2_-_court_of_mist_and_fury_a_-_sarah_j._maas

I couldn’t get out; I couldn’t get out; I couldn’t get out—
Slender, strong hands gripped me under the shoulders.
I didn’t have the strength to fight them off.
One of those hands moved to my knees, the other to my back, and then I was being
lifted, held against what was unmistakably a female body.
I couldn’t see her, didn’t want to see her.
Amarantha.
Come to take me away again; come to kill me at last.
There were words being spoken around me. Two women.
Neither of them … neither of them was Amarantha.
“Please—please take care of her.” Alis.
From right by my ear, the other replied, “Consider yourselves very, very lucky that your
High Lord was not here when we arrived. Your guards will have one hell of a headache
when they wake up, but they’re alive. Be grateful.” Mor.
Mor held me—carried me.
The darkness guttered long enough that I could draw breath, that I could see the garden
door she walked toward. I opened my mouth, but she peered down at me and said, “Did
you think his shield would keep us from you? Rhys shattered it with half a thought.”
But I didn’t spy Rhys anywhere—not as the darkness swirled back in. I clung to her,
trying to breathe, to think.
“You’re free,” Mor said tightly. “You’re free.”
Not safe. Not protected.
Free.
She carried me beyond the garden, into the fields, up a hill, down it, and into—into a
cave—
I must have started bucking and thrashing in her arms, because she said, “You’re out;
you’re free,” again and again and again as true darkness swallowed us.
Half a heartbeat later, she emerged into sunlight—bright, strawberry-and-grass-scented
sunlight. I had a thought that this might be Summer, then—
Then a low, vicious growl split the air before us, cleaving even my darkness.
“I did everything by the book,” Mor said to the owner of that growl.
I was passed from her arms to someone else’s, and I struggled to breathe, fought for any
trickle of air down my lungs. Until Rhysand said, “Then we’re done here.”