Fate by the Stars /// ACOTAR Series

Chapter 13: I'm a What Now?

"I told you, our healer said she just needed rest," Iyla woke up hearing Rhys' deep voice saying somewhere near her. The blonde didn't have enough energy to open her eyes just yet, but she tried and her eyelids began to flutter.

"And I told you, I don't want you or any of your people near her," she heard her eldest sister, Nesta, snap back to him. "Bring her to the other house and leave us be."

"I will not move her until she asks me to," Iyla heard Rhys respond firmly.

"You did this to her. You put her in a position that would drag her into this mess. You promised you would protect her from her husband and he hurt her in front of us! He almost killed her, and it was all your fault, High Lord," Nesta said viciously.

"It wasn't his fault, Nes," Iyla said with a voice rough with sleep. Her throat felt scratchy as though she hadn't used it in days.

"Iyla, you're awake!" Nesta said, and Iyla felt as her sister grabbed her hand. "Can you open your eyes?" she asked more gently that Iyla heard Nesta speak in years.

The younger twin struggled for a few more minutes to lift her eyelids. When they finally opened, she promptly shut them, tightly against the blinding sun.

"Let me close the curtains, my lady," Rhys said and the room dimmed substantially.

Iyla opened her eyes again and took a few minutes to access her sister's appearance. After gasping, she realized that seeing her sisters on the stone floor wasn't a nightmare. Iyla briefly remembered seeing her sister's changed forms when she fell from the Cauldron. The blonde reached up toward Nesta's ear, but stopped when Nesta flinched.

"Are you alright? Is Elain well? Where is Feyre?" Iyla asked rapidly as she pulled her hand back to herself. Nesta turned away from her panicked sister to pour a glass of water and she handed it to Iyla since her throat sounded so rough.

"I am alive and so is Elain. That pot stripped away our humanity and turned us into these demons," Nesta spat. "Apparently, there is no way out of this. Elain is unwell. She won't eat or speak aside from telling me she wants to go home. And these buffoons wouldn't even allow us to see you for the past two days."

"Two days? I was just so tired," Iyla apologized to her sister for worrying her so much. "So you are both Fae now, like Feyre?" Iyla asked. "I'm so sorry, Nesta. I know you must be hurting."

Nesta's eyes widened slightly for two reasons. The first, no one had tried to sympathize with her yet. She felt as though they were all just telling her and Elain to get over it and move on with their lives. Nesta knew she and the twins were killed that day. Killed and reborn into something terrible and none of these creatures that "rescued" them and then imprisoned them in a house, seemed to understand that. Second, Iyla didn't appear to know that she was also Fae now.

Nesta placed her hand on top of Iyla's and gave her a slightly pitying look as she said, "Iyla, love, it wasn't just Elain and I."

"What?" Iyla asked in shock after a moment. She reached up to grab her ears. Her eyes widened exponentially when she felt the pointed ends. "Did I die? What do we do?" Iyla started to panic. "Where do we go? We can't go home."

Rhys stepped around Nesta to the other side of the bed, reached over and placed a hand on Iyla's shoulder. Her heart rate immediately calmed until Nesta chimed back in.

"I wouldn't let you go home even if you weren't Fae," Nesta snarled. "That animal took you right in front of your sisters, while he beat the shit out of you in case you forgot."

Iyla's eyes filled with tears and she started shaking again.

"Nesta. Leave," Rhys ordered her sister calmly, but seriously. "Now."