KING OF MY HEART, acotar

III

   Zelda would be lying if she said that the next part of her plan didn’t unnerve her at least one bit.

   She had done everything necessary until now, and Feyre was successfully Under the Mountain. She just needed to do the same. It would have been suspicious for her to go with Feyre, attracting the attention of Amarantha was far from what she wanted to do.

    The only other way to enter inconspicuously was to let herself be unwillingly taken there, essentially kidnapped.

    With Amarantha taking Tamlin there a few days ago, she left some of her minions — thankfully not the Attor — to take her of the rest of the Spring Court villages, which meant bringing them to her ‘court’ to serve.

    Zelda stood amongst the frightened members of a village that was close to the borders between Spring and Autumn, thankfully she had arrived just before Amarantha’s soldiers began rounding up the families.

    In the middle of the frenzy and screaming no one had noticed the female between them that didn’t quite fit in.

   The soldiers had put them in three different groups, each groups consisted of a dozen or so. Her group naturally was of the females of the village, she knew they would be taken to serve in the kitchens, cleaning, any of the domestic chores in the bitch’s damned place.

    Another group was purely the males, some of them would join Zelda and her group and others whom if Amarantha decided have potential might join the soldiers or guards.

    There were children amongst both groups.

    Zelda’s stomach churned as she looked at the last group, those were the ones that didn’t prove to worth the troubles to be escorted to Under the Mountain. The sick and elderly, infants and children who hadn’t yet learned to walk, females and males who with their screaming and fighting back had angered the mindless fucking soldiers enough that they decided their fate.

    This group was to be executed. Bile rose in her throat but she pushed it down.

    Patience, she just needed patience because Amarantha would pay for all of this. It wouldn’t be enough, not even close, but she owed one thing to those families that were torn apart and that the cause of all of this would be wiped of the world.

    They started to move, towards the path to Under the Mountain, the path Zelda knew Feyre had taken.

    Distraught screams and cries threatened to explode her ears, as the family ties and mate bonds were ripped from each other as Amarantha cut through them with scissors.

    They walked away from the last group, only a few soldiers stayed with them, the sound of swords sharpening made them quack with fear the scent of children and adults alike soiling their pants as one of the soldiers ordered them to line up, a sick, twisted smirk on his face.

    Zelda’s steps took her away from the group farther and farther, with her back to them, she reached to the female who she knew was the first in line to be executed.

    Don’t scream, you will not feel a thing.

    She didn’t risk to turn around to know the female was looking at her, relief and gratitude pulsed in her mind that it echoed to Zelda’s.

    I’m so sorry.

    The crying got louder from behind her and Zelda knew the sword was about to plunge into the female’s neck.

    Make her pay, make all of them pay. The female sent to Zelda, and then the sword was brought down.

    But she did not feel an ounce of pain, Zelda did.