Red Queen One-Shots

Stars Align

Elane POV

During King's Cage, April 321

I shone like the night sky, illuminated my moonlight. Displaying beauty was one of the skills we Havens excelled at. Hiding was the other one, and I'd been asked - often forced - to make use the second one more frequently that I could remember. Like the shadows we were named for, I lurked in the darkness, watching and listening, only allowed to show myself once I gathered enough intel to our advantage.

Sometimes I wished I was more than a courtier and a spy, skilled in a trade instead of valued for my loyalty alone. I didn't even know which talent I desired, as I already did what I was best at. It was more like I resented my foreordained fate itself.

We Havens weren't kings and queens, we were their loyal knives and spies.

But that was my fate no longer, and the court and my family would see it once I became the "princess" of House Samos.

I rose, hands brushing over my black dress, the fabric tight but elastic and flattering every one of my curves. Delicate lace lay on my cleavage, neck, back and arms and its web went down over my body where sparkling sequins, beads and gems were sewed on it. If I wanted to, I would've been able to make myself shine like a torch of magnesium, but today, the only fire-like part of me was my hair, copper waves one half pinned up, one half falling on my shoulders.

I knew I was a sight of awe, but my whole family was. In a way, we used both invisibility and beauty to remain inconspicuous. So people may forgot to see the person beneath a lovely face.

Evangeline wasn't one of those and I could've loved her for that alone. In turn, I'd fallen for the girl with the façade of fangs and steel the first time I'd met her. She'd always been a girl who believed in herself and those she loved, a girl who didn't give up until her iron will received its due. I wished I had her steel resolve, her incontestable presence. I could call myself mercurial at best, the ever-shifting, poisonous vapour around her shining blade. I'd be forever hers, if only it didn't mean to chain myself to another High House and its own spiry customs and antics.

As when Lady Larentia urged me to put in earrings with diamonds and emeralds to display our coming relation. "Green becomes you so well, pet," she said. "It's the privilege of – soon-to-be - married women to mix their colours." I just avoided her from pinning a dead butterfly in my hair as well. Or like the way neither Eve nor Ptolemus could withstand fixing rivets and spikes on my clothing, like those they wore on their own. It was like they claimed me as a part of them.

I loved both of them fiercely, but sometimes they started to cage me in. Wasn't it enough that I was marrying Tolly for Eve's sake? I was aware none of us would ever be free of the ties to our families, our duties, yet I would prefer not to offer anyone too much power over me. My second sister Mariella died for house politics, and my oldest sister Lizanne, the heir, had to make up for her coup in the meantime, remaining demure next to her Gliacon husband, trapped between keeping up appearances and clandestinely supporting rebel houses.

Whereas I was the bride of Ptolemus Samos, a match no one had dared hope for, and I got closer to the throne than any other Haven in the last decades.

Yet I was still told to present myself as the girl pretty to look at and maybe my family was right – there was safety in being inconspicuous.

I met Tolly in his room. I reached out with my hand, beckoning him to rise and come with me but he hesitated, seemingly needing more time in front of the mirror than I did. I couldn't help cracking a smile. "Are you dressing yourself up for Lady Wren?"

He pretended not to have heard, yet it was obvious in the way he chewed on his lip and greyness crept up in his pale cheeks. He rushed to get up at my tease nonetheless, taking my hand and spinning me around as if in a dance. "Nothing escapes you, dear Elane."

I twisted once more, then pulling myself away with a flip of my hair. "I know what I'm doing."

"Well, then tell me," he asked, "which armor pattern is better? Laurels, feathers or serpent scales?" The sheet of metal clothing him rippled and changed at his words, the scales moving as if not made of metals, but like leaves caught in a breeze.

"You're seriously like a man-child," I chided him. He laughed.

"Come on, Elane, you like the Samos' artistic skills too."

"Umm ..." He wasn't wrong. Many Havens had a penchant for the arts.

He still chuckled and his hand touched the lace on the small of my back. "You look radiant tonight, of course."

"Thank you. And I think you should go for the laurels," I decided.

He nodded. "I have an advice for you as well."

I raised an eyebrow. Tolly pulled me closer, his black eyes boring into mine. Yet the corners of his mouth twitched. "Make Eve happy," he whispered.

I grinned. "That's all I desire."

I couldn't find Eve at the party after our entry. Of course, she was no longer the center of attention, with Princess Iris having replaced her as the future queen of Norta. Iris already ruled the court, depicting the magnanimous queen better than Eve ever would have. As she was a born royal, I assumed she knew how to deal with noble fangs as well. King Maven was a different task, and I was glad Eve was rid of him. Yet I continued to hope their days were numbered, if only for Mariella.

Usually I enjoyed the spoils of this kind of parties well enough, but as I danced with Tolly and his numerous friends, I couldn't stop myself from searching for my love, just like my betrothed's eyes always roamed in the direction of Lady Wren who avoided him in public, if not in private.

I'd been in the ballroom for more than an hour before I saw Eve again as she intercepted a waitress. I left my current partner Logan at the earliest chance and stalked after Eve. I knew she was aware that I was following her but she didn't stop. She walked on, through the gathered nobles and crossing several rooms of the party before we found ourselves in a long gallery.

"Eve," I called, "what."

I could've sworn she giggled. She turned, balancing a drink in her hand as lime- and moonlight fell in through the huge windows to her right and was reflected on her silver hair and intricate metal dress.

"I'm too sober for that," she said. "I need more of this," she raised her glass – "before I get back in there."

I closed the distance between us. Smiling, I took the glass from her and drank a sip. Gin Tonic. "I think the same goes for me," I said. "It was too boring without you. Even dancing was no fun."

"Oh, I'm a marvellous dancer, Elane, and you know it." She played with a loose tress of my hair, took back her drink and treated herself a mouthful.

"Hey," I protested, "don't drink so much booze."

She blinked in surprise as I cupped her head in my hands. "Wouldn't you rather drink in me?"

She kissed me instead of answering and guided me to the window seat. "I do already," she muttered. "Seeing you dressed in moonlight enraptures me more than any intoxicant."

"I live up to my reputation," I whispered. "So you can chase me like starlight."

"Until the end of my life," she promised.

Thus we danced alone in the gallery, with only the night itself our witness.

A/N: Excuse me, i'm uncreative with the title again. This one is named for "You And I" by PVRIS, my favourite Evane song. Let's give Elane all the Feyre Archeron aesthetics ;-)