Throne of Roses

Chapter 23

'Shhhhhhhh. Sorry it took so long Kaden wanted to stay for the bed time story.' Fenrys said and Rhys and Feyre sighed with relief. Fenrys frowned at them.
'You know we wouldn't hurt him right?' Fenrys asked still frowning.
'How should we have known that?' Mor asked.
'For one we don't hurt children and two we are allies. Besides... didn't Aelin tell you?' He asked.
'Tell us what?' Feyre was about as confused as Fenrys looked. She seemed to be able to move again as she began to walk towards her son too.
'Kaden and Nehemiah are mates.'
'They are what now?' Mor blurted.
'How would Aelin know that?' Rhys asked.
'She's Aelin she knows everything.' Fenrys shrugged and passed sleeping Kaden into Rhys' waiting arms. Both Rhys and Feyre kissed their sleeping baby's cheeks.
'Aelin also wants to know what exactly the meeting with the High Lords was about.' Fenrys said.
'I'll put Kaden to bed and we'll talk then.' Rhys said wanting to give himself some time to think of a lie or at least hold of that conversation for as long as possible.
When Rhys came back to the sitting room the portal was closed and Fenrys was sitting next to Cassian on one of the couches. Rhys sat down next to Feyre on the couch opposite them, Rhys sat in a position that would make it easy to protect Feyre and the baby. Despite his trust towards Terassen his mate was pregnant, which even he wasn't beyond admitting made him a little overprotective.
'So? What was the meeting about?' Fenrys asked.
'It was about Aelin. The other High Lords want to take her down or at least break the blood oath.' Rhys said. Fenrys seemed to go paler with every word.'
'Did you tell them anything?' He asked.
'Amren translated what Aelin said but other than that we didn't tell them anything new. The meeting ended a few minutes after you left but we are scheduled to continue in two weeks time.' Feyre said. Fenrys just sat there looking at nothing.
'Fenrys?' Rhys said after a few moments, the male looked up at him, pain and terror in his eyes. 'We will do anything can to prevent them from hurting Aelin.'
Fenrys smiled weakly at him and stood up.
'I better go tell Aelin about the High Lords.' He said and Feyre thought she heard his voice break.
'Are the High Lords going to hurt aunti Aelin?' Kaden asked once Fenrys was gone, the others didn't even notice him standing in the doorway.
'Off course not.' Feyre said. Kaden went to sit in her lap and she kissed his cheek again.
'I like aunti Aelin I don't want her to get hurt again.' He said.
'Again?' Mor asked.
'Nehemiah told me about all the stories of her mommy being hurt, well all the once that she overheard.' Kaden said visibly sad.
'Did you have fun playing with Nehemiah?' Rhys asked in an attempt to cheer up his son.
'Yes, it was so much fun and aunti Aelin and uncle Rowan had some time to play with us too. Oh and we played with Sam and Rhoe.' Kaden said a lot more happily.
'What was the bed time story?' Feyre asked.
'It was about the Battle of Mistward. And aunti Aelin used her magic to show us, like she did when we last visited.' Kaden said.
'Did you eat something when you were in Terassen?' Feyre asked.
'We had lunch and after dinner aunti Aelin let us eat a chocolate cake.' He said with a giant grin. 

The inner circle met in the dining room once Kaden fell back asleep.
'What stories was Kaden talking about?' Mor asked Rhys and Feyre.
'Aelin was tortured, beaten and starved on many occasions.' Feyre said simply sorrow in her eyes as well as Rhysand's.
'The story about her being a slave?' Cassian asked.
'She wasn't lying. She was betrayed and put in the salt mines as a slave for a year when she was seventeen.' Rhys said.
'What are we going to do about the High Lords? They seemed determined to find a way to kill Aelin.' Azriel asked.
'We can't let them do that. If they do manage to kill her Prythian would be at war with the whole of Erelia, not just Terassen. They would destroy our whole continent in a matter of an hour or two.' Rhys said.
'So what exactly do you want to do?' Mor asked. Rhys gave her a wicked smile in response.