A Court of Fire and Ash

Feyre

Could we trust her?
There was something odd about her.
And it wasn't the fact that she had threatened to kill Rhys, the most powerful highlord, two times now.
It also wasn't the fact that she had screamed with pain earlier and hadn't even said a single word about it.

It was rather that she was human and wasn't even afraid of us.
That she dared to talk to us like that even though we told her what we were.
That she was this young and was a skilled assassin.
And the oddest thing that she claimed to be from a different world.

I had never even thought about the possibility of different worlds existing at the same time.
I mean I knew Amren wasn't from here but this was before this world existed.
And yes I know it sounded naïve and self centered to expect that I lived on the only world that existed.
But having proof now was a whole different thing.
It opened so many possibilities.

If we weren't alone, our people weren't the only one in danger.
Hybern wasn't the only bad force and there were probably things that were way worse.

And Celaena had probably seen bad things.
Too bad for her age.
Hell I had seen things that were too bad for my age.

What are you thinking about, darling?
We will have to talk about her with everyone. Can you tell Azriel to get Amren? She will probably know something about different worlds.
Done.

I could see him vanishing and I knew Amren would be here in a few minutes.

We hadn't tied Celaena up again.
She proved us that it was completely useless.
But we had locked the door and I had put a spell over the window and the door so that we could keep her there until we were sure of what to do with her.

We would either lock her up again trying to find a way back for her or we would be able to keep her free at the court for as long as we were trying to figure it out.
I definitely preferred the latter.
I didn't want an angry assassin to be locked in our dungeons, which I was sure she could escape- probably even easily.

I laid down on our bed resting my back.
It had hurt the whole day and my head wasn't better off.
Ever since I got pregnant, headaches had started to torture me every day.
My back was even worse and sometimes my feet were sore and swollen and it was hard for me to walk.
But it was only two months from now.

Exhaustion settled in me and I closed my eyes for a second, then I felt a kiss on my forehead and opened them again.
„Good Morning, Darling. Amren is here but you don't have to come if you don't want to, alright?”
I must have fallen asleep.
No wonder you were awake the whole night.
Right.
There wasn't a chance to even think about sleep since yesterday evening.
„No it's alright I just needed to lay down for a bit to rest my back.”

I got up and another wave of pain crashed through my back.
„Ow.”
Concern filled Rhys eyes as he kneeled in front of me.
He bowed down to my belly and kissed it right in the center.
„You know, you are causing your momma a lot of pain, so you better come out quickly.”
I chuckled as I stared at him.
He would make such a great father.
„Don't even listen to your dad, take your time it's alright.”

I felt his arms around my waist and then he gently lifted me up giving my back the support it needed.
As I stood on my feet he winowed us downstairs so I didn't have to walk.

Azriel, Cassian, Mor and Amren were already there.
Cassian was the first person to step forward.
„What's your plan, Rhys?”
I assume Amren does already know what happened?
He nodded slightly.
„To be honest I'm not sure. I don't know if we can trust her to walk around here and find out everything but if it's true what she says and she comes from a different world we'll have nothing to fear from her. I mean she asked why she was here, remember? She wouldn't have asked that, if she was sent here to find out things about us or kill us. And we don't really have valuable information just laying around like that.”
Now I had something to add.
„I think locking her up is the worst thing we could do. She tried to hide it but I could see the fear in her eyes when she sat in that dungeon. We would never gain her trust and we have to deal with her getting home and we need her knowledge to do so.
„Amren do you know anything about different worlds?”
Her silver-ish eyes turned in my direction.
„They exist. It would be stupid to assume that this is the only world. And I am not from this world I don't belong here, well maybe in this form I do.”
I knew she had a hard time adjusting to her new body but deep down she was glad that she was still alive, remembering us and Varian.
„Alright so let's tell her that.”

We went to her room and as we entered she watched us from the bed.
I could tell she had been up and looking through the room not because she left anything behind but because I knew she wouldn't just rest not trying to find out everything she possibly could.

„Even though you haven't shown us any reason to trust you we will give you a chance to find your way back into your world and not be locked up while doing so. But if you try to hurt me, any member of my court and especially my mate you will die. And don't even think you can take me out. You may be a trained assassin but I am Highlord of the Court of Dreams and of the Court of Nightmares and you don't stand a single chance against me nor my Highlady. You understand that?”
She nodded as she smiled viciously and rose from her bed.
„Well I guess you will just have to believe that. I also guess by the looks of you that no one has slept in the last few hours so why don't you just go ahead and do that?”
She was extremely arrogant.
„That sounds like a good idea. But before we do that I will need you to hand me your weapons. And don't even try to keep one hidden because I will find them no matter what or where.”
I gasped as an astonishing amount of knives daggers and other weapons fell on the ground.
„Oh and I will also need the one under your pillow.”

She smiled smugly as she handed him the knive but her smile vanished as she started staring at her hand.
Well better said the thick scar that covered her right hand.