A Court of Chaos and Confusion - An ACOTAR Rewrite

Chapter 2

My knife was in my hands before I knew what was happening, stepping in front of my father and sisters, who had scrambled across the floor and were now holding onto his legs for dear life, to face the giant golden beast that now blocked our only exit. While standing almost as tall as a horse the beast had a feline body but distinctly wolfish head with curled elk-like horns that protruded from his head.

Faerie, my mind whispered, and it was as if I was crouching in that brush in the clearing a week ago facing down the wolf with the sad intelligent eyes. I knew it, that hadn't been a wolf at all, but a faerie. Fuck.

Rising on its hind legs the creature bellowed through a maw full of fangs "MURDERERS!" The sound shook in my bones with its power.

Now, I was familiar with the lore around the faeries that prowled the lands beyond the Wall, and had more than a few run-ins with the Children of the Blessed, naive fools who tried to befriend faeries and live in their lands. No Children of the Blessed had ever returned - with good news or bad - and I tended to air on the side of caution and assume they'd all been killed, so I refused to follow them. Before my mother had died she'd warned me to stay far away from them, and I'd obeyed, all these years later.

Now here I stood, the wards I'd placed on our door clearly useless against the giant faerie creature who stared murder into my soul and caused my sisters to scream again in fright, my father shoving them behind the chair and doing what he could to cover them.

My bow and arrows stood by the door, scattered on the floor by the beast. All my arrows were made of ashwood, the only kind of wood that could kill a faerie. I'd found a grove deep in the woods and kept it to myself, the wood making for easier flight and less resistance hunting fast, small prey, and more importantly the trees were easier to climb. If I could get my hands on those arrows I had a chance at killing the faerie, here for retribution for its fallen friend no doubt.

I remembered the lore of iron hurting faeries, but looking at the beast before me, which now had its hackles raised and roared "MURDERERS!" once more, causing my father to try and plead for my sister's lives, not coming to my side or pulling me away as I stood between the beast and them. I wondered if anything we'd been told had been true. I had a dinner knife in my hand and I was trying to figure out how to get around the giant snarling creature with talons that looked like they could shred me in an instant. My only chance at killing it and us all getting out safely was to get my hands on one of my ash arrows.

With the golden beast's next roar I had an opening for its neck and I debated lunging for it, but with teeth that sharp I decided putting myself within easy devouring distance wouldn't be the move and instead hurled my knife at the opening, ignoring the rattling of the plates and cups against one another from the sound of his fury. Too fast for me to see he slashed out with a paw, sending the knife scattering away and snapping at my face with his teeth.

I leaped back, almost stumbling over my father where he stood over my sisters. He didn't kill me though, and he absolutely could and should have. My sisters were weeping and praying under my father.

"WHO KILLED HIM" The creature stalked toward us, eyeing my father huddled over my little sisters.

"The wolf?" I guessed, as his claws thudded, one by one as they embedded in the table, which he had set a paw on causing the wood to groan under the weight. I decided not to lie, having a strong feeling the faerie would know if I did. I'd heard that faeries themselves couldn't lie, but just as with the wards and the iron, I doubted that information was good enough to be trusted to risk my family's lives on playing innocent.

His growl was still wrathful, but with a touch of sorrow as it nodded its large head in confirmation.

"I was unaware that was a faerie. I was hunting a stag and once felled saw the wolf lurking behind. I didn't think and loosed my arrow. It did not lunge for me, as I had anticipated, but instead stared. My arrow was gone before I could process what was happening and by then it was too late. What is the punishment for my crime?" I confessed, not giving my father nor my sisters the chance to claim my place. 

This was my crime and I would be the one to pay for it. An itch in the back of my memory, of a dream from my childhood, but I pushed the memory away, needing to focus. 

"The price is one demanded by the Treaty between our realms. A life for a life. Any unprovoked attacks on faerie-kind by humans are to be paid only by the  human who took the life in exchange." There was no compromise in his green amber-flecked eyes - non-animal eyes, I noted.

I stood up straight, trying to make myself as tall as possible, trying to hide the shaking of my hands. "It's death you require? Spare my family and I'll go with you without a fight. Outside," I met his eyes with my own and he huffed a vicious laugh.

"I'll let you in on a secret, human: Prythian must claim your life in some way for the life you took, and while I could gut you like swine, I could also take you across the wall and live out the remainder of your days in Prythian. I have lands. I will grant you permission to live there, as well as safety for the family you're leaving behind, so long as you obey the rules you're given."

"Do it, Feyre," My father whispered from behind me. "Go."

There wasn't much of a choice, and this faerie was offering me mercy rather than death. And sure, maybe he was trying to prove a point that faeries were better than humans, perhaps it was all a ruse to do away with me in a more creative way later, but whatever the reason my family would be safe, so it didn't really matter what happened to me.

"I accept your offer of mercy, of safety for my family, and agree to go away with you over the Wall to live out my days on your lands. When do we go?" I could hear the sharp intake of breath from both my sisters, but I refused to back down or show anything but the strong big sister they always knew, until the end.

"Now."

I blanched. I couldn't think of anything but the list of things to tell my family before I left them forever.

The venison would last about 2 weeks, more if they rationed and salted some of it, my father knew how to make the jerky. The money for the pelts was hidden in the dresser and it would last awhile if they were careful - there was a budget already made sitting on the dresser - they needed to follow it as exactly as they could manage. I told them where in the grove to hunt, and to get a goat so they could make milk and cheese to sell at the market. I warned my sister, Nesta, not to marry the man she had been talking about wanting to marry, of the abuse his father acted out on his wife, and that none of her sons were willing to stand up for her, and he would probably be no better. I reminded my youngest sister, Elain, to take good care of her garden, for she would need to be sure they all had fresh food come the spring. Her face was soaked with tears. They were both too young - Nesta sixteen and Elaine only twelve - they shouldn't have to carry this burden.

I had been slipping on my gloves, giving tight emotion-filled hugs to both my sisters, looking at their faces and hoping I would remember them, doubting I would ever be permitted to visit. I was headed toward the door when my father grabbed my arm and pulled me into a tight hug, whispering that he was so proud of me and they would all be fine, thanking me for getting them to this point but not to look back. I was meant for greater things than I could ever hope to find here and it was time I went out and found it. 

"Don't come back." He insisted, crushing a small wooden figurine into my gloved hand.

I left, letting the sounds of the snow crunching underfoot drive out my father's unexpected words and my silent tears as I followed the beast into the night-shrouded woods.