rhysand

There are different kinds of darkness,_ Rhys said. I kept my eyes shut. __here is the darkness that frightens, the darkness that soothes, the darkness that is restful._ I pictured each. __here is the darkness of lovers, and the darkness of assassins. It becomes what the bearer wishes it to be, needs it to be. It is not wholly bad or good.

Well, good-bye for now," he said, rolling his neck as if we hadn't been talking about anything important at all. He bowed at the waist, those wings vanishing entirely, and had begun to fade into the nearest shadow when he went rigid.His eyes locked on mine wide and wild, and his nostrils flared. Shock__ure shock flashed across his features at whatever he saw on my face, and he stumbled back a step. Actually stumbled. "What is_" I began.He disappeared__imply disappeared, not a shadow in sight__nto the crisp air.

Why?" I asked. He knew what I meant, and shrugged. "Because when the legends get written, I didn't want to be remembered for standing on the sidelines. I want my future offspring to know that I was there, and that I fought against her at the end, even if I couldn't do anything useful." I blinked, this time not at the brightness of the sun. "Because," he went on, his eyes locked with mine, "I didn't want you to fight alone. Or die alone.

She has the most delicious thoughts about you, Tamlin,_ he said. __he__ wondered about the feeling of your fingers on her thighs__etween them, too._ He chuckled. Even as he said my most private thoughts, even as I burned with outrage and shame, I trembled at the grip still on my mind. Rhysand turned to the High Lord. ____ curious: Why did she wonder if it would feel good to have you bite her breast the way you bit her neck?_ __et. Her. Go._ Tamlin__ face was twisted with such feral rage that it struck a different, deeper chord of terror in me. __f it__ any consolation,_ Rhysand confided to him, __he would have been the one for you__nd you might have gotten away with it. A bit late, though. She__ more stubborn than you are.

Say it,_ I gritted out.__he High Lord of the Night Court is your mate.

I waited for the fear to hit; waited for my body to shriek to find a way to get out of this dinner, but ... nothing. Maybe it'd be a mercy to be en

So I__ your huntress and thief?_ His hands slid down to cup the backs of my knees as he said with a roguish grin, __ou are my salvation, Feyre.

If she captured Tamlin__ power once, who__ to say she can__ do it again?_ It was the question I hadn__ yet dared voice.__e won__ be tricked again so easily,_ he said, staring up at the ceiling. __er biggest weapon is that she keeps our powers contained. But she can__ access them, not wholly__hough she can control us through them. It__ why I__e never been able to shatter her mind__hy she__ not dead already. The moment you break Amarantha__ curse, Tamlin__ wrath will be so great that no force in the world will keep him from splattering her on the walls.__ chill went through me.__hy do you think I__ doing this?_ He waved a hand to me.__ecause you__e a monster.__e laughed. __rue, but I__ also a pragmatist. Working Tamlin into a senseless fury is the best weapon we have against her. Seeing you enter into a fool__ bargain with Amarantha was one thing, but when Tamlin saw my tattoo on your arm _ Oh, you should have been born with my abilities, if only to have felt the rage that seeped from him.__ didn__ want to think much about his abilities. __ho__ to say he won__ splatter you as well?___erhaps he__l try__ut I have a feeling he__l kill Amarantha first. That__ what it all boils down to, anyway: even your servitude to me can be blamed on her. So he__l kill her tomorrow, and I__l be free before he can start a fight with me that will reduce our once-sacred mountain to rubble._ He picked at his nails. __nd I have a few other cards to play.__ lifted my brows in silent question.__eyre, for Cauldron__ sake. I drug you, but you don__ wonder why I never touch you beyond your waist or arms?__ntil tonight__ntil that damned kiss. I gritted my teeth, but even as my anger rose, a picture cleared.__t__ the only claim I have to innocence,_ he said, __he only thing that will make Tamlin think twice before entering into a battle with me that would cause a catastrophic loss of innocent life. It__ the only way I can convince him I was on your side. Believe me, I would have liked nothing more than to enjoy you__ut there are bigger things at stake than taking a human woman to my bed.__ knew, but I still asked, __ike what?___ike my territory,_ he said, and his eyes held a far-off look that I hadn__ yet seen. __ike my remaining people, enslaved to a tyrant queen who can end their lives with a single word. Surely Tamlin expressed similar sentiments to you._ He hadn____ot entirely. He hadn__ been able to, thanks to the curse.__hy did Amarantha target you?_ I dared ask. __hy make you her whore?___eyond the obvious?_ He gestured to his perfect face. When I didn__ smile, he loosed a breath. __y father killed Tamlin__ father__nd his brothers.__ started. Tamlin had never said__ever told me the Night Court was responsible for that.__t__ a long story, and I don__ feel like getting into it, but let__ just say that when she stole our lands out from under us, Amarantha decided that she especially wanted to punish the son of her friend__ murderer__ecided that she hated me enough for my father__ deeds that I was to suffer.__ might have reached a hand toward him, might have offered my apologies__ut every thought had dried up in my head. What Amarantha had done to him __o,_ he said wearily, __ere we are, with the fate of our immortal world in the hands of an illiterate human.

But Amarantha rolled her eyes and slouched in her throne. __hatter him, Rhysand._ She flicked a hand at the High Lord of the Summer Court. __ou may do what you want with the body afterward.__he High Lord of the Summer Court bowed__s if he__ been given a gift__nd looked to his subject, who had gone still and calm on the floor, hugging his knees. The male faerie was ready__elieved.Rhys slipped a hand out of his pocket, and it dangled at his side. I could have sworn phantom talons flickered there as his fingers curled slightly.____ growing bored, Rhysand,_ Amarantha said with a sigh, again fiddling with that bone. She hadn__ looked at me once, too focused on her current prey.Rhysand__ fingers curled into a fist.The faerie male__ eyes went wide__hen glazed as he slumped to the side in the puddle of his own waste. Blood leaked from his nose, from his ears, pooling on the floor.That fast__hat easily, that irrevocably _ he was dead.__ said shatter his mind, not his brain,_ Amarantha snapped.The crowd murmured around me, stirring. I wanted nothing more than to fade back into it__o crawl back into my cell and burn this from my mind. Tamlin hadn__ flinched__ot a muscle. What horrors had he witnessed in his long life if this hadn__ broken that distant expression, that control?Rhysand shrugged, his hand sliding back into his pocket. __pologies, my queen._ He turned away without being dismissed, and didn__ look at me as he strode for the back of the throne room. I fell into step beside him, reining in my trembling, trying not to think about the body sprawled behind us, or about Clare__till nailed to the wall.The crowd stayed far, far back as we walked through it. __hore,_ some of them softly hissed at him, out of her earshot; __marantha__ whore._ But many offered tentative, appreciative smiles and words___ood that you killed him; good that you killed the traitor.

Why does anything cling to something? Maybe they love wherever they're going so much that it's worth it. Maybe they'll keep coming back, until there's only one star left. Maybe that one star will make the trip forever, out of the hope that someday__f it keeps coming back often enough__nother star will find it again.

The great joy and honour of my life has been to know you. To call you my family. And I am grateful - more than I can possibly say - that I was given this time with you all

Rhysand stared at me for long enough that I faced him."Be glad of your human heart, Feyre. Pity those who don't feel anything at all.

I__ thinking it would be very easy to love you. And easier to call you my friend.

And I wondered if love was too weak a word for what he felt, what he__ done for me. For what I felt for him.

Amren,_ Rhys drawled, __ends her regards. And as for this one _ _ I tried not to flinch away from meeting his stare. __he__ mine,_ he said quietly, but viciously enough that Devlon and his warriors nearby heard. __nd if any of you lay a hand on her, you lose that hand. And then you lose your head._ I tried not to shiver, as Cassian and Mor showed no reaction at all. __nd once Feyre is done killing you,_ Rhys smirked, __hen I__l grind your bones to dust.

A snap of Rhys__ fingers, and my nightclothes__nd some flimsy underthings__ppeared on the bed. __ couldn__ decide which scrap of lace I wanted you to wear, so I brought you a few to choose from._ __ig,_ I barked

Because all the monsters have been let out of their cages tonight, no matter what court they belong to. So I may roam wherever I wish until the dawn.

Rhysand yelled my name again - yelled it as though he cared. I blacked out, but she brought me back, ensuring that I felt everything ensuring that I screamed every time a bone broke.