The Ends of the Earth

Chapter 37

He couldn't believe this is what they had done to him. He didn't want to believe that his mate was taken away from him yet again.

It wasn't anger that coursed through Rowan's veins, no, it was something new. Something foreign. Something that he had no words to describe. So as he was holding the lifeless body of his mate in his arms, he closed his eyes.

And began counting the minutes.

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Feyre was now sobbing through her teeth. She didn't have any fight left in her anymore. When she looked up at Rhysand he was only shaking his head.

Not at her though---at Rowan. Who looked to be in a deep prayer-like state cradling Aelin in his hands.

Oh gods.

Because when he looked up, there was no doubt he was going to kill the Dark Queen.

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"What do you want from us?" Rhysand asked after a few long minutes. "I'll do it."

The fighting beneath them seemed to quiet down after the Queen's death, as if everyone had felt the loss in their very cores.

Rhysand had peeled his eyes away from Rowan and Aelin. He had to finish this.

He wasn't willing to compromise, no, he just needed time. Cassian and the rest would find them soon. Because he couldn't do this alone, not with Feyre's life still in the balance.

"I don't think that is the right question to be asking, Rhysand," Amarantha crooned.

Rhysand raised his eyebrows, careful not to make eye contact with Feyre. "Then what is?"

"It's what Feyre here can do for me," She turned to face Feyre. "See, Rhysand is no longer of much use to me, but you, oh you are".

Feyre, still under her gag order, couldn't speak, and Rhysand couldn't detect what was going on inside her mind. He tried to step closer, but was swiftly reminded of the consequences of doing so and retracted back. Cassian, Azriel, Aedion... he repeated over in his brain. He needed them to get here quickly.

Fight a little while longer, fight. Rhysand threw down the empty bond. He heard the grass by Rowan rustle a bit.

"What can she do?"

Amarantha's face went dark at that, "I want a tether to this world." Rhysand cocked his head at that, he had to appear diplomatic, get the attention off whatever Rowan seemed to be doing.

"Explain."

"Feyre is made of all high courts, as long as I have her, I stay." Amarantha laid out.

No, too easy for her. That can't be it.

"So you want her to remain under your enthrall?" Rhysand asked. He looked down at Feyre very swiftly, but nothing. Nothing that could yield any information to him.

He had held back the fae warrior on the ground in front of him but he had also held himself back. Every ounce of his being was screaming at him to throw his power out at Maeve and Amarantha, the former sitting on her throne reveling in Rowan and Aelin. But his power was stifled, or he would not be playing with Amarantha and her games.

"No, I want her kernel."

And right as she finished saying that,

The Court of Dreams and the Court of Terrasen arrived on the mountain top.

Because Rowan had somehow... someway... broken past the wards and gotten them all up here. But it came at a price. One that Rhysand knew far too well.

The Court of Terrasen did not charge at the Dark Queen first. No, they went straight to their dead queen...and king. Aelin's cousin fell to his knees right beside them, while a ghost leopard walked form behind.

A ghost leopard. The wards were down...they all had their powers back, Erileans included. So this was his chance. He would not let them take any more of them, Erilea or Prythian. But he looked up to see Amarantha shoulder to shoulder with Maeve, who didn't seem to be doing too well. Her snarkiness gone, and her skin flushed with a new pallor. They can't stay...they can't stay...

He knew what he had to do, he had to buy time until the Gods decided to take both themselves. He just had to make sure there were no more casualties in doing so.

Amarantha barely had time to react as Rhysand launched the fullest extent of his power at her.

Author's note - Thank you for reading and I am so so sorry for how long you all had to wait for this chapter!