DISCONTINUED A Court of Blood and Night Rewritten

12

The moment the doors closed behind Rowan, Tamlin turned on Rhys as if Manon wasn't even there. "You actually agreed to this?" He asked, his voice an octave higher due to pent-up rage.

"I," Rhys said calmly, "agreed that I would fight. If you don't want to fight, Tamlin, nobody here will force you to."

He snorted. "That Rowan might. Or any of the Fae he talked about just now. The truth is, we don't know anything about who they are, and you're just going to fight for them and take their word that they'll fight for you?" Tamlin shook his head. "How naïve of you, Rhysand." I wanted to spit at him, but stayed quiet.

"And how naïve of you to be so hostile in an unknown environment," Rhys countered. "You don't know if they'll take it. Rowan might, but what about Galan or Ansel or the others he spoke of? They might not be so merciful."

"Indeed," Manon drawled from the edge of the throne room. "Ansel might not get too upset, but Galan, Lysandra, Aedion... And maybe even Dorian, might not be too happy. Allies of the Queen, and friends of the imprisoned female." Her lips quirked as if there was some joke that we weren't understanding. "It would be unwise to get hostile, Tamlin, or you might find yourself splattered all over the floor." She yawned as if bored, and iron fangs flashed.

Tamlin's jaw tightened. "You don't scare me."

"Well, that's an unwise thing to say," Cassian grumbled, folding his arms over his chest. I had to agree with him. Tamlin was either lying or stupid. "Even Lucien knows better than that."

Tamlin turned on Cassian. "Excuse me?" His voice was a lethal whisper.

"You heard what I said," Cassian told him with a calm raise of an eyebrow. "And you're a damned idiot."

"I have half a mind to gut you for saying that," Tamlin threatened.

"It's not my fault that half a mind is all you have. You give no thought to respect and fear the creatures that should indeed be feared, and that'll get you killed." Cassian's voice was flat. "But by all means, go ahead and try to gut me. I'm interested in seeing how far you get before I snap your neck." His voice had an edge that wasn't there before, a lethal edge that had even me stepping back a pace. It worked for what I was pretending to do. As long as I was Tamlin's supposed lover, it would be best to stay very far away from the Night Court to avoid suspicion.

The tension was thick enough that I could probably slice through it with a knife. I wouldn't mind if Tamlin was killed, but on the off chance that Cassian was brutally hurt in such a fight... I didn't want to see him hurt like he was in Hybern. Not again. I planted myself between them. "You can have your male dominance fight later," I said, and ignored Tamlin's low growl. "We have larger things to deal with right now."

"Like the fact that we're in another world and have no idea how to get home," Mor interjected. "Or that we've been roped into fighting a war and saving a female that may or may not be Rowan's mate." She rolled her eyes at Cassian. "I suppose you had a point, there."

I glanced at the white-haired creature watching us with those chilling golden eyes to see if there were any clues I could gather from her. Manon said nothing, and her expression was completely neutral. Obviously, she wasn't going to give anything away.

"Or the fact that we have no idea how long we'll be stuck here," added Elain timidly. "Nobody gave us an idea of the length of our stay, which means they probably don't know, themselves." Azriel nodded from beside her, but said nothing.

"Indeed," Amren murmured. "We might have to make negotiations. I suppose it's good we have a Spring Court emissary and two High Lords." She looked pointedly at Lucien, then Tamlin and Rhys. Lucien all but trembled under the weight of Amren's powerful gaze, and even Tamlin had the sense to look uncomfortable. Rhysand only nodded, though he looked uncomfortable, too.