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 โฆ I knew he’d prefer death. Any Illyrian would.
โWhere is she?โ Amren demanded.
Where is she where is she where is she
โGet 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 appearedโdropping off or hiding Nesta and Elain wherever she deemed safest.
โWhere 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 appearedโpanting, 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.
โWhere 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. โTamlin 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 Tamlinโtold the king where to find Feyre’s sisters. So
the king had Feyre’s sisters brought with the queensโto 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. โRhysand.โ
I managed to say, โWe 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 โฆ hated us. And told him she’d go homeโbut only if the killing stopped. If we went free.โ
โAnd the bond,โ Amren breathed, Cassian’s blood shining on her hands as she slowed its dribbling.
Mor said, โShe asked the king to break the bond. He obliged.โ
I thought I might be dyingโthought my chest might actually be cleaved in two.
โThat’s impossible,โ Amren said. โThat sort of bond cannot be broken.โ
โThe king said he could do it.โ
โThe king is a fool,โ Amren barked. โThat sort of bondย cannotย be broken.โ
โNo, it can’t,โ I said. They both looked at me.
I cleared my head, my shattering heartโbreaking for what my mate had done, sacrificed for me and my family. For her sisters. Because she hadn’t thought โฆ hadn’t thought she was essential. Even after all she had done. โThe king broke the bargain between us. Hard to do, but he couldn’t tell that it wasn’t the mating bond.โ
Mor started. โDoesโdoes Feyre knowโโ
โYes,โ I breathed. โAnd now my mate is in our enemy’s hands.โ โGo get her,โ Amren hissed. โRight now.โ
โNo,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, โWeren’t you listening to what Feyre said to him? She promised to destroy himโfrom within.โ
Mor’s face paled, her magic flaring on Azriel’s chest. โShe’s going into that house to take him down. To take them all down.โ
I nodded. โShe is now a spyโwith 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 โฆ between us lay a whisper of color, and joy, of light and shadowโa whisper ofย her. Our bond.
โShe’s your mate,โ Amren bit at me. โNot your spy.ย Go get her.โ
โShe is my mate. And my spy,โ I said too quietly. โAnd she is the High Lady of the Night Court.โ
โWhat?โ Mor whispered.
I caressed a mental finger down that bond now hidden deep, deep within us, and said, โIf 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
โNotโnot consort,โ Amren blurted, blinking. I hadn’t seen her surprised in โฆ centuries.
โNot 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.
โYou mean to tell me,โ Mor breathed, โthat my High Lady is now surrounded by enemies?โ A lethal sort of calm crept over her tear-stained face.
โI 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. โI 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, โthat your High Lady made a sacrifice for her courtโand we will move when the time is right.โ
Perhaps Lucien being Elain’s mate would helpโsomehow. 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.
โUntil then?โ Amren demanded. โWhat of the Cauldronโof the Book?โ
โUntil then,โ I said, staring toward the door as if I might see her walk through it, laughing and vibrant and beautiful, โwe go to war.โ