2_-_court_of_mist_and_fury_a_-_sarah_j._maas

town house. I made to step away, but he gripped my chin. “You know the cost already.”
Amarantha’s whore.
He nodded, and I think I might have said the two vile words aloud.
“When she tricked me out of my powers and left the scraps, it was still more than the
others. And I decided to use it to tap into the mind of every Night Court citizen she
captured, and anyone who might know the truth. I made a web between all of them,
actively controlling their minds every second of every day, every decade, to forget about
Velaris, to forget about Mor, and Amren, and Cassian, and Azriel. Amarantha wanted to
know who was close to me—who to kill and torture. But my true court was here, ruling
this city and the others. And I used the remainder of my power to shield them all from
sight and sound. I had only enough for one city—one place. I chose the one that had been
hidden from history already. I chose, and now must live with the consequences of
knowing there were more left outside who suffered. But for those here … anyone flying or
traveling near Velaris would see nothing but barren rock, and if they tried to walk through
it, they’d find themselves suddenly deciding otherwise. Sea travel and merchant trading
were halted—sailors became farmers, working the earth around Velaris instead. And
because my powers were focused on shielding them all, Feyre, I had very little to use
against Amarantha. So I decided that to keep her from asking questions about the people
who mattered, I would be her whore.”
He’d done all of that, had done such horrible things … done everything for his people,
his friends. And the only piece of himself that he’d hidden and managed to keep her from
tainting, destroying, even if it meant fifty years trapped in a cage of rock …
Those wings now flared wide. How many knew about those wings outside of Velaris or
the Illyrian war-camps? Or had he wiped all memory of them from Prythian long before
Amarantha?
Rhys released my chin. But as he lowered his hand, I gripped his wrist, feeling the solid
strength. “It’s a shame,” I said, the words nearly gobbled up by the sound of the city
music. “That others in Prythian don’t know. A shame that you let them think the worst.”
He took a step back, his wings beating the air like mighty drums. “As long as the people
who matter most know the truth, I don’t care about the rest. Get some sleep.”
Then he shot into the sky, and was swallowed by the darkness between the stars.
I tumbled into a sleep so heavy my dreams were an undertow that dragged me down,
down, down until I couldn’t escape them.
I lay naked and prone on a familiar red marble floor while Amarantha slid a knife along
my bare ribs, the steel scraping softly against my skin. “Lying, traitorous human,” she
purred, “with your filthy, lying heart.”
The knife scratched, a cool caress. I struggled to get up, but my body wouldn’t work.
She pressed a kiss to the hollow of my throat. “You’re as much a monster as me.” She