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Chapter no 68

A Court of Mist and Fury

I slammed into the floor of the town house, and Amren was instantly there, hands on Cassian’s wings, swearing at the damage. Then at the hole in Azriel’s chest.

Even her healing couldn’t fix both. No, we’d need a real healer for each of them, and fast, because if Cassian lost those wings โ€ฆ I knew he’d prefer death. Any Illyrian would.

โ€œWhere is she?โ€ Amren demanded.

Where is she where is she where is she

โ€œGet the Book out of here,โ€ I said, dumping the pieces onto the ground. I hated the touch of them, their madness and despair and joy. Amren ignored the order.

Mor hadn’t appearedโ€”dropping off or hiding Nesta and Elain wherever she deemed safest.

โ€œWhere is she?โ€ Amren said again, pressing a hand to Cassian’s ravaged back. I knew she didn’t mean Mor.

As if my thoughts had summoned her, my cousin appearedโ€”panting, haggard. She dropped to the floor before Azriel, her blood-caked hands shaking as she ripped the arrow free of his chest, blood showering the carpet. She shoved her fingers over the wound, light flaring as her power knit bone and flesh and vein together.

โ€œWhere is she?โ€ Amren snapped one more time. I couldn’t bring myself to say the words.

So Mor said them for me as she knelt over Azriel, both of my brothers mercifully unconscious. โ€œTamlin offered passage through his lands and our heads on platters to the king in exchange for trapping Feyre, breaking her bond, and getting to bring her back to the Spring Court. But Ianthe betrayed Tamlinโ€”told the king where to find Feyre’s sisters. So

the king had Feyre’s sisters brought with the queensโ€”to prove he could make them immortal. He put them in the Cauldron. We could do nothing as they were turned. He had us by the balls.โ€

Those quicksilver eyes shot to me. โ€œRhysand.โ€

I managed to say, โ€œWe were out of options, and Feyre knew it. So she pretended to free herself from the control Tamlin thought I’d kept on her mind. Pretended that she โ€ฆ hated us. And told him she’d go homeโ€”but only if the killing stopped. If we went free.โ€

โ€œAnd the bond,โ€ Amren breathed, Cassian’s blood shining on her hands as she slowed its dribbling.

Mor said, โ€œShe asked the king to break the bond. He obliged.โ€

I thought I might be dyingโ€”thought my chest might actually be cleaved in two.

โ€œThat’s impossible,โ€ Amren said. โ€œThat sort of bond cannot be broken.โ€

โ€œThe king said he could do it.โ€

โ€œThe king is a fool,โ€ Amren barked. โ€œThat sort of bondย cannotย be broken.โ€

โ€œNo, it can’t,โ€ I said. They both looked at me.

I cleared my head, my shattering heartโ€”breaking for what my mate had done, sacrificed for me and my family. For her sisters. Because she hadn’t thought โ€ฆ hadn’t thought she was essential. Even after all she had done. โ€œThe king broke the bargain between us. Hard to do, but he couldn’t tell that it wasn’t the mating bond.โ€

Mor started. โ€œDoesโ€”does Feyre knowโ€”โ€

โ€œYes,โ€ I breathed. โ€œAnd now my mate is in our enemy’s hands.โ€ โ€œGo get her,โ€ Amren hissed. โ€œRight now.โ€

โ€œNo,โ€ I said, and hated the word.

They gaped at me, and I wanted to roar at the sight of the blood coating them, at my unconscious and suffering brothers on the carpet before them.

But I managed to say to my cousin, โ€œWeren’t you listening to what Feyre said to him? She promised to destroy himโ€”from within.โ€

Mor’s face paled, her magic flaring on Azriel’s chest. โ€œShe’s going into that house to take him down. To take them all down.โ€

I nodded. โ€œShe is now a spyโ€”with a direct line to me. What the King of Hybern does, where he goes, what his plans are, she will know. And

report back.โ€

For between us, faint and soft, hidden so none might find it โ€ฆ between us lay a whisper of color, and joy, of light and shadowโ€”a whisper ofย her. Our bond.

โ€œShe’s your mate,โ€ Amren bit at me. โ€œNot your spy.ย Go get her.โ€

โ€œShe is my mate. And my spy,โ€ I said too quietly. โ€œAnd she is the High Lady of the Night Court.โ€

โ€œWhat?โ€ Mor whispered.

I caressed a mental finger down that bond now hidden deep, deep within us, and said, โ€œIf they had removed her other glove, they would have seen a second tattoo on her right arm. The twin to the other. Inked last night, when we crept out, found a priestess, and I swore her in as my High Lady.โ€

โ€œNotโ€”not consort,โ€ Amren blurted, blinking. I hadn’t seen her surprised in โ€ฆ centuries.

โ€œNot consort, not wife. Feyre is High Lady of the Night Court.โ€ My equal in every way; she would wear my crown, sit on a throne beside mine. Never sidelined, never designated to breeding and parties and child-rearing. My queen.

As if in answer, a glimmer of love shuddered down the bond. I clamped down on the relief that threatened to shatter any calm I feigned having.

โ€œYou mean to tell me,โ€ Mor breathed, โ€œthat my High Lady is now surrounded by enemies?โ€ A lethal sort of calm crept over her tear-stained face.

โ€œI mean to tell you,โ€ I said, watching the blood clot on Cassian’s wings with Amren’s tending. Beneath Mor’s own hands, Azriel’s bleeding at last eased. Enough to keep them alive until the healer got here. โ€œI mean to tell you,โ€ I said again, my power building and rubbing itself against my skin, my bones, desperate to be unleashed upon the world, โ€œthat your High Lady made a sacrifice for her courtโ€”and we will move when the time is right.โ€

Perhaps Lucien being Elain’s mate would helpโ€”somehow. I’d find a way.

And then I’d assist my mate in ripping the Spring Court, Ianthe, those mortal queens, and the King of Hybern to shreds. Slowly.

โ€œUntil then?โ€ Amren demanded. โ€œWhat of the Cauldronโ€”of the Book?โ€

โ€œUntil then,โ€ I said, staring toward the door as if I might see her walk through it, laughing and vibrant and beautiful, โ€œwe go to war.โ€

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