To Kill A Kingdom | ACOTAR

Chapter 11 - "Well, I think that remains to be seen."

Feyre's second trial had finally arrived, and this one Amarantha hadn't bothered to ban her from. So, she was allowed to attend and watch. When she entered the cavern she found Amarantha was sat in a wooden chair with Tamlin on one side of her, and an attor on her other. Evette ignored them and walked further into the cavern.

Orpheus joined her within seconds of being in there. "You're gonna want to see this." Orpheus told her.

"See what?" Evette asked.

However, before he could reply Feyre entered the cavern, and everyone's gaze fell onto her. "Well, Feyre, your second trial has come." Amarantha announced, her tone awfully smug. "Have you solved my riddle yet?" Feyre didn't say anything. "Too bad. But I'm feeling generous tonight." Several faeries hissed laughs - most especially the attor. "How about a little practise?"

Evette watched as Tamlin and Feyre began to stare at one another, and concealed her smirk when Amarantha hissed. "Begin." Amarantha spat, and the floor Feyre stood upon shuddered before it began to lower down into a pit.

Orpheus grabbed her wrist and began to pull her through many faeries, and she found the place he had taken them had a really good view into the pit. There was an iron grate splitting the pit in half. On one side was Feyre, and on the other...on the other was Lucien. He was chained to the centre of the floor, and he was pale, his eye wide, while the metal one whirred around.

"What the fuck!" Evette said, her eyes widening as she looked to Orpheus.

"Here, Feyre darling, you shall find your task. Simply answer the question by selecting the correct lever, and you'll win." Amarantha explained from where she was also stood at the edge of the pit on the opposite side to Evette. "Select the wrong one to your doom. As there are only three options, I think I gave you an unfair advantage." She snapped her fingers, and Evette flinched at the high pitched screech from above.

"That is if you can solve the puzzle in time." Amarantha added in as Evette looked upwards and saw that two spike encrusted grates began to slowly descend down towards both Feyre and Lucien, and upon closer inspection she saw that the spikes were glowing red. Evette could see the heat swirling from them.

It was not intended to be a clean and painless death.

Evette slowly looked back down at them both, and as she did she was able to feel the panic that radiated from Feyre. Not only could she feel it, she could almost see it coming from her in coils and swirls. Evette wasn't sure why she was so panicked - it was relatively easy.

She just had to pick the right answer - and there was only three options. She had a good chance of winning.

"Something wrong?" Amarantha asked smugly down at Feyre. Evette then slowly began to look between Amarantha and Feyre in confusion, her brows furrowed. Slowly, she looked through them all, her brain trying to figure what was going on.

And then the answer came to her - after a while of trying to figure it out. It was the only answer that made sense to her in such a situation. Feyre couldn't read. "Shit." Evette whispered softly, just as Lucien cried out for Feyre to pick one, while faeries laughed.

Evette noticed his brothers laughed the loudest, and her eyes narrowed on them.

Evette gazed around the entire cavern as she tried to decide if this was worth risking her magic. Because if she did use it...she wasn't sure what could happen - whether it would go haywire or not. Whether the Fae will figure out that she had no control over her magic if she did use them and it went haywire - putting her in danger with Amarantha. Or perhaps they would see her lack of control over her magic as just the raw power rushing from her.