Remember Me

1

Hi, everyone! This is my first story that I've written for A Court of Thorns and Roses. I really hope you will enjoy it.

Ugh! He hated his brothers. It always looked like they were plotting to kill him. He skimmed the papers in his hands while he looked at his brothers from the corner of his eyes. They were in the dining room. The ceiling reached well above them. Orange and yellow trees swayed behind the floor length windows. His brothers were loud as they ate their dinner, all talking about the females they had hooked up with the night before. Shooting sneering remarks at Eris about his years long dry mark. Not that he cared. He didn't care much what his brothers thought of him.

Their father, the High Lord of the Autumn Court wasn't present at dinner, most likely hauled up in his office or room again. He thought he was getting more paranoid that one of his sons was going to kill him for his place on the throne. He wasn't wrong, of course. But Eris was being careful, he was waiting for the right moment.

In the corner of his eye, he thought he saw the curtains rustle but nothing else moved again. He thought he'd hallucinated it. His brothers didn't seem to notice anything amiss, but that wasn't saying much though. He had a meeting with the High Lord of the Night Court in a few weeks, and he wondered if he would see his little brother there. He never cared much about Lucien, but he never hated him, like his other brothers. He never saw him as a treat. Eris found out about Lucien true heritage well over a few hundred years ago. Lucien never showed interest in becoming the new High Lord of the Autumn Court, but it wasn't until he found out who his real father was that he ceased to be a treat.

His other brothers on the other side... well, he hated them. He didn't trust them one little bit. He always slept with a weapon underneath his pillow. Always took an antidote before he ate something in their Court, just in case. It was tiring really. Killing their father was one thing, he was a sadistic bastard. But killing his brothers... he didn't think the rest of the Court would believe that he didn't have anything to do with their deaths.

He was just pushing his food around on his plate as he flipped to the next page. The conversation, the paperwork, it all bored him to death. It's been a long while since he felt truly alive. With Amarantha gone, the war with the King of Hybern over, he thought things would change. But it all stayed the same, he was still under his father's thumb, watching him be unnecessarily cruel. Eris wouldn't lie, he could be cruel too. But nothing compared to his father or his brothers, with Lucien being the exception. He was always the exception. With their mother, with...

He lowered the pages and blinked. Who -?

Somewhere in his far memory he could recall a girl in the Autumn Court. A beautiful girl, young too, he vaguely remembered. But he couldn't remember much else, except a flash of dark hair and light eyes, unlike his own. Running around the woods with him, with Lucien but that was all he could remember. It was like someone had wiped the memories of her from his mind. But a tiny bit had lingered. He hasn't thought about it, about her for ages, so why now? The memory of the girl had popped up when he thought about his mother favouring Lucien. Like maybe she favourited him too...

Shaking his head trying to clear it, he pushed himself from the table and walked out. Ignoring his brothers who called after him with whatever nonsense it was now. He walked out of the building, striding over to the forest edge. The sun was slowly setting, a golden shine on the coloured leaves. They rustled slowly in the wind, a whisper flittering through the forest.

Vanserra. It seemed to whisper. Vanserra. He closed his eyes, listening to the trees that whispered to him. He walked through the forest with his eyes closed. He knew the forest like the back of his hand. He knew every branch, tree root and hole in the ground, he knew every inch. He walked until he reached his favourite tree. The biggest Red Oak tree in the whole forest. Its branches full of red-coloured leaves. He leaned against it. And once again, the wind whispered his name.