Of Light And Dark | acotar

Chapter 1

First off, thank you so much for choosing this story! Comments are very appreciated and are just very fun to read, so feel free.

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Lost time is never found again.
-Benjamin Franklin
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The light on the Sidra wasn't quite right. That was her only warning.

High as the sun was that day, its rays had been winking at them off the water's surface. Shining like so many glittering jewels. The cloudless blue sky had also been reflected there, gifting the river with its flawless blue hue. That was why she and Rhys had decided to take a rare afternoon off to soak in the breeze and sun, spread out on the yard of the river house with Nyx laid between them. Even with their beloved nights growing shorter again, days as perfect as this one were enough to steal her breath.

But as Feyre's gaze drifted again toward the water, something was different. Wrong. The flares on the river were brighter now. Harsh. Blinding. Bordering on pain.

"What is it?"

Rhys, of course, sensed her tension. Whether by her stiffening posture or through the bond linking them, she wasn't sure. She turned to him, to Nyx and held him aloft, tiny wings finally giving weak little flutters. They'd been watching, waiting for it for weeks. For a single heartbeat, she forgot about the light and opened her mouth to tell Rhys to look at his son.

Instead, those violet eyes stayed locked with hers. His face went slack. Light exploded around her. An agonizing tear somewhere deep in her being burned enough that she screamed.

Then it was all gone.

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Night enveloped her, and Feyre tensed. There were many different kinds of dark, Rhys had taught her. This one was an abhorrence. The kind that hid monsters, that teemed with unseen danger.

She couldn't see anything, blinded as she still was by that final flare. But she was alone; that much she could sense already, if only by the fact that Rhys wasn't at her side immediately following...whatever had just happened. Feyre tried to part her lips, to call for him, Mor, Cassian, Azriel, even Amren, for anyone. Her pounding heart and spinning head meant she had hardly the strength to gasp.

As the trees around her finally solidified and focused with each blink, her pulse only sped. Confusion built in her chest like too much water in a dam, cracks webbing out with the pressure. Bitter cold wind, the antithesis to the springtime warmth she'd been basking in mere seconds ago, screamed in her ears and slashed at her face. But it was the yellow eyes breaking through the night that sent unbridled terror blazing through her like malevolent lightning.

Then she noticed the taut strain in her arms, the bite of a string beneath her fingertips.

Bow in hand, arrow at the ready, quarry in sight.

And, just like that, she knew where she was. Where it seemed she was, anyway. The place where it began. And ended. A birth and a death. The final words of one story melting into the opening strands of another.

This couldn't be real. Couldn't be happening.

Her breaths came fast, one after the other. Each one stabbed through her sternum and sides as she sucked in the frigid air, as though her body were truly adjusting from a too-sudden shift in climate.

Rhys? She sent out down the bond as she slowly, stiffly lowered her arms. Her eyes never left the wolf still staring from across the clearing, even as she dislodged the arrow from the bow. Rhys?

Silence answered. Worse, the connection between them — that bridge that linked their minds and hearts and souls across all time and space — was empty. A ghost of it remained, an echo of what it had been. But no Rhys. No chuckle or tender caress to assure her he was there. The string that had once tied her directly to him lay slack. She couldn't feel him at its other end.

Her hands shook at her sides, and not from cold. The longer she went without his response, his voice, the nearly tangible presence of his being in her mind, the more her panic threatened to upend her entirely.

She couldn't let it.

Whatever was happening — had happened — she would find a way back. Put it right again. For him, for them, she'd fix the entire world or tear it apart. Whichever proved necessary. The knowledge steadied her breath and her hands, slowed her galloping pulse.

If this were real...if she were really back at the moment and the choice that had upended her entire existence...she refused to follow the same script as before and hope for the best. That was inaction, and that was unacceptable. A new path forward in order to get back.

With but half a dozen breaths to choose her course of action, Feyre took a deep breath as she tossed her bow onto the snow beside her. She put her hands between herself and the beast still staring, palms outward in a show of peace. "Andras," she called. The wolf stiffened. The faintest growl reached her on the wind. She felt it somehow beneath her skin. "I know who you are," she called out in a steady voice. "And I know why you're here. I need to speak to Tamlin. Now."

The wolf didn't move. Didn't so much as cock its head like a dog hearing a new noise. Somehow, though, she felt his focus sharpening upon her. It made no move toward her or away, and Feyre took another step forward. Made herself into stone. Banished all emotion from her mind and eyes and heart. Allowed nothing through but the memory of her power and a cold resolve. "If he's reluctant to cross the wall, tell him if he ever wants to get his gods damned mask off, he should make more than a half-assed effort." She stepped closer, and the wolf's hackles raised. "You have my scent now. Track it to a shack near the edge of the woods, a few hours from here. And hurry."

Her chest heaved as she waited to see what he would do. One breath, then two, three. After four more, the wolf finally retreated, walking backwards so as not to break eye contact with her until the last possible moment before turning, the darkness swallowing him whole.

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Sorry for the short chapter on this first one. The other chapters will be longer. Thank you so much again for even choosing to try this story! Remember, feel free to comment on anything.

-K