Answered Dreams (ACOTAR | ACOMAF | ACOWAR)

☆ Fallen Stars ☆

What happens when you start considering what would occur when Rhys and Feyre decide enough is enough? This happens. *SPOILER WARNING* for anyone who may not have read ACOWAR yet... please don't hate us.

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Feyre had no complaints. In the palace that her mate had made for her very little else mattered. She painted as wanted, spent times in the gardens with Lyssa, made love to her mate under the stars... after all they had been through, and all they had endured, they were happy. Their children were grown and living lives of their own- the only downside was how little they saw of them as of late, but it bothered her not. She knew she would be there should they need her. Just as she always had. As she always would be.

And Rhysand knew his mate was happy. Knew she was content... But he had grown to feel lost as of late. Complacency was not a roll to be filled by a High Lord and a High Lady. After everything they'd endured... their time had come and passed. And they were still here. And the more Rhysand thought about it... the harder it was. The longer his glances lingered on his mate. The softer his touch. She was perfect, frozen in time, just as he was. Stuck in place. Pillars of ice, unchanging in an ever-changing world. It was down that road that his thoughts traveled as he sat with her in their gardens that day. He stared at her, unseeing. Or, seeing through her, through everything as he got lost in his reverie.

"Rhysand," she called to her mate for the third time. "Where are you, High Lord?" she smiled softly.

He heard her... and her voice slowly pulling him from his thoughts. He looked up to see her walking towards him, and he gave her the softest smile from where he sat, sprawled on a chaise, but his gaze was sorrowful as he met hers.

She cocked her head to the side in question as she sat on the edge of his chaise. "What's wrong?"

He brought his hand to rest on her thigh tenderly as she sat beside him. "I've just been thinking, my love," he said softly as he let his thumb stroke back and forth across her skin.

"About what?" she asked gently.

"About us... about this," he said with a slight frown as he looked around their palace.

She followed his gaze as he looked at their beautiful home. She didn't see anything wrong with it, or them, and she returned her gaze back to him with frown.

"I didn't understand it when I was younger...," he said, gaze distant as he stared at the starry night sky. His constant companion throughout his long life. "The way older Fae become as they grow older... when they choose to let go. I never understood how they could be at peace with leaving behind a world like this when you could have forever. To fight, to love, to dream... But now...," he said, slowly returning his gaze to her.

She could already feel her eyes burn as those violet eyes met hers. "And now...?" she asked hoarsely.

"Now...," he said with a sad smile, "I understand. I feel it in my bones, Feyre...," he said quietly. "I know what it is to be used and discarded by time," he said as he gently took her hand in both of his, bringing her hand to his lips, pressing tender kisses to each knuckle. "We are little more than ,mountainous reminders of the past, we have outlived out purpose," he said quietly.

She felt her lip quiver at every kiss, every word. "But... " she didn't know what to say. In a way Rhys was right- they were just... living. Their children had grown and gone on, and even their Court truly didn't need them- not as it used to. To remain... would be selfish. But they would be together... they would always be together.... "Rhys..." she finally whispered, her eyes lining with silver.

She held that gaze.. her throat dry. She could tell... this was something he had thought about. Something he'd been considering. "Why?" she whispered.

"Because we deserve peace...," he said softly. In the last few days, Rhys had found an odd sense of peace. He was no longer troubled by the idea of death, of fading from existence, from memory... as long as she was with him. So as she spoke his name, he raised his gaze to meet hers.

"Are we not at peace now?" she asked, a tear falling down her cheek. "Do we not have everything we need here and now?"

He brought a hand up to cup her cheek, brushing her tear away with the pad of his thumb as he turned to face her fully, pulling one leg up underneath him as he leaned closer to her. His mate... his wife... his entire heart, his world... "Contentment is not the same as peace, my darling."

She knew he was right, and closed her eyes to his touch, leaning in to rest her forehead against her mate's. He had been thinking about this, truly... "There's so much we'd be leaving behind," she said softly, though fruitlessly. It was all material.

"There's so much we'd be leaving for our children... Rhiannon would finally get the position she's wanted.. The inheritance will be distributed among our other children..."

"But... Lyssa...." she looked to the large palace where she knew her youngest daughter resided within. To leave her of all of them alone in this place... her small, delicate flower...

"She can remain here, if she likes. We can will it to her if you'd like.. But she will be fine," he said softly.

Her grey gaze returned to his, tears spilling down her cheek openly now as the realization of what he was proposing settled in. "Oh Rhys," she whispered.

"Shhh," he said softly, cupping both of her cheeks between his hands as tenderly as he leaned his brow against hers. Kissing her tears away. "Feyre... Feyre... Feyre...," he whispered her name over and over again in awe, love, and reverence. "You are everything I hold dear. You are so much more than my mate. Feyre, you are my soul. You are my heart. And I dare not go where you will not follow... Will you take one final journey with me?" He asked, his voice tender, soft as a rose petal's caress.

Her hands came up to meet his where he held her cheeks entwining her fingers with his own as she kissed one palm, and then the other. "I am yours, and you are mine," she whispered, her voice cracking. "Where you go, Rhysand, I will follow. Always."

He smiled softly at that, bringing his hand down slightly to trail along the swirls and whorls of ink that marked her beautiful skin from that bargain they'd made all those years ago... "I know," he said softly.

Her eyes traveled down to his arm, where his own, matching tattoo resided. "How?" she whispered.

"I don't want you to be in pain...," he admitted with a soft frown. That was the only part where his plan had faltered. The how.

She closed her eyes to that- to the actuality of what they were discussing. But at that thought lowered her shields, opening her mind wholly and completely to her mate to do so as he wished. "Cauldron save you," she whispered as she closed her eyes and held her mate's hands. "Mother hold you. Pass through the gates, and smell that immortal land of milk and honey. Fear no evil. Feel no pain. Go, and enter eternity."

As she lowered her shields... Rhys gripped her face more firmly and pulled her lips down to his. Kissing her deeply, giving her every ounce of what he had, everything he had to give her... As he snaked into her mind... Holding her in a bone shattering grip to him as he ended her life...

Then there was a moment of silence.

Of horrible awful silence.

It felt like an eternity.

She was gone.

He felt her absence like a sword through the heart...

There was enough time for a single tear to fill his eye and spill down his cheek, a small smile tugging at his lips as he whispered, "I'll see you on the other side," before his own life ended.