A Court of Three Stars

2: Smoke

The House of Song, Velaris

Bryce

It was like watching a car crash. Captivating in some kind of morbid, horrible way. A voice in the back of my head whispering that I should look away, that I shouldn't be watching something that felt like death. I should have been trying to draw this map, trying to remember the turns as the Harpy had taken me through the Eternal Palace, how we had gotten to the dungeons and out again. But instead, I was watching, a bystander of the chaos that had overtaken this place.

At some point, the one who looked like Ruhn- Rhysand, his name was Rhysand, everyone called him Rhys, Rhys had given me some kind of strange silver bean that had made it so I could speak their language, so I could remember their names and where we were. But the information in my head, it was foreign. I could feel it, when my mind switched from my own memories to whatever had been in that bean, when I spoke their tongue. As if the words in my head weren't my own, an invader weaving through my thoughts.

That feeling, it spread through me like a curse as I looked around the room. Tamlin, I knew him from my own mind. He was safe to think about, didn't come with that dreadful feeling. Tamlin was pacing by the windows, blonde hair tied behind his head, some kind of elaborate green jacket lit with the milky grey light streaming into this... palace? No, house. The House of Song, Leur's, for lack of a better term, mansion built into a cliffside in Velaris. Velaris was in the Night Court, one of seven fae Courts in Prythian.

Fuck, I hated this.

I kept focusing on the people, on the female sitting next to me. Nesta had become my go-to person here, not a friend, but understanding enough that she was safe. She was who had shown me to a room, found me clean clothes- albeit they were a bit strange, shown me how to work the showers and which soap was which, explained to me the things I didn't understand when I asked. She wasn't unkind, but icy enough that she mildly unnerved me. It was less than anyone else though.

My brother and his friends talked about Leur all the time, and so I would have felt like I knew enough about her from that and the few times we had met to gravitate towards her. And I would have but Leur was-

I didn't know what she was. Inconsolable. Lost. Angry. Rhysand had to knock her out with... whatever dark magic he possessed after I arrived. She had been frantic and sobbing and lost all at the same time, speaking in a language I hadn't been able to understand, completely hysterical before he put her out of her misery.

Now, a day later, she just sat there at the head of the table. Staring. The only movement came from the power that swirled around her, some intense form of shadow magic, as Nesta had explained. I couldn't read her expression, her emotions, only the absolute anguish that lay beneath.

Her mate, Azriel- I had learned, wasn't much better. At minimum, he was speaking. I kept my distance from him, from the pure black of his shadow magic, from the sheer size of him. He didn't seem unkind, there was just something about him, some darkness hidden behind glowing eyes that unnerved me.

It was so strange, to look at them and know that they were my brother's actual parents.

Could I even really call Ruhn my brother anymore?

I could see their features in him, the way they moved and spoke. All of these people were like him in a way I couldn't entirely put my finger on, the kind of thing where you know people are related without having to be told. Not just because they look like one another, but something else. Something at their core.

I tried to remember all of the connections to make sense of it.

Leur and Rhys were siblings, which was easy to remember considering they were practically identical. Cassian was their cousin, the absurdly large male with bat wings, but they referred to him as their brother. He was the oldest, then Rhys, then Leur. Cassian was mated to Nesta, Rhys to Feyre, and Leur to Azriel.