𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟑

"𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘕𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘊𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘵 "

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╰┈˚ · ° .  COMFORTABLE SILENCE STRETCHED BETWEEN Rhys and I as we sipped wine from glasses before the breathtaking view before us. From the windowless wall it was easy to see the mountains covered in thick layers of white soft snow. The wind outside howled but not even a single draft entered the palace.

"Aren't you missing some knives?" Rhysand asked, moving his gaze to scan my form from head to toe. The question bubbled out when he undoubtedly noticed the lack of weapons.

I let out a sigh, bringing the glass to my lips for a quick sip before replying with tangible venom in my tone, "The High Lord of masks and flowers decide that only his guards can be armed."

"The High Lord of masks and flowers? " Rhysand snorted, pressing his lips tightly together to prevent a laugh, "I am going to remember it."

I smiled amusedly, quirked my lips into a slight grin scoffing at my next words. "His guards are completely incompetent." I said.

"Why do you think that?" Rhys asked, cocking an eyebrow up, interested and amused at the same time.

"Tamlin decided to have some of them following me around." I explained with distaste. "The thing is, I shouldn't know that they are following me."

Rhysand burst into loud laughter, hard enough that he brought his hand on his chest, "Did he really think that you were not going to notice someone following you?" he asked in disbelief. The assassins of the League might be human and rarely cross to the land of the faes, but we were still notorious to everyone in Prythian. "And I'm pretty sure that you have more than just three knives on you, don't you?" He pointed out.

My answer was just a cocky smirk but for the High Lord sitting next to me was enough to know that indeed, I had more weapons on me.

"Are you going to tell me what that was?" I asked then, sobering up from the amusement and turning the atmosphere more serious.

"I already told you, I don't know." Rhys replied, lying through his teeth. "When we first met on the night of Calanmai, something weird happened with my magic. It was like I had no control over it and it just bursted out towards you. I leashed it back before it could do anything but it had never happened to me before."

"So it was your fault." I scoffed. "I almost fell asleep on my horse. I was drained."

"Sorry." Rhysand grinned. He definitely wasn't sorry. He turned serious once again, mind whirling too fast as he thought, "You could hear me talk before, right? Before you were turned?"

"A whisper of it," I told him. Ignoring the fact that I knew that he was lying. Because Rhysand knew something. The thought blared through my mind, "It's not a mating bond, right?!" I shouted, eyes widening and heartbeat racing. I did not see Rhysand in that way.

"No, Vee. It's not." His chuckled echoed around the living room, and I was sure he agreed with me. We were not like that.

"Oh, Thank The Cauldron." I let out a relieved sigh. "Do you want to tell me what you already know or you'll just continue to lie?" I asked when the silence had fallen. If he had been any other person, I would have just waited and seen, tried to discover his secret myself, but with him, I didn't feel the need to.

Rhysand slightly widened his eyes, caught by surprise by my words before quickly turning his expression to neutral, it was clear that he thought that he had been careful enough to conceal it. And it was true. His expression and body language was almost perfect, he didn't think about something else, though.

"It was your heartbeat." I told him, "It speeded up slightly when you said that you didn't know."

"You knew from my heartbeat?" He asked in disbelief, "How can you focus enough to hear my heartbeat and not everything else— while having a conversation too?! It should not be possible to do that for someone that had been a Fae for only three weeks."

"It's easy." I said with a shrug. "Heartbeats are easy to hear. They are actually the first thing that I hear if I focus." Alongside the blood rushing through the veins— but I did not add that.

Rhysand looked at me for a second, a war in his mind battling in that exact second. Then he exhaled a breath, turning towards the view as he spoke, "I do not know for sure. I promise that I will tell you when I'll be more sure." His voice was soft, words almost whispered.

Whatever this 'bond' between us was, whatever he knew, I just understood that it was more than I had previously thought. Meant more.

And so I nodded my head, changing the direction of our talk, "Why did you reach out to me tonight?"

Rhysand took a whole minute to answer. He turned towards me, violet eyes softening, as they glanced at me. "In the last three weeks sometimes I could feel your emotions. It always lasted just a couple of seconds and it was faint. But tonight it lasted more and It was a lot stronger than the other times."

My mind screamed at me that we showed weakness. Years and years passed as an assassin with the mindset of the League, left scars in me that went deeper than the skin level. The first instinct that I had was to close myself up, deny anything and learn how to build new walls around this new found bond with the High Lord.

It took me more than I liked to brush the insistent voice in my head, deciding to do the opposite. Opening up. "I had a nightmare." I said, not daring to raise my voice more than it was necessary for him to hear my whisper. "I had them for years but since... They are much worse. Everyone treating me like I'm death-in-flesh definitely it's not helping." I added the last bit with an eye roll. "I am sorry that it got to you."

Rhysand shook his head, "Don't apologize for it." He spoke, taking a second before adding, "I have nightmares too."

We stayed in comfortable silence for a couple of minutes just staring at the snow-capped mountains in front of us, hearing the wind blowing outside and taking sips from the wine in our glasses.

"Why did you always came into my cell?" I broke the silence with the question that had been haunting my mind for far too long.

"At first it was to find out what made my magic act that way."

"And then?" Rhysand didn't answer my question, "I think that we were both alone." I started, "And maybe even if it was for just five minutes, I needed someone to help me clean the blood off my hands and that would not judge me for it. And maybe you needed to not be the High Lord that everyone feared."

"Or her whore" Rhysand whispered, words almost lost to the wind.

"Everyone made sacrifices for the people that they cared about Under The Mountain. Some, more than others. But it seems that it's just easy to forget theirs and blame someone else insted."

Rhysand didn't say anything, his eyes slowly becoming haunted with the memories of almost fifty years that he had been forced to be with Amarantha. My heart ached in my chest, in that moment I would have done anything to get that look off his face. So I did the only thing that I knew would have distracted him enough. I let him see my secret.

"I want to show you something." I said, for the first time since leaving the room in the Spring Court, I let the glamour fall off from my hair revealing the bright ruby color.

"I already know that your hair is red now." he commented, lips tugging slightly upwards.

"Not that." I rolled my eyes, unsheathing the knife that was strapped to my thigh.

"If this something includes that knife, then I don't know if I want to see it. '' Rhysand joked, a smirk quickly forming on his lips.

"Do you want me to continue or not?" I slightly snapped making the raven-haired High Fae even more amused. I let out a sigh, not waiting for his answer as I started to talk again, "A couple of days after I got back to the Spring Court, I was still trying to get used to this body." I began, "I shattered a glass and it cutted my hand."

I raised the knife. Its tip directly on the fingertip of my left hand's middle finger. I applied the smallest amount of pressure, that sharp point enough to prick the skin. A small drop of blood quickly formed, collecting on the surface.

"And it was then that I discovered that I could do..." I said while sheathing the knife again, "This."

I positioned my other middle finger a couple of inches above the bloodied one. With a fluid motion I moved my right hand higher. The small drop of blood elongated, until it wrapped itself around the hand and wrist.

Slightly moving my fingers, I continued to manipulate the blood— who moved smoothly under my command. I then snapped my fingers together and the flow of red blood disappeared as it was never there to begin with.

I had never done anything that felt so right. It was easy, creating flows of blood. Manipulating it was as natural as breathing.

Rhysand stared wide eyed, closing and opening his mouth a couple of times. "You are a Bloodsinger. " He whispered, relief showing in his eyes.

"Is that how it is called?" I asked confused. "I wanted to do some research at the library at the Spring Court, but I didn't want anyone to know about it. And with the guards following me around..."

"No!" Rhysand shouted standing up from his chair all of a sudden "Maiven listen to me. Don't talk about it with anyone else, alright? Please."

I stood up too and placed a hand on Rhysand's arm. "I won't, Rhys. Alright?" He sighed, panic decreasing. He nodded his head before he sat again in his armchair "Is it bad that I can do this?" I asked, sitting down again, grimacing at the thought that I was an outcast even with these new powers.

"Not at all." Rhysand smiled, soft and heartfelt. A smile that was meant to reassure me. "You just gave me the confirmation. I know for sure what our connection is."

✎

˗ˏˋ 𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫'𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞 ˊˎ˗

Hello everyone!

Drum rolls, my friends.

Blood Manipulation is probably one of my favorite powers ever and it actually matches well with Maiven's past and character overall.

More will be explained in the next chapter, I swear.

Rhys and Mai have a platonic bond!! Nothing romantic there

Let me know your thoughts!

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

˚ · ° . 𝐔𝐩𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐥𝐞 . ° · ˚

𝐓𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲

𝐓𝐡𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲

𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐲 𝐬𝐚𝐟𝐞 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞!

– 𝐋𝐨𝐥𝐚 ☾