A court of ashes and ruins | A TOG x ACOTAR crossover

Chapter 5

Aelin

All eyes were turned towards me. I could see a bit of shock in Morrigan's eyes, she clearly hadn't expected me to act like this in their presence. The rest of the group just looked very irritated at me. 

Feyre and Rhysand started a conversation, but I could feel their attention on me. No one seemed willing to break this awkward silence, and I certainly wasn't gonna be the one to do it. This was their dinner, or should I say, interrogation. The only reason I was even offered a ed here was because they need information. It made me feel very good thinking about how I was a threat to them.

"Well hello, you are Morrigan, right?" she seemed a bit shocked that I had used such a civil tone towards her, but she quickly regained her blank face.

"Yes, I am..." she turned her head away from me and started talking to Azriel, clearly not wanting to continue the small talk between us.

"Is everyone in this group always so moody?" I turned towards Amren this time. From somewhere besides me I could hear a low growl in warning from whom I assumed was Rhysand.

"Well we usually don't have the displeasure of eating with moody human girls". I chuckled at her comment. She was certainly an interesting person.

I was just about to grab myself some food when I realized something. All the plates and cutlery were made out of iron. My blood turned ice cold at just the thought of not having access to even a drop of magic.

None of the others in the room seemed affected by the iron, it was clearly not a weakness of their type. That was certainly a very useful piece of information.

Ignoring all common sense in my body, I just continued putting food on my plate and started eating. I carefully checked the food before eating it. I doubted they would poison me when they could just kill me with a snap of their fingers.

Amren seemed to notice the big pile of food on my plate.

"You are not only behaving like a bear, you are also eating like one. How can a small girl like you even consume that much?" she said with a tone of distaste.

"It's just good genes darling". Amren snorted at my response, but I could see the hint of a smile tugging at her lips. I guess having a friend in a world where I was completely alone wouldn't be too bad.

Suddenly the ring of iron hitting glass met my ears. Feyre clearly didn't want me to have a good time talking to Amren. 

"Even though you are invited to this dinner as a..." she seemed to be at a loss of the right word "guest. We still need some information from you. I mean you just appeared out of nowhere, just in time for us to notice you, that can't really be a coincidence now, can it?"

Everyone's attention slid towards me.

"Well, as I have told you before, I don't have any better idea of how I came here than any of you pretty people."

"Well, maybe you can begin by telling us more about your world". Feyre was clearly trying to play the good, sweet person.

What information did I dare to offer up to them? I had to make them trust me enough to at least let me walk freely around the house. They'd know if I withheld too much information.

"There isn't really anything special about my world. There are mostly only humans inhabiting it. All fae were hunted and killed off a long time ago, along with all of their families. Not a trace of magic left."

I told them what I had thought to be the truth before leaving Adarlan.

"I don't think I can quite believe that you just appeared here without any kind of magic involved."

"Well...there is one sort of magic that can still be used, even by humans. It isn't exactly straight up magic, but it's called Wyrdmarks. It is a type of writing that you can use to I guess kind of manipulate reality. But there are very few people that still know how to use them" I could, was what I didn't tell them. I didn't want them to believe that I traveled here by free will.

"Well, do you have any special relations with anyone of interest?" Cassian asked.

My mind immediately slid to Rowan. I had basically forget about him these past hours. It was like a big black hole had opened in my mind, sucking in all of my thoughts and replacing it by pure panic. I could no longer feel the familiar tug of the mating bond. It was completely gone. Maybe that was why I had just forgotten about him after my arrival here. Hopefully it was just my human body playing tricks with me, what were the odds that he was dead? But still, I couldn't shake of that bad feeling in my gut.

I had forgotten that a question was asked, so Cassian had to cough two times to get my attention.

"Well, as an assassin, I obviously have a lot of bad relations, but I don't have any enemies with the ability to summon portals, no." Oh, there were a lot of people I could think about.

"What about the ring we found on your finger before? Are you married?" the absence of the Emerald green ring felt really weird. It was like any trace of our marriage had been completely erased.

"Yes, yes I am." did it really matter if I told them?

"Is it really appropriate for an assassin to be married?" Shit, I had forgotten about the role I was supposed to play. I couldn't catch myself slipping like that again.

"That is none of your concern" I gave Cassian a stone cold stare. "Enough with questions about me. How do I know that you didn't summon me to this world." I said, challenging them.

"You are in no place to ask questions right now." Rhysand said slowly. "But, we can tell you a little about our world..."

Together the fae group explained many things about their world and what magic they possessed. Apparently the fae lands here were divided by courts, each having their own kind of magic. The humans were separated from the fae by a magic wall, but it was still possible to get through it.

One thing that really caught my interest was winnowing. The ability to travel between places, much like the power Maeve and Fenrys had.

It was very much possible for anyone from this group to have brought me here, but for some reason, it just didn't seem very likely. Why would they put so much effort into questioning me then?

"One important thing" Feyre interrupted my thoughts. "We can't let you stay here anymore, this place isn't really an appropriate place for you to walk freely. We will have to move you to another place."

Now that I thought about it, I had only been allowed in my room and the dining room, and I hadn't seen any windows anywhere. What was around us that was so important to hide from me.

"And where exactly will you move me?" 

"You will just have to see" Rhysand smirked at me. "But I am afraid that the only way to travel that far is by flying. Cassian will be carrying you."

I turned around to see Cassian grinning at me. Rhysand waved his arm and suddenly the wall opened, and I was looking at the beautiful view of a little city. The ground was coated with snow, and everywhere between the houses were lots of lights in different colors. The city's beauty was  only matched by maybe Terrasen.

I was suddenly swooped off of my feet, and in a blink I was in Cassian's strong arms.

"Don't you dare ruin my hair" was all I had time to say before we shot into the night sky.

I could see Rhysand, Feyre and Azriel besides us, carrying Morrigan and Amren.

It was so weird how we had gone to arguing at the start of the dinner to this, almost comfortable silence between us. Maybe there was a chance to create relations with these people after all...

(Important guys. Do you all prefer Aelin's point of view or should I try mixing in other characters more often like Rowan, Feyre, Rhysand and maybe even Mor. Tell me what you think!)