2_-_court_of_mist_and_fury_a_-_sarah_j._maas

I sat at the dinner table with Lucien and Tamlin. Neither of them spoke, but Lucien’s gaze
kept bouncing from me, to Tamlin, then to his plate.
After ten minutes of silence, I set down my fork and said to Tamlin, “What is it?”
Tamlin didn’t hesitate. “You know what it is.”
I didn’t reply.
“You gave that water-wraith your jewelry. Jewelry I gave you.”
“We have a damned house full of gold and jewels.”
Lucien took a deep breath that sounded a lot like: “Here we go.”
“Why shouldn’t I give them to her?” I demanded. “Those things don’t mean anything to
me. I’ve never worn the same piece of jewelry twice! Who cares about any of it?”
Tamlin’s lips thinned. “Because you undermine the laws of this court when you behave
like that. Because this is how things are done here, and when you hand that gluttonous
faerie the money she needs, it makes me—it makes this entire court—look weak.”
“Don’t you talk to me like that,” I said, baring my teeth. He slammed his hand on the
table, claws poking through his flesh, but I leaned forward, bracing my own hands on the
wood. “You still have no idea what it was like for me—to be on the verge of starvation for
months at a time. And you can call her a glutton all you like, but I have sisters, too, and I
remember what it felt like to return home without any food.” I calmed my heaving chest,
and that force beneath my skin stirred, undulating along my bones. “So maybe she’ll
spend all that money on stupid things—maybe she and her sisters have no self-control. But
I’m not going to take that chance and let them starve, because of some ridiculous rule that
your ancestors invented.”
Lucien cleared his throat. “She meant no harm, Tam.”
“I know she meant no harm,” he snapped.
Lucien held his gaze. “Worse things have happened, worse things can happen. Just
relax.”
Tamlin’s emerald eyes were feral as he snarled at Lucien, “Did I ask for your opinion?”
Those words, the look he gave Lucien and the way Lucien lowered his head—my
temper was a burning river in my veins. Look up, I silently beseeched him. Push back.
He’s wrong, and we’re right. Lucien’s jaw tightened. That force thrummed in me again,
seeping out, spearing for Lucien. Do not back down—
Then I was gone.
Still there, still seeing through my eyes, but also half looking through another angle in
the room, another person’s vantage point—
Thoughts slammed into me, images and memories, a pattern of thinking and feeling that
was old, and clever, and sad, so endlessly sad and guilt-ridden, hopeless—
Then I was back, blinking, no more than a heartbeat passing as I gaped at Lucien.