A Court of Secrets and Moonlight (Timeline Version)

3: Excuses

Rhys

523 years ago, Mountain Palace

Leur was in trouble.

Our father was so mad that his face had turned bright red.

Angry enough that we had left the Hewn City.

Normally, I would be happy about that fact. I hated the Hewn City, hated Kier, hated the rock and the stale smell in the air, hated the stares from everyone and the way we had to act like monsters. I would have done anything to go home to Velaris or Windhaven, where my mother and Cassian were, where I was free.

But, father had to work. And apparently, it was necessary for Leur and I to make appearances in the Hewn City in order to ensure the citizens there respected us when we grew up.

When I grew up, I was going to take Mor away from that place and never go back.

I carried Leur up the stairs, tears streaming down her little cheeks as lavender shadows curled around her hands. Our father had already slapped her once, yelling at her for asking where Mor was while he and Kier were in the middle of a conversation. When she was caught playing with her shadows in the corner of the room during the ball, my father had drug us both out of the room.

I didn't understand why he was always so angry at her.

She was just a child, only seven years old. Of course, she was going to ask where her cousin was, was going to go off in the corner and play instead of sitting through another insufferable ball. We weren't allowed to dance, to do anything other than sit there and have sour looks on our faces.

What did it matter?

I always thought that when I got older, I would understand why my father treated my sister this way. Even when she was a baby, he would complain about her. She cried too much, her wings were too big, she was too fussy. And when she was a toddler, he had pushed away every sign of affection for her. He never held her, never offered her a word of praise, never did anything fatherly towards her like he did for me. And now that she was a child, it seemed like every single thing she did was wrong. He yelled at her if she spoke, yelled at her if she was quiet. He yelled if she moved, yelled if she sat still.

It didn't matter, nothing was ever good enough.

I wasn't the only one who saw it. My mother used any excuse she could find to keep Leur in Windhaven. She had tutors travel up to the Illyrian mountains every day to teach Leur, instead of sending her home to Velaris. Magic teachers, scholars, etiquette teachers, piano and voice teachers, anything my sister needed. They came to Windhaven, not the other way around.

She made up hundreds of excuses as to why Leur couldn't come home, couldn't make an event my father had requested her at. She was sick with a cold, she slipped and fell and had a cut on her cheek, she had a lesson at that time, had a fever, needed to practice her etiquette. Excuse after excuse after excuse.

And today, we had run out of excuses.

It seemed to be happening more and more, my father demanding Leur's presence somewhere. Not just at events that I was also required to attend, but to drag her to the Spring Court over and over again to make appearances there. Not that my sister particularly minded those trips, at least she was friends with Tamlin and enjoyed being in his presence. No, the issue was that she always came home to Windhaven with bruises.

It was simple excuses at first.

She tripped and fell. Her and Tamlin were play fighting. She bumped into a wall. She just bruises easily.

Excuse after excuse after excuse.

Until they became unbelievable. Leur wasn't clutzy, I knew it. Cassian knew it. My mother knew it. She had been training with Cassian and I since before she could even pick up one of the wooden swords. She was agile, it was her biggest strength.