The unsettling truth can settle your soul

New opportunities (Chapter 9)

After Feyre had showered, Rhys had left for work, she had told Lucien she was going out for a walk, which she was. She was walking to the place that she knew would always help her think. It was a small cottage in a clearing, halfway up a small mountain that was at the edge of the city. It had been abandoned for centuries, but Feyre had painted almost every surface in the place. Painting also helped her calm down or escape. She hadn't gone for almost a month. It was a twenty-minute walk away but the walk helped her think as well. As she walked through the familiar door, she went straight to the cupboard that held her paint. She had bought every drop of it with her own money. Tamlin didn't know she painted, he just knew she could design buildings not beautiful pieces of art. Grabbing the paints she walks around the small room, looking for space to paint. She dragged a chair over to another doorway that led to a bedroom. Balancing on the chair she started to paint.

A couple hours later, she finally stepped of the chair, taking in the drying paint. She had painted six pairs of eyes. Her own grey blue eyes in the middle. Rhys' dark blue almost violet eyes to the left. Lucien's golden eye and russet eye to her right. All three of them were connected with navy vines that wrapped around their eyes, flowers scattered around in a deep red that reminded her of blood. And below them, on either side of the doorway were two pairs of eyes, which if you didn't look closely you would think that the one on the right was the same as hers. But they held a slight coldness to them. They belonged to her sister, Nesta. For as long as she could remember Nesta had been cold and uncaring. But Feyre knew that it was a defense mechanism after their mother had died, so she tried not to hold it against her. After all she knew that no matter what Nesta would love her and would destroy anyone that dared hurt her or Elain. Elain, the owner of the second pair of eyes. They were a honey brown, taking after their dad, she was the most beautiful of them all. She just held a certain air of warmth and loveliness. Feyre had tried to capture her optimism in her eyes. The last pair of eyes she had painted on the inside of the door. She had painted them or else they would haunt her forever. The green of spring. The green of hidden bruises that were healing. Tamlin's. She had painted them angry and hurtful. She slammed the door shut. Hiding them from her view.

Checking her phone for the time. She see's multiple panicked texts from Lucien, feeling guilty she calls him. "Oh thank god, where have you been? I was so worried." At the sound of his panicked voice she knows the answer that she had been trying to figure out. "I'm sorry, I wasn't keeping track of the time." She says already putting away the paint and walking out the door. "It's okay, I'm just glad you're not hurt. Do you want me to pick you up?" He asks "No!" She replies a bit to quickly. He makes a disapproving sound and reminds her of the interviews they had in an hour. They chatted for a while as she walked back but they hung up as she said she was a few minutes away. Walking through the door she was met with a still slightly panicked Lucien. "Don't ever do that again." He said bringing her into an embrace. "I wont" She reassured holding him against her. "Why do you smell like paint?" He says sniffing her hair. She went stiff. "Umm, they were painting a building?" She asks more than tells him. He narrows his eyes at her. "I didn't know you painted." Still in their embrace she looked up at him. "Well now you do, its no big deal." Letting go of her, Lucien says nothing but smirks slightly at her. "Lets just get to this interview." Feyre says. She had already changed into new clothes when she was on the walk, she had stopped at her old apartment, luckly no one lived there yet, and changed into a blouse and black jeans. Nodding, Lucien took Feyre's hand and led her out the door and hailed a cab.

Stepping out of the car, she gazes up at the tall building. Most of the walls were made off glass, a typical business building. They walk in side-by-side admiring the modern deco. "Hello, we're here for an interview." Feyre says to the receptionist. "Oh hello, come this way. Mr. Night is expecting you." The receptionist says, standing up and walking around the desk. 'Night, a fitting surname, for someone who holds the stars in his eyes.' Lucien walks beside her as the lady leads them through a maze of corridors. She pauses at a door that was at the end of a long corridor with one wall head to toe windows. The door opens on the first knock. "Ah thank you Helen." He says smiling at her. "Feyre darling unfortunately I won't be interviewing you. But you are in safe hands I promise." Rhys says leading her to the door just down the corridor. "Cass!" Rhys yelled knocking on the door. A tall muscular man opens the door. "Ah Feyre, I've heard so much about you." The man, Cass, says with a genuine smile on his face. "Hello." Feyre says slightly intimated with his muscular stature. "Come in, come in." He steps aside allowing her to step inside his office. Rhys smiles reassuringly at her and then turns and walks back down the corridor. "So you're the famous Feyre Rhys wont shut up about?" Cass said smirking at her. "He talks about me?" She blushed. "Non-stop. Anyway back to the business at hand." He says gesturing towards a seat, indicating for her to sit down. "You're here for an interview for the architect job?" He questions lazily sitting across from her. "Yes, I brought a portfolio and I can email you some websites that show of building I have designed." She says crossing her legs, trying to look more professional. She really needed this job. "That would be wonderful, I will need to see some sketches and final products of the buildings, so we can see your process." From then on it's a normal interview, purely professional, Feyre didn't feel like he was being biased to her because of her friendship with Rhys. At the end of the interview they stand up and shake hands. "We will get to you shorty, we have very few other candidates so we should get back to you shortly. But just between us, you are by far the best designer." Cass said with a wink. "Thank you..." She felt like Cass was a nickname reserved for friends and thought it would be unprofessional to use it in an interview. "Cassian" She was correct. "Thank you for your time, Cassian." He smiles a toothy smile at her as he opens the door and as she walks past him he stops her. "This is strictly unprofessional. But please don't play Rhys for this job. He's been hurt enough." He says with an almost harsh gaze. "I would never hurt him." She promises and he just nods before closing the door.

She walks down the corridor, unsure if she should wait for Lucien in the lobby or by the office she knew he was in with Rhys. She decides that she should wait in the lobby and passes the door. She stops dead in her tracks. "Rhys" She heard Lucien moan. 'Oh my god, they're having sex. In his office' Feyre panicked. She had no idea what to do. She just stood frozen, listening to them moaning softly. "Oh, Lucien" Rhys dragged out his name. Suddenly, the realization of what was happening hit her. Rhys and Lucien were having sex. HerRhys. HerLucien. But they weren't hers, obviously if they were fucking each other. She should be happy for them, they were her friends and they obviously made each other happy. It was clear that they both loved the other. So why did it feel like her whole world was crashing down around her. 'They only just became friends again. How did it move so quickly? How did Lucien go from kissing me one minute to having sex with Rhys the next?' She asks herself. A drop of water landed on her arm. No not a drop of water, a tear. She was crying. She ran down the corridor, not wanting anyone to see the tears now running freely down her cheeks. She never used to cry, now that was all she seemed to do. Running out the door, past the receptionist at the lobby, she sprinted down the street. Now letting the sobs escape her body. After she had run a couple blocks away she sat on a bench and buried her hands in her face, sobbing. And the worst part was that she didn't even know why she was crying. Because Lucien was fucking Rhys or because Rhys was fucking Lucien? She didn't know. She screamed out of frustration, people were looking at her but she didn't care. She needed to get away from here. She needed to escape.