ACOMAF (Rhys's POV)

I Trust you (Chapter 41)

Our goodbyes with Feyre's sisters were short. Nesta seemed glad to be rid of us, queens and all. I didn't argue with her for once. Nor did Cassian.

No one spoke as we flew home. Not even Feyre, who I carried through the warm, dry skies filled with an angry sun that seemed to sense the anger rolling underneath my skin.

Those queens were damned fools and they were going to make us all pay for it. Make all of them pay for it - my friends, my family, Feyre. Watching them all fly home, it would be my fault if they never made it. My fault if the court fell into ruin because the queens didn't trust me enough to hand over the Book.

I thought about everything I'd done as we landed at the townhouse. Every single way I'd defiled myself to save this city for centuries. Letting people think me a whore, a murderer, and a tormentor who delighted in less savory carnal acts. I set Feyre down and walked past an awaiting Amren, needing to look out on the city and know it was worth it, but as I sat by the fountain in the courtyard, I couldn't face my people. My eyes found the ground instead.

A thick scratching noise scraped against the flagstone, as seats were pulled apart and my friends sat with me. "If you're out here to brood, Rhys," Amren said across from me, "then just say so and let me go back to my work."

I had no retort to give her as I met her gaze, so sharp and piercing as ever. "The humans wish for proof of our good intentions," I said. "That we can be trusted."

Amren shot to Feyre in a blaze. "Feyre was not enough?"

Feyre winced slightly, and I felt the bond wobble between us. "She is more than enough," I said, feeling rage snap through me again at the implications of what those queens had inferred of our meeting. "They're fools. Worse - frightened fools."

"We could... depose them," Cassian suggested. "Get newer, smarter queens on their thrones. Who might be willing to bargain." There was no trace of humor. It was, on the whole, a serious suggestion and one that we might have taken up in the past.

Because this was what my court did. This was what I did, to maintain peace for a single city in the cold mountains of Prythian. Murdered innocent people and it made me a monster even the humans knew and feared.

And still, I considered it before shaking my head no. My gut twisting that my reasons had more to do with logistics than the morality of it.

"One, it'd take too long. We don't have that time. Two, who knows if that would somehow impact the magic of their half of the Book. It must be given freely. It's possible the magic is strong enough to see our scheming." I pictured every one of those queens - even the sixth and missing one - and hissed. "We are stuck with them."

"We could try again," Mor said. Finally, I looked up and found her warm eyes watching me, understanding me even possibly. "Let me speak to them, let me go to their palace-"

"No," Azriel said, cutting across her. Mor perked up, undoubtedly unused to Az's fixed opinion against her, but the shadowsinger was set - and I couldn't blame him. The things he'd told me of the palace were more than simply dangerous.

That didn't stop Mor from staring at him incredulously, her voice sharpening as she redirected her attention to him. "I fought in the War, you will do well to remember-"

"No," Azriel said again, staring right back at her determined. Every muscle in his body seemed to flex. "They would string you up and make an example of you."

"They'd have to catch me first."

Azriel's wings shifted. Cassian and I shared a look and both equally tensed. "That palace is a death trap for our kind," Azriel said, halfway toward getting up out of his seat and sitting next to Mor if it would convince her - if it would keep her safe. "Built by Fae hands to protect the humans from us. You set foot inside it, Mor, and you won't walk out again. Why do you think we've had such trouble getting a foothold in there?"