A Different Type of Ending

Chapter 3 - Feyre

Feyre

It seemed like as soon as we arrived back at the manor, everything started happening. I didn't even get to stop and pretend I liked the roses. Something once so fragile and beautiful, but now I can only see the thorns. I couldn't see any of it now, sitting in the dining come meeting room with maps pinned onto the walls, covered in red dots. Currently we were debating whether they would attack to the East or to the West. It was a simple answer really, the Autumn Court would be attacking through their border and summer through their while everyone else came through the middle. A simple strategy, evidently too advanced for these buffoons. 
"They won't go through Autumn, the Court is too secretive. They won't let anyone pass through." Tamlin said, so self-assured. "They will come through Summer, maybe use the coast and the water to come on shore." That would be stupid, cutting through the waters close to Hybern, of course, I wasn't going to tell them that. 
"That's what they want you to think." I said, making my first comment on the matter, nearly startling the males who had almost forgotten I was there. "Everything you expect them to do, believe the opposite, and then whatever that is, they aren't doing that either." Everyone went silent, pondering over my statement, trusting my word. Foolish. I looked at Amren, sitting to my left, raising my eyebrows, daring her to challenge my statement. She didn't, instead she focused her attention back onto the map. 
"They won't attack tomorrow." She said, meeting the eye of Hybern who was sitting across from her. I bit my tongue, refusing to let myself talk. 
"Even if they don't we need to be prepared incase they do." He dismissed her statement immediately and I saw anger flash in her eyes, bright and pure. Bu nothing came of it, only silence.
"What do we have to work with?" I asked, quickly changing the subject, and leaning forward in my chair as if I was actually interested. 
"100,000 give or take." Hybern replied. "What do you suggest?" Everyone was looking at me now. I felt like they could see straight though me, as if I was nothing but the shadows that lurked in my own mind. I cleared my throat,
"All straight down the middle, on the border of Summer and Autumn. The most unexpected route for them to take would be that. You'll want to be there too, giving you the biggest tactical advantage." I said, pointing out places on the map. 
"What about the valley?" Lucien asked, and he was right, situated on that border was almost a chasm. I needed them down there. We needed them down there.
"Hidden, out of sight, you can sneak behind their lines and attack from there, they won't be in the valley either." I stated, as if it was obvious. The others considered, and I leant back in my chair, satisfied. If they took the bait, we stood a chance. I knew there were nowhere near 100,000 troops between all of the Courts combined. 
"Even if we do that, who's to say they won't just bypass us and move straight into Spring, effectively surrounding us." Jurian spoke, offering his unwelcome opinion as always.
"This war is about chances," I spoke, my voice feigning strength and confidence, "if we don't take a chance, then we won't win. A head-on fight will not go in you favour." It would, it really would, and I dreaded it ever coming to that. 
"Chance," Amren snapped at me, finally starting to show some of the fire I remembered in her, "will lose us this war. We don't want to bet it all on something that might never happen." 
"Chance is all anyone has in this damned world, and I'd rather have the chance of getting to stay here than go back and face the wrath of Rhysand."
"You're just scared, you're worried that your perfect little life here will finally be disrupted." 
"Don't try to tell me you aren't worried about what he will do to you. At least I am his mate, what is the worst he could do to me."
"You don't know what he will do, you haven't lived with him for 500 years."
"I don't think you get the point Amren."
"Enlighten me."
"If we lose, if we don't take the chance, then you're still stuck here. Forever, maybe even until this world dies. You don't want that."
"Ladies please-" Tamlin started, trying cut the conversation short, but I was riled up now. Angry at the fact that Amren had changed sides so quickly. Angry that I couldn't go home. Angry at the world. Angry at myself for being stupid enough to believe  could make any impact in this war.
"Don't talk down to me." I said, slamming my hand on the table, the claws of smoke forming like shadows of ghosts on my fingers. "None of you quite understand the stakes of this war yet do you? Not only for me, but also for you as well. We lose, we die. This isn't like the last war, you don't get to go back to your island, you die." I want out of breath, on the edge of my seat, and hoping the shadows would swallow me whole. 

They all remained silent, Amren glaring at me, Hybern considering, Lucien and Tamlin not quite knowing what to do. But Jurian, damn him, was sitting their smirking. 
"You never quite know when to stop talking." He spoke, breaking the silence like he always did. Always needing to have a say in the matter.
"Never, that is when I stop talking, because when I stop talking that is when everything seems to go wrong, isn't it Tamlin? You would know that better than anyone." Everyone looked to him now, confused, but he knew what I was talking about.
"I did nothing." He growled at me. 
"You know as well as I do why I left, and you know very well you did it." His own claws started to show themselves now, more than my own.
"I did nothing." He repeated, more strained than before, denial.
"You stopped me from doing everything, you practically locked me in my room."
"You couldn't control you powers it was for your own safety as much as everyone else's"
"Then maybe you should have helped me before you told me to stop trying." He didn't respond, he just kept looking straight at me. There was anger there, as well as sadness. I might have felt pity for him, but I didn't, I couldn't. Not after everything. "You told me that maybe it was better if I ignored it and just got on with doing my painting. Even though you could see it eating me away inside." There were tears in my eyes now, but not for what happened then, for what I nearly let happen. I nearly listened to him. I nearly gave up on everything that made me who I am today. "You told me to give up on everything if I wanted to. Everything." I stopped there. I didn't tell him that now I heeded his advice, nor did I tell him how much I had needed someone to tell me the opposite. Instead I stayed silent, and watched the damage I had done. 

A/N

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I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter, update may be a bit far apart, but I hope you keep reading anyway.

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