A Court of Chaos and Confusion - An ACOTAR Rewrite

Chapter 10

I couldn't entirely shake the dream as I walked down the dark halls of the manor, the servants and Lucien long since asleep. But I had to do something – anything – after that nightmare. If only to avoid sleeping. With the manor fast asleep I decided to go in search of a library, see if there were any books I could get lost in and forget my nightmare, the cold snowy day out in the woods...

As I walked the halls, which were too dimly lit for me to admire any of the paintings lining the walls and not daring to risk a candle, I noted the easiest ways out, the best hiding places, just to be prepared should things ever go badly for me. I couldn't entirely let go of the instinct, especially after the puca and run-in with the Bogge. These past three days there had been servants in the halls when I'd worked up the nerve to look at the art – and the part of me that spoke with my mother's voice laughed at the idea of an ignorant human trying to admire faerie art. One of these days I would find a quiet hour when no one was around to look at them. I had plenty of hours now – a whole lifetime in front of me. Perhaps... perhaps I'd figure out what I wished to do with it.

Maybe I would sing again.

I crept down the main staircase, moonlight flooding the black-and-white tiles of the entrance hall. I reached the bottom, my bare feet silent on the cold tiles. The manor was still silent, and as I padded down the hall toward the first open door I spied bookcases in, I decided I would become so familiar with the house I could navigate it even if I was blinded, counting the doors as I walked for a quick escape back to the stairs. As I entered the room I realized this wasn't a library, but instead some kind of study. I picked up the nearest book and padded back into the entry hall to go back up to my room.

A breeze announced his arrival – and I turned from the stolen book in my hands to the open glass doors to the garden that lined the far wall.

I'd forgotten how huge he was in this form – nearly forgotten the curled horns and lupine face, the bearlike body that moved with a feline fluidity. His green eyes glowed in the darkness, quickly fixing on me, and as the doors closed shut behind him, the clicking of claws on marble filled the room. I stood still – not daring to flinch or move a muscle.

He limped slightly, and in the moonlit dark, shining stains were left in his wake as he walked further into the room, continuing toward me, stealing the air from the entire room, the hall beyond. He was so big that the space felt cramped, like a cage, the scrape of claw and a huff of uneven breathing from... pain.

Between one step and the next he changed forms and I squeezed my eyes shut at the blinding flash. When at last my eyes adjusted to the returning darkness he was standing in front of me, dripping blood onto the floor. The Bogge. He must have found it. His clothes were in shreds – long, vicious slashes that made me wonder how he wasn't gutted and dead. I would have been – a chill traveling up my spine at the thought, of how close I had been to that fate, how close Lucien had been. But here stood Tamlin – the muscled skin peering out beneath his shredded shirt smooth, unharmed.

"Did you kill the Bogge?" My voice was barely a whisper.

"Yes." A dull, empty answer, as if he couldn't be bothered to remember to be pleasant to the girl who was clearly at the very bottom of a very long list of priorities. I couldn't really blame him, although it stung all the same.

"You're hurt," I pointed toward his hand, which was covered in blood, even more splattering on the floor beneath him. He looked at it blankly – as if it took some monumental effort to remember that he even had a hand, and that it was injured. What effort of will and strength had it taken to kill the Bogge, to face that wretched menace? I wondered if he had to dig deep inside himself to whatever immortal power and animal that lived there to kill the Bogge, or if it was nothing to him, but I didn't dare speak my question. Maybe I'd ask Lucien, tomorrow.