A Court of Tears and Starlight

Dark Dreams

She tossed and turned in her sleep.

"No..no..no..no..no..." she murmured over and over again.

"please...please...PLEASE..." she pleaded with an invisible foe.

Thrashing and loud sobs followed.

I sat tense in the arm chair beneath the window. Everyone of my muscle sinews pulled too tight like one tiny move would have me snapping into a thousand frayed fibres.

I had been sitting here for some time. It had not been my intention to stay long but sleep had evaded me and I had been curious. Hours before had I paced my bedroom, trying desperately not to seek out Ganlin and flay him alive for the way he had looked at Feyre tonight. Actually I wanted to flay them all.... or at least crush their minds in my shadow clenched fists. I laughed bitterly and sighed. It would not do. Especially as I would then have to deal with a whole new council of plotting, scheming miscreants. 'Better the devil you know' I mused.

As I continued to pace and fume a strange and wonderful thing happened. I stumbled forward as I was transfused with warmth and longing. An intensely human desire ravaged me and I clutched onto my desk to steady the violent beating of my heart.

Feyre....

I had not expected this sharing of thoughts and feelings that had linked us ever since I healed her. Not that I would ever let her know that. Much better for her to believe it was some form of cruel mind control that I could hold sway over her than to realise the truth. For this had never happened before and I had healed many in the ages I had lived through. Somehow what I had done to her under the mountain had permanently tied our fates and minds together.

As I slowed my breathing in and out I had a horrible thought. Tamlin. She must be thinking of Tamlin, what else could evoke such longing in her, for I knew she did not hold such feelings for me. I refused to look into her mind. Loath with jealousy, I didn't want to know what memories of him she was wandering through. But her thoughts came uninvited to me anyway, too strong and too vivid for me to shut out. I collapsed to my knees as I saw myself bloodied and broken on the floor, reaching out for her as Amarantha broke her piece by piece. I dry reached as I heard again the snapping of her neck as it was wrenched to the side at that awful angle.

My heart ached in my chest as I knew without doubt that she was thinking not of Tamlin, but of me.

Later, much later, I quietly materialised in her room. She stirred softly in the bed and then resumed the sweet rise and fall of her contented sleep. She was so lovely. I told myself to leave immediately and as I nodded in agreement I found myself relaxing into the chair beneath the window. 'Just for a minute' I lied to myself. So I had sat, transfixed by the beauty and softness of her sleeping form until the nightmares had begun.

As the trashing and sobbing started I knew I couldn't leave her like this. Not when I had the means to make it end.

I subtly allowed myself to sink into her mind and her dream.

Dark half formed and incoherent thoughts plagued her. More often than not desperate Fae eyes stared hauntingly at her. She sobbed again. Gently, ever so gently I began to infuse her dream with those lovely feelings of warmth and longing that she had forced upon me just hours before. I watched as she sighed and settled, snuggling deeper into the soft covers wrapped around her. A small precious smile lit up her sleeping face and as I began to withdraw she sighed out a single word.

"Rhys..."

I paused frozen, waiting for her eyes to open and catch me where I now stood. They never did. She continued to sleep and then to dream.

I know I had promised myself I would not peek into her mind, yet as I began to withdraw I saw myself within her dream. She was dreaming of me. I was startled by what I now saw. I stood, clad in the finest black well cut pants. My body was bare from the waist up, covered in the whorls and patterns befitting the Great Rite. She stood before me clad in her white gauze gown. Her back arched backwards, her arms stretched out, beckoning me forward. My throat tightened as a fresh wave of desire hit me. Her soft but shapely arms drew up around my neck and pulled me forward towards her. She tilted her head back and looked deeply into my eyes.

"Rhys..." she mumbled again.

I withdrew and fled.

Alone in my own bedroom my heart and body continued to pound.

How did she know? How could she know? I wondered. For she had never seen me covered in the marking of the Rite, nor could she know her gown from under the mountain was aptly chosen for such a time. I had only wanted to strike Amarantha and Tamlin both when I had dressed her as such, claiming her as my own.

Yet somehow this vision had come to us both.

Lord and Lady of Night, traditionally dressed for the Rite as every royal mating pair had done since the pouring out of the Cauldron.

My eyes widened...

Mate.