Acotar and Tog [Discontinued, Will be deleted]

Rhys

After breakfast and shooing everyone out of the townhouse for some peace and quiet, Feyre retreated to her room, nearly falling asleep on the stairs. I had half a mind to join her if it hadn’t been for the pleasant weather and the little knot of anticipation riding my stomach.

Sure enough, it was mid-afternoon when Azriel landed at the open balcony to my study, the box I’d been waiting for held between his hands. It was carved finely of wood, and as I bid Azriel enter and watched him set it on my desk, I could see the mother of pearl inlaid at the center to form an impressive, imperial dagger.

“Any word?” I asked.

Az shook his head, his wings flexing taut behind him. “It arrived at the Court of Nightmares twenty minutes ago with no other detail.”

My lips pursed together as I ran a hand over the lid. I could practically feel Tarquin’s wrath, his disapproval as though he were right before me when my fingers brushed the pearl. A sick feeling swept over me.

“Go check on him,” I told Azriel. “See how serious he is about,” I waved my hand dismissively over the box and all the hopes I’d born that its arrival shattered, “...about this.”

“It’s done.” Azriel was out the window and gone before I could blink.

I snatched the box and went outside where the sun was still shining over the townhouse rooftop. I set it on the ledge and stared at it, summoning the first liquor I could find and pouring myself more than a healthy portion. The liquid burned my throat raw and I welcomed all of it, that searing heat.

Finally, I lifted the lid - and there they were.

Three luminous red rubies, glimmering in the setting sun. Each the size of a large egg and full of blood and vengeance and promise.

I didn’t know how long I stared at the gems, only that the sun had sunk considerably lower by the time I closed the lid and that my disappointment was sinking with it.

You fool. You great, ignorant fool.

I took another sip from my glass letting it sting me down.

To have dared think for one moment you might have found an ally in another man’s court, another dreamer - a friend.

Velaris began to glow with a steady rhythm before me, my view of the city winking into existence with lights here and there that would soon take over after darkness fell. For this, I had to remind myself, for this I could lose everything. Even... even a partner like Tarquin, and his dreams for a greater free world.

My chest heaved as my wings fell to the floor while I stared at Velaris and tried - tried to remember what had brought me here.

The pine hit me first, always the strongest and clearest of her scents. Followed swiftly by the grass and sun carried by the wind. Feyre cleared her throat. “I know you’re there,” I said. For once, I was not comforted by those scents enveloping me.

“If you want to be alone, I can go.” Her voice carried quietly on the air, willing to go or stay - whatever I wanted. She was being... easy for me, reasonable. Narrowly, I shirked at the chair next to me and Feyre shuffled forward to take it after a pause. She went straight to Tarquin’s gift on the table next to where my decanter sat.

Feyre’s eyes widened, as if she could feel Tarquin beneath the lid too. “What is that?” she asked.

My damnation , I thought, snatching the decanter to refill my glass and drown in another gulp of it.

In the distance, the Sidra shimmered in hues of red and gold as the sun touched down upon the horizon.

“I debated it for a good while, you know,” I said, clenching the glass in my fist. “Whether I should just ask Tarquin for the Book. But I thought that he might very well say no, then sell the information to the highest bidder. I thought he might say yes, and it’d still wind up with too many people knowing our plans and the potential for that information to get out. And at the end of the day, I needed the why of our mission to remain secret for as long as possible.”