The Prophecy - ACOTAR

Chapter 67

Astrid panted on the floor as her stomach clenched and her head pounded while her thoughts whirled around her head. The room around her seemed to grow hotter, the air grew heavier. She wanted to scream, she wanted to hurt something, but she couldn't. She'd had her time to react how she wanted, to react without thought of those around her. She was responsible for Lucien now, she was responsible for all of the female Illyrians that looked up to her, all the younger Illyrians that could help change their culture.

Only Lucien could see her now, but if she couldn't keep herself together with something as important as this in front of one male, how was she supposed to keep her calm in front of a small group, hundreds, even thousands. This would be good practice for her, and she would be a fool to pass It up. This was a chance for her to begin forming the new her that she needed to be.

She was a Goddess in some far away world she knew nothing about. The ancient death gods that tormented this world referred to her as a Queen, and it was a title she had happily taken for her Court. She was the prophesied Warrior and somewhere, she was known as an Angel. The responsibility fell on her like the whole house had collapsed on top of her. Between the revelation of Wrenica and the weight of her titles, it felt like the room was spinning around her.

She tried and tried to take a deep breath, tried to calm her breathing down, but her brain wouldn't stop the downward spiral that it was so content on. Lucien's scent invaded her nose and her stomach tried to turn itself inside out. He smelled to much like his father to be of any comfort to her.

His hand landed on her shoulder in what she could only assume was an attempt to comfort her, to try and bring her out of her current state, but It only made it worse. Astrid shoved him away, she knew he wasn't his father, that he was her friend, but she couldn't deal with him right now. She needed to pull herself together, she needed to cement herself in the right head space before she had to tell her family what she had discovered.

The tapping of heels rushing across the ground echoed in the room until cold, thin fingers dug into her cheeks and forced her silver flecked violet eyes to meet the stormy blue eyes of her sister.

Nesta's worried eyes bore into her, her fingers were painful against Astrid's face, but it was a welcomed pain. It helped give her something else to focus on. It helped her calm her mind.

Without looking away from Astrid, Nesta snapped at Lucien, "Go to your room."

Lucien made a disgruntled noise, "I'm not a child, I'm four hundred years older than you, you cannot send me to my room like a child!"

"Lucien, leave." Astrid tried to command him, but her mind wasn't quite in it. It was still trying to spiral and rip her apart.

Lucien loosed a long sigh until she could hear the rustle of his clothes as he stood and the clip of his boot heels across the floor as he left. Once Nesta seemed satisfied that he was far enough away, she pulled Astrid into her arms.

"It's ok, it's just us now." Nesta whispered as Astrid let her body sink into Nesta's thin body.

A sob wracked her body, a sob of anger and hurt. She was angrier than she had ever been, more hurt than the time she realized that male from Hybern she had been in love with was just going to stand by and watch. Wrenica was betraying her, and she had no idea how far back that betrayal started. Was their meeting all those months ago staged so that the female could burrow her way into Astrid's heart? Did Astrid do something that had upset her closest friend so much that she turned her back on her? Was Beron holding something dangerous or sensitive over her? Was Wren being threatened by Hybern?

Nesta let Astrid cry for a few more minutes before pushing Astrid away, just enough that she could look into her sisters' eyes again, "I don't know what happened, but you've had some time to cry about it. Now it's time to get up, put yourself back together, and talk to me."