The room was still. The girl was looking around in fear, her blue eyes wide and hair a sopping mess.

"Well, Adrianna? Will you let me test this one, too?" Hybern asked, tauntingly, scathingly.

I glared at him and snarled, "Never." I tried to reach my my sword, but an invisible force seemed to be pulling my arm away, wrenching it back with every effort I made to draw it. Then, a gust of wind from a mere flick of the evil king's wrist sent me flying back into the wall and there was a loud crack as I felt one of my wings break and I cried out in pain.

Tears streamed down my face. "Stop it!" I yelled. "Stop it!" My heart hammering in my chest, I slowly got to my feet. "S-Stop!" I managed weakly. "P-Please. Stop this. You can have me. Just let them go. Send them away. Get them away from me."

"Adrianna, no!" Cassian yelled through the pain. Azriel's eyes were filled with tears as he looked at me silently.  The pain in his expression I knew was from not only the ash bolt, but what I had to do next. And it broke my heart.

I felt tears slide faster down my cheeks as I brought on my act. "I know now. There's no use in hiding it. I realized now that it's always been a trick. They've been tricking me, too. Confusing me about who my real parents were, and even convincing me that the Meridians deserved death. That I would kill whomever they pleased in the name of avenging someone who wasn't even dead! Why else would Rhysand have lied to me this whole time?" I turned to Hybern. "You are my real father. And because of that, let me go wherever Feyre goes. Break this bond on me- this lie- and I'll be a good servant. He put this on me when I was asleep, you understand, and then made me believe it was the mating bond!"

"Adrianna what are you doing?" Mor cried as her hands glowed as she tried to stop Az's bleeding. He was smiling faintly at me, a broken plea between us. Just stop this. All of this. But I couldn't. And he knew I couldn't. And he held my gaze steadily, preparing himself for the blows to come.

"How about this..." Hybern mused. "You let me put this one in the Cauldron, and then I'll destroy both of your bonds. You may both then go to Spring Court with this High Lord of Spring. How do you find that? Is that satisfactory?"

"Send the Night Court people back to where they came from." I snarled. Tears slid down my cheeks faster. "I never want to see them again. They ruined me."

I didn't look in their direction, knowing their faces would make any resolve I had on myself crack.

Hybern clapped his hands together and the second sister was thrown into the Cauldron. Feyre began to cry harder, straining against Tamlin's hold on her.

I began to stuff the mating bond deep within me, as Rhys had taught me to. To shut out and push down that glow and warmth until it was almost gone. And I stuffed it until it was in the deepest recess within me. Where no one would find it.

"A-Adrianna! Why are you doing this? I love you!" Azriel shouted, voice cracking as he felt me stuff back the bond. His voice was frantic and he actually tried to sit up. To stop this. To stop me from burying our bond. A tear slid down my cheek, my only reply as I kept my eyes riveted on the Cauldron and the enraged sister who came from it.

My voice came out hollow. It didn't sound like me
It didn't sound anything like me. "And I loved you, once. But it was a lie. A sham. You should have known better, Azriel. You should have known I would have broken the spell you put on me. You're just like the rest of them. How could you trap a woman and expect her to love you? I have had enough with lying males. You only wanted what I could give you. It's all you ever wanted."

I forced myself to look at him and instead of the brokenness I expected, all I met was a hard wall, an angry glare that I had seen him only direct at his enemies. A defense as he stuffed down his own pain and his connection to our bond.

He looked at me as if I really was indeed the traitor I was pretending to be.

And then, Hybern turned to Feyre as she shouted, "Break it! Break the bond between Rhysand and I! We made a deal, didn't we?"

Rhys tensed all over and Cassian held him tighter, despite his pain.

Hybern smirked at Feyre's outstretched right arm, and I ripped off my glove and revealed the tattoos Azriel had put on me this morning.

"Remove this one, too." I said, voice hard as stone. "Then let us go back with Spring Court where we can figure out a way to destroy them once and for all. Perhaps I may even lend my services to Spring. I was a notorious assassin in Night, before I realized they were using me."

Hybern smirked. "I think I may have use for you yet. If you are serious about all of this, do me a favor. Prove to me your skills by killing one of them over there. Your former Court."

"Does it matter which one?" I asked dryly, forcing anyone emotion from my tone. The voice I used when I was Under the Mountain. That darkness
I had fought these past months resurfacing once more. Unforgiving and relentless. I narrowed my brown eyes on them and they looked at me in fear as I drew my weapons.

"No. You pick." Hybern said with a sneer, seeming amused.

"Does the member have to be here, my King?" I asked. "I can think of a number of people in the Night Court with worth to them that could die and it would be equally as crippling. They did let me in, after all. I know their weaknesses."

"Adrianna, you bitch! You're a traitor!" Mor shouted as tears of grief steamed down her face. Azriel's eyes had closed. I tried not to look at him.

Hybern smirked. "As long as it hurts them, Adrianna. You, my daughter, may yet offer me something worthwhile."

I smirked over at the King, bringing on the full facade of traitor, heir to Hybern, and drowning my Night Court half as heir of Rhysand as I constructed my disguise from the inside out. "I hope to serve you well...father."

Hybern reached out a hand, and snarled, "Now for the matter of your bonds...." Suddenly, a painful jerk deep in the pit of my stomach made me stumble forward. The tattoo on my right arm was disappearing, melting off and I ground my teeth as my skin burned and it was gone.

I collapsed, my wings sagging around me as I bit back tears. The cuff on my wrist pulsed slightly with Azriel's heartbeat. I put a hand over it and forced magic into it and was rewarded with his heart beating a little harder and faster.

I looked up slowly and turned to see Feyre clinging to Tamlin, and Lucien standing above me with his hand stretched out. And I took it as he pulled me to my feet.

Rhys was staring at us, tears streaming down his face, but I knew what his eyes were saying. He knew what I was going to do next. What I needed to do from here on. I had a job to do, and I would complete it.

But then, Rhys and the others took Feyre's sisters and disappeared, leaving behind a pool of Azriel and Cassian's blood.

I looked to Hybern and he grabbed my chin and snarled, "Now, I want you to go to Spring with Feyre, my daughter. And you will catch any spies for Night Court and slaughter them. I don't care how. You will do it, no matter what."

His grip was tight on my jaw. "And what of Ravenna and Haven? They're in prison in the Night Court."

He straightened and said, "Leave them. They'll return to me when the time is right. You, however, will practice your skills for me. You will be under the supervision of the High Lord of Spring."

I bowed my head first to Tamlin, then to Hybern. "Very well. It shall be done."

"Let's leave. Let's go home, Tamlin." Feyre said, gazing up into the Fae's green eyes.

And I met Lucien's eyes and I covered the cuff on my wrist and channels more healing magic through it to Azriel. Lucien was staring at me incredulously, and he merely offered me an arm and I took it, and we winnowed to Spring together.

As we walked along the paths in the gardens, each of us one the arm of a Spring male, Feyre and I smiled at one another, a calm smile that wouldn't have portrayed anything other than two friends sharing a relieved breath after being imprisoned by hateful monsters.

But it was so much more than that. For it was time for Spring Court to feel the wrath of the High Lady of Night Court and her Assassin.

******

**Azriel's Point of View**

I slowly opened my eyes as I felt an overwhelming surge of power through the cuff on my wrist. I bolted upright and Mor began to shove me down, tears staining her cheeks.

"A-Adrianna." I breathed.

"Your mate is a traitor, Azriel." Mor said with a pained expression, spitting out the words.

Amren's voice came into my line of hearing. "You left them there? Why?" She was speaking to Rhys.

I flinched as I looked at my blood stains chest and Mor's red hands as she continued to heal me. The cuff on my wrist was warm and I could feel Adrianna's steady heartbeat through the magical link. A smile stretched across my face.

"She's not a traitor. She did it." I murmured. All
I could feel was pride in my mate at this moment. I wished with all my heart she was here with me, but I knew that was impossible. She would be back soon enough. And I'd be able to hold her in my arms again.

"Did what?" Amren snarled at me. "She and Feyre are in Spring! Our enemies, since they allied with Hybern!"

"Adrianna is in Spring with the purpose of guarding her High Lady." Rhys said and the room went still. "We made this plan a month ago. Feyre was named High Lady last night and ordained by the priestesses."

"What?" Amren snarled. "My High Lady is with the enemy?!" She demanded. "Get her back!"

"We can't." I wheezed and met Amren's silver eyes steadily. "Adrianna is there to kill our enemies, and Feyre is there to uproot Spring. They are our spies now."

"You knew?" Mor demanded, squeezing my hand so hard it hurt.

"Of course I knew." I said. "I was in on it. I put that tattoo on her. It had to be believable." Warmth spread up my arm from the cuff and I could feel the color returning to my cheeks. "Even across the country, she is helping to heal me." I said softly.

"No one hated the idea more than me." Rhys said. "Sending my mate and my daughter alone into enemy territory was the last thing I wanted. But Adrianna convinced me that it would be best if she went with Feyre. To protect her. To kill our enemies to the south. All the while gaining the trust of Hybern himself."

"So she's acting as a double agent." Mor breathed.

"Yes. And she is going to protect Feyre from any possible threat to come." Rhys said and leaned back against the wall of the townhouse. "And she will return with Feyre by the next full moon."