Ice, steel and shadows -ACOMAF au

Lilith

Despite my hopes, nothing was changed after Feyre and I returned from the Night Court. Tamlin was still an insufferable prat that treated my sister as a prisoner and I as a lesser creature, but Feyre was still madly in love with him, and unable to see his toxicity.

Lucien was even more grim than I'd left him: he was obsessed with getting revenge on Rhysand after the trick he pulled using Amelia. He and Tamlin forced Feyre and I to recount every single detail of what we saw, heard, or felt at the Night Court million times- when they heard Amelia was there too, and offered the same thing as us- an alliance with the Night Court- they had been absolutely furious, and spent the next hours locked in Tamlin's office, refusing to tell us anything.

It made me more furious than I admitted to anyone.

It made me feel small, unimportant, stupid: feelings I hated.

Amelia and I had spoken a bit- but I was paranoid. I felt like even my mail was being checked, and so at some point, I stopped replying to her letters.

I spent my days either locked up in my room, trying to make sense of what the fuck I was going to do, or locked up in Tamlin's office, pestered about more and more details about Rhys- Rhysand- and his court.

Tamlin and Lucien reassured both Feyre and I we were perfectly safe and needed no training- furthermore, they refused to believe a war would take place.

I wasn't sure I believed them.

I didn't trust Rhysand- of course not, I was not stupid. But I had come to a point in my life, that I trusted nobody but myself.

And remaining a weak, untrained human, didn't give me any edge- without Fae to protect me, I was as good as dead.

And I really, really hated that.

Which made me entertain Rhysand's offer more and more- as dangerous as that was.

...

The Tithe arrived just a week after Feyre and I's return from the Night Court.

Lucien and Tamlin briefly explained that the Tithe was a custom at all courts- all citizens showed up at the High Lord's palace, paying a certain amount of money as a fee. They reassured both Feyre and I it was nothing to worry about, and all we had to do was look pretty- to which Ianthe chuckled under her breath: I think the best thing about the Night Court, was that there wasn't an Ianthe around.

But, that wasn't the case in the Spring Court. Ianthe was still very much around and currently being a pain in my ass.

She had once again dressed me in a pale green monstrosity, that didn't compliment my features at all, thrown comments about how gaining weight did not suit my skeleton frame, and insisted on styling my hair in an atrocious bun, decorated with pearls.

Feyre was dressed and styled similarly, only that her dress was baby pink and the corsage was so tight my sister could barely breathe.

Lucien and Tamlin were waiting for us at the bottom of the stairs- Tamlin gave my sister a big smile which she didn't return.

I knew Tamlin hadn't been around the previous week, some duties at the borders, and while I couldn't care less, Feyre was really hurt and feeling abandoned.

Lucien gave me a small grin, and I tiredly smiled back. As we looped our arms together, I leaned in- "Did you see the atrocity Ianthe picked? Can we kill her?" Lucien snorted, and upon Ianthe glaring at us, pretended he was coughing. "No, I'm afraid not, Lilith. Though perhaps we could have Rhysand do it- what's one more atrocious crime?" I ignored Lucien's jab- perhaps I would've laughed once, revelling in my hatred for Rhysand.