To Kill A Kingdom | ACOTAR

Chapter 9 - "I may be young, but I am still fey."

This time Lucien's healing did very little to help her - all it did was soothe it a little. Yet she was still in agonising pain - so much pain that every now and then silent tears would fall from her eyes. Lucien had allowed her to lean into him and he would occasionally wipe her tears away for her, as she could do nothing but lean into him as she endured the pain.

This time around Rhys had tortured her for much longer - and much harder. It had even got to the point where she had began to bleed from her ears as he did, and that was only when he ceased the torture. She had still been conscious - she didn't know how.

But Lucien was instantly at her side and taking her back to her room - he had tried healing her on the way to her room, and then again in her room. Yet it did very little against the damage this time.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." Lucien told her.

"It's okay." Evette told him. She wanted to tell him that she was okay, but the words literally couldn't leave her mouth as it was a lie. She wasn't okay, and they both knew it. "It's okay. It's not your fault." Evette repeated as she relaxed her head on his shoulder.

"By the Cauldron, I wish I could just set his smug ass on fire or something." Lucien said. "You don't deserve this...I'm sorry."

"You're a good man, Lucien. I'm glad you're here." Evette whispered softly as she sniffled and wiped a silent tear from her face with the back of her hand.

To distract her from her pain Lucien decided that the only thing he could do was talk to her, about anything and everything. And so, he told her about his family - about his brothers. He told her about how once he had fallen in love with a commoner, and he told her all about how they snook around. He told her about Jesminda. And then, he told her about how his father - Beron - disapproved and thought it to be inappropriate for a noble High Fae to love and marry a lesser Faerie.

And how two of his brothers held him and restrained him as he was forced to watch Jesminda get executed.

"That's horrible." Evette said softly, and tried not to show that the pain was getting worse. "I couldn't even image my brothers doing something like that. And your father...he sounds like an asshole!" She breathed out a breathy laugh. "If you ever want to...well...snuff him out. You put him in a room with my uncle...he wouldn't last five minutes."

"Tempting...but I'm sure my brothers will come for you." Lucien told her. "I wouldn't subject you to such sadistic cunts."

"How sweet of you." Evette chuckled softly. "Though, it may shock you and everyone else who's witnessed what Rhys has done to me these past few days, but I'm not as an easy target as I look. At least, any other time. Now...that's not so."

After a while, when the pains and aches became unbearable, Lucien tried his best to help in any way. But nothing helped. She just lay there in the bed, unable to do anything but lay there. Lucien left to go try and find something that could help her.

Evette was unsure how long she had been laying there. It could've been minutes, it could've been hours. Or it could've even been seconds - all she could register was the pain.

Until two women were stood over her - Evette blinked and pulled herself up to sit up, groaning in pain. Both of the women were beautiful - they had dark skin, and long dark hair with deep brown eyes. Their ears were pointed and Evette was able to feel a darkness fester off of them and around them. The women were practically identical, which told her they were twins.

"You're shadow wraiths." Evette spoke as she breathed heavily, pushing herself up to sit up and the woman on the left helped her. Evette gave her a nod of thanks.

"We're here to help you." The one on the right told her.

Evette scoffed. "No Fae can help me. I can only help myself. It'll pass in a few days. A week, hopefully." She eyed them both. "Besides, I don't trust either you. I don't know who you have loyalty to. So, you're going to leave, right now."