A Court of Flames and Myths

Ch8: Control

The High Lord of the Night Court could do nothing. Well he could, he just knew better not to. Not with Feyre rooms away. Despite his very valid concerns, she insisted the girl saw a familiar face. She had definitely not been wrong, one sentence from Amren and the room was washed in warm waves of heat. He just said to Amren on a distant mental bridge. Don't move and keep your damn mouth shut.

She did. The two fae looked towards the bed into the darkness that surrounded them, eyes attempting to adjust. The female had woken up before lunch today and Madja had explained that her body was okay, physically, if not malnourished. But before they had followed in after dinner she had warned Rhys that the female had barely spoken all day and was still very much broken.

"The things that were done to her Rhysand, they were the worst things I have ever come across in my many centuries." He had just nodded in understanding. Sitting here now, he admitted he did not understand, nor could he in the slightest. He had endured Amarantha, which had left its own stain. This small female, a Phoenix, had been taken and worked on by the King of Hybern himself.

I am Carina Atlas Monstera , Princess and heir to the Gaelic Woods crown. I truly mean you no harm, but take this one warning for what it is worth. Mercy. The voices that spoke were of another world; young and old, light and dark, beautiful and withered, merciful and ruthless, warmth and ice. They wrapped around his body, as a flame danced and sang just on the outside of his mind. By the Mother, she was a Daemati. From the stillness he felt beside him, Amren might have stopped breathing and he guessed she had heard Carina speaking in her own mind. And if the conversation she had with Feyre and Elaine held any truth, she was a seer too. No one knew what the gifts of a Phoenix were other than the infamous and cataclysmic flames. Could this just be part of it? Not even Amren knew the details. It had been a whole hour of arguing with her just to get her to come see the girl sit in bed. Amren wanted nothing to do with her. Maybe having Feyre here for the conversation would have been a better approach, but his instincts roared to stay on guard whenever it came to this female.

As a precaution, the High Lord and Lady had been only spending their days at the River House or in the city itself. When sleep started to claim either one of them, Rhys, Feyre and Nyx winnowed away to the mountain cabin. The time spent with his mate and his son, hidden away from the world, had been utter bliss. A sort of peace that the High Lord of the Night Court had never imagined for himself. Feyre had been his salvation and their child had given him a second chance he didnt know he asked for.

They had sat outside for dinner sometimes and watch Nyx run through the tall, late summer grasses. He sometimes would return with wildflowers in his small hand for his mother. If he had kept his parents awake for too long they both would fly, with the babe in either of their arms, around the surrounding mountains. It was everything, and in the face of a Phoenix, it could so easily be wiped away like nothing. His blood chilled further at the thought.

"This is control." Carina's voice was whisper soft, but in the dark silence he could have sworn it sounded like a log cracking in a fire. Her face was lit in dull amusement as her raised hand began to glow. A small ball of gold and red fire pulsed and folded in on itself, no bigger than an apple, hovering just inches from her scarred hand. It was a sight to behold. After all, the female was so thin. Where he assumed a female's body should have been generously curved, was just skin and bone, scarred and still healing. She laid on the bed, her body and wings limp, fire brimming with depthless power. "The color of the flame only means a variation in temperature, Amren. Im sure it says that in a book somewhere," The Phoenix teased with a cunning smile on her lips. The flame turned blue when she met Amren's eyes. Another wave of heat. The female was used to this casual release of power, similar to how the High Lord wielded his. "While my body might be useless at the moment my magic is not. Unlike the inherent fae magic, it doesn't draw from my own reserves of power. Though the raw magic does have its uses."