A Court of Hells and Stars

Prologue: The Masquerade

To hell with appearances. 

To hell with all the false talks of peace, of making amends. To hell with Amarantha, and Hybern. 

I'd told no one my plans for tonight. I knew that they'd try to stop me, and I couldn't allow that. This had to end now, before Amarantha had another chance to bring Prythian down. I didn't believe her charade, not for one second. Let them think me a villain. Let them think of me as cruel, or idiotic. I didn't care.

Tonight, Amarantha would pay. My plan was simple, but rested purely on my own abilities. If I could just slip into her mind, make her reveal every vile plan I was sure she had cooking... 

The party was a bore, to be honest. I'd seen better. And the masks on the Spring Court... whatever excuses Amarantha had made for that idea, to me it only seemed to draw more attention to the court. Namely, its emissary. I spotted Lucien standing next to Tamlin, his golden mask hardly hiding the prominent scars on his face. I winced inwardly thinking about what Amarantha had done to him. But I wasn't here for him. 

I finally saw Amarantha making her way toward Tamlin through the crowd. Tonight, she wore a dress made of fine green silk, crafted to drape over her body in a way that made it both elegant and scandalous. I could guess immediately the course of thought behind the color. 

Now. Kill her now. I took one last sip of my wineglass before setting it down on the table, my ears buzzing. I stood and walked towards Tamlin, meaning to meet Amarantha there. But before I could, she turned towards the gathered crowd and called for silence. 

"I thank you all for coming tonight," She said, her voice carrying over the hushed room. I halted at the front of the crowd, my very blood pounding. Now. It had to be now. 

"I have a bit of an announcement, if you will," Amarantha said, her sly smile turning her lips upward. She turned to Tamlin, her ebony eyes glittering. "Peace between our lands is possible. Probable, even. If..." She extended a snow-white hand to him. Tamlin glanced at it, then back at her, his face unreadable. 

"If the High Lord of Spring agrees to join me. As my partner and consort." She practically purred the last word. My fingers twitched slightly. Now, while she was distracted. Do it now.

I reached out with my power, searching for her mind. Dark tendrils of magic only I could see manifested, reaching out for her. 

Tamlin scowled, his features pulling back into a snarl. "After what you did to a member of my own court?" He stepped away from her hand, which was reaching out to touch his shoulder. "I'd sooner bed a human." 

I halted, so surprised by his declaration that my own anger paused for a moment. That wasn't a smart thing to say. Not after everything that had happened with Cylthia and Jurian. 

Amarantha smiled slightly, trying to hide her fury at being denied. "You can't possibly expect me to believe that." 

There. Her mind sat in front of me, mine for the taking. I reached out, my heart pounding with adrenaline. But instead of the secrets I desired, I was met with a barrier. I growled under my breath. Of course, she'd been trained against daemati. 

I raked the adamant talons of my power over the shield, tearing it to shreds. But another one lay beneath, then another, and another. 

"Really?" Tamlin snapped, stepping back once more to stand next to Lucien. "I wouldn't touch you in a thousand years. Your own sister-" There was a sharp intake of breath in the room, and Amarantha froze, her oily smile slipping off her face. "Chose a human over you. I daresay I would do the same." 

I was barely listening. Shield after shield, each thicker than the last. I could think of nothing else. 

Amarantha was so still, the entire room held its breath in thick silence. Finally, her smile returned. 

"You're lucky I'm feeling generous tonight, High Lord," She purred. The buzzing in my ears grew louder. I reached the final shield, one constructed of what seemed to be bone-white rock. 

Amarantha turned back to the crowd spreading her hands. "Remember this moment in the future, when your High Queen granted mercy." 

And then it happened. 

I gasped and grabbed my chest. It felt as if something was sitting on it, something so impossibly heavy that I couldn't breathe. I lost my hold on Amarantha's mind and returned to the present to see her smiling wickedly at me. A bitter taste awoke in my mouth, so foul I choked. The buzzing in my ears grew to a roar. The wine. She'd poisoned the wine.

I heard six other gasps throughout the room and saw Tamlin fall to his knees, gripping his chest. He glared at Amarantha, gasping for breath. Lucien grabbed his friend, kneeling beside him. 

"What did you do?" He snarled at her. But I knew before she even said anything. This wasn't a poison to kill. It was something evil, something only Hybern could have created. A potion to take not a life, but a power. 

I could feel it leaving me. That dark magic I'd grown so used to, that ability to burrow into a mind and take what I wanted. She'd known. She'd known what I was doing the whole time. 

My anger vanished when the reality of it hit me. This wasn't a party. This was a trap. Amarantha wanted Prythian, and she was going to use any means necessary to get it. 

Two can play at that game. Velaris. My family. I had to protect them. 

I cast out my power, searching for the minds of the Court of Nightmares. I smashed through any weak shields they had, snatching up all their memories of my home and my family and tearing them to pieces. Then, just as I felt the last meager drops of my magic settling in, I threw a message out into the minds of my family. 

I pulled shields up around Velaris. I bound the magic to my family. Stay away, I whispered into their minds, letting them see all that had occurred. Stay away. 

I could feel Cassian's fury. Mor's anguish. Amren's cold anger, at me and my foolishness, at Amarantha. Azriel's quiet shock. 

Then they were gone. 

Rhys art by taratjah!