To The Ones Who Can't Dream

chapter 6 - The Bat Boys

Seren found everyone besides Amren in the lounge area by the dining room. When she walked in, everyone looked up. "So tell me High Lord, I know you are not fully High fae. So what else are you?"

Rhys stared at her for so long that it became uncomfortable. Cass elbowed him in the side and Rhys seemed to snap out of whatever trance he was in, "Yes, my mother was Illyrian and my father was High Fae. My father was on High Lord business at one of the Illyrian camps when he looked at my mother and the bond snapped into place. Women in Illyrian camps have their wings clipped after their first bleeding and my mother dearly loved to fly. She loved flying so much that she did everything possible to postpone her maturation. My mother starved herself, gathered illegal herbs, anything she could do to stop them from clipping her wings, she did. Her parents were mortified when she had reached 18 and still had not had her first bleeding. But eventually the day came and it only took one male to be in the wrong place at the wrong time to tell so she took to the skies. But she was only 18 and had made herself ill by trying to stop her bleeding so she was weak. The Illryian males that got sent after her were much faster and dragged her back to camp. Right as they were about to clip her wings, my father strolled through the camp on official High Lord business and spotted her. The mating bond snapped into place and he misted the males trying to clip her wings."

"Wait what does 'misted' mean?" Seren interrupted.

In response, Rhys floated an orange up to him. With a snap of his fingers the orange disintegrated and only a faint orange scented mist remained of the fruit. Rhys continued, "As the blood mist fell, my father took her away from the camp and to the Court of Nightmares."

Seren interrupted again, "Okay, so what is the Court of Nightmares?"

Mor spoke up, "It's the place where the rest of Prythian believes runs the Night Court."

Rhysand picked up his story again, "My mother loved her race so much, but never felt the same towards them after they almost ruined her chances of flying. Even though there was the mating bond between my parents, they just were not right for each other. So when I was young, she brought me to her Illyrian camp so I could learn their ways and be away from my father. I tried to use siphons for my power, but I smashed a dozen before I realized they just were not compatible with me. My power was too great for the siphons to handle."

Cass snickered, "Poor oh so powerful High Lord."

Rhys shot him a look, "Anyways, that is where I met Az and Cass."

Amren was the one to speak up now, "And so you guys have been friends ever since you met?"

Cassian answered her, "No, we actually hated each other's guts at first. Azriel was the bastard of a local Lord and a maid. And if you think the bastard of a Lord is treated badly, a bastard of a washer and a male she refused to remember were treated even worse by the Illyrians. Bastards are given no help, resources, or shelter. They are thrown out into the cold and forced to fend for themselves. But when my camp realized how powerful I was, they shipped me off to another camp. Well, they would come to regret that when I returned after completing training and my mother had been tossed in some ditch after the males had worked her to death."

Something flickered across Cassian's face before he continued, "Anyways, when Az's family figured out he was a shadowsinger, they also sent him to the camp that Rhys and I happened to be at."

Azriel chimed in, "By the time Rhys arrived at camp, Cassian had fought every male twice our age. When he won, he would demand the clothes off the male's back. So when Rhys, a shiny new toy in his new training leathers, walked into camp, Cass immediately singled him out."

Rhys picked up the story, "When my mother and I arrived she sent me into the fighting pits and turned her back on me."
Amren said, "That seems kind of harsh for a child."

Mor answered her unasked question, "It would have made Rhys's life living hell if his mother had stayed. It is seen as weak for the mother to coddle her children."

"Anyways," Rhys interrupted, "I got my ass kicked by Cass and so naturally hated him. But when I was back at my house that night I looked out the window and saw Cassian trudging through the snow to a small space where the only shelter was a small scrap of leather tied between two trees. I asked my mother why he was out there and she told me that the Illryians do not give anything to bastards. So what did I do, I walked out into the snow and brought him inside. My mother saw that he had a bed and food."

Seren spoke up, "And so you two were then friends?"

Cassian laughed, "No we still hated each other's guts until Az showed up. When he connected all of us together we were thick as thieves. All we wanted to do was fight other males and fuck all the females."

Seren worked hard to hide her surprise. Cass continued, "Sometimes we went as far as to fuck in the same room."

This caused Seren's mouth to open slightly before she could catch it. Mor exclaimed, "Enough with that, let's go eat."