eclipsed nova (UTM Feysand)

25: Rhysand's POV

It took two weeks of stealthy poisoning to notice any difference in Amarantha. I'd been too afraid to dose her harshly. If she ever had even an inkling that I was harming her, my head would be on a spike before I could even open my mouth to explain. I didn't emphasize the real danger I was putting myself in to Feyre, but she had an idea. The rest of the High Lords remained as unseen as they could, per usual. The less Amarantha paid them any attention, the less harm she tended to cause to them or their people. She knew none of them had enough power to overthrow her and had instilled enough fear that she thought she was safe to assume we would not be in cohorts.

After two weeks, Amarantha developed a cough. It started out as a subtle clearing of her throat but continued to develop into something wetter, gnarlier. It was difficult to not flash her a self-satisfied grin. The circles underneath her eyes were turning purple in a way I'd never seen on her. Her skin was pale, and she sometimes appeared quite clammy. She didn't mention it, though. Not to me.

"Rhysand, doll, fetch me a cask of faerie wine, would you?" Amarantha called out to me from her bedroom. I leaned over the mirror of her vanity, looking at the gaunt hollowing of my features. The bitch was running me ragged. I'd endured her for fifty years now, but it still became harder to appease her every single day. I wanted to bust the chalice to a jagged edge and use it to slice open her veins, but instead, I poured the wine and took it to her.

She gave me a pleased smile as I transferred the cup into her colorless hand. She cleared her throat harshly, trying to swallow a cough. She sipped deeply from the wine, attempting to ease the burning itch in her esophagus.

"Tell the kitchen I'd like to take my dinner in my room tonight. Make yourself scarce, I'm feeling a little unwell. I do not wish to be seen at this moment." Amarantha barked, coughing as quietly as she could manage, her eyes turning glassy and red as her face strained.

"As you wish," I nodded to her, and she shooed me from her room with a flick of her wrist. As I walked out and shut the door behind me, I heard her hack even harder. The corner of my lips twitched.

I did as she asked and alerted the kitchen faeries that Amarantha would like a different dinner arrangement for the night, and I felt lighter than I had in weeks. When I walked, my step had more of a bounce, and it felt easier to exist. I knew my night could now be spent wrapped up in Feyre like twisted and tangled branches of a tree.

That was, until I saw Kallias waiting outside of the kitchen for me, like he'd known precisely where I would be. The white-haired High Lord tugged on his baby blue robes awkwardly. He rubbed the back of his neck.

"How is... it... going?" He asked, chewing on the inside of his cheeks restlessly.

"I'm starting to see change. She asked to take her dinner alone in her room," I explained, and the High Lord sagged with relief, but just as quickly gave me a look of warning. Something was wrong.

"Helion was testing the wards last night, trying to understand the magic and what would be required to disarm it. The moment he made move to touch it, the Attor was squawking and quick on our heels. She's made it some kind of guard dog. We managed to avoid being seen, but she knows someone was messing with the wards last night," Kallias said, his voice as quiet as he could manage while still being understood.

Fuck.

That means she had plenty of reason to suspect someone may be plotting and doing something to deteriorate her health. It put me in worlds more danger, and I was nearly sick to my stomach with relief over the fact that I hadn't added anything to her drink just now. I wasn't even sure if that plan would work after this. I would have to be incredibly careful, and even still, I ran an enormous risk.

"Why did you not ask me? I could have warned you," I growled, rubbing the heel of my hand against my eye. "She'd paranoid and beyond suspicious. Of course, she took measures of protecting the ward." Frustration was oozing from me, but I tried to rope it back in. They hadn't meant to cause any harm. They'd thought they were helping.

"We didn't realize- Rhysand I am sorry," Kallias said, his shoulders hunched. I sighed.

"It's okay," I nodded. "I'll make sure it's okay. Just alert me next time. I can help."

Kallias nodded, dismissing himself wordlessly. I took in a deep breath. All of this balanced on the edge of a razor blade, and it grew more precarious by the minute. I walked around to the back entrance of the kitchen, where only the workers would ever enter or exit. I tucked myself in the corner, what use I still had over my shadows being used to hide myself in the darkness.

I watched the kitchen faeries fuss about, cooking and creating meals to feed all of those entombed under this cursed rock bed. They all seemed anxious, just as they had every right to be. Amarantha was cranky today, and she was vindictive on her best days. Thinking on my feet, I sent a bit of my magic, in the form of shadow, creeping into the storage closet.

A loud crash sounded as I strained my power, using the magic to knock over a stack of pots. The amount of effort was mortifying. Sure, I was allowed to keep a much larger allotment of magic than my fellow High Lords, but it was by no means a sufficient amount. Each use of my magic without Amarantha's permission drained me. 

The metallic clanging made the kitchen workers gasp, looking to each other with wide-eyed worry. They all scurried to the sound, checking to see what may have happened. Once they were out of my line of sight, I slunk into the kitchen, deciphering which plate was to be sent to Amarantha's bedchambers based on the fine dining ware and intricate plating upon the tray.

Looking around a last time to ensure I wasn't being watched, I pulled the small bottle from my pocket, using the dropper to deposit drops of belladonna into the plate of food, being sure that nothing looked abnormal or out of place. I'd had this idea last night. To avoid her direct suspicion, I needed for the poisoning to be relatively untraceable and to come from multiple sources.

Amarantha was too proud to ever think lowly kitchen fae would feel bold enough to slip her poison. No, she would look to the members of her stolen Court for that. I slipped back out of the kitchen silently before they came back and saw me. Feeling satisfied with my work, I spun on my heel and walked down the hallway to go and find Feyre.