A Court of Stone and Sorrow - ACOTAR

Chapter Two: The Beginning

Chapter Two: The Beginning

The horrors of the mountain did not lessen for Thesan or the other fae of Prythian over the years. Two years of torture with his lover by his side, seemed like a lifetime ago for Thesan as his forty-eighth year trapped beneath the ancient stone came to pass. For him, forty-eight years of his hundreds felt endless. The forty- eight years had brought him more pain than the four hundred thirteen that he lived outside of the false court that he found himself trapped in. Standing before the black pillars, with ruby encrusted designs leading to an equally gaudy throne, Thesan could not help detest the situation that he found himself ensnared in. Surrounded by hundreds of fae, all with dark circles under their eyes and bruises to match, he felt a lifetime worth of pain before the red headed witch on her throne.

While the forty-eight years felt like a lifetime to him, the forty-six that his daughters had spent within the stone fortress was their lifetime.

Thesan glanced over at the twin girls that stood beside him. Both clothed in the rich golden colors of the Dawn court, with their tanned skin and sun kissed hair, the heirs of Dawn were a sight to behold. Their looks, identical in every way, except for the small scar that cut through the oldest's golden brow. Their most notable feature, however, were not that of Dawn but of their mother. Eyes that were a shade of blue, almost gray, contrasted in a stark manner against their Dawn complexion. However, even the eyes that were closer to Winter than Dawn were not their most notable feature. The wings, the same downy-white wings that had once been soaked by their mother's blood, now stood strong and proud behind the elegant figures. Wings, Thesan hated to admit, that might never be used. For as long as they were trapped under the mountain, his daughter's version of the sky was a black stone that mirrored the floor.

Thesan must admit, that even through all the pain and suffering that the mountain had brought, his two daughters were his greatest joy. He never assumed that he would have children. His lovers had all been the same, before the mountain. He knew that his lover, from before the atrocities of the mountain, still waited for him. The Peregryn male that would oversee his legion until he too could return to the land above the mountain. However, what lies above still cannot change the things that have occurred below. Amarantha, forcing marriages and lovers onto the single high lords in the name of "ensuring heirs". She had succeeded. Her manipulations brought about the two heirs beside him, and many others in the room if he had to imagine. There were few left in the courts that had not been swayed or sliced by her hand.

Winter, with their warriors treated as breeding mares, Summer with her coercion visible in the scars on his hands, Day with their healing completely diminished, and Dawn with two heirs and a cold body beneath the mountain, had taken the worst of the punishments. Once the courts willing to defy the red witch's reign, now the courts that openly suffered the most.

It was why the two girls by his side stood completely still, faces void of any emotion, as Amarantha trapesed before them with a blade still dripping blood onto the stone floors.

"My ever-loyal subjects," Amarantha cooed as she brought the blade to her lips, taking a lick from the dagger with a smirk on her face. She leisurely walked up the dais, placing herself upon the throne of nightmares. With a broad smile that one could only say resembles a beast that had caught its prey, she began to speak. "I wanted to remind you all that our time together has meant so much to me. Tomorrow, marks the forty-ninth year of our time under the mountain. As your Queen..."

"You will NEVER be our Queen!"

The strong voice of Nostrus carried across the hall. Eyes from fae darted to and away from the Summer Lord in quick succession. Thesan, ever accustomed to the ways of Amarantha's court did not take his eyes off of his queen, and prayed that his daughters would not look at the young lord as well.