A Love From A Different World

Chapter 12

The whole room stilled for a moment. Azriel's words still hung in the air, dauntingly. The thing they had most feared had occurred. Now there was nothing separating the humans from the fae. Nothing to stop the bloodshed that would undoubtedly occur. Rhys was unprepared for such an occurrence-they all were. It was not as if they had never thought about it happening- hell they had talked about it endlessly. But it was too sudden. And how the hell had no one noticed? Why hadn't the other courts alarmed the others?

"What?" Mor was the first to recover from the shock.

"Have you heard anything from the Spring Court?"

Azriel shook his head, "Nothing, not that I'm surprised."

"This changes everything," Mor breathed, a terrified look adorned her face. "The human realm is doomed."

"This is a lot sooner than anyone predicted," Agreed Cassian, his hands fidgeting with his siphons. "I could gather the armies-"

"No, we are not doing anything just yet," The High Lord took them all by surprise. "We are staying put until we know exactly what happened, what Hybern is planning."

"But the wall-" Mor was baffled by her cousin's revelation, so much so that she stuttered. "And the humans, they are completely defenseless!"

"The humans are not our problem," Countered Amren, staring down the Third-in-Command with her snake-like eyes. "They never were."

Unable to comprehend the situation, Mor turned towards her cousin, eyes wide with rage. "Rhys-"

"We reach out to the other courts, now they have no choice but to pick a side. There's no time to think, the wall is gone and Hybern's legions could attack us at any moment-" He turned towards his general. "Keir will know something is up if you gather the armies, so say nothing, but discreetly prepare them."

Mor visibly stiffened at the mention of her father, something that was seen by all of them, but mentioned by no one. Rhysand wanted to speak to his cousin about last night, about how she was doing, forced to be in the same room as her bastard father. But it would have to wait, there was no time right now.

"Mor, I'm sending you to the Court of Summer, do whatever you need to convince them." She nodded, still uneasy with how unprotected the humans were. Of all of them, Mor was the most troubled by such an occurrence; none of them wanted the human realm destroyed, but Mor had once been very close with the mortals. "Amren, go to the Illyrian Camps, see how many are ready to fight."

She nodded without another word while Rhys turned towards his Spymaster. "Make contact with your spies from Hybern, see what they have to say."

"...What about Celaena?" Mor asked, the question stayed unanswered for a while.

"We'll question her," The words came out of Rhysand's mouth uneasily and hesitantly.

"Torture the answers out of her, you mean,"

"No!" Azriel and Rhysand looked equally alarmed with Amren's suggestion. "No one is to touch her."

"Rhys, now is not the time to go easy on the human,"

"No one is to touch her." He repeated forcefully.

"Then go into her mind," Cassian gently offered. He was terrified of the hold Celena had over both his brothers, scared of what would happen if that hold grew.

"I can't,"

Everyone froze for the second time that morning. Rhysand, High Lord of the Night Court, a half Illyrian Warrior, and the most powerful High Lord in history, was not able to enter a mere human's mind.

"Can't or won't?" Tested Amren, spitting out the words like venom.

"Can't, her mind is still protected against me. Whoever shielded her mind did a good job."

"Anything else?"

"I need to meet with the Mortal Queens,"

The rest of his family stared at him as if he was crazy, which he was starting to ask himself as well. "What?"

"War's coming," Rhys explained, the tension in his body tightened. He looked up to his court with eyebrows knitted together, fist clenched shut. "We need all the allies we can get."