Waited and waited, long minutes.
It’d take them longer to arrive, I realized. Since they could not winnow or move as quickly through the world.
I was about to turn into the room to begin without them when two male figures filled the night-darkened doorway.
Jurian. And Graysen.
And behind them … a small contingent of other humans.
I swallowed hard. Now the difficult part would begin.
Graysen looked inclined to turn around, the fresh cut down his cheek crinkling as he scowled, but Jurian nudged him in. A black eye bloomed on the left side of Jurian’s face. I wondered if Miryam or Drakon had given it to him. My money was on the former.
Graysen only gave us a tight nod. Jurian smirked at me.
“I put you on opposite ends of the room,” I said.
From both Miryam and Drakon. And from Elain.
Neither man responded, and only strode, proud and tall, into that room full of Fae.
Rhys kissed my cheek and strode in behind them. Which left—
As Lucien had promised, with darkness now overhead, Vassa found me.
The last to arrive—the last piece of this meeting. She stormed over the threshold, breathless and unfaltering, and paused only a foot away.
Her unbound hair was a reddish gold, thick dark lashes and brows framing the most stunningly blue eyes I’d ever seen. Beautiful, her freckled skin golden-brown and gleaming. Only a few years older than me, but … young-feeling. Coltish. Fierce and untamed, despite her curse.
Vassa said in a lilting accent, “Are you Feyre Cursebreaker?”
“Yes,” I said, sensing Rhys listening wryly from the other room, where the rest were now beginning to quiet themselves. To wait for me.
Vassa’s full mouth tightened. “I am sorry—about your father. He was a great man.”
Nesta, striding out of the sitting room, halted at the words. Looked Vassa up and down.
Vassa returned the favor. “You are Nesta,” Vassa declared, and I wondered how my father had described her so that Vassa would know. “I am sorry for your loss, too.”
Nesta simply regarded her with that cool indifference.
“I heard you slew the King of Hybern,” Vassa said, those dark brows narrowing as she again surveyed Nesta, searching for any sign of a warrior beneath the blue dress she wore. Vassa only shrugged to herself when Nesta didn’t reply and said to me, “He was a better father to me than my own. I owe much to him, and will honor his memory as long as I live.”
The look Nesta was giving the queen was enough to wither the grass beyond the shattered front door. It didn’t get any better as Vassa said, “Can you break the curse on me, Feyre Archeron?”
“Is that why you agreed to come so quickly?”
A half smile. “Partly. Lucien suggested you had gifts. And other High Lords do as well.”
Like his father—his true one. Helion.
She went on before I could answer. “I do not have much time left—before I must return to the lake. To him.”
To the death-lord who held her leash. “Who is he?” I breathed.
Vassa only shook her head, waving a hand as her eyes darkened, and repeated, “Can you break my curse?”
“I—I don’t know how to break those kinds of spells,” I admitted. Her face fell. I added, “But … we can try.”
She considered. “With the healing of our armies, I won’t be able to leave for some time. Perhaps it will give me a … loophole, as Lucien called it, to remain longer.” Another shake of the head. “We shall discuss this later,” she declared. “Along with the threat my fellow queens pose.”
My heart stumbled a beat.
A cruel smile curved Vassa’s mouth. “They will try to intervene,” she said. “With any sort of peace talks. Hybern sent them back before this battle, but I have no doubt they were smart enough to encourage that. Not to waste their armies here.”
“But they will elsewhere?” Nesta demanded.
Vassa tossed her smooth sheet of hair over a shoulder. “We shall see. And you will think of ways to help me.”
I waited until she headed for the sitting room before I flicked my brows up at the order. Either she didn’t know or didn’t care that I was also a queen in my right.
Nesta smirked. “Good luck with that.”
I scowled, shoving down the worry already blooming in my gut, and said, “Where are you going? The meeting is starting.”
“Why should I be in there?”
“You’re the guest of honor. You killed the king.”
Shadows flickered in her face. “So what.”
I blinked. “You’re our emissary as well. You should be here for this.”
Nesta looked toward the stairs, and I noticed the object she clutched in her fist.
The small, wooden carving. I couldn’t make out what manner of animal it was, but I knew the wood. Knew the work.
One of the little carvings our father had crafted during those years he—he hadn’t done much of anything at all. I looked at her face before she could notice my attention.
Nesta said, “Do you think it will work—this meeting?”
With so many Fae ears in the room beyond, I didn’t dare give any answer but the truth. “I don’t know. But I’m willing to try.” I offered my hand to my sister. “I want you here for this. With me.”
Nesta considered that outstretched hand. For a moment, I thought she’d walk away.
But she slid her hand into mine, and together we walked into that room crammed with humans and Fae. Both parts of this world. All parts of this world.
High Fae from every court. Miryam and Drakon and their retinue. Humans from many territories.
All watching me and Nesta as we entered, as we strode to where Rhys and the others waited, facing the gathered room. I tried not to cringe at the shattered furniture that had been sorted through for any possible seats. At the ripped wallpaper, the half-dangling curtains. But it was better than nothing.
I supposed the same could be said of our world.
Silence settled. Rhys nudged me forward, a hand brushing the small of my back as I took a step past him. I lifted my chin, scanning the room. And I smiled at them, the humans and Fae assembled here—in peace.
My voice was clear and unwavering. “My name is Feyre Archeron. I was once human—and now I am Fae. I call both worlds my home. And I would like to discuss renegotiating the Treaty.”
CHAPTER
80
A world divided was not a world that could thrive.
That first meeting went on for hours, many of us short-tempered with exhaustion, but … channels were made. Stories were exchanged. Tales narrated of either side of the wall.
I told them my story.
All of it.
I told it to the strangers who did not know me, I told it to my friends, and I told it to Tamlin, hard-faced by the distant wall. I explained the years of poverty, the trials Under the Mountain, the love I had found and let go, the love that had healed and saved me. My voice did not quaver. My voice did not break. Nearly everything I had seen in the Ouroboros—I let them see it, too. Told them.
And when I was done, Miryam and Drakon stepped forward to tell their own story.
Another glimmer of proof—that humans and Fae could not only work together, live together, but become so much more. I listened to every word of it—and did not bother to brush away my tears at times. I only clutched Rhys’s hand, and did not let go.
There were several others with tales. Some that went counter to our own. Relations that had not gone so well. Crimes committed. Hurts that could not be forgiven.
But it was a start.
There was still much work to be done, trust to build, but the matter of crafting a new wall …
It remained to be seen whether we could agree on that. Many of us were against it. Many of the humans, rightfully so, were wary. There were still other Fae territories to contend with—those who had found Hybern’s promises appealing. Seductive.