Court of Shadows (Indefinite Hiatus)

PART 25: AELIN

*I'm sorry guys. I know I'm the absolute worst when it comes to updates. It takes me a long time to write chapters, and I'm horrible at making time to do so.

Thank you so much for sticking with my story! I can't tell you how happy it makes me to see that you guys are still reading and voting. Your comments motivate me to publish sooner.

How do you feel about cliffhanger endings? I could change the way I break up the story if you prefer without. Let me know.

Here's the next installment. It's a long one. Per the (i think) brilliant request of @grac3m2002,  I have included a brief re-cap of where we are in the story*

The Summer Court has been informed by the Night Court of a potential attack on the city of Adriata. The Night Court has yet to find any information regarding the wyrdkeys, and Rhysand has entered into an agreement with Feyre to avoid using the bond so that she can lay low.

After deciding that the only way to keep the wyrdkey out of Maeve's reach was to get the stone out of the Spring Court entirely, Feyre uses her shape-shifting powers and faebane (provided by Fenrys) to help Aelin escape. Despite her knowledge of the faebane's existence, Feyre is still poisoned by the Hybern twins and is forced to complete the escape on a dwindling time frame (and with the inability to contact Rhysand, due to its magic-inhibiting qualities). The last we heard from her, she was handing Aelin a pack (containing the wyrdkey, the fae bane, and a canteen of Feyre's blood) while urging her to find the High Lord of the Night Court.

With the assistance of Feyre's winnowing powers, Aelin quickly arrives in the Summer Court. She has been healed by Feyre's blood and treks through the foreign land of Prythian with wide-eyes, eavesdropping whenever she can and searching for any information that might help her find the second wyrdkey.

After organizing a search between himself, Lorcan, and Gavriel, Rowan arrives at Doranelle, only to discover that Aelin has been taken away. Rowan fights with Cairn (leaving him alive for Aelin to kill at a later date) and steps through the portal. He has yet to arrive at the Spring Court. Aelin, however, is unaware of Rowan's closeness and, instead, focuses on evading discovery in the Summer Court.

Aelin awoke minutes before the sun broke on the horizon. She laid there for a moment, orienting herself to her surroundings. When light seeped through her curtains, she sighed, and in one weighted movement, heaved herself out of the bed.

She'd skipped sleeping entirely two nights before, opting to keep moving instead. Consequently, the previous night, she had been so bone-tired and unwilling to sleep out in the open, that when she stumbled across a little town, she had not been able to resist the urge to rent a room in the local inn.

Pulling her boots onto her feet, Aelin now surveyed the room. The wooden box was nearly uncomfortably small, with just a bed, a chest, and a short table to speak of. She wasn't complaining. In fact, the only thing she lamented was the lack of a bookshelf. Upon her arrival the night before, it occurred to her that the inn might have reading material in the rooms. She nursed the hopeful idea that she would be able to find information on whatever dimension-- she assumed it was another dimension-- she had been dragged to. Aelin frowned at the room, as she recalled the dampening feeling of walking in and discovering that there were no such amenities.

Through the walls, muffled scratching and banging signaled the awakening of her neighbors. She splashed her face in the basin sitting on the table, grabbed her pack, and ducked out of the narrow wooden doorway, into the even narrower hall.

"Leaving so soon?" The elderly innkeeper surveyed Aelin down his elongated nose. His eyes seemed to rest on the dark circles under her eyes, as if to say 'you look like you should stay longer.'