Crescent flame of the night

Chapter eleven

   Rhysand paced in front of his family, night seeping out around him as he continued to stress. They had been stuck down in this library for cauldron knows how long. They had tried so many ways to get out of this strange place to no prevail.
   Feyre had calmed down after what felt like an hour. There was no way for them to tell without any windows to show the rise and fall of the sun.  In the place of sorrow and desperation was pure determination. Rhys could tell that his mate would go to whatever ends she needed to, to find their son. He knew she would put their son before her own life and that worried him.
   He'd lost her once before because of her love and passion for someone and he couldn't bare to loose her again for the same reasons. Now instead of curling up on the couch, a distant look in her eyes, feyre took charge and helped figure out different ways to get out of this place.
   Rhys knew that they needed to get out soon. He could see death shining in nesta's eyes. If they spent much longer in here the eldest archeron sister was most likely to rip out cassian throat. The two may be mated but when ever they got into a fight no one was safe.
   Azriel blasted his shadows at the large doors for what seemed like the billionth time. "This is hopeless. I can't break down this door and my shadows can't breach the magic used to seal it" Az let out an exasperated breath and went to sit down on the couch next to Elain.
"Alright I have a plan" feyre stood up in front of the court of dreams as she spoke. "Azriel, cassian, Rhys, Nesta and I will all blast our magic agains the door at the same time. Whilst we do that I want you" she gestured to mor, who was sitting at a table reading through books trying to find out where they were, "to take elain and amren and when we put our magic against the door I want you to try and Winnow out of here. All of our powers combined should hopefully be enough to break whatever magic is keeping us trapped in here."
Everyone nodded and sprung into action. The three illyrians stood side by side with feyre standing on the left, next to Rhys, and nesta standing in the right, next to cassian. "On the count of three" they all nodded "one"
a deep breath. "Two"
Feyre squeezed his hand. "Three"
As soon as feyre finished counting pure energy burst from the five of them and slammed into the door. The whole room shuddered but they kept pressing harder.

***

Feyre put all of her effort into breaking through whatever wards were keeping them trapped in this strange library. As their power slammed into the door feyre could feel something shifting within its wards. Not one second later, she felt the magic locking them in attack her, and she stumbled back. Rhys was there within seconds to catch her before she fell.
   The same seemed to be happening to all three of the Archeron sisters. Nesta had fallen into cassians arms, elain into Mor's. "Feyre darling? Are you alright?" Rhys looked at her, worry lining his beautiful features.
   "I-I'm fine. I just- I just need to lie down for a bit." Rhys's frown deepened but he led her towards the couch, cassian doing the same with nesta. Elain leant against mor.
   Feyre went to lay her head down but didn't get the opportunity, for her sister had gone ridged - eyes aglow, hands slack at her sides - and started speaking in an ancient voice that was not her own.

"Child of night
Stolen from their home
Three worlds collide

Queen, princess and lady
King, death and lord
One choice will save or doom them all

One of three
One of six
Flaming flower wilted

Child of star, flame and earth
A sacrifice must be made
One to never claim their throne"

   Elain dropped to the ground before Mor, or azriel who had moved to stand next to amren, could catch her.
   They all exchanged looks. Elain was know to tell the futer - like how she knew when that feyre was pregnant with Callum a month before hand and kept it a secret - but she had never given a full blown prophecy before. And that aside, what was just said did not sound good.
   Feyre shot up from where she was about to lie down and raced to her sister, nesta right behind her. "Elain! Are you ok?" It was nesta who spoke. The only time feyre had ever heard her sister speak with such fear in her voice was during the war with Hybern, when she could sense the cauldron about to destroy the Illyrian ranks - along with cassian. Nesta's hands cupped her younger sisters face as the older fae woman scanned her for any sign of injury.
   "Nesta. I'm fine. It's just a small fall. Nothing big" Elain started to rise but paused at the look of worry that deepened even further on her sisters brow.
   "Elain. You didn't just fall. You went rigid and your eyes started glowing, and then you started to speak. In a voice that- that was nothing like yours and- and-" those were sobs escaping nesta's throat as she spoke. The strong willed sister who cried over nothing and no one, who stole power from the cauldron when she was only a human woman, was crying. "Do you not remember?"
Elain shook her head in confusion. Feyre was going to speak up but stopped when she felt Rhys brush up against her shields.
Why did it only effect you and your sisters?
I don't know Rhys. I just don't know.
Are you sure that you're alright? You seemed like you were hurt when you stumbled.
Yes Rhys, I'm fine. We were probably just effected because none of us were born fae. We were made.
Ok, but as long as you are certain that your fine
I'm fi-
She went still. Her heightened senses catching the soft patter of feet on concrete in the distance. From the stiffness of her friends she knew they could hear it too.

***

Bryce grabbed everything she needed - her bag, her phone, Danika's sword and her gun - and rushed to the door. Everyone except fenrys, Rowan and hypaxia raced after her. All it took was one word from Lillian - no, aelin - and fenrys was standing guard over the medwitch and the injured fae male. How a small human woman could command such powerful fae males at the snap of her fingers, Bryce had no idea.
She saw the queen of terrasen look back to Rowan once more before she bolted through the door.
Why these people rushed to help them with an intruder when they had a)only just met b) had almost killed one another on first sight c) where in a foreign place and d) the person in charge seemed to be a few months with child, was a mystery to her.
As if reading her mind, aelin spoke. "I know we only just met but whatever is in that library you told us about isn't good. Our world was almost destroyed by some foreign dark magic and I don't want to see yours to suffer the fate we almost did. So from now on we're allies. I don't care if you don't want to be friends but we work together together."
Hunt snarled at the pure command in this woman's voice but Bryce just nodded. "Deal"
It wasn't until they had reached the door to Griffins Antiquities that Bryce started to question how aelin had kept pace with them all when they had the gift of fae speed, and she was only human, who was let alone pregnant.