felt as the power rumbled up to meet her, and something sung through her blood with lightning pulses, her nerves skittering.

She didn’t even have time to question the strange magic as that iciness spooled back into her High Lady with a small roll of her neck, as if relieving the tension there.

"We're going," she said, nodding to Cassian once. He sent Eblis a slightly suspicious look before ruffling his mighty wings and exiting the painters-building. Something like envy washed through her when those membranous black wings stretched in the sun's rays, and with one strong stroke, he was shooting into the sky, sure as any Illyrian-trained soldier.

Feyre lingered, gaze flickering between past and present. “Rhysand...he will be here soon. Stay here.” She offered only a long glance similar to Cassian’s before seeming to pause. The High Lady peered at Eblis again. “You really look like him,” she murmured. “Without the blond hair and gray eyes, I think you would’ve been a spitting image of him.” She whipped into darkness, winnowing, and Eblis didn’t have the chance to explain her altered appearance. Eblis was alone once more, in a foreign building and a foreign life.

She couldn’t help her small exhale as she sent a shifting gaze around the room, pointed ears twitching nervously. The cloak around her shoulders was a lifeline she held onto and pulled around herself, even in the humid heat of Velaris. The gray of her eyes were deep and troubled as she felt nervousness drill into her stomach.

She’d traveled across an ocean and continent to arrive in the City of Starlight, her old life in the enemy continent of Hybern left far behind as she escaped the grasp of its dead ruler. And now she’d made it. And her brother…

She hadn’t seen him in five centuries. 

As most fae go, he would probably look the same as always if a little older in the eyes. But her problem was that she couldn’t even remember what he looked like: sure she remembered their matching dark hair and violet eyes—though hers were dyed to hide her identity—but she couldn’t remember the tilt of his lips or the crinkle of his face when smiling. Even seeing Cassian had been a shock to her memories as they swam to the surface and ran around in her head, startling her with how much she missed him. Eblis couldn’t even begin to imagine what it would be like to see her brother after so long as well. 

Her skin prickled with magic, the writhing beast beneath the crust of her sensing the curling in her gut. She’d kept them tampered down for too long, and it was ready to be let out. Eblis sent a harried gaze out the window, the sun-beat street nearly empty.

She allowed a small, wriggling shadow out. It curled around the nape of her neck, then played with her dark hairs and rustled among her clothes like a small pet. It’s whispers were a rich song in her ear—one only she could hear. Before she could even react, the shadow itself seemed to stiffen before going on alert, a small thrill of warning running up her spine. 

And he was here.

Like a crack of thunder, Rhysand gathered from the darkness and then stepped into the light. He was a beacon of crashing power, the well within burrowing deep. Pure night rippled from him like a morning fog, playing between the rays of sunlight that also filled the room. Until it was snuffed out, gone in a wink. With little more than a thought—perhaps even less—Feyre's gallery was bathed in shadows so deep, she could hardly see. But her magic sang louder in its presence, telling her she was home and she was finally free.