A Court of Three Stars

30: Amaris

The Prison, Prythian

Leur

The room was so silent, I could hear everyone's heartbeats. Thumping off the stone, eight pounding rhythms in the absolute silence. As if that was all that remained in the wake of everything we had just heard out of Silene's mouth, as that hologram faded and went out- it had taken my sanity with it.

I had known, most of it, but-

There was so much, too much for me to wrap my mind around. Too much for me to comprehend in such a short time. Hearing it from the mouth of a seer was one thing, but to witness it, to know just how horrible everything Silene and her family did was...

I felt sick.

Shockingly, it was Nesta who spoke first, "Heir of my heir."

"What?" I blinked over at her.

"That's what Silene said. That it activates for the heir of her heir." Nesta spoke slowly, silver eyes on mine.

My mouth went dry, but Rhys answered, "Leur is still technically an heir of the Night Court, and Dusk... apparently."

Nesta just kept staring at me, as if she could see straight through me.

I said nothing.

"The Holy Star is firstlight." Ruhn mumbled next to me, "Did you know that?"

I shook my head, "I thought that it was similar, but not the same thing."

"She abandoned all of those people." Bryce finally found her voice, "She left them all to die."

"Silene was a fucking coward." I reiterated, "I did know that."

Ruhn was silent where he stood behind me, still staring at the spot where the hologram had been. The look on Bryce's face, the devastation in both of their eyes, sparked something inside me. My shock ignited into rage. Like a struck match, I came to a sudden, intense realization:

It all went back to Liyana and Amaris.

"You're shaking, Leur," Azriel whispered in my ear, his scarred hands rubbing up and down my arms. It was the only comfort against the screaming inside my head, the visions that had haunted me since the first time I came into this room.

"Coward is too good a word for her," Bryce raged. "That bitch is burning in Hel for what she did."

Shame coursed through me. Shame at the look on her face, at the devastation written so clearly in her eyes. It was a feeling far too familiar to me, this generational regret.

I couldn't stay here. Couldn't stand in this tomb and breathe the same air as the memories of their atrocities. I had to do something.

The storm inside me broke. With a sharp breath, I stepped back from Azriel, his hands falling from my arms as I turned sharply to the stone on the far side of the room, a wall of mountain between us and the outside world.

"Leur—?" he called after me, but I didn't stop.

If Silene had erected this wall, if this mountain truly belonged to me- then I could break out of it. I could do what should have been impossible.

With one simple thought, the stone wall turned into a door, creaking open on rusty hinges.

I was halfway to the mountain's base before I realized I had even left the prison. My feet carried me as though possessed, the cold air biting at my face as I descended.

Liyana and Amaris had the answers I needed. And I was going to fucking get them.

-

"I know you're in there." I spat, "Come out and own up to what you have done."