A Court Of Shadow and Blood

☆Five Centuries Ago...She was Captured☆

The boat meandered down the coiling river, heading towards the Illyrian camp that Rhysand was at. He had sent word that he was unable to meet them halfway as promised, and that he was busy training a new unit of recruits.

There were Illyrians toiling about the deck, their siphons glittering in the dark and their wings pinned against their backs as they weaved around the small deck. All were mumbling about being on the boat and not up in the skies on such a clear night-however, between each little speck of starlight, there were swathes of darkness where Illyrians flew overhead, scouts to keep watch for trouble.

They'd had little warning, nothing but wet thumps as bodies tumbled from the stars, their bodies heralding the raining of blood.

And the screaming began.

Tall, winged shadows were thrown over the deck as grotesque, leathery-skinned faeries dropped down with mighty crashes, their silvery fangs glinting in the moonlight. Each beat of their wings brought the scent of rotting flesh, their black eyes flashing with malicious delight.

Mother and daughter were below, in the Captain's Quarters readying for sleep. Eblis had been peering out of a window on the starboard side, watching the white capped waters shiver under the wind right as a body splashed into the surface and disappeared beneath the dark depths. Eblis screamed. Her mother rushed over and pulled her from the window.

"What? What's wrong?" she frantically asked, hands clasping either side of the frightened girl's face. Thundering could be heard overhead as more forces clattered on deck, as more bodies fell.

"Someone was thrown overboard, but they were already dead-they just sank-oh gods," Eblis whispered, eyes of violet wide with disbelief. But her mother wasn't listening anymore. She was staring at the floorboards above them right as something thick seeped through and dripped onto her cheek.

She removed a hand from her daughter's face and wiped it off her fair skin, revealing crimson life-blood. The fair-haired female's wings rustled for a moment before both of their Fae hearing caught the shouts and ringing screams of the dying. Eblis's heart stuttered.

She gripped her mother's arms with pale hands that were already going cold with fear. "We have to go, we have to fly away, now!" As she said it, her own wings flared as if to shoot straight through the ceiling into the night. The long night gown she wore did little to hide the shaking of her legs. Her mother urgently brushed her fingers through her daughter's long hair, trying to calm her.

"No, no we need to hide. Do the trick, Eblis, make your wings disappear," her mother said quickly, patting her daughter's cheek as more blood dripped down. Both were frantic, and Eblis was near trembling with fear.

"I can't! It takes a lot of focus and even then I struggle-"

"Do it!" her mother cried, looking upward once more. Eblis's breaths stuttered as she saw more bodies flying into the waters, and listened for the singing sound of her magic, of her shadows and night. She sobbed, only able to hear the screaming of the dying, listening to her kin turn silent. She was Illyrian, she reminded herself. Her people were dying right above her head, and she was doing nothing about it-

Her wings were at once swathed in darkness and disappeared, the little triumph doing nothing to ease Eblis's pounding heart.

Her mother merely nodded and shoved Eblis towards the bed-beneath it.

"No!" Eblis shrieked, shoving against her mother. "I am Illyrian, I am trained in fighting and-and killing! I need to help them!" She sobbed, watching more fall from the sky, their wings bent at awkward angles and never to fly again.

"Eblis, you and I both know you could never stomach killing, and what you're seeing right now is people who are skilled in fighting, and they are being cut down like stalks of wheat. You wouldn't stand a chance, you would die instantly. I will go and help them, stay here, hide under the bed or in the closet, wherever is fine just as long as you are hiding."