A Court of Golden Shadows

Chapter 6

Elain stood frozen in place. She should have felt him, hadn't she been so distracted with her own thoughts she might had been able to feel him when she entered the room. Silence reigned the room for a while until Feyre broke it.

"Elain, what are you doing here?"

"I live here" she instantly regretted the words that left her mouth, there was no way for Feyre to know that Elain would decide to cut her walk short.

"I know that, it's just that usually you arrive at noon"

"Oh. Well, I decided to cut my walk short." even after she stopped talking, everyone continued to stare at her in silence.

"I'm going to my room"

She climbed up the stairs and headed to her room. She wanted to know what was going on, why everyone was gathered in the living room and why they were all tense. But she didn't want to be in the same room as Lucien, so she went to her room and decided to ask Feyre later and try to convince her to tell her.

She decided to lie on her bed for a while, but sleep found her and when she woke up, she went downstairs and saw that everyone was already gone. She decided to go to the kitchen to grab something to eat, and there he was. Lucien was eating some of the pastries that she had made yesterday for dinner. She thought about getting out quietly, but he had already seen her and she knew that it would be too rude of her part. So, she just moved to grab some pastries and thought about going to her room immediately.

However, an idea came to her mind, whenever she asked Feyre, Nesta, Mor or Amren what was going on, they just told her not to worry about it, that everything was fine. Once, she tried asking Azriel, Rhys and Cassian. Azriel just said that they would keep her safe, that she had nothing to worry about. Rhys and Cassian only told her the general idea of what the problem was, but they didn't go deeper than that. She had never tried asking Lucien.

"Why were you all gathered in the living room?" she blurted. Her back was facing him, but she knew he had heard her. There was silence for a while until he answered.

"There was an attack in the human lands" this time she turned around and faced him. Shock and fear on her face.

"Was anyone hurt?"

"Vassa, Jurian and I are fine. The attack was on the east side of the village. Some houses were destroyed and a man broke his leg and arm saving his wife and children, but apart from that no one else was harmed."

"Do you know who did it?" He shook his head as he ate the last bite of his pastry.

"We think Beron might have had something to do with it, but we are not sure. The attack was obviously not meant to destroy and kill everyone. Before this, the war was only with the fae lands, but it seems that whoever did this, wants the human lands involved."

"What are you going to do?"

"Right now, we will just stick to patrol the area and keep a closer eye on Beron. We need to be sure that Beron is the one behind this before we involve the other courts. I'm Beron's son, so I'm the only one who can enter the court without invitation and it won't be seen as trespassing."

Elain processed everything as fast as she could. Everyone seemed to think that Beron was behind all of this but why? She knew what he had done and, to be honest, she hated the man. But she never saw him as a scheming, strategic man. Lucien was the only one that had actually told her what was happening, she didn't want to push her luck with him, but she wanted to know why.

"Why do you think Beron is behind this?" He looked at her with a confused face and answered as if it was obvious.

"Because of what happened with Briallyn"

"What happened with Briallyn?"

"The Trove, Koschei and Briallyn all plotting to steal your sister's powers. Don't you remember that?" He was getting frustrated now, she could feel it. It had not happened too long ago, so she knew it was obvious that she should remember. But apart from involving her in tracking the Trove, she had not been involved in anything else, so she clearly was not informed in what had happened after that.

"I do remember that, but no one kept me aware of the progress or anything at all. I was only informed what they consider could not "harm me" or "worry me", but apart from that no one never keeps me aware of what is going on." The frustration tone in her voice matched his, and she realized it was the first time she had ever spoken to someone in that tone.

Lucien just stared at her for a while with a face that revealed nothing, until he frowned and finally spoke.

"I thought that your sisters kept you informed. I know that they don't like to involve you, but I never thought they actually kept you oblivion to everything."

"I'm not a China doll. I'm not as fragile and innocent as my sisters think I am. I know they only want to protect me, but I hate to feel useless."

She had never said that to anyone and she never thought that the first person she would say that to, would be Lucien, but she felt that somehow he understood her.

He sighed and looked at the floor before looking back at her.

"We think that Beron is planning to ally himself with Koschei. We need to keep an eye on him, so right now there's nothing you can do to help. Not even Rhys and Feyre are going to do something just now. But I can keep you up with everything that happens and if we need more help, I will recommend you." He stopped, took a breath and the continued.

"I also think that you should tell your sisters how you feel. They have the right to know that you want to be part of this."

"I know and I will tell them, but just don't tell them anything yet. Don't tell anyone anything about this please." He nodded and looked her in the eye.

"I won't say a word about this to anyone. I promise."

His red hair and golden eye shone with the sunlight and Elain found herself staring at his face and unable to take her eyes off him. It wasn't until Lucien cleared his throat and turned to leave that she came to her senses.

"Well, I should be leaving. I need to go to the Autumn Court."

"Lucien" his name left her lips without warning and when he turned to look at her, she knew what she wanted to tell him.

"Thank you. For everything." Her heart raced as the words left her mouth and they just stared at each other for a while until he bowed his head and left the house without a word.