A Song of Flame & Shadow - Eris x OC

Velaris I

Vel basked in the midday sun as she walked down the marble bridge towards the Palace of Thread and Jewels, Feyre and Cassian to her left.

"Rhys asked me to help Amren with the Book of Breathings but I don't think he considered that she was more likely to bite my head off rather than let me inside her apartment. Or perhaps he did and he wanted to see which one of us would be the last one standing in an argument."

"My money would be on Amren." Cassian grinned at her over Feyre's head.

She pointedly ignored him and instead said to Feyre, "I didn't get to congratulate you on your mating. Will there be a ceremony?"

Feyre's cheeks grew pink. "Perhaps when all of this is over."

Vel's hand found hers and she gave it a small squeeze. "I'm happy for you. And I hope you take the time to be happy and enjoy your new life, even if you decide to do a private ceremony."

They stopped at the center of the bridge and Cassian braced his forearms on the broad stone railing. His red siphons caught the sun, reminding Vel of her own mate who was likely half an island away.

Feyre seemed inclined to steer the conversation away from herself and into Cassian's business because she said, "It meant a great deal to me—what you promised my sister the other day."

Cassian shrugged, his wings rustling. "I'd do it for anyone." Although he seemed relaxed and aloof, Vel could tell there was more on his mind than met the eye. She wondered how much Feyre suspected. If she'd guessed that Nesta was his mate.

Vel wasn't listening to their conversation anymore. Her thoughts had wandered to her visions. Now that the Cauldron had reemerged, entire swathes of the future were obscured from view. In her dreams, Feyre's sisters had pointed ears and powers that hadn't been seen for millennia. But how that came to be, how the war started, how it ended – everything else was shrouded. The only recurring theme was the fighting and the blood. War was coming.

The Sidra trembled. Something seemed to shift deep in the bedrock below as if underneath all the water and rocks, the magic of the land recoiled. Feyre had noticed it too, she was watching the water closely, Cassian standing on alert next to her.

"What the hell is that?" he murmured. He tapped the Siphon on each hand with a finger and his scaled black armor began unfolding and slithering up his wrists and over his body. Soon he was covered in leather, a soldier ready for battle.

"From the sea," Feyre breathed, and as Vel turned back towards the river and the mountains in the distance she spied a smear of black on the horizon. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up as if lightning was about to strike. The growing black mass separated, fracturing into countless figures.

War was coming to Velaris. Much sooner than they'd anticipated. Feyre and Cassian exchanged a few words that Vel couldn't hear over the blood pounding in her ears. The first battle in this war and they were going in blind. She hadn't seen any of it coming, not the Attor and his ilk as they approached, not their Faebane gauntlets that broke through the shields. They had to disable the Cauldron, there would be no other way.

The creatures were breaking through Cassian's red shield. Vel sent her own golden one to reinforce it. There would be no defense against the Faebane. The shields only depleted their magic, but it was all they could do to buy enough time for people to find safety, for Amren and Azriel and—

Then there was a wet, crunching thud, and blood splattered over the white marble of the bridge, over her, and over Cassian who had pushed Feyre to the ground, covering her with his body. A body was impaled on one of the elegant lamp posts that lined the bridge. The face was unrecognizable but Vel knew it had belonged to one of the human queens, the one who had given Rhys the other half of the Book of Breathings. The Attor himself swept through the hole in their shields to land atop the post covered in gore.

"Regards of the mortal queens. And Jurian." It hissed and then leaped into flight, heading right toward the theater district. Cassian surged after him but then halted, remembering Feyre.

"Go," she rasped.

"Run home. Now." His eyes slid from Feyre to Vel, his face tight. "Don't let her out of your sight." Before either of them could reply he was up in the air, shooting for where the Attor had disappeared.

The winged creatures were pouring in, dropping off the soldiers they had carried over an entire sea. Through the chaos and the screams, Feyre was still staring at the human queen whose body was spasming. She took one tentative step towards her and Vel placed her hand on her shoulder.

"You can't save her, Feyre, we need to go." As if in response, the queen's body slumped. Her death whispered past.

"Where— where do we go?"

"You're your own person, Feyre. I'm not going to tell you what to do. I can take you to the townhouse or outside of the city. Or we can fight."

A thunderous boom rocked the other side of the city, and they went down at the impact, blades flying, their hands ripping open on the cobblestones. Feyre whirled toward the river, scrambling up, lunging for her weapons.

"We fight," Feyre replied breathlessly as she took in their friends who fought behind them.

Cassian and Azriel were both in the skies now. And where they flew, those winged creatures died. Across the river, thunder boomed again and it was Amren who held that side, her dark powers slamming into the soldiers there. Blood flowed like little rivers down the cobblestone path that led into the artist's quarter.

"Remember what I told you Under the Mountain." You are strong, Feyre. Stronger than you know. The thought traveled between them and Feyre's blue eyes became steel as she winnowed into the burning and broken Rainbow. Vel went with her, covering her flank from the rooftops. She conjured her bow and arrows from her cabin. Her magic wouldn't strike first, wouldn't kill. It could only be used in self-defense.

Defend. Defend your land. She whispered to that coiled creature within her. It stirred only slightly. So she loosened arrow after arrow and when she was out she picked fallen arrows from the streets. Ashwood and Bloodbane.

Her fingers grazed the Faebane tip of one arrow and the creature inside her roused in a flurry as if burned. Magic exploded out of her. To defend her from the unseen threat, from the shadows of the past. It snarled at the memory of Beron's face in that dungeon, at the metallic taste that coated her tongue.

The power of the Night Court was so thick here that all she had to do was raise her eyes towards clusters of soldiers and they became a mist of blood and pulverized bone. Only their Faebane gauntlets were left behind.

Vel pressed the tip of the arrow into her palm, the skin splitting open and letting drops of poison in. The creature thrashed inside of her and Vel yielded to Night's thrumming power. Darkness curled at her fingers, around her arms and legs and core, until she was just a shadow. Faster than light, colder than the stars, she speared for every foreign body on the ground. Through their throats, through their hearts. Precise, deadly. She was only vaguely aware of Feyre raising the Sidra to sweep the streets of Hybern's soldiers so she rose into the skies, bodies thudding to the ground in her wake.

Night bloomed out of her, covering the city like a blanket, and where it found Hybern soldiers hiding, raping, murdering, it smothered them in nightmares and despair. One monster split from the rest, routed from its hiding hole and launched into the sky. She recognized him, she'd once worn his skin in front of Amarantha.

Not yours. Not your kill. Vel whispered to herself. Her left arm had gone numb from the Bloodbane seeping into her system, crawling up her veins. The darkness that seeped from her good fingers trembled in response, receding into the streets, searching for other threats to stifle, but it was thinning, wavering. The poison and the stone were shutting down her magic. She let out an uneven breath and watched as Feyre winnowed into the sky and grabbed the Attor. Watched as she became a living flame, charring its grey skin. Watched as she plunged her dagger into his chest, three times. Watched as they plummeted to the ground and then she was gone, the Attor splattered on the cobblestones.

Vel's head was spinning. As Rhysand's darkness swept the city like a wave, she finally allowed her eyes to close.