Feyre

Lucien sat in Tamlin's chair, a fact I was unwilling to find normal. So far nothing about this felt normal.

Striding through the dining room archway proved more difficult a task than I'd planned - even for Elain's sake - but I'd done with possibly too much dependency on Rhysand's gentle touch at my back, his swirling thumb reminding me to breathe. Everything looked the same as it had that last day I'd spent here months ago. The window caught my eye and my chest felt the pressure of Lucien hiding me from my mate who would have known I was there no matter how much they coated me with pungent magic.

Lucien's arm was wrapped around my sister as they walked, her flower-crowned hair tangling with his as she rested her head on his shoulder. I did my best not to notice the subtle movements of his hand or the way she would turn her face to plant kisses not light enough to be appropriate in front of us all. They only stopped their touching once he'd sat at the head of the table and Elain had taken Lucien's old seat.

Nesta scoffed.

I doubted I'd ever felt so in tune with my eldest sister in my life.

She settled into the seat aside Elain, leaving me and my Illyrians on the opposite side of the table. They followed me, waiting to move and speak until I had my chance to lead but as I approached the chair at Lucien's left, I hesitated.

Rhysand appeared then, pulling the seat away to make room for himself before pulling the seat across from Nesta out for me to sit. I gave him a soft smile as we settled in. Cassian sat at my left, pulling his chair out a little further than ours, making room for his wings to fit off to the side.

"I'm so glad to hear you support me," Elain said to me from across the table just as servants began to carry in our meal. She reached her hand over the table where Lucien caught it instantly.

Nesta rolled her eyes. "Yeah, we'll see about that when you tell her what you're actually up to."

My gaze popped up to Elain from the food that had just been placed before me. "What is she talking about?"

Elain gave an uncomfortable smile, her lips pursed. "Well," she started just as Lucien begame making slow, sensual circles with his fingers into her palm. "We realize that I am of limited life span." Fear sunk in me for my own mate despite now knowing that no longer needed to be one of my many fears in this new life. Rhysand placed a hand on my knee under the table to steady me. "But we have found a way to spend immortality together."

The air was stiff when I asked her, "What do you mean?"

She waited for all the servants to have left the room before speaking into the silence. "There's a Cauldron that can grant life - even immortal life."

Cassian leapt from his chair, his eyes boring into Lucien. "You've teamed up with Hybern?" he shouted.

Rhysand was frozen at my side.

"He can grant us things beyond what are available in Prythian," Lucien said. "Things previously thought to be unattainable."

"Only for the cost of your soul," I bit out at the red haired fae I'd always considered my friend. "Not to mention all your people you reign over now and all the lands you inherited through your friendship with-"

"Go ahead," Lucien interjected. "Say his name."

We all paused. I could feel the anger bubbling down the cord that connected me to my mate.

"Tamlin," he spat at me, his voice full of simmering disgust. "The male who loved you. The male you killed."

I cringed at the words, but Rhysand flew to his feet. "You may think you knew your High Lord, but none of us knew of the lengths of evil that faerie was capable of."

"EVIL?" Lucien shouted. "You, Lord of Nightmares, are trying to tell me that Tamlin was evil? That the High Lord I knew as a friend and brother was a worse outcome for Feyre than being mated to you, royal whore and bastard?"

Cassian flew across the table, but I reached out a hand to stop him. He and my mate both slid back into their seats on either side of me.

"Lucien," I said, my voice soft and hollow. "That night we had the party in the meadows, when I drank faerie wine, do you remember?"

"Of course," he responded as if my doubting his memory was an insult in and of itself.

"I'd had way too much to drink. I was barely conscious and kept blacking out…" I trailed off. My sister's faces were surprisingly gentle, knowing where my story was headed. Rhysand held the bond firm and taut, pulling me to him, making sure I knew he was there in every way he could be. "I woke up a few times while Tamlin… He was having sex with me, Lucien. While I was unconscious. He raped me."

Lucien's face was a mask, his eyes troubled but his brow strong.

"It's irrelevant now," he said. "Hybern is coming and he'll have my lands and my armies."

Something in me broke at the admission from someone I'd always considered to be good, if not at times misguided. My friend was gone and in his place was a belligerent lovestruck fool.

I pushed my chair back. "Then I suppose we have nothing more to talk about."

"Feyre!" Elain chided. "You're not just going to leave? Just like that? We're doing this for love. I thought you'd understand."

"Love is not so selfish as to sell out a continent of helpless humans and unprepared faeries to an evil dictator just so you can be young forever," I snapped.

And for the first time in my life, I saw Elain angry. Her face curled into a snarl, her eyes broken and betrayed. And I'd been the one to make her this way.

"I want you out of my house and off my land," Lucien said, not deigning to even make eye contact with us anymore.

I stood and with one last look at this new Elain, turned to leave. Rhysand and Cassian followed closely behind, but when I reached the doorway I paused in shock. A fourth chair was shoved back and I heard the light footsteps of my eldest sister join our leaving party.

"Nesta?" Elain called out, her voice softer than it had been with me.

But Nesta did not speak back to her. Instead she walked through Cassian and my mate toward me. "I'm not staying around this evil lunacy. Our sister is lost to us now."

And for the first time in my life I saw Nesta turn her back on Elain.

Rhysand winnowed us off of Spring Court lands the moment we walked out the front door of the manor, but to my surprise we weren't instantly home in Velaris looking into the eagerly waiting eyes of the Inner Circle. Instead we were flying through a forest covered with a thick blanket of snow. Surprisingly I felt no chill despite wearing the breezy Night Court attire in deep plum with golden trim. I looked to my mate who responded with a quick yank on our bond, as he tightened his grip around my waist, his wings stretched out behind us.

Nesta and Cassian were a few yards away flying down toward an iced over fir tree.

Do you trust your sister? Rhys asked through the bond.

I looked away from Nesta's scowling face, giving Cassian a scolding for an apparently rough landing. In what way? I asked him back, needing a little more of a specific question when it came to Nesta.

Could Lucien and Elain have sent her with us on purpose in order for Hybern to have a way into Velaris?

I twisted in his arms until he gave way and we were chest to chest. I trust that Nesta has always hated the fae so much that she would never work with one.

Rhysand nodded. I felt us glide a little higher, turning slowly. I reached my arms up and around his neck. "Are you delaying our landing?" I asked.

He grinned. "Anything to spend a little more alone time with you."

I thought back to the night before we saw the Bone Carver, when heat seized me and the soft, sweet kisses had drawn us into sleep. And then to last night, when my nervousness over seeing my sisters kept me distant, yet he laid by my side all through the night.

"Maybe after all this Hybern business we should get away," I offered, my heart rate rising a little at my implication.

I felt the chill of his stress over Hybern before the slow smile spread across his face. "Oh yeah? Like a vacation?"

I couldn't bring myself to say it outloud so instead I sent down the bond, Do fae mates have honeymoons?

Something sparked in his eyes and my blood warmed. Not for mating but for marriage.

My blush burned my cheeks. "Oh," I said.

But instead of shying away, he leaned his face into mine and kissed both corners of my mouth. "I'll give you a honeymoon someday," he whispered before pressing his lips into mine and taking us far away from the world where I was an undead freak with a stone for a heart and he was an all powerful Lord and victim of decades of sexual abuse.

Instead we were just us.

Mates.

"Are you guys ever gonna land or what?" Nesta shouted from below.

"Are you kidding me? Do you ever stop yelling?" Cassian yelled back at her.

I laughed, loud and open. Rhys grinned into my neck where he nuzzled in another kiss before descending to meet them in the snow below.

Author's Note: I'm baaaaaaack. Honestly thank you to everyone who reviews and reminds me and encourages me not to give up on this story I love so much. I appreciate all of you readers so so so much and reviewers definitely have a special place in my heart. I love you all and I hope the best of luck to any other writers out there no matter how big or small your work is!