A Court Of Fire and Darkness

Chapter 10

Celaena/Aelin-
     My head is pounding, it feels like someone's ripping into my mind. When I am human I can't control my wall of defense. I need to shift, to hell with everyone thinking I am still human. I just need it to stop. 

    I let out a growl, shift, and shove my barriers into full force. I hear a faint voice just barely there. Fireheart where are you? I feel you, are you in pain? Are you okay?  My breathing hitches, Rowan, I feel you. I'm trying to hold onto his voice but the other mind is cooling my wall of wildfire. It feels so cold. But Rowan... I give it one more push, using every ounce of will I have in me. Slowly, it recedes to nothing.

    I find myself curled up on the ground, hugging my knees to my chest. The pounding in my head begins to quiet down a little. My mate's voice is gone, but hearing it for just that small moment gives me newfound determination.

    "Liar!" Hisses Amren. I have betrayed them in yet another way, so I don't blame her for her anger. "You have deceived us one too many times, what else are you hiding from us in that mind of yours?" She comes over to me, but before she can touch me I encircle a ring of fire around her hands. 

    "Are you from the autumn court?" A new fae male walks in through the front door, his hair a bright red. He stares at me with an unblinking metal eye.

    "I don't know what this 'Autumn Court' you speak of is, so to answer your question, I'm not." Amren looks intrigued now, observing the fire around her wrists. 

    "What are you?" Azriel so softly asks. I chuckle at the question, because I don't even fully know.

   "I'm the heir of fire and queen of Terrassen," I speak quietly with compassion and ferocity. 

    Rhysand clears his throat and speaks up, "This is the power you were hiding from us when we took you from the cauldron?" He asks the question rhetorically. "Can we please all talk in a civilized," he gestures to Amren's encircled wrists, "manner?" I silently agree by releasing her small prison.

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    We all sit back down at the long table, and I am surprised no one is acting out. No one has pinned me down and held a knife to my throat or anything like that.

    "You need to explain to us what has happened since you've been here," Feyre says. It's like court politics all over again, but this one is more exciting. 

    "I had to escape my captor, so I tested my luck with the wyrd marks. I arrived here in a less-than-pleasant condition. When you all found me I didn't know what to do, I was in a new world away from everything I knew." I take a deep breath and then keep going. "I didn't think the horrors of my world would follow me here... but they did. The man, Orcus, told me he was trying to lead my captor here. I don't want that for myself or all of you." I stop to let that settle before continuing. "I decided that I would seem the least threatening human, so I remained that. I didn't come here to hurt all of you. I only shifted just now because something was trying to invade my mind." A sigh of relief escapes me at having some of it out, though I spared them some details. 

    Everyone is tense by the end of my story, however, they are still not attacking. "Who left you half-dead? Are they dangerous? Are you?" Cassian floods me with questions. It is my time to answer them all.

    "My powers are notable but I haven't had the time to explore them." If I do need to fight, they don't need to know exactly how much damage I can do. "The woman who captured me, Maeve, has some business with Orcus. They are of the same... kind." 

    "How exactly did Maeve get you?" He asks, still confused. 

    "I was weak at the time, I had been busy fighting the various monsters of my world." Erawan. Maeve. Everything else in between.

    "Why did she want you?" Feyre questions. I look her in the eyes a watch as she glances towards each person in the room. Her love for them so clear.

     "She wanted me to take a blood oath with her, to bind me to her for eternity. She wanted items that are in my world of great value, and she wanted me to banish Orcus and his brothers."
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Edited 1/16/21