After some time, Riordan fell asleep. The gentle sway of the carriage along the road made his head loll from side to side, and the platinum streaks in his hair brush his brow as he slept. He looked the very picture of the resting sun, and Fiona wondered if the real thing looked half as serene as he did resting beneath the horizon. 

She turned back to the window, to the edge of the cushioned seat that she'd been rooted to for the last few hours. Endlessly scanning the landscape that rolled by, she absorbed as many details as she could – the way the light dappled on the forest floor, the colour of overripe apples on the ground, their sweet, sickly scent. They passed few villages in the Autumn territory, instead snaking through vibrant green pastures and eventually pine forests as the land gave way to a raised and rocky kind of wilderness.

They were on the North road, aiming to pass through Winter to take a door to the Night Court, specially opened for this occasion, and likely heavily guarded. She wondered what those knights would make of the endless stream of carriages rolling through, wondered what a magical door even looked like, if it would be big enough. Her thoughts turned to the Night Court themselves, the creatures of shadow and bone that had prowled within her nightmares since childhood.

When she was younger, Fiona's wetnurse had spun quite the yarn for her bedtime stories, each strand warning of a different monster. There were the Illyrian warriors, proud and hulking men with great wings the colour of soot and shadow that could blot out the sun in their legions. Wicked stone hounds were said to prowl their court, freezing into the walls when unsuspecting visitors passed, only to pounce on any their Lord set them after...and then there was the High Lord himself. Though warm enough to his own people, rumour had it that Rhysand could kill a male with the littlest twitch of his fingers, and had done so many times to anyone who dared a lustful glance at his mate, Feyre Cursebreaker.

They had visited the Autumn Court once, the pair of them. They had all been younger then, and Eris and his brothers' children were locked away for fear they might embarrass the court in front of such important dignitaries. At the time they'd been told it was because the High Lady had a particular fondness for the taste of young fae. Fiona and Riordan had spent the whole day in her room, dreaming up wild and terrifying stories and trying to guess how big an Illyrian's wings might be. It was a little startling for Fiona to realise that she might know the answer by tomorrow.

The carriage jolted suddenly, rocking Riordan awake with a start. The two fae glanced outside, finding instead of daylight only smooth rock staring back at them. Eris had decided to take a more covert route through the mountain road, it seemed. Fiona wondered quietly if it was a ploy to keep Kallias, the High Lord of the Winter Court, from spotting the long train of carriages creeping past his ice-covered lakes. 

She sighed as they began a slow descent, beneath the stone, their driver lighting a lamp that cast long shadows on the walls. Fiona had never seen snow before. Now she wondered if she ever would.

Before long they reached the door, the Autumn party grinding to a halt in the dark. Fiona heard voices up ahead and strained to listen as Eris conversed with the guards. She leaned out the window alongside many of her kin up ahead, their hair grazing the walls as they craned to get a look. A moment later the rumble of wooden wheels on gravel started up again. But the sons and daughters of Autumn recoiled into their carriages one by one as they beheld what nightmares guarded the door.

Dark knights veiled in shadow stood in lines by the entrance. Their faces were hidden except for their lips, which curled into a sinister smile as the courtiers passed by. Ebony swords hung at their sides, glinting in the lamplight, the only part of their attire that could be seen by the eye. For what was truly fearful about these wraith-like fae was their impermanence – they seemed to melt and dissolve into the shadows around them, a different part visible each moment, until Fiona wasn't sure they were really there at all. It was only their wicked smirks and sinister blades that glinted with any sort of substance.

"Darkbringers." Riordan stared intently, his gaze a mix of fear and awe as he beheld them. As they moved past the last one, Fiona let out a breath she hadn't realised she'd been holding.

"It's their armour that makes them look like that." Riordan sat back on the chair, folding his arms. "Underneath they're just normal high fae. It's all smoke and mirrors."

Fiona recalled the vicious twist to their lips and decided she wasn't so sure. There was an energy about them - dark, draining and craving violence - that felt very far from normal.

The lamplight winked out up ahead as a magical sort of tremor rippled over them, as though they had just walked through a sheet of hanging silk, the fibre tingling their skin and waking up their senses. They had passed through the door, she realised.

The carriages rumbled on through the darkness. Fiona could hear the sounds of the others up ahead, their murmurs echoing in the cavern. Her blood rushed in her ears as she waited to for the stone to part, for her first glimpse of life outside the Autumn Court.

"When do you think we'll-"

The words died in her mouth as a near-blinding light filled the carriage. A gasp of awe sounded from the others and sent Fiona practically throwing herself at the window, peaking through her fingers. Riordan joined her, squinting over her shoulder as they emerged from the mountain to the most incredible skies Fiona had ever seen.

"I think right about now." Riordan chuckled.

Once her eyes adjusted, Fiona was struck by the colours. The clouds above were streaked with shades of violet and indigo, unnaturally bright in the sky, as though they were the trails of some ancient flying beast who had painted the night with a glimmering brush. Stars winked at them like diamonds on a blanket of midnight blue, thin wisps of cloud drifted past and caressed the mountain tops as snow swirled around their peaks, as if in slow motion.

"This is...this can't be it." Fiona's mouth was agape.

Where were the stone hounds? The wind carried no screams as it whistled between the mountains, and the night sky was empty of bloodthirsty, winged monsters. This was not the Night Court of legend, not by a long shot.

For a moment she wondered if they were about to plummet underground again, as the road began to slope gently downwards. Perhaps that was where the true Court lay, Fiona wondered, miles beneath the stone, where the cries of the tortured could not be heard. 

But the road did not dip below. Instead it climbed higher, through a road carved into the mountainsides.

"There," Riordan pointed past her shoulder. "That's where we're headed. The Mountain Palace."

At the summit of the nearest and largest mountain sat a palace, shining pearlescent white and reflecting the light of the moon, glowing like a pale opal set in stone. The road ascended toward it as Fiona looked on in awe, the carriage illuminated by its light. Tiny squares of faelight glowed softly near the top, and as they drew closer she could make out some figures in the windows, their silhouettes shadowed against the moon. Her breath hitched in her throat as she watched a star shoot through the sky, blazing a silver trail as it fell from the heavens and spiralled for the earth.

Riordan glanced at her and leaned back, allowing himself a smug smile. 

"Welcome to the Court of Nightmares."

*

The Mountain Palace was a labrynth of cool white hallways and high ceilings. The floors were a pale marble but the walls were carved from that off-white moonstone that made the palace shine in the night. Fiona marvelled at the huge windows, open to the air but shielded with a magical buffer that kept the wind and elements at bay. She couldn't help but gape every time they passed one, falling in love again and again with the bright swirling sky and the soft shimmer of the stars above them. 

Eris, however, wore a well-practiced mask of boredom as they were escorted through the maze. He seemed all but unimpressed when the faerie butler led them to a set of adjoining suites and showed them the private dining room, sitting room and balcony reserved for their court, all polished and glowing. 

"Breakfast will be served in the main room at nine o'clock, or privately here at a time of your choosing, my Lord." The faerie's wings fluttered as he hovered by the door, his skin the colour of glittering obsidian.

Eris nodded curtly. "We shan't be joining the others to eat. You will serve us in here for meals."

The faerie bowed his head, though Fiona thought she caught a passing look of amusement flash across his features. "Of course, my Lord." His tone was obsequious. "The summit will commence tomorrow at ten o'clock. A member of the staff will be here to escort you and your kin."

Once he was gone Eris turned his attention to discussing court strategy with his brothers as their children began their endless nattering, each trying their hardest not to look too awestruck at the grandeur of their lodgings. Riordan sidestepped his way over to her, looking guilty.

"I have to leave now." he mumbled.

Fiona gave him a pleading look. "But I just got you back!" she protested. "You can't leave me alone with these vixens."

Riordan shook his head, trying not to meet her eyes. "My father will be arriving soon. We're at court now, Fiona. A Prince of Day can't very well be seen trotting around beside his bastard family."

Fiona tried not to let him see how much his words stung. She knew he was right, even if it hurt the most to hear it from him. She forced a smile and nodded in what she hoped passed for gracious understanding. Riordan gave her hand a squeeze, his eyes glowing sympathetically. 

A moment later he was beside Eris, excusing himself as the High Lord gave a dismissive wave. Her eyes followed as he passed through the gilded golden doors and disappeared, the sounds of her cousin's sneering and scheming already closing in around her like a smothering embrace. She caught Eris watching her closely from across the room, and took pleasure in the disapproving twitch of his brow as she turned her back on him and stalked away to the bedrooms. 

Passing Aidan on the way, Fiona found less joy in the warning look he shot her, his eyes glinting dangerously at the brazen dismissal of his lord father. Though Eris was disdain given form, it was Aidan she'd be watching out for these next few days, Aidan whose shadow she would have to step out of if she wanted any glimpse at the rest of Prythian...

...and Aidan whose eyes burned into the back of her head as she selected a door at random and slid herself behind it. The bedroom she entered was blanketed in shadow, and though she turned the lock twice before settling down, Fiona felt Riordan's absence like a chink in her armour as the darkness pressed in against her that night.