Rowaelin+Feysand

Chapter 3

I had gasped out loud. I knew because all 3 pairs of eyes were trained on me. 

"What..." Rhys muttered. Then he stopped short as Rick's face turned a deathly white. Had he realised it? That, even though we were destined to hate each other... We shared a bond so deep it could not be broken?

"Amelia," my father turned to me. "Do you want to go back?"

Not a demand. A question. A choice. To stay with my mate or leave him. To be brave, or run from my future. 

"I'm fine." I choked out. Who was I kidding? But I needed to see and observe... And do what we came here to do: Find out about my mother's death. My father seemed to remember that too because he turned back to Tamlin and said, once again, that he knew who did it.

"If you don't tell me, Tamlin, I'm afraid that you will lose your limbs. Slowly. So I strongly suggest you do."

I shivered, even though I was not on the receiving side of that heavy threat. My mother had only told me my father could act so heartless; I had never believed her. The mask of the High Lord. My mother would have said. If she was here. But she could never be, ever again. A strong fist of sorrow gripped my throat, and I could not swallow. But I pictured my father's face if I passed out here of all places, and steadied myself. The fist was of my own making. I could destroy it.

I realised, then, that everyone was looking at me. I could not find it in me to blush, so I just stared at my father. With a sigh, he repeated whatever the question had been.

"Can you explain what happened? Then he can tell us who did it," He fixed a glare at Tamlin that made my bones quake in fear. "He knows several suspects."

That fist came up again. I did not want to do this. But if it was the only way to get vengeance who killed that vibrant flower in our lives... I would. So explained to them. Every single painful detail. Even when I felt that fist choking me, promising me to loosen it's impenetrable hold if I just stopped. But I didn't. I wanted whoever did this to suffer. Like we were doing right now. We would not kill them. Oh no. That would be too fast, not a good enough punishment. We would kill all of their family members, slowly, making them watch... And leave them without anyone. With the wrath of my father's expression, I knew he was imagining something along the same lines.

"At the shop... In the Rainbow of Velaris..." Tamlin uttered the words. "I know. I know who did it. But what do I get if I tell you, Rhysand?"

"Anything." my father's voice was hoarse. "Please."

"I don't think I've heard you say 'please' in all the eternity I have known you!" Tamlin smirked. I wanted to throttle him. Didn't he know how badly we wanted- needed- that name. Or maybe that's why he was doing this. I had always hated Tamlin on my mother's behalf... But now I hated him on my mother's, father's, and my behalf.

"Bow," Tamlin smirked like my father had once done to him. Rhys obliged. "Lower... Lower... You too." he pointed at me. I felt, not hot temper, but a brittle ice- cold rage that reverberated in my very bones.

"This person..." he said, purposely slowly. "Is named..."

"Please," I whispered from where I was on the floor. Rick's head snapped toward me and looked as if he wanted to help me, but a glare from Tamlin was all it took to make Rick swallow and look at his feet. Why did my mate have to be a spineless fool who listened to double-faced-

"First you have to-" Tamlin started, but was cut off as he was suddenly pinned to the floor. Rhys was standing and there was such smouldering rage there that I flinched. 

"You can do what you want to me," he snarled, near feral. "But never make my daughter beg. Never. You hear me? Because if you do... I don't care. I will hurt you. Wreck you so thoroughly that you will wish that you never met me, Feyre, or our daughter. Because I have lived 18 years protecting my daughter from bowing to the likes of you- to the likes of anyone. So now you will beg forgiveness of my daughter, and then give us the information. Remember... She can hurt you just as I can. Maybe better. She can crush your mind like a grape, and she can physically wish that you were never born. We are the most powerful in this room; I would like you to remember."

Then he released his power and Tamlin got up. I thought he would have fought Rhys, or, at the very least, walked away... But he did neither. Instead, he slowly got up and mumbled an apology to me. Was he going to give in that easily?

"Louder," Rhys said, in the same tone he had told us to bow.

"Sorry," Tamlin muttered.

"Now..."

"Rick can tell you."

He was going to put this all on his son? How cowardly.

Rick took a deep breath.