𝙲𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚛𝚢 𝙱𝚕𝚘𝚜𝚜𝚘𝚖(𝙰𝙲𝙾𝚃𝙰𝚁)

𝔠𝔥𝔞𝔭𝔱𝔢𝔯 𝔱𝔢𝔫

    I always knew I would end up Under the Mountain. Especially after Tamlin had sent Feyre home.

    I hadn't left the cell they'd thrown me in since we arrived. They'd yet to bring me food or water. I wondered if they were just going to starve me.

    The cell reeked of mildew and mold, and it was so cold. I was constantly shivering. Part of me wished I'd come down with a fever. It was so dark in here, the only light coming from the torches in the hall.

   I thought I might have been hallucinating from hunger when I saw the Attor dragging someone down the hall and towards my cell.

   I knew I was hallucinating when I realized it was Feyre.

    They unlocked the door and threw her limp, unconscious body into my cell. I crawled to her side when they left, checking for a pulse.

     She was alive, but they'd beaten her badly. Amarantha had taken all of my magic, so I couldn't heal her.

     I took her head and rested it on my lap, stroking her hair.

    I stayed like that for a few hours, monitoring her breaths and movement, frequently checking her pulse.

    After a while, I heard her groan, her eyes blinking open. They were so swollen, she couldn't open them all the way. She sat up, then groaned again, a hand flying to her head.

   She began prodding at her face, a strangled cry releasing from her lips as she touched her broken nose.

"Feyre," I said quietly. She gasped as though I'd surprised her, turning to me. "What are you doing here?"

    She only shook her head, blinking back tears as she brought her knees to her chest.

     I flinched at the sound of screaming far off. A high-pitched, pleading bleat. A whip cracked, and the screaming built, hardly pausing for a breath. I plugged my ears, squeezing my eyes shut until it was over.

"The Suriel told me to stay with the High Lord," she said quietly. I wasn't even sure if she was talking to me. "I knew I had to come back."

"You captured the Suriel?" I asked, eyes widening.

"Didn't they tell you?"

"Nobody tells me anything," I muttered, staring at my lap. "You know, I caught the Suriel once, too."

"You did?"

"When I was nineteen," I recalled, glancing up at her. "He told me about a power I didn't know I had. I can see the dead."

Her wide, horrified eyes reminded me why I usually kept that to myself.

"After my parents and brothers died, I still saw them sometimes," I explained. "So I sought out the Suriel for an answer."

   Her expression of horror didn't falter, and she didn't say a word. I wondered if I shouldn't have said anything.

"Feyre?" we heard.

     She tried to stand, but failed. I glanced up to see a red haired male stepping into our cell.

"Lucien?" we both replied.

"By the Cauldron, are you all right?" he demanded.

"My face—"

"Have you lost your mind? What are you doing here?" he questioned. I had been wondering the same thing.

"I went back to the manor, Alis told me —told me about the curse, and I couldnt let Amarantha—"

"You shouldnt have come, Feyre," he said sharply. "You werent meant to be here. Dont you understand what he sacrificed in getting you out? How could you be so foolish?"

"Well, Im here now!" she snapped. "Im here, and theres nothing that can be done about it, so dont bother telling me about my weak human flesh and my stupidity! I know all that, and I I just—I had to tell him that I love him. To see if it wasnt too late."

"So you know everything, then," I realized, the guilt of lying to her biting at me. She nodded, though it looked painful to do so.

"Well, at least we dont have to lie to you anymore. Lets clean you up a bit," Lucien sighed.

"I think my nose is broken. But nothing else."

"The guards are drunk, but their replacements will be here soon," he said. She winced as he carefully touched her nose. "Im going to have to set it before I can heal it."

"Do it. Right now." He hesitated. "Now."

     He set her nose, the crack making me flinch. She immediately fainted from the pain. He healed the rest of her wounds while she slept. When she came to, she sat up.

"I couldnt heal you completely—they would know someone helped you. The bruises are there, along with a hideous black eye, but all the swellings gone."

"And my nose?" she said, feeling it before he answered.

"Fixed—as pert and pretty as before." He smirked at her and I rolled my eyes.

    Lucien knelt in front of me, studying my features. "Do you need anything healed, Mariangela?"

"No," I declined. "But I could use some food and water."

"I'll take it up with the guards," he promised me, tugging on one of my blonde curls.

"I thought she'd taken most of your power," I recalled.

"She gave me back a fraction—to entice Tamlin to accept her offer. But he still refuses her. I knew some good would come of being down here."

"So you're trapped Under the Mountain, too?" she wondered.

"She's summoned all the High Lords to her now—and even those who swore obedience are now forbidden to leave until . . . until your trials are over."

"That ring," she said. "Is it—is it actually Jurian's eye?"

"Indeed. So you really know everything, then?" he asked her.

"Alis didnt say what happened after Jurian and Amarantha faced each other."

"They wrecked an entire battlefield, using their soldiers as shields, until their forces were nearly all dead. Jurian had been gifted some protection against her, but once they entered into single combat. It didnt take her long to render him prone. Then she dragged him back to her camp and took weeks—weeks—to torture and kill him. She refused orders to march to the King of Hyberns aid—cost him armies and the War; she refused to do anything until shed finished Jurians demise. All that she kept was his finger bone and his eye. Clythia promised him that he would never die—and so long as Amarantha keeps that eye of his preserved through her magic, keeps his soul and consciousness bound to it, hell remain trapped, watching through it. A fitting punishment for what he did, but, I'm glad she didnt do the same to me. She seems to have an obsession with that sort of thing."

"Is Tamlin—"

"He's—" But Lucien shot to his feet at a sound from upstairs. "The guards are about to change rotations and are headed this way. Try not to die, will you? I already have a long list of faeries to kill—I dont need to add more to it, if only for Tamlins sake."