A Court of Secrets and Moonlight

36: Stars Eternal

Feyre

Hello, High Lady.

Leur's melodic, bright voice filled my mind as my blade plunged into the neck of a Hybern soldier. The darkness in the room lessened under my power, showing the carnage we had wrought.

Mor nodded to me, motioning for the Summer Court males behind us to follow her as we cleared the bottom floor of the palace.

Where are you? I answered, eyes surveying white hall we were currently working our way down. No sign of her.

Look at your arms. I am the wind at your back.

Familiar shadows were curled around me. Swirling like snowdrifts over my skin, in tune with my every breath, my heartbeat. Soft lavender and supple black, moving with me as I creeped behind Mor.

How? I blinked at my hands.

A soft laugh, I am the shadow, sister. I am going to flow my power through you.

Mor, who had noted the shadows already, ticked her head towards the curve of the hallway. Boots sounded on the white sandstone, running towards us. Mor motioned for me to go first.

What do I do? I asked, taking a deep breath.

Leur's voice was a cold melody, Think of your target, I'll do the rest.

I exhaled, handing over the reigns to her. I thought of the soldiers charging towards us, of the innocent blood on their hands, the horror they brought with them. I let them take two more steps, and then I darted around the corner.

My hands flew out, and I felt her there. Something buzzing and powerful in my veins, glowing and unbreakable, pushing through me. Every inch of my skin lit with it, reinvented it. It was like the shadow of death and the light of life all at once, but only the shadows pushed forward. Closer and closer, my hands shook, the hair on my neck rose- and then it broke the surface.

Glowing purple power left my hands, faster than light. As powerful as the deepest recesses of raw Illyrian killing power, as concentrated as the darkness at Rhysand's hands- but it was different. This was the two powers combined, melted into each other to create something deadlier, something with a life of its own.

A blink, and the group of soldiers was gone.

That power pulled back like a rubber band, remaining inside. I felt it, utterly unruffled, seemingly bottomless inside of me. There was no drain on it, not the way my own power would have needed a moment to recover after such a powerful blast. It was just endlessly cunning, endlessly effectual.

Three doors down on the right. There is seven of them. She commanded, and I moved.

I heard Mor at my back, battling a second group that had been moving towards the opposite end of the hall. I did not wait, I followed her commands. I threw the door open, and the power blasted through me again. The group vanished at the snap of violet power.

Over and over, we moved. I followed her orders, let her power merge with my own, let her rip through the remaining guards in the palace towards the courtyard. Mor guarded my back, the Summer Court soldiers fighting in perfect sync around her.

The power never dulled, not as we worked through the courtyard, not as I drew my sword and the power flowed through that too, not as we made our way through the streets. I let it overtake me in the same way that darkness had before, killing without mercy, without pause. The Hybern soldiers slaughtering innocent civilians simply vanished into mist, but the ones we found in back alleyways- the ones torturing and stripping clothes off of screeching females, we took our time. They felt the pain, felt every second of it as the power coursed through them, ripping them apart from the outside in.