The next day there was far less fanfare in the council hall. The attendants went to and fro as they pleased, and many milled around talking quietly, or else stayed beside their courtiers. The High Lords and Ladies were already seated by the time Fiona arrived, tailing the end of the Autumn party with bleary eyes. She gave her cousins a wide berth, refusing to look at Aidan as he took his place beside his father's throne. She knew he was watching her, but, determined not to show any of the whimpering girl from the night before, she kept her chin high and stared straight ahead as she passed him. Though her side ached with every twist of her torso, she would not wince, settling against the back wall in dignified silence.

Aidan dared to glance over his shoulder with a sharp-edged grin but Fiona was looking past him - to where Nyx was entering beneath the star-flecked archway, with Xander beside him. The Prince's eyes lingered on her for a moment before shifting to Aidan. She gave nothing away as he glanced between them.

Then Lord Helion stood from his throne with a brilliant white smile. "Let the proceedings begin."

Fiona spotted Riordan in a chair by his side, looking rather grumpy. She tried to catch his eye and failed as he yawned, resting his head in one hand with a scowl.

Something jabbed at Fiona's ribs and she swallowed a yelp, turning to find a leathery wing at her side. Belladonna greeted her with a smirk, evidently noticing neither her pain nor the courtiers around them, who shrank away at the sight of her.

"Looks like shit, doesn't he." She dipped her head in Riordan's direction. Fiona relaxed, allowing herself a small smile. 

"And I suppose he has you to thank for that?"

Bella's laugh was breezy. "Gods no," she replied. "Don't get me wrong, your cousin's a good-looking boy. But he's really not my type." She shared a grin with Fiona who shook her head. "Besides - he was very, very drunk last night."

Fiona raised an eyebrow and glanced at Riordan, practically falling asleep in his seat. "I don't doubt it."

Bella leaned back against the wall, folding her wings in behind her. Her eyes slid subtly to the younger fae. "You don't look like you slept much either," she noted with a wry smile, making her heart skip a beat. "Did you and Xander get better acquainted?"

Fiona almost laughed aloud at the absurdity of the suggestion. "Gods no!" She met Bella's silvery gaze and saw a twinkle of amusement. "To be honest with you, he scares me half to death." She remembered the way those glowing eyes had watched her, so still and careful, following her every movement. It was too close to another, more sinister gaze, and as the eyes turned black in her mind she blinked, blocking them out.

Bella nodded with something like respect. "Good." she turned her attention to the council meeting, where Morrigan and Eris were exchanging scathing looks as they quarreled. "If he scares you then you must be smart enough to see him. Most people think he's just Rhysand's second born – a prim and proper Lord's son."

Fiona looked up at the Night Court warrior. "And he's not?"

Bella shrugged. "Not to me. Not to the people that know him."

Fiona couldn't help but shiver as she imagined Xander without the formalities, the predator unleashed. "I don't think he trusts me." she ventured.

"It's his job not to trust you." Bella fixed her with a keen look. "He's the Prince of Velaris, and you're a member of another court – the Autumn Court, no less."

Fiona wanted to wince, to act like she was offended by such blatant disregard for the honour of her family. But who was she to protest? She had borne the brunt of their cruelty all her life – she likely hated them more than anyone.

Her attention turned back to the meeting. Ignoring the looks that her cousins shot at the pair of them, she strained to listen as Zayde stood from her throne. 

"Eris, I'll hear no more talk of division," the High Lady said, coolly. "Prythian has always had seven courts, and that's the way it shall remain." She spoke dispassionately but her tone was steely.

Eris' face was hidden from view, but even from the back of the hall Fiona could see him stiffen. "My suggestion benefits us both, my Lady. This way, the Spring Court is healed sooner, and I'm sure the land would be just as beneficial to your people as it would to mine." As always his words were laced with cunning. But Zayde only raised her chin as his offer floated between them.

"I have no interest in expanding my territory. You only hinder our progress by insisting upon your own selfishness in this meeting."

Eris' fist clenched around the arm of his throne and Fiona rolled her eyes, anticipating another fight. For High Lords of Prythian, they really did act like children. She looked up to say as much to Bella but found the Illyrian had vanished.

"In my dealings with the Morrigan I have found her to be nothing but fair and honourable." Zayde continued. Her voice rang clear around the hall. "The Spring Court has prospered under her reign as Acting Lady."

"I can also vouch for Morrigan's ladyship." Thesan nodded.

Helion grinned lazily. "So can I."

Morrigan crossed her legs, looking uncomfortable.

"But the fact still remains that she's a member of the Night Court." Kallias objected. He turned his icy gaze on Morrigan. "A High Lady should be sworn to nothing and no one except her own subjects. How can we trust that you would put the people of Spring above your family here?"

Eris, of course, jumped in. "Placing her in charge gives Rhysand a permanent ally," he agreed. "The Spring Court would become little more than a satellite state."

Nyx glared and Morrigan's brown eyes turned molten. "I have no family here," she growled to Kallias, turning her attention to Fiona's uncle with frightening intensity. "And in the last ten years I have spent less than a handful of days outside the Spring territory. I have helped their people rebuild from the ground up – my loyalty is to them," she assured them. "And theirs is to me."

Thesan and Helion looked more than satisfied, but Kallias was not convinced. Fiona didn't watch Eris leap at the opportunity, beginning to sow the seeds of doubt in the Winter Lord's mind, but she knew him well enough to guess that he was smiling.

*

Nothing much had been resolved by sunset when they decided to break for the day. As the crowds dispersed, Fiona sought Riordan out from across the hall. He seemed to have recovered from the hangover, but still looked uncharacteristically serious, his brow furrowed and his head bent in discussion with his father. Fiona tried to catch his eye with a hopeful smile. But when he looked up, Riordan shook his head, casting her an apologetic frown as a Day Court dignitary begged his attention for some urgent matter. 

Fiona's heart sank – it seemed her ticket to Velaris was unavailable tonight.

"If you're looking for a little comfort, you won't find it there."

A sleek and slightly nasal voice sounded from behind Fiona, the words crawling down her spine. Donovan, one of Lord Devyn's least attractive sons and an infamous letch appeared in front of her, his face fixed in a permanent sneer.

"Rumour has it, he prefers the company of males." he explained, chuckling. Fiona followed his line of sight to where Riordan was now leaving the hall beside Helion, escorted by an army of white-cloaked advisors. 

She couldn't help but snort. "Then I guess he's all yours for the night, Donovan."

"You're too kind," Donovan's lips twitched. "But I have my eye on a different prize this evening." His beady little eyes trailed the hem of her dress across the nape of her neck, eyeing the pale flesh with a hungry gleam. 

Fiona rolled her eyes and made for the Eastern corridor, her strides long and urgent despite the composure that she willed her face to mask. Her cousin followed closely, barely a step behind.

"Don't you have any boundaries?" she asked, her nose wrinkling in disgust as they walked. "I could be your sister for all you know."

Donovan gave a giggle that sounded more like the shriek of a farmyard swine. "I'm not worried. You'd be worth the price." Fiona repressed a shiver at the feel of his breath hot on her shoulder. "And besides, everyone knows you're one of Lucien's little runts."

"Really?" Fiona mused, sounding bored. "Last month, I could've sworn I was Cedrik's."

Donovan made a sudden lunge for her waist. Fiona jerked to her right but she was too slow – he spun her toward the wall and slammed a hand up beside her face, blocking her exit. Fiona cursed herself as he pressed in closer. She hadn't thought he'd have the balls to really make a move, and now he'd caught her unawares.

"Aidan says you're fair game now." Donovan all but licked his lips as those piggy little eyes roamed up and down her rigid body. "He says you're to be taught a lesson, that you're ruining Eris' reputation with your little adventures." Fiona's eyes narrows as she bristled, remembering the last time she'd been trapped like this.

"Oh Aidan says, does he?" she snarled. Donovan's smile widened but Fiona was ready after the long and restless night she'd had to wade through, to wonder what she should've done differently. When he leaned in, she drew her knee up sharply, as hard and as fast as she could. Her blow landed, and Donovan's howl echoed through the corridor. He shrank away, giving Fiona an opportunity to duck under his outstretched arm and run.

But before she'd made it even two steps, her cousin whipped out a clawing hand and swung her back around. Fiona didn't think; she used the momentum to send her elbow sailing towards his face. 

Donovan stumbled back with a furious yowl, clutching at his eye. This time she didn't hesitate, turning on her heel and sprinting down the hallway as fast as her feet would take her. She heard an answering set of steps from behind but refused to look, trying to shut out the sound of panting bouncing off the walls.

They turned a corner, her calves beginning to scream in protest. Fiona glanced up for just a moment, hoping to find an open door yawning ahead. But her eyes widened in horror as she beheld instead a certain High Lord's son, and came skidding to a screeching halt, barely an inch between them by the time she'd stopped.

Xander blinked at her, swathed in a high-collared shirt of Night Court black, surprise flickering in his gaze. She was speechless, her cheeks heating as Donovan came to a stop just behind her. Xander's eyes flitted between them, his gaze heavy and measured.

"Apologies, your Grace." Donovan sunk into a deep bow, perhaps to hide the eye that was already purpling. "My cousin and I were playing a game," He raised his head slightly to fix Fiona with a dangerous look. "We must have got carried away."

Fiona glanced between Donovan and a door to her left, taking the beat of silence to consider her options. If she asked Xander for help, Aidan would definitely hear about it – and she didn't fancy her chances at a second round with him. What's more, Keir's caution from the night before was still ringing in her ears like a warning peal. Perhaps the reason the High Lord's son was so dark and mysterious was not one she wanted to uncover.

She glanced at Xander, but his attention had snagged on Donovan's swollen eye and she saw her options vanish as a shadow befell his face. The stars seemed to wink out of that violet sky as he stepped between them.

Donovan's smile was obsequious, and now edged with fear. "Your Grace, truly, I –"

"Go."

Fiona almost flinched at the malice in his tone. Donovan's eyes were wild - he seemed to be considering his chances at lunging forward to grab her. But at the first sign of his hesitation, Xander began to walk. And when he walked, it seemed that Night itself walked beside him.

Shadows danced at his fingertips, curling like whips as a grimace of warning settled over his features. Fiona's heart stopped dead at the sight of him, the extent of his power, and the fear it invoked. This was the male Keir had warned her of, this son of Rhysand who was cruel and cunning beneath his quiet exterior.

Donovan gave a squeak and scurried away before Xander even had the chance to speak.

The shadows sputtered and vanished as the Autumn weasel disappeared around the corner, the clapping of his footsteps on the marble echoing in the silence. 

Xander turned to face Fiona, his gaze holding hers as if searching for something.

"I had it handled." She lied. 

The corner of his lips tugged into a twisted smile. "I could see that." He wiped a calloused finger surreptitiously against his eye and she smirked in spite of herself. "But I didn't want him to come back...later." he added, looking away.

"He wouldn't have." She watched him fiddle with a silver cufflink and made a decision. "I'll be fine. Thank you." She stepped past him, catching a whiff of cedarwood and black orchid.

"What about the other one?" Xander looked over his shoulder.

Fiona didn't have to ask who he meant. Aidan's dark eyes seemed to materialize in the shadows, his wolfish grin gleaming in the white marble. She kept walking.

There was a moment of silence before Xander offered her a slim band of hope. "You're welcome to stay the night in Velaris, if you'd feel safer there."

Fiona stopped. Neither turned to face the other as his offer slid between them like an outstretched hand. Her mind spun as she considered a thousand different variables, the threats that prowled these clean, quiet corridors – and those lurking in him and his court, the beasts unnamed that Keir had planted in her mind.

"I can take care of myself." she answered, half-hoping he didn't believe her. She wasn't sure she believed herself.

"I don't doubt it." came the reply. "But you don't have to."

Another beat of silence.

"The choice is yours."

He started walking, but his footsteps were slow and patient. The offering hand was reaching out, tugging at her dress as her mind raced. A cool breeze stirred on her skin as a different set of eyes appeared in the shadows. Despite her fear, despite her better judgement and the warnings she'd been given, the questions seemed to slip away. Her head went quiet and there was only the sound of feet on stone as she turned.

Xander didn't stop or slow or look back at her. He only offered a hand, a real hand that hovered beside him in silent beckoning. Fiona didn't think as she broke into a run, sprinting toward the darkness as her fingers reached for his. In an instant they met, and everything was quiet before the world imploded around them.