𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟐

"𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘸𝘦 𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘶𝘱 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴? "

▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

𝟑 𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐤𝐬 𝐚𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐔𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐌𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧

╰┈˚ · ° .  NO ONE WAS INNOCENT. I SURE WASN'T.

I woke up gasping for air, the taste of blood on my tongue. I could feel the thick scar on my neck when I brought my own hand to my throat as I tried to breath in and calm my racing heart. The glamour magic had fallen away from my hair, golden-brown leaving space for the now natural crimson color. The thick red strands a stark contrast against my ashen skin, they stick to my forehead and the back of my neck adding to the uncomfortable feeling of the sweat glistening all over my body.

No scar had left my body after becoming Fae, they only slightly faded away as they fully healed. The only addition was the thick one from where my own knife had slashed through the skin to end my life. All there. The only amiss was the deal-sealing scar on my palm from Braken.

Panting breaths escaped from my slightly parted mouth, eyes squeezed shut as I tried to get rid of the nightmare still lingering in my mind. But it didn't work. It never works.

So as every night, I stood up from the bed and changed into The League's uniform. As much as I hated The League, the uniform felt familiar. It accomplished in giving me a sense of comfort that I lacked these days.

I placed in my boots two of the remaining knives that I still had, the other two in my corset, and lastly, I strapped the hunting knife on my thigh. I raised the hood on my hair— not forgetting about creating another glamour to hide their real color— and the veil on my face to conceal as much of my features as possible.

And in minutes, I was out of the window and away from the manor without anyone noticing my missing presence.

I moved through the forest with grace, hiding in the shadows that called me by name. The agility and enchanted senses that came with being High Fae improved my skills of fading into the darkness to a whole new level. It had never been this easy becoming one with shadows.

Deep into the forest, so far away from the mansion that I could not even get a glimpse of the light coming from it, I finally climbed up a tree.

With my back and head resting on the trunk, one leg dangling from the branch that I sat on, thoughts stormed in my head. And as this was as safe as I could feel, I let myself be swayed by them, not forcing myself to stay completely on high alert for any possible threat.

[Flashback]

𝟑 𝐝𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐚𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐔𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐌𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧

We were back at the Spring Court but everything was different from the life that we lived more Under The Mountain.

A knock sounded on my bedroom door snapping me out from the boredness. I already knew who it was behind it.

"Maiven." Merissa called, announcing her presence, even if it wasn't needed since I could easily recognize her scent now. And her heartbeat. Everyone had a different heartbeat, it was easy enough for me to recognize who it belonged to.

"Come in."

The faerie opened the door, taking just a couple of steps before stopping. Her main of fiery red-orange curly hair framed her head, and from between the strands, two deer horns were hidden. Her scent was peculiar, a mix between embers and grass. After all this time I was still not sure what exactly type of faerie she was.

"The High Lord wants to speak with you." Merissa said, her chin tilted slightly upwards as if she was too good to be talking with me. Merissa had a problem with her ego. Or just with me, that was probably too, I did not know. "He is waiting in the dining room." She added, moving her hands until they were resting elegantly just under her bust.

I contained an exasperated sigh as I rose from the armchair placed in front of the window, and made to step forwards only to be stopped by the faerie.

"He said to bring your weapons with you." Merissa raised a single graceful hand, "All of them."

I already knew that something like this was bound to happen. It had not been a surprise the fear that everyone held in their eyes at the mere mention of my name. Faeries and High Fae alike always seemed to turn their heads in the other direction whenever I would walk past them. Conversation stopped and the unmistakable scent of fear drenched the air.

Everyone had done things Under The Mountain, even monstrous enough to rival mine. I wasn't sure how I was that much different from them.

But I was, because I wasn't one of them.

I knew that eventually Tamlin would have made me give him all my weapons. It wasn't hard to read him. Or the fear that he tried to mask whenever I was in his presence.

So, I thought ahead. Four knives now were hidden and glamoured in the closet alongside the League uniform.

I collected the rest of my knives and my sword without breaking the ice-cold marble hard facade that I had plastered on my features.

Wordlessy, I passed Merissa walking out of the door then down the hallway until I climbed down the stairs till I arrived at the wooden doors of the dining room.

I didn't even have time to knock when Tamlin ordered me to come in.

Sat at the head of the table there was the High Lord. Feyre sat on his side but in Lucien's usual seat there was an unfamiliar female. She had long golden hair, teal eyes and a pert nose. On her forehead, above her brows, she had a tattoo in midnight-blue ink of the different stages of the moon cycle. She wore a robe with a fine belt of sky-blue, limpid stones, each perfectly oval and held in shining silver. On top of her hood, a matching delicate band of silver and a set of silver bracelets adorned her wrists.

"Maiven." Tamlin said with a nod, tone unwavering from complete seriousness. "This is Ianthe." He gestured to the female next to him making sure to direct a slight title of his lip to the unfamiliar Fae.

The golden-haired Fae with hair like the sun, smiled brightly enough to rival the shine of her locks. "It is a pleasure to meet you." Ianthe spoke with a sweet and feminine voice.

"Likewise." I answered back with a stoic face and even more unbothered tone.

"I heard a lot about you," Ianthe said, trying to continue a pleasant— by her part— conversation. Her smile never dimmed even for a single second.

I moved my gaze away from the female, I wasn't here to converse with fake people with fake pleasantries, so I stepped forward, approaching the table and placing on it the clothes that contained the weapons wrapped in it.

"Can I at least know why I'm handing in my weapons?" I asked. I knew why, I just wanted him— them, to admit it out loud.

"Just my guards are armed, you have no need for them. We are safe here." Tamlin explained calmly, cooly. The facade of the perfect and unmoved High Lord.

"If it is so safe here, then why are you in need of armed guards?" I asked, keeping up their farce of an excuse. I clicked my tongue on the roof of my mouth. I twirled my hunting between my fingers, concealing my amusement and annoyance when everyone in the room tensed, guards reaching with their hands their shiny new swords.

I refrain from scoffing out loud at that, "I forgot this one." I said with a fake smile, adding the left out blade to the pile of weapons carefully placed in the red cloth with distaste shown on my features for everyone to see.

"If this is all..." I trailed off not wanting to stay much more than needed in that place. Not with Tamlin. Few minutes were already enough for my taste.

The High Lord nodded, signing the agreement for my departure. Ianthe stood up from her seat, with grace she stepped before me, a smile that concealed her malice curling her lips. I did not like this female. "I'm sure that we will be great friends with time, Maiven." She said it as if it had already been written in the stars. A concrete thing that would happen one day or another.

Not going to happen.

I once again stared at her, I couldn't even master any fake pleasantries to share for the bright golden haired High Fae. Sparing a fleeting glance at Lucien, who had stood unmoving at the High Lord side and to my sister, still silent at his lover's side, my rage couldn't help but boil in my blood.

What happened? How did we end up like this?

Truth bubbled from my mouth in a show of strengths and coldness that I had never used against anyone in this room before. "I will let you know that I have no need for weapons. I am as capable of killing even without them."

They feared me, feared the assassin. And as much as she would have denied it, even Feyre shared the same sentiment.

They could only see my sins from Under The Mountain when they looked at me, blood stained and death giver.

It hurt.

[End of the flashback]

I felt bare without the rest of my weapons. No sword, no bow and arrows. I had been smart enough to glamour a blade to look like the hunting knife— knowing well that that one was the most recognizable.

I always thought that being feared was a good thing. But what good was it if there was no one to stand by your side and see who you really are. To accept you for your sins and for your good.

Had they forgotten the reason why I was there in the first place? Had they already forgiven their own actions?

No one was innocent.

The scent of rain, salt and citrus drifted up my nose. Immediately, I recognized that scent. I snapped my eyes open, scanning the forest with sharpness.

I gripped my knife harder at the handle as I crouched on the branch I sat on. I worked with my new senses to search for the male. The scent became stronger the more I followed its origin.

Until a tug– coming from everywhere inside of me, like my whole being was being pulled in that direction.

I had no idea what in the Caulderon's name was happening.

It happened again, another tug, and then another one. I was almost sure that I was going to fall off the tree from the strengths used.

The awareness of strands of different colors intertwined with each other took me by surprise. It was there, seemingly appearing out of nowhere, but now was everywhere. Coming strong accompanied with the scent of rain, salt and citrus as if that person was just standing beside me.

"Why do you smell of blood? " A voice asked.

I jumped slightly at the sound. Because the voice did not sound from the outside words or from her head— making me exclude the possibility of the Daemati abilities of the male. No, it almost felt tangible, like I could touch it, grasp it between my fingers.

"Rhysand! What the fuck!" I shouted using the same way of communication. The way we had talked before could not compare to this. Before the words were like echoes, so far away almost unperceivable. "What the fuck is this? "

"I honestly have no idea."

"What the fuck! " I repeated once again. It was weird before but this... this was a whole other level.

"Yes I heard you the first time, Vee." Rhysand chuckled."Can you sneak out and go into the forest? " He asked with a more serious tone, sobering up from his previous amusement.

"Why? Are you trying to kill me, Rhys? " I couldn't help but joke. It was too funny not to.

"Just sneak out."

"No need to."

"By the Cauldron, Vee. Just sn-" Rhysand groaned, losing the small kernels of patience that he had left.

"I don't need to sneak out because I'm already in the forest." I explained cutting the male off and proceeding to roll my eyes.

"Why are you in the forest in the middle of the night? " The High Lord asked before thinking better of it and correcting himself, "You know what, it doesn't matter. Just, don't move." He said before the scent of rain salt and citrus disappeared.

I scoffed out loud, but nevertheless, I decided to do as he had said— I didn't not have anything better to do other than obsessing over the fact that I couldn't even smile and people would flinch away from me— and didn't move.

After a couple of minutes with just the sound of the cool spring wind brustiling the leaves and the one of night forest animals to be heard, I felt the change.

Magic, Rhys' magic was felt before he even appeared.

"Should I have been the one to ask you if you were trying to kill me, Vee?" Rhysand said with an amusement tilt of his lips as he looked up at the tree, where high above, I was hidden between the foliage with a knife comfortably resting in my hand.

I snorted, finding more amusement in the few words exchanged with him in the last few minutes then in the previous days. "Maybe."

I didn't not even question how he was here. The courts had raised the magical barriers around each territory once again after Amarantha's death and the end of her reign of terror. But Rhysand was extremely powerful, I had not mistaken his ample and destructive abilities. He was strong enough to appear without creating a breach and be discovered.

I easily jumped from the branch, landing perfectly on my feet in front of the High Lord of the Night Court.

Rhysand grinned at me, wide and sly. Mischief shining behind his amethyst violet eyes. He held out a hand out to me, challenging me to take it.

Not one to back down, I quirked a brow. I trusted him, strangely enough. I really did.

So I placed my hand in his and in a second, enough to blink, the dark sky and the stars wrapped around us. Winnowing wasn't something that I had done before, it was strange, but the stars in the gift of the High Lord were stunning enough to mesmerize me until we had arrived at the destination.

A palace made entirely on moonstone. Halls open to the elements, with no windows to be found, just towering pillars and gossamer curtains, swaying in a jasmine-scented breeze. Despite the high altitude— since I could see the snow capped mountains outside– it was warm, probably kept that way by the magic.

As soon as our feet touched the floor, I could feel my heartbeat immediately slow, like all my life it had beated a tad too quick.

"Rhys, did you just kidnap me?" I asked, distracting myself from the weird feeling that the place brought me.

Rhysand had already started to walk away only to stop in his tracks and twirl in his heels at my not so sarcastic question.

"Kidnap you? Maiven you would annoy me so much that I would bring you back in less than an hour." Came his reply with a scoff of disbelief.

"It's a talent." I grinned, amused by his choice of words. "So where are we?"

"This is my private residence at the Court of Nightmares" Rhysand explained, mouth curling into a wide smirk. His eyes lit up as he looked between me and the view outside at the widow just in front of us. "Welcome to The Night Court."

✎

˗ˏˋ 𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫'𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞 ˊˎ˗

Hello everyone!

Plot twist. We are already in the Night Court!

I love this chapter because it shows Maiven's feelings. She is hurting because everyone avoids her and fear her, poor girl. (Sorry, my fault)

And she doesn't smell like blood exactly but more like that metallic smell that can be similar to it. (And not only that) I'm going to describe it as blood and cinnamon later on

Anyways, I lied, this chapter is not short, but yeahh...

Let me know your thoughts on this and what you think is going to happen in the future chapters!!

Anyways, thank you for reading this chapter, I'll see you on Tuesday!

˚ · ° . 𝐔𝐩𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐥𝐞 . ° · ˚

𝐓𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲

𝐓𝐡𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲

𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐲 𝐬𝐚𝐟𝐞 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞!

– 𝐋𝐨𝐥𝐚 ☾