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booklover41802 · 3 months ago

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Chapter 13 - When the Darkness Closes In

So, I guess this is back? Surprise?

Description: Rhys has returned to Velaris after months of being away, only to find his beloved city and mate under attack from Hybern. Fighting to protect what he loves most, Rhys must defend the city from an outside attack, desperate to return to his family.

Co-Written by: highladysith/PrettyBoyWynn

Feyre

Adrenaline took over my fear in an instant, all my early morning training sessions with Cassian flooding my head. Each move, punch, kick came rushing back. If these monsters were about to take the city that had taken me under their wing when I was broken, then I would break them. And best of all, now Rhys was by my side. I could take down any creature that dared to enter Velaris. As I turned to rush out the door to help defend the city, Rhys grabbed onto my arm.

“Feyre, stay here. I’ll take care of everything. It’s the King of Hybern come for retribution. This is all my fault. Please, stay here.” His face was desperate as he was confronted with the thought of losing me again. But I was stronger now. I could defend myself against the attacks. I could help. I wanted to help this city that saved me.

I tugged my arm to try and pull myself out of his grasp to no avail. “Rhys, I can help. I’ve been training with Cassian-”

“It’s not enough. They’ll kill you. You don’t know these creatures. You don’t-”

“No, Rhys,” I said firmly as I finally managed to yank my arm free. “You don’t get to order me around as if you’ve been around these past few months. You left me alone. You left me . I will decide what’s best for me and what I can do.” I turned my back on him before he could reply and hurried down to save the city.

Damn him and his protective nature. Who did he think he was? Before I could dwell on Rhys too long, a smear of black appeared on the horizon. Internally, I prayed that they were birds, but I knew that evil had come to Velaris. Wingbeats sounded behind me as Cassian appeared, his siphons glowing a deep crimson.

Cassian reached for me, but I jumped back. Ice danced at my fingertips; wind howled in my blood. I’d pick them off one by one— “Get Azriel and Amren—”

They’d reached the sea cliffs. Countless, long-limbed flying creatures, some bearing soldiers in their arms … An invading host. “Cassian.”

But an Illyrian blade had appeared in Cassian’s hand, twin to the one across his back. A fighting knife now shone in the other. He held them both out to me. “Get back to the town house—right now.”

I most certainly would not go. If they were flying, I could use my power to my advantage: freeze their wings, burn them, break them. Even if there were so many, even if—

So fast, as if they were carried on a fell wind, the force reached the outer edges of the city. And unleashed arrows upon the shrieking people rushing for cover in the streets. I grabbed his outstretched weapons, the cool metal hilts hissing beneath my forge-hot palms.

Cassian lifted his hand into the air. Red light exploded from his Siphon, blasting up and away—forming a hard wall in the sky above the city, directly in the path of that oncoming force.

He ground his teeth, grunting as the winged legion slammed into his shield. As if he felt every impact.

The translucent red shield shoved out farther, knocking them back—

We both watched in mute horror as the creatures lunged for the shield, arms out—

They were not just any manner of faerie. Any rising magic in me sputtered and went out at the sight of them.

They were all like the Attor.

All long-limbed, gray-skinned, with serpentine snouts and razor-sharp teeth. And as the legion of its ilk punched through Cassian’s shield as if it were a cobweb, I beheld on their spindly gray arms gauntlets of that bluish stone I’d seen on Rhys, glimmering in the sun.

One after one after one, they punched through his shield.

Cassian sent another wall barreling for them. Some of the creatures peeled away and launched themselves upon the outskirts of the city, vulnerable outside of his shield. The heat that had been building in my palms faded to clammy sweat.

Rhys

This was not the homecoming I’d expected, but it was the response I’d anticipated from the mortal queens. We’d been sold out to the King of Hybern and it was all my fault. My fault that my family and city were in danger. I prayed the mother would save them all from this destruction wrought by my own hand. And that they would forgive me once the battle was over.

I opened up my wings and shot through the balcony window to behold a legion of winged creatures descending upon Velaris. Looking down, I could see Cassian and Feyre, the former of whom was doing his best to stop the creatures, but there were simply too many for him to hold out. As the barrier fell, a host of them fell from the sky as twin flashes of blue and red shot through the air. Az and Cas. Two of his most trusted friends and generals. I could always count on them when I wasn’t around. In the distance, Amren was defending another portion of the city, her eyes swirling silver as her power activated.

When I looked down again, Feyre was gone, but now blood shone on the white marble bridge, sparkling like rubies in the sun.

There, on one of those towering, elegant lamp posts flanking the bridge …

Her body was bent, her back arched on the impact, as if she were in the throes of passion. Her golden hair had been shorn to the skull. Her golden eyes had been plucked out. She was twitching where she had been impaled on the post, the metal pole straight through her slim torso, gore clinging to the metal above her.

Someone on the bridge vomited, then kept running.

Fighting against the image of Feyre upon the lamppost, I turned away from the scene below me. Through our bond, I screamed FEYRE! Only to find it shut and locked. Shit. I pounded against those barriers as I took flight through the city. I hacked, slashed, and tore through wings to get to my mate. I had an idea of where she might be headed, but there were too many of my people that needed to be protected. I threw out barbed shadows to impale some of these monstrous creatures that looked all too similar to the Attor. Bodies fell, but not everyone could be saved. Red blood had already stained the streets of Velaris a nasty crimson.

Screams not dissimilar from those Under the Mountain rang throughout the city. It took everything in me to not be consumed by the memories of everything I had done.

I simply could not afford any distractions right now. Not while Feyre was in danger.

I had to get to her before it was too late.

Feyre

People were shrieking, fleeing. And I knew his shields would not hold—

“GO!” Cassian roared. I lurched into motion, knowing he likely lingered because I stayed, that he needed Azriel and Amren and—

High above us, three of them slammed into the dome of the red shield. Clawing at it, ripping through layer after layer with those stone gauntlets.

That’s what had delayed the king these months: gathering his arsenal. Weapons to fight magic, to fight High Fae who would rely on it—

A hole ripped open, and Cassian threw me to the ground, shoving me against the marble railing, his wings spreading wide over me, his legs as solid as the bands of carved rock at my back—

“Run home. Now.”

That was the final order—and his good-bye as he shot into the sky after the creatures who had dared invade Velaris, who had already disappeared into the screaming streets.

Around me, hole after hole was punched through that red shield, those winged creatures pouring in, dumping the Hybern soldiers they had carried across the sea.

Soldiers of every shape and size—lesser faeries.

The screams, the beating wings, the whoosh and thud of arrows erupted in the sudden silence.

I ran. I ran for my side of the Sidra, for the town house. I didn’t trust myself to winnow—could barely think around the panic barking through my head. I had minutes, perhaps, before they hit my street. Minutes to get there and bring as many inside with me as I could. The house was warded. No one would get in, not even these things.

Faeries were rushing past, racing for shelter, for friends and family. I hit the end of the bridge, the steep hills rising up—

Hybern soldiers were already atop the hill, at the two Palaces, laughing at the screams, the pleading as they broke into buildings, dragging people out. Blood dribbled down the cobblestones in little rivers.

A thunderous boom rocked the other side of the city, and I went down at the impact, blades flying, hands ripping open on the cobblestones. I whirled toward the river, scrambling up, lunging for my weapons.

Cassian and Azriel were both in the skies now. And where they flew, those winged creatures died. Arrows of red and blue light shot from them, and those shields—

Twin shields of red and blue merged, sizzling, and slammed into the rest of the aerial forces. Flesh and wings tore, bone melted—

Until hands encased in stone tumbled from the sky. Only hands. Clattering on rooftops, splashing into the river. All that was left of them—what two Illyrian warriors had worked their way around.

But there were countless more who had already landed. Too many. Roofs were wrenched apart, doors shattered, screaming rising and then silenced—

This was not an attack to sack the city. It was an extermination.

And rising up before me, merely a few blocks down, the Rainbow of Velaris was bathed in blood.

Fire was rippling, black smoke staining the sky—

Across the river, thunder boomed again.

And it was not Cassian, or Azriel, who held the other side of the river. But Amren.

Her slim hands had only to point, and soldiers would fall—fall as if their own wings failed them. They slammed into the streets, thrashing, choking, clawing, shrieking, just as the people of Velaris had shrieked.

I whipped my head to the Rainbow a few blocks away—left unprotected. Defenseless.

The street before me was clear, the lone safe passage through hell.

A female screamed inside the artists’ quarter. And I knew my path.

I flipped my Illyrian blade in my hand and winnowed into the burning and bloody Rainbow.

This was my home. These were my people.

If I died defending them, defending that small place in the world where art thrived …

Then so be it.

And I became darkness, and shadow, and wind.

I winnowed into the edge of the Rainbow as the first of the Hybern soldiers rounded its farthest corner, spilling onto the river avenue, shredding the cafés where I had lounged and laughed. They did not see me until I was upon them.

Until my Illyrian blade cleaved through their heads, one after another.

Six went down in my wake, and as I halted at the foot of the Rainbow, staring up into the fire and blood and death … Too many. Too many soldiers.

I’d never make it, never kill them all—

But there was a young female, green-skinned and lithe, an ancient, rusted bit of pipe raised above her shoulder. Standing her ground in front of her storefront—a gallery. People crouched inside the shop were sobbing.

Before them, laughing at the faerie, at her raised scrap of metal, circled five winged soldiers. Playing with her, taunting her.

Still, she held the line. Still her face did not crumple. Paintings and pottery were shattered around her. And more soldiers were landing, spilling down, butchering—

Across the river, thunder boomed—Amren or Cassian or Azriel, I didn’t know.

The river.

Three soldiers spotted me from up the hill. Raced for me.

But I ran faster, back for the river at the foot of the hill, for the singing Sidra.

I hit the edge of the quay; the water already stained with blood and slammed my foot down in a mighty stomp.

And as if in answer, the Sidra rose.

I yielded to that thrumming power inside my bones and blood and breath. I became the Sidra, ancient and deep. And I bent it to my will.

I lifted my blades, willing the river higher, shaping it, forging it.

Those Hybern soldiers stopped dead in their tracks as I turned toward them.

And wolves of water broke from behind me.

The soldiers whirled, fleeing.

But my wolves were faster. I was faster as I ran with them, in the heart of the pack.

Wolf after wolf roared out of the Sidra, as colossal as the one I had once killed, pouring into the streets, racing upward.

I made it five steps before the pack was upon the soldiers taunting the shop owner.

I made it seven steps before the wolves brought them down, water shoving down their throats, drowning them—

I reached the soldiers, and my blade sang as I severed their choking heads from their bodies.

The shopkeeper was sobbing as she recognized me, her rusted bar still raised. But she nodded—only once.

I ran again, losing myself amongst my water-wolves. Some of the soldiers were taking to the sky, flapping upward, backtracking.

So, my wolves grew wings, and talons, and became falcons and hawks and eagles.

They slammed into their bodies, their armor, drenching them. The airborne soldiers, realizing they hadn’t been drowned, halted their flight and laughed, sneering.

I lifted a hand skyward and clenched my fingers into a fist.

The water soaking them, their wings, their armor, their faces … It turned to ice.

Ice that was so cold it had existed before light, before the sun had warmed the earth. Ice of a land cloaked in winter, ice from the parts of me that felt no mercy, no sympathy for what these creatures had done and were doing to my people.

Frozen solid, dozens of the winged soldiers fell to the earth as one. And shattered upon the cobblestones.

My wolves raged around me, tearing and drowning and hunting. And those that fled them, those that took to the skies—they froze and shattered; froze and shattered. Until the streets were laden with ice and gore and broken bits of wing and stone.

Until the screaming of my people stopped, and the screams of the soldiers became a song in my blood.

Rhys

Although the tide of battle was turning in our favor, the number of enemies seemed endless. Human soldiers of Hybern used their spears against everything that was alive and breathing. Enraged, I flew towards them, sending out a tide of inky blackness to consume them in their own worst nightmares. The soldiers dropped their weapons and fell to the ground, shrieking at invisible forces. Blood ran from their noses as their body fought against itself before falling dead. I only wished they had suffered more and that I had the time to be the one to do it.

They had done this. Those queens had … had given this city of art and music and food over to these … monsters. The king must have used the Cauldron to break its wards.

WHERE ARE YOU? I again pounded at the bond, desperate for any sign from Feyre.

Finally, the smallest sliver of light peeked through as she answered, I’m right where I need to be, before the bond was once again slammed shut.

FEYRE, I yelled into the void.

Soaring through the city, I sent out another tidal wave of darkness to consume both Hybern soldiers and Attor-like creatures while I searched for Feyre. Those who were within the cloud did not emerge again.

Just ahead of me, the Rainbow came into sight, followed by a mass of creatures that had suffered varying degrees of pain. At the end of the bodies, there she was, breathing heavily, covered in an array of cuts and bruises. She had never looked more beautiful.

I landed on the ground and sprinted over to her. Taking a moment to assess her injuries, I wiped away a smear of blood on her face. She looked up at her with those devastating blue-gray eyes that had seen fire and bloodshed. I gently pressed a kiss against her mouth to remind us both who we were, what we were. Slowly the ice thawed from her eyes. “Feyre Cursebreaker,” I murmured. “Defender of the Rainbow.”

She threw her arms around my waist, sobbing. “Rhys. I didn’t think you’d come for me.”

I held her tight against me, breathing in her scene of pear and lilac, trembling against her. Out of the corner of my eye, one of the soldiers, not quite dead yet, lifted his fallen spear and threw it directly toward my unprotected back. It was coming too quickly to dodge, but there was a part of me that felt relief at my upcoming death. I deserved it for all the wicked and horrible things I had done. The tip sank into the small of my back, piercing through flesh and bone. A dull ache spread across my chest, blood spurting out of the wound.

Feyre let out a gasp as I slid to the ground. With what little strength I still had, I snapped my fingers and the human who had thrown the spear disintegrated. I closed my hands, smiling, content to know I had protected Feyre with my last breath.

I heard Feyre scream my name before I closed my eyes and darkness enveloped me. But I was happy. Happy that Feyre was alive and that was enough.

Tags: @mademoisellenimbob, @webcraft4eveh, @akb12348, @ishouldreallybeasleepbynow, @sapphic-beauty

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