A Court of Chaos and Confusion - An ACOTAR Rewrite

Chapter 31

The sounds of a teeming crowd reverberated against the passageway. My armed escort didn't bother with drawn weapons as they tugged me forward. I wasn't even shackled. Someone or something would catch me before I moved three feet. 

The cacophony of laughter, shouting, and unearthly howls worsened when the hall opened into what had to be a massive arena. There had been no attempts to decorate the torch-lit cavern – and I couldn't tell if it had been hewn from the rock or if it was formed by nature. The floor was slick and muddy, and I struggled to keep my footing as we walked.

But it was the enormous, riotous crowd that turned my insides cold as they stared at me. I couldn't decipher what they were shouting, but I had a good enough idea. Their cruel, ethereal faces and wide grins told me everything I needed to know. Not just lesser faeries but High Fae, too, their excitement making their faces almost as feral as their more unearthly brethren.

I was hauled toward a wooden platform erected above the crowd. Atop it sat Amarantha and Tamlin, and before it...

I did my best to keep my chin high as I beheld the exposed labyrinth of tunnels and trenches running along the floor. The crowd stood along the banks, blocking my view of what lay within. I was thrown to my knees before Amarantha's platform, the half-frozen mud seeped into my pants.

I rose on trembling legs. Around the platform stood a group of six males, secluded from the main crowd. From their cold, beautiful faces, from that echo of power still about them, I knew they were the other High Lords of Prythian. I ignored Rhysand as soon as I noticed his feline smile, the corona of darkness around him. I didn't see Lucien.

Amarantha had only to raise a hand and the roaring crowd silenced. 

It became so quiet that I could almost hear my heart beating. "Well, Feyre," the Faerie Queen said. I tried not to look at the hand she rested on Tamlin's knee and the ring on her finger that seemed as vulgar as the gesture itself. "Your first task is here. Let us see how deep that human affection of yours goes."

I ground my teeth and almost exposed them to her. Tamlin's face remained blank.

"I took the liberty of learning a few things about you," Amarantha drawled. "It was only fair, you know."

Every instinct, every bit of me that was intrinsically human, screamed to run, but I kept my feet planted, locking my knees to avoid them giving out. "Find out anything interesting?" I asked before I could stop myself.

"I think you'll like this task," she supplied, that serpentine smile on her face. She waved a hand, and the Attor stepped forward to part the crowd, clearing the way to the lip of a trench. "Go ahead. Look."

I doubted this could be good for me, but I obeyed. The trenches, probably twenty feet deep, were slick with mud – in fact, they seemed to have been dug from mud. I fought to keep my footing as I peered in further. The trenches ran in a maze along the entire floor of the chamber, and their path made little sense. It was full of pits and holes, which undoubtedly led to underground tunnels, and –

Hands slammed into my back, and I almost cried out as I had the sickening feeling of falling before being suddenly jerked up by a bone-hard grip – up into the air. Laughter echoed through the chamber as I dangled from the Attor's claws, its powerful wing-beats booming across the arena. It swooped down into the trench and dropped me on my feet.

Mud squelched, and I swung my arms as I teetered and slipped. More laughter, even as I remained upright.

I could smell that metallic tang in the air indicating there was some type of magic present, and although I had a feeling the mud reeked, I couldn't smell it. Faeries. I turned to find Amarantha's platform now floating to the lip of the trench. She looked down at me, smiling that serpent's grin.