It took Elain hours to convince the staff to pack their things and leave even though they all got a small purse with gold to move the progress along. Mrs. Laurent, who was the last to leave, promised to keep what she had seen to herself.

Where the three Illyrians had hidden themselves neither of the Archeron sisters knew, but Nala felt Azriel close, but when Mrs. Laurent had pulled herself up into the wagon and was sat snugly between the other servants and the wagon drove towards the city where they would travel from to their families, it knocked on the door.

The light was already fading, but when Feyre opened the door, the world underneath was bathed in blue, white, and gray shadows with a few splashes of gold.

Nesta and Elain were in the large dining room - the house's largest room.

And it was good that she had chosen that room as a meeting room, Feyre thought when she looked at Rhys, Cassian and Azriel.

They were huge - wild and rough and from a different time.

Rhys raised his eyebrows. "It almost seemed as if the servants had just been told that the house was haunted by an epidemic."

Feyre opened the door wide open so they could enter, and quickly closed it again behind them to keep the biting cold out. "My sister Elain can get anyone for anything."

Cassian whistled as he turned around to get an overview of the large hall with the ornate furniture and paintings. All purchased and paid for by Tamlin. Something that made Nala bite her teeth together in madness, she hated that man with her whole being after what he did to Feyre.

"Your father must be a skilled merchant. I have seen many castles with less prosperity than this," said Cassian, his voice tight and cold, he could not see past what the man had done to Nala in her youth. Azriel had not said anything yet, but he moved closer to his mate, his shadows reaching out for her and her shadows. Mixed to give her some support.

Both sisters felt Rhys' questioning look. "My father is on a business trip - and in Neva to attend a meeting on the threat from Prythian." Feyre told the males in front of them.

"Prythian," Cassian turned and looked questioningly at the girls. "Not Hybern?"

"It is possible that they have misunderstood it. Our country is very foreign to them. They just said it was about the wall, so we assumed it was about Prythian." said Nala, her voice quiet and most of her hidden in her own and Azriel's shadows.

Azriel listed a step forward, silent as a cat. "If people know about the threat to the wall, it might mean it's easier to get the Queens talking."

Rhys still stared at Feyre, as if he could see the weight resting on her and Nala after their arrival here. The last time they had been here, Feyre had been a woman in love. Insanely in love, so obsessed that she had been taken back to Prythian, traveled Under the Mountain, even though she was only a human being. Fragile, as the two oldest Archeron now seemed.

"Come on," Rhys said, sending Feyre a hidden, compassionate nod before waving them forward so Feyre could lead. "Let's greet each other."

Nala walked behind Rhys and Feyre with Azriel by her side, his hand in hers, hidden behind their shadows.

Nesta and Elain stood by the window, where the candlelight made their hair shine golden. Beautiful, young, and vibrant.

Nala could not help but think about how different it feels to be back in that house and be near her older sisters. Before she went to Prythian and discovered her legacy, her sisters always made her feel small and insignificant. Now, with her friends by her side and her Fae legacy out in the open she could not help but feel strong, confident, and important. Her "father" could always make her feel small and insignificant, so she was incredibly happy that he had left.

Then they shifted their gaze and stared at the two winged male creatures. Rhys' wings had disappeared, and his campaign uniform had been replaced by his neat black suit.

The sight of Cassian and Azriel with their huge wings folded tightly into their muscular bodies, their arms and their overwhelmingly beautiful faces made the two eldest sisters stiffen. It also did not help that their youngest sister stood by Azriel's side, his one wing folded around to keep her back warm.

To her praise, Elain did not faint.

And Nesta managed to keep her mouth shut. She took a discreet step in front of Elain and hid her clenched hand in the elegant purple dress. Her gesture did not pass the Illyrian males or Nala. The young woman grabbed her knife and glared at her older sister daring her to look at in the wrong way.

Feyre went a few steps away to give their sisters space, for the newly turned Fae the living room suddenly seemed so oxygen-poor. "These are my older sisters, Nesta and Elain Archeron," Feyre told the three men.

Neither Nesta nor Elain curtsied. Their heart drummed with anxiety, even Nesta's, it gave Nala a cruel sense of satisfaction. Feeling her oldest sister being terrified after so many years of her being cold a cruel was a relief for the youngest.

"Cassian," said Feyre and nodded to the large male. She then nodded to the right and let the tension fall from her shoulders when she realized that the two Shadowsingers had pulled their shadows back. "Azriel." She then turned half around. "And this is Rhysand, The High Lord of Night."

Rhys too had dimmed his magic to not frighted the two mortals. Just as how Azriel had pulled his and Nala's shadows back.

Why can't I have them out? Nala sent down the gold bond between them and Azriel had to fight the smile that wanted to break free.

You would frighten your sisters more if your shadows were out, the same with your wings. He answered back without looking at her, even when he felt her glare right at him. He placed his hand on her lower back to push her towards the dining room. Both of them having missed most of the greetings.

Nesta waited by the head of the table, like she was some kind of queen who waited for her court to show up. Elain sat trembling to her left. Feyre did everyone a favor and sat herself on Nesta's right, wanting to put as much space between the oldest Archeron sister and the youngest. Cassian took the chair next to Elain, who clutched her fork in her hand as if she could think of sticking it in him, and Rhys sat himself next to Feyre. Azriel sat himself on the other side of his High Lord which just left Nala to take her place.

Feyre pleaded her younger sister to sit next to Cassian, but Nala had other plans, so while staring Nesta down, she sat herself at the end of the table, knowing that it would piss of her older sister to no end. And right on cue, Nesta's jaw cleansed, and her blue-grey eyes grew cold while Nala just smirked and crossed her legs at the knee, locking her left foot around Azriel's shin.

The hint of a smile appeared on his lips as he looked at the female and felt her foot around his shin. He turned his gaze to Elain and saw how her white knuckles tightened around the fork but remained silent to everyone except Nala who could feel his amusement. Her smirk only got bigger while Feyre sighed and took the lid off the various bowls and pots.

Everyone was quiet as they began to pour food onto their plates. The only sound was the utensil against the plates. Feyre took a bite of her food, and Nala felt her discomfort as if it were her own. The food felt like dust in the mouth. But where Feyre let it show in her eyes, Nala did not let it show at all. She had always been better than her sisters at hiding how she felt. Something she had learned from their mother's neglect and her 'father's' abuse.

Rhys ate his chicken without hesitation. Cassian and Azriel ate as if they had not had food for a long time. Maybe they had an ability to see food as energy, because they were warriors, used to being at war, so they ignored the taste. However, Nala knew that Azriel also found it as dry and dull. Their bond was, for the first time since they locked eyes the first time, completely opened.

"Is there something wrong with the food?" Nesta asked as she stared directly at Feyre.

Feyre forced herself to take one more bite, chewing with much effort. "No." She lied and rinsed the food down with a large sip of water.

"You may not be able to eat ordinary food anymore? Or it may not be good enough for you?" A question and an attack.

Rhys' fork clanked against the plate, the temperature rose around Nala and the shadow of her wings could be seen on the wall behind her. None of the sisters saw, but the three Illyrians did. Elain just sighed dejectedly.

Although Nesta had allowed them to use the house, even though she had once tried to get through the wall with Nala for Feyre's sake, and even though the two had stopped their eternal struggle, her tone was disgust and disapproval ...

Feyre put a hand on the table. "I can eat, drink, fuck and fight just as well as before. Better actually."

Cassian got his water wrong in the throat. Azriel moved in the chair, ready to put himself between Feyre and Nesta or Nala and Nesta, whichever came first. Nala growled deep in her throat as she stared directly at her oldest sister. Murder in her amber eyes.

It made a shiver run down Nesta's back, but she did not let it show on her face, she kept her eyes fixed on Feyre. She laughed briefly.

Nala had the taste of fire in her mouth, both her own and phantom fire from Feyre's magic. Both girls could hear the rumble inside them, and ...

A firm pull in Nala's gold bond and chilled shadows flowed into her, soothing the fire, her rage, and her senses. Azriel stared straight at her but a command through the shadows made her look back at him. Her eyes still seemed to be starving in flames. She even felt a small pull on her silvery bond and felt Amren sending her calm energy.

Pull it back, he commanded through their bond, holding her trapped with his hazel eyes. Forcing her to take control over her rage before she burned the whole house down.

She felt Feyre calm down, Rhys darkness had settled like a bubble around her mind, he not so much as blinked or looked directly at Feyre. Nala listened to the conversation as she continued to hold Azriel's gaze and Amren's bond and used themas an anchor to keep her rage down.

"If you ever come to Prythian, you will understand why your food tastes so different," Rhys said calmly to Nesta, holding her gaze.

Nesta looked at him contemptuously. "I nurture not the desire to ever visit your kingdom, so I believe what you say."

"Good," Nala snarled, Azriel's shadows kept her gaze fixed on him, but out of the corner of her eye she saw Cassian's smirk and Nesta's glare. "Then we have a place where we can be at peace without ignorant older sisters." Everyone saw Elain flinch, a sting directly at her, although none of the others knew why Elain flinched, they all thought she could not handle the way Nala was talking, not that she had known of the abuse Nala had been subjected to for years.

"Please let it go, Nesta" muttered Elain to divert attention from Nala's words.

Cassian measured Nesta with the same expression as a warrior measuring a new, interesting opponent.

Nesta felt his eyes rest on him, turned to him and understood his gaze. "What are you looking at?" she snarled softly. Nala field Azriel stiffen, his hazel eyes let go of her to look at Nesta and Cassian. Free from his magic and shadows, Nala turned to her sisters again and with a shadow reached out for Azriel under the table, just as they had done the first night, they had met each other.

Cassian raised his eyebrows - now the interest was hard to spot. "On one who let her younger sisters risk their lives every day in the woods. On one who allowed two children of fourteen and thirteen to move so close to the wall and one who turned a blind eye to everything in front of her nose even though the signs were there... " Feyre felt the warmth in her cheeks and opened her mouth to say something she did not even show. Nala lowered her gaze. Looked intensely at the shadows in her lap. On their dance around each other and her hands. "Your sister lost her life - died - to save my people. She is willing to die again to save you from war. So, you cannot expect me to tacitly hear that you are blaming her, any of them, something they have not chosen themselves - and at the same time insult my people. "

Nesta didn't even blink, while she admired his beautiful face and muscular upper body. She then turned to Feyre. Rejected him completely.

Cassian's face became like a wild animal. Like a wolf who at first thinks it's chasing a fallow deer ... but discovers it's a feral cat that has been hiding from it.

Elain also noticed his expression. "It ... it's hard, you understand, to ... accept," she said in a trembling voice. Nala narrowed her eyes, she was close to exploding, but Azriel held her back with his shadows.

Easy he whispered through them. His voice was deeper through his shadows, and it sent a shiver down Nala's spine. They are not worth it. He knew about it, he knew everything Elain had seen that day, how her 'father' had abused Nala and how Elain had turned her back on Nala the day she needed her most. He knew how Nala, after that, had never been alone with Elain, afraid of her big sister and how she could just turn her back on Nala when she needed her big sister the most. It had also been the reason Nala never told Nesta and Feyre what their father had done, afraid they would turn their backs on her like Elain did. You are safe now, stronger them all. Amren called down their silvery bond, having felt Nala's unease.

Elain looked pleadingly at Rhys then at Azriel. She did not see the hatred in the Shadowsingers gaze, Cassian and Rhys did. Elain did not know that Azriel knew her deepest secret. But she was still drenched in human anxiety. "We were brought up in this distrust. Throughout our childhood we have heard tales of how Fae, your people, cross the wall to offend us. Our neighbor, Clare Beddor, was taken and her family murdered ..."

Nala felt Feyre's anxiety shoot up. Saw how Clare's naked body was impaled to a rock wall. Tortured. Death. Left on that wall for months. Feyre's anxiety had been so violent that Nala could not stop the pictures.

Rhys looked down at his plate. Did not move. Did not prefer a mine.

It was he who had reported Clare to Amarantha - talked about her, even though he knew Feyre had lied to him, whispered her own shadows in her ear and Nala understood. She sent a shadow to him, letting it curl around her High Lord's wrist in comfort and understanding.

Azriel saw the shadow around his brother's wrist and couldn't help but smile a little. The female Shadowsinger truly was a treasure.

"It's all very confusing," Elain said, not knowing how the shadows moved under the table.

"I understand that well," Azriel said. Cassian looked at him for a moment. Nala did not look at him or anyone else, she kept her gaze locked on Azriel's shadows in her lap, how they lay around her own, protected them, just as he did for her. Without knowing it, he protected her from Elain and Nesta. Took the focus from her and her Fae legacy and put it on himself. Azriel looked at Elain undisturbed, smiling politely at her. Even though Nala felt the hatred through their bond. He was an amazing actor. Elain loosened up a little in her tense shoulders. Both Nala and Feyre concluded that the male shadow singer got his information just as much through polite and well-balanced behavior as through cunning and shadows.

Elain straightened up a bit as she spoke to Cassian. "It's not just Nesta who is to blame for Feyre and Nala going hunting alone back then. We were back and had never learned anything about hunting when everything was taken from us, so we let them down. Both of us."

"Sounds to me like more excuses and not like taking responsibility." Nala snarled and finally looked up. Her amber eyes were on full fire, but she seemed to have full control. She was frighteningly calm. "Neither Feyre nor I knew anything about hunting, but we still went out. We sacrificed every day for you to survive and how did you repay that, Elain?" Nala's burning eyes kept her sister's chocolate brown eyes locked. Elain became silent and pale. Azriel clenched his fists under the table.

Nesta remained silent, sitting completely stiff at the end of the table.

Rhys sent Feyre a warning look and she reached for Nesta's arm to get her attention. "Can't we ... start over?"

Nala could see that Nesta's pride screaming at her that she should not give in. That she should hold on and throw them at the gate.

Cassian, the ever-loving idiot, sent her a scornful smile.

"Yeah, that's fine," she hissed, continuing to eat.

Cassian followed all her movements with his eyes.

Feyre forced herself to eat up everything while Nesta stared down at her. Nala had pushed her plate away and sat sipping her water. She could not wait to go home to Velaris.

"Can you really fly?" asked Elain Azriel and Nala froze. Just because the two had not accepted the bond between them did not mean that Nala wanted other females to try their luck with him and think they had a chance. He is yours! shouted her shadows in a whisper only she could hear.

He put the fork down and blinked. It almost seemed as if he had suddenly become very self-conscious. "Yes. Cassian and I are descended from a Fae people called Illyrians. We are born with the ability to hear the wind sing," he said. His voice low and calm. No sign of discomfort anywhere, but Nala felt it was her own. Their bond was strong, very strong for a bond that had not yet been accepted.

"It sounds beautiful." Elain smiled her pretty smile and missed with her eyes. She had obviously forgotten that she was engaged. "But isn't that scary? Flying high in the sky?"

"Yeah, sometimes," Azriel said. Cassian momentarily moved his eyes from Nesta and nodded in agreement. "If one gets caught in a storm for example, or if the wind current under the wings suddenly disappears, but we are trained so thoroughly that we have learned to control the fear from childhood." But Azriel had not learned to fly as a child. Nala reached out for him through their bond, letting him know she was there. He smiled at her through the bond, but on his lips, there was no smile to be found.

"You look like a High Fae," Nesta broke in with a razor-sharp voice. "But you are not one? And Nala, what is your 'inheritance'? Where do you descended from? Do you know it at all? Do you have family in Prythian who know you are one of them?"

"Only those who look like those three are High Fae," Cassian said, striking out with his hand against Rhys, Feyre and Nala. "Everyone with just the slightest deviation makes them what one calls Fae of lower rank. Nala is a special case, she is a halfling."

"Today, the term is mostly used for convenience, but it covers a wide range of bloody injustices. Many lower-ranking Fae feels offended by it. They would rather we were called the same," Rhysand said at last.

"And with good reason," Cassian said, taking a sip of his water glass.

"And you must not talk about my Fae inheritance, Nesta!" Nala snarled, staring down at her eldest sister. "I know where I descended from and it does not concern you, especially when you no longer see me as your sister even though we still share a mother! "

Nesta ignored Nala and looked inquisitively at Feyre. "But you were not born High Fae, so what do they call you?" No one could hear if it carried an insult or curiosity.

"Feyre is who she chooses to be," Rhys said. Nesta looked around at them all and looked at the crown on Feyre's head and the necklace around Nala's neck. "Write your letter to the Queens tonight. Tomorrow Elain and I will go into the village and send it. If the Queens decide to meet with you, I think you must prepare for prejudices far worse than ours, and if it's all going awry, you must also have a plan for how to get us all out of this again," she said, sending Cassian an icy look.

"We will," Rhys replied smoothly. He showed no remorse for Nesta's disrespect.

"I assume you'll stay tonight," she continued, completely unaccompanied.

Rhys looked inquiring at Feyre. It would not be a problem for the three Illyrians and Nala to find home in the dark, but it was her choice. "If it's not too much to ask for, then we would like to stay. We're leaving for breakfast tomorrow," she said at last after a brief nod from Nala.

Nesta did not prefer a face, but Elain lit up with a smile. "Well, I think a couple of the guest rooms have been made ready ..."

"We only need two," Rhysand interrupted cautiously. "Next to each other, one with two beds and the other with 3."

Feyre scowled at him, but Nala caught where he was going.

"Magic works differently on the other side of the wall. Our mental shield, our senses may not work nearly as well. My High Lord takes no chances. Especially not in a house with a woman who is engaged to a man who gave her an engagement ring of iron. " Nala's voice was cold.

Azriel felt proud that the tiny female at his side already saw Rhys as her High Lord. Even Rhys had a proud facial expression.

Elain turned red in the cheeks and looked discreetly at Azriel by Nala's side. "Guest ... The guest rooms with two and three beds are unfortunately not next to each other," she mumbled.

Feyre sighed. "We're just moving things around a little bit. It's not a problem. He's just a little grumpy here because he's old and it's over his bedtime," Feyre said, nodding toward Rhys.

Rhys laughed quietly. Cassian let go of his anger and laughed out loud. Elain, noting that Azriel seemed more relaxed, took it as a sign that it should probably go, laughed too. Nala smiled at Azriel and waved to Rhys with a mischievous facial expression.

But not Nesta, she just got up from the table, stood like a slender pillar of iron at the end of the table. "If you're done eating, then this dinner is probably over," she said without addressing anyone in particular. And so, it became.