The Queen's Gambit | ACOTAR

Chapter 3 - "Could we go somewhere...not here?"

It was Solstice when Evette arrived at Velaris, and she winnowed to the town house, and as she did she found that Lucien was leaving, and his emotions were all over the place. "You're leaving?" Evette asked the man, making him look up in shock, having not even noticed that she was there.

"Oh, yeah." He nodded.

Evette frowned at this. "Oh! I was looking forward to seeing you as well. I've missed you, Lucien." She told the man as she placed the bag she held down, and she moved forwards to hug him. Lucien accepted the hug, and he held her tightly, and then she felt him tense and she winced at what he undoubtedly felt.

"Did you get fat?" Lucien asked her with a raised brow as he looked at her, he took a step back from her and eyed her.

"Yes, Lucien, I got fat!" Evette deadpanned with an eye roll. "Well, since you're leaving...stay there a moment...I got you something." She turned and grabbed the bag, and she began to rifle through the bag until she reached what she was looking for - his gift. It was wrapped in deep red paper, and it had a white ribbon tying it all together.

"Wait...you're with child?" Lucien whispered to her, his eyes wide as his eyes fell upon her stomach, his metal one whirring lightly. "By the Cauldron...congratulations. Does this mean I'm an uncle?" His eyes staying on her stomach, almost as if he were trying to see the bump under her clothes. "When will the babe be coming?"

Evette chuckled softly. "If you want to be. And in five months." She replied. "Now, here, take your gift. It is quite cold out." She held it out to him, and he slowly took it from her hands.

"I didn't know you were coming...I'd have gotten you something." He told her.

Evette waved him off. "Having your presence, even if it's for a few moments, is enough." Evette winked at the man. Lucien smiled softly at this - he does often miss Evette in their time apart. "Anyways, I'll let you be on your way. You ought to visit me in Angevin soon...perhaps I can find time in my busy schedule to show you around."

The two of them parted ways, and Evette picked her bag up and continued on, and she knocked on the door, and within seconds Feyre pulled the door open. "Evette!" Feyre greeted her with a grin, before she stepped aside and let Evette in. She closed the door behind her, and she spied Mor and Magdelena across the way.

"I got gifts." Evette held the bag up. "Where should I put them?"

"I'll take them to where the others are." Magdelena told her, and she took the bag from her and left.

"We were just about to show Feyre what Rhys and the others are doing." Mor told her. "Would you care to join us?" The both of them hadn't really spoken to one another since that meeting in the Court of Nightmares. Evette could hold onto grudges for a long time - yet felt she didn't much care about what Mor had implied now.

Evette brushed her hair from her face - her head free of any crown and diadem - and shrugged. "Erm, okay." She replied, just as Magdelena joined them all once more. And then Mor winnowed Feyre, and Magdelena winnowed Evette away from the house.

A blinding light and bitter coldness hit them, that made Evette glad that she had wore one of her warmer coats - a coat made of furs, and that under that she wore and large and oversized deep pink jumper, and some black trousers.

As Evette gazed around them she saw snow and mountains as wind tore through them brutally, the sun in the sky doing nothing to warm them. She noticed there was a cabin. And across the way Evette noticed a mountain with three snow forts upon it just as Mor pointed it out to Feyre.

"Are those snow forts?" Feyre asked, and both Mor and Magdelena nodded just as a snowball flew through the air. A yowl belonging to Cassian echoed throughout the area, followed by him calling someone a bastard.