A Court of Unspoken Terrors

Chapter One

There is blood everywhere.

It covers my hands, my face, my clothes. A mockery of the vibrant paints that I had once loved so dearly; my silent companions throughout all of my hardships. 

The taste of ash coats my tongue and I dare a glance upwards, towards the smoke now staining the sky like some great maelstrom of death and despair. Smoke, because those are bodies stacked one on top of the other, all along the edges of the battlefield. Hybern's beasts dancing with sadistic glee and ancient malice throughout the once beautiful valley floor that runs red with the blood of my people.

Wings jut up from among the fallen, Seraphim and Peregryn alike. But not one sign appears --not one-- that the Illyrians have fought here, have died defending the hard-earned peace among the Fae. Except... yes over there. A few feet to my left, a pair of black, membranous wings protrude from a pile of bodies that Hybern has yet to collect. As if it had taken dozens of them to bring him down in the end.

I drag myself over from where I had been standing and drop to my knees beside the fallen warrior. My breath rasps from my throat as I haul body after body off of his corpse until I can finally see his face, caked with dirt and blood.

 I raise my trembling hand to brush away the mud smeared across his cheek but freeze mid-motion.

I know that face, know its owner. I would not- could not forget him. Even death's cold embrace had not succeeded in cleaving us apart.

A muffled sob escapes my lips as I stumble backward, tripping over bodies strewn across the valley floor. I begin weeping in earnest as image after image floods my brain, one after the other with no room for breath in between.

My father's neck, snapping between Hybern's hands; Amarantha's blood-red hair; Claire Beddor's mutilated body, spiked to Under the Mountain's cavernous walls; Cassian's shredded wings; Rhysand's lifeless body-

I don't know when I begin to scream.

It is an endless torrent of misery with no room for breath and no means to escape. I can't breathe, can't find a way out, a way to flee from the horrors of my past- 

Feyre

The voice is a beacon, illuminating the ageless dark.

 FEYRE

The call goes out again, and, like a fish dragged up from the depths of the sea, I am hauled back into awakening, my breaths coming in heaving gasps as I hurtle for the bathing room.

Hi everyone, this is my first fanfic so let me know what you think! I would love to hear your thoughts (criticism is always welcome)! I'll hopefully be able to update sometime soon, but in the meantime... Enjoy!