Filed to story: A Court of Mist and Fury Book by Sarah J Maas
I snorted. He’d made me tell him that part of my tale over and over. I jerked my chin toward his bedroom. “Your bed is bigger.”
And that was that.
I walked in to find my clothes already there, a second armoire now beside his. I stared at the massive bed, then at all the open space around us.
Rhys shut the door and went to a small box on the desk-then silently handed it to me.
My heart thundered as I opened the lid. The star sapphire gleamed in the candlelight, as if it were one of the Starfall spirits trapped in stone. “Your mother’s ring?”
“My mother gave me that ring to remind me she was always with me, even during the worst of my training. And when I reached my majority, she took it away. It was an heirloom of her family-had been handed down from female to female over many, many years. My sister wasn’t yet born, so she wouldn’t have known to give it to her, but … My mother gave it to the Weaver. And then she told me that if I were to marry or mate, then the female would either have to be smart or strong enough to get it back. And if the female wasn’t either of those things, then she wouldn’t survive the marriage. I promised my mother that any potential bride or mate would have the test … And so it sat there for centuries.”
My face heated. “You said this was something of value-“
“It is. To me, and my family.”
“So my trip to the Weaver-“
“It was vital that we learn if you could detect those objects. But … I picked the object out of pure selfishness.”
“So I won my wedding ring without even being asked if I wanted to marry you.”
“Perhaps.”
I cocked my head. “Do-do you want me to wear it?”
“Only if you want to.”
“When we go to Hybern … Let’s say things go badly. Will anyone be able to tell that we’re mated? Could they use that against you?”
Rage flickered in his eyes. “If they see us together and can scent us both, they’ll know.”
“And if I show up alone, wearing a Night Court wedding ring-“
He snarled softly.
I closed the box, leaving the ring inside. “After we nullify the Cauldron, I want to do it all. Get the bond declared, get married, throw a stupid party and invite everyone in Velaris-all of it.”
Rhys took the box from my hands and set it down on the nightstand before herding me toward the bed. “And if I wanted to go one step beyond that?”
“I’m listening,” I purred as he laid me on the sheets.
I’d never worn so much steel. Blades had been strapped all over me, hidden in my boots, my inside pockets. And then there was the Illyrian blade down my back.
Just a few hours ago, I’d known such overwhelming happiness after such horror and sorrow. Just a few hours ago, I’d been in his arms while he made love to me.
And now Rhysand, my mate and High Lord and partner, stood beside me in the foyer, Mor and Azriel and Cassian armed and ready in their scale-like armor, all of us too quiet.
Amren said, “The King of Hybern is old, Rhys-very old. Do not linger.”
A voice near my chest whispered,
Hello lovely, wicked liar.
The two halves of the Book of Breathings, each part tucked into a different pocket. In one of them, the spell I was to say had been written out clearly. I hadn’t dared speak it, though I had read it a dozen times.
“We’ll be in and out before you miss us,” Rhysand said. “Guard Velaris well.”
Amren studied my gloved hands and weapons. “That Cauldron,” she said, “makes the Book seem harmless. If the spell fails, or if you cannot move it, then leave.” I nodded. She surveyed us all again. “Fly well.” I supposed that was as much concern as she’d show.
We turned to Mor-whose arms were out, waiting for me. Cassian and Rhys would winnow with Azriel, my mate dropped off a few miles from the coast before the Illyrians found Mor and me seconds later.
I moved toward her, but Rhys stepped in front of me, his face tense. I rose up on my toes and kissed him. “I’ll be fine-we’ll all be fine.” His eyes held mine through the kiss, and when I broke away, his gaze went right to Cassian.
Cassian bowed. “With my life, High Lord. I’ll protect her with my life.”
Rhys looked to Azriel. He nodded, bowing, and said, “With both of our lives.”
It was satisfactory enough to my mate-who at last looked at Mor.
She nodded once, but said, “I know my orders.”
I wondered what those might be-why I hadn’t been told-but she gripped my hand.
Before I could say good-bye to Amren, we were gone.
Gone-and plunging through open air, toward a night-dark sea-
A warm body slammed into mine, catching me before I could panic and perhaps winnow myself somewhere. “Easy,” Cassian said, banking right. I looked below to see Mor still plummeting, then winnow again into nothing.
No sign or glimmer of Rhys’s presence near or behind us. A few yards ahead, Azriel was a swift shadow over the black water. Toward the landmass we were now approaching.
Hybern.
No lights burned on it. But it felt … old. As if it were a spider that had been waiting in its web for a long, long time.
“I’ve been here twice,” Cassian murmured. “Both times, I was counting down the minutes until I could leave.”
I could see why. A wall of bone-white cliffs arose, their tops flat and grassy, leading away to a terrain of sloping, barren hills. And an overwhelming sense of nothingness.
Amarantha had slaughtered all her slaves rather than free them. She had been a commander here-one of many. If that force that had attacked Velaris was a vanguard … I swallowed, flexing my hands beneath my gloves.
“That’s his castle ahead,” Cassian said through clenched teeth, swerving.
Around a bend in the coast, built into the cliffs and perched above the sea, was a lean, crumbling castle of white stone.