Court of Shadows (Indefinite Hiatus)

PART 26: AELIN

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.  

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 days spent on the road, she is finally found by one of Maeve's lesser-warriors. Using information she had gathered on the road, Aelin lures the male into a unit of Summer Court soldiers on their way to Adriata, where she arrives in her newly-shifted human form. The Summer Court soldiers apprehend the fae male and seemingly human woman. Here is where we pick up...

The clinking of Aelin's chains rang hollow in her ears. She looked down at her manacled wrists and fought against the surge of flame through her veins. Too soon.

Maeve had kept her wrapped in irons for weeks, months, years-- she didn't know how long-- underneath Cairn's sadistic eye, shoving her power down while the blue-eyed male carved her body. She might have made a vow to never allow someone to put her in chains again. Yet, she knew their necessity in this situation. So, when one of the fae males approached her human figure, brandishing a set of manacles, she did not let herself feel it.

The magic that had been suppressed beneath Maeve's irons now roiled underneath her skin, altering its presence with a dull intermittent throb at the base of her skull. It been noticeable, yet distant back in Doranelle. Yet, the moment Maeve dragged her through that portal, it seemed to increase in intensity. As if the heightened level of magic in this dimension called to it. Expending some of her magic during the fight with Maeve's male had done little to help. If anything, the minuscule release had only made it become more insistent.

She knew her skin was running hot and could only thank whatever god who watched in this world that none of the hundred males surrounding her had garnered the courage, or stupidity, to touch her.

Aelin sniffed and made a show of wiping her eyes with the back of her hand, letting the tears fall like they had for the past hour or so. She could only hope that if the fae males around her wanted nothing to do with a dirty, scrawny human female, then they wanted even less to do with a crying human female. Or that her tears would deter those who had not already been put off by her haggard appearance. Though she felt their gazes bearing into her back, when she turned to look at them, the majority quickly averted their eyes, likely disgusted by the creature who had commandeered one of their horses. There were some who let their gazes linger, a sort of hunger flashing behind their irises. She made sure to mark who they were.