The Prophecy - ACOTAR

Chapter 10

Wrenica made her way towards Lucien, glancing around to see if she could spot Astrid. She knew her plan but seeing as how there wasn't many hiding spaces directly around Lucien, she had her doubts about how her new friend would pull this off.

She sat down next to him, trying her hardest to act normal, which was easy considering where she had grown up. Even if she hadn't been living under the mountain, she still would have grown up in the autumn court. There was always some scheme going on and you had to learn to work it to your advantage or be the victim.

"Where's Astrid?" Lucien asked, lazily looking around.

"Oh, she decided she wanted to read, she needed more time to relax." Wren replied as she took the bottle of wine from him, "Where are Tamlin and Feyre?"

"They went to this pool nearby, something Astrid would probably love."

"What do you know about Astrid? She mentioned she grew up with her and I guess I'm asking whether she could be a threat?" Wren had already made her mind up about Astrid, but she needed to buy her friend whatever time she needed.

When she had first seen Astrid, it had been like looking at the face of her friend from under the mountain. The friend that had helped her escape, but he had never mentioned any relatives, let alone a sister. Growing up under the mountain had not made it easy to learn about the different histories of the courts. Though the lady of the autumn court had tried her hardest to teach her and keep her shielded from Amarantha, she had not been successful.

Amarantha had still used her as a prize in her fights, she would go to the winner, for them to use her however they saw fit. Thankfully, anytime she had been chosen as the prize, her friend Eris would step forward and volunteer to fight. Always making sure he would win, but it was only a matter of time until Amarantha picked up on this plan. She knew he would never touch her, so she started taking matters into her own hands.

When Eris would win, she would make him choose between different things Amarantha would do to her. Her options would always go between one night in the cells, 30 lashes, Wren would have to fight, or she would be Amarantha's servant for the night. All of them worse in their own ways, but he would always be there to help her in the end.

Somedays she had wished the lady of the autumn court would go ahead and betroth her to her son. It wouldn't have been out of the ordinary, she was the ward of her and Beron. The day her father had sent her and her mother back to the autumn court, she pleaded with her distant cousin to take Wren in. Wren hadn't known it at the time, but her mother died soon after, her cause of death still unknown.

She figured if she was betrothed, a princess of the autumn court then Amarantha would leave her alone. But somewhere deep down she knew that wasn't true, that was why Eris pleaded with another to help her escape. He had been hesitant to help but Rhysand had agreed to help, not for Eris but for her. Through the planning, she had grown close to him, he had even stepped in a few times to fight for her. Sparing her from Amarantha's punishments, finding different ways to make sure the vile female thought different things were happening.

She had seen the same violet eyes on Astrid, at least she thought she did, it had been so brief, and she had been so exhausted she could have been seeing things.

"Astrid won't hurt you; I saw her the night her memories came back, the punishments she had gotten appearing on her body again. She's voiced her bloodlust for those that aided in everything that was done to her. The 19 years beyond the wall, I think it helped her get a bigger picture on the world and on life." He paused, looking her over, as if he was trying to figure out whether she was trustworthy, "She happens to be a princess of one of the courts here."