A Court of Shadows and Secrets (ACOTAR FANFIC)

Prologue

Alya didn't have to check for a pulse to know that Antares was dead. She could feel it in her soul the moment her twin brother's heart stopped beating.

Her better half lay still in front of her the blood from his wounds still flowing from him onto the stone ground of their cell.

The unshakable rage and agony became so severe it turned to numbness. Some part of her knew if she experienced her feelings now, she would die from heartbreak.

It felt as if her soul had been ripped in half. They were raised to die, she knew that... all of the children knew that. But being the only one to survive, that was so much worse.

When Amarantha, first came to Prythian she sent out dozens of the most beautiful fae women of Hybern to seduce the High Lords. They were given spells and charms to induce extreme fertility. Five of these seductresses became pregnant.

The red-haired demon used the lives of their children against the High Lords. A weapon of her own making, heirs to courts, and the perfect hostages. She used these children against them, she stored away their powers, trapping them with herself as Queen.

The high lord of the Autumn court didn't care in the least, his son was slaughtered before he even had a name.

High Lord of the Day Court talked out of turn resulting in him receiving his daughter Aurora's head on a platter.

High Lord of the Dawn Court refused to sacrifice his citizens to fight in a tournament for the false queen's amusement. She let him meet his son, Apollo, they spent three days together before she handed the High Lord a knife and forced him to carve out his own son's heart.

High Lord of the Spring Court was given a choice. He had been granted 25 years to make a human woman fall in love with him. If he chose to kill his daughter, Rose, she would double the time, making it 50 years instead... He slit her throat with his own claws.

High Lord of the Night Court was a special case, he had twins. The girl was born first and her twin brother. Alya and Antares, the heirs of the night court.

The twins lasted the longest, High Lord Rhysand doing everything in his power to keep his children alive. Regardless of their conception, they were innocent children, his children. He would do anything to keep them breathing.

The twins learned at a young age how to glamour their wings. How to endure torture, how to preserve food, they taught themselves how to use their daemati powers, and build a mental shield so strong no one could break it. They had never met their father, their mother went back to hybern after her task was complete.

They had been bred to die, a living breathing threat to keep their father in line.

It was twenty years before Rhysand fucked up. He had taken a desperate risk after she threatened once again to kill them. He tried to erase the existence of his children from her mind. She was reminded of the twins by a servant and figured out what happened.

Alya's violet eyes stared into her brother's lifeless matching pair. She knew he was dead, she knew it was the red-head bitches doing, and she knew it was her father's fault.

A scream of horror ripped from deep within her chest as she held on to her twin's body. The power exploded from her killing every guard and monster sent to keep her in check.

Alya didn't remember what happened next, only pieces. Ripping into an Attor with her teeth, crushing the hearts of the fae guards with her bare hands, the endless darkness, the boundless blood.

Her bare feet touched the soil for the first time in her life. She breathed in the fresh air of the outside world.

"I swear to you, little brother... I will survive, I will live at all costs. I will live for us both. I refuse to die." She whispered to the wind like a prayer.

She heard tell of the Illyrians. She would go to them, force them to make her strong. When she could fight for herself she would go to the human lands. She would live for both of them.

"I'll see you in the stars, Antares."