A Court Of Fire And Pain

Familiar face

Chapter 9 Aelin:

Feyre rubbed her eyes. "What did you find Rhys?" She asked but didn't get up. Rhys was the male from the mountain right? He must be important to her. But I didn't have time for this. I walked over to her and poked her in the face.

"Get up." I snapped in an icy tone. "I found the instructions on how to make a portal."

She bolted upright. "Oh my gosh! You did?"

I hauled her out of the bed. "Yes. Now get over here so we can discuss what to do now." She glared at me but she was no match for the frostiness in my eyes. I smirked. But my mouth slid into a frown as I looked down at The Walking Dead. "So these Wyrdmarks are the ones that make the actual portal," I began, tapping the Wyrdmarks I had copied from the earlier page with my finger. "They will make a void like the ones we fell through." I moved my finger over to the open page before me . "These ones are what will say how big the portal is, how many people can come through and compatibility between worlds." I looked up to see if Feyre understood.

She clearly didn't as her face was extremely confused. I sighed and tried to explain in easier terms. "So the ones on this page make the portal, and the ones in the book adjust it to our needs. Got that?"

She nodded, so I continued. "Then we have to add a symbol of where we are, and where we want to go, between these ones here," I finished, pointing to a second row of Wyrdmarks. "I know what symbol I need to use to get it in my home. A stag and crown, what about you?"

She replied without hesitation. "Mountains with 3 stars over the main peak."

"That's swell, but we have a problem. We have to have the symbol of this place, and we know absolutely nothing. So we'll have to search around today to see if anything will stand out."

I copied down the Wyrdmarks from the book onto the back of the paper so that I could carry it with me. I looked up to see Feyre contemplating something.

"Why didn't a portal appear when you wrote them down right now?" She asked.

I mentally head palmed. "Because, they have to be written with blood. The more powerful the blood, the stronger the Wyrdmarks."

Feyre paled. Oh come on! I just gave her a look. Then I got another piece of paper and wrote the same Wyrdmarks on it. "You should have a copy as well," I held the paper out to Feyre. As she held out both her hands, palms up, I stilled.

For there in her left palm, was something that definitely wasn't there before,

Feyre:

Celaena had gone still, with a predatory focus in my left palm. "What's wrong?" I asked following her line of sight. Oh. She had noticed the tattoo of flames on my left palm. It had appeared when we shook hands to seal our deal.

"That tattoo wasn't there before." She said, her voice showing no emotion even though she was clearly confused.

"In my world, when you make a deal or promise a tattoo appears to remind you of it. This is what appeared for our deal. Does that not happen in your world?"

Celaena shook her head. "No. But anyways, we need to get going. We need as much daylight as we can."

I grabbed the paper and tucked it into my pocket. We left the inn and started walking through the market from a couple days before. As we passed by a clothes store I stopped Celaena. "We have both been wearing the same clothes for ages. We should buy some clean pairs."

She looked herself over and nodded. "I agree, except we don't have any money. I could steal some but we need to keep a low profile."

I reached into my back pocket and pulled out some gold. "I found this while we were walking."

Celaena's eyes lit up. "Perfect! Let's go." She pulled me into the shop and stalked towards an aisle full of pants. As she darted around I just stood still and watched her. She seemed to know exactly what would fit her, and as she approached me with arms full of clothing, she seemed to know my size as well.

"Do you think you have enough money for all this?" She asked.

I looked all the clothes over. They didn't seem to be expensive. "I think I have enough." We went over to the counter and put the coins on the desk. "Is this enough to buy these clothes?"

The man looked over the coins with wide eyes. "How did you get these coins?" He asked in awe.

I glanced at Celaena. "Erm..."

"These are relics of the other worlds! Did you parents fight in the war?" The man continued.

"Yeessss," I said slowly. "How much will pay for the clothes?"

He took 1 coin and pushed the rest back to me. "This will be enough."

Wow. These coins must be worth quite a lot. I pocketed the remaining coins and turned to leave but Celaena stopped me.

"Is there any place we could change?" She asked the man. He nodded and pointed behind him to a closed off area. Celaena pulled me inside and dumped some clothes on the ground. There were 2 sections and she went into the first one. I grabbed the clothes she left me and went into the other one. Once we finished changing I put the coins in my new pocket and left my old clothes on the ground. I didn't need it anymore. We exited the shop, thanked the man, and left.

Celaena seemed oddly distracted so I asked what was wrong.

"It's just..." She shook her head. "That man was so familiar! But I can't remember where I last saw him." She shook her head again and started to walk away. Interesting. There wasn't any defining features in him. He had black hair that covered his ears and onyx eyes.

I followed Celaena. It didn't matter.

No POV

The shopkeeper stared at the door long after they left. It couldn't be. But they had the coins, and the clothing. And one of them had gold hair spilling from under her hood. And her eyes... oh gods he never forgot those eyes. The fury in them last time she had looked at him, then the pain.

He walked into the changing area he showed them. Hopefully they left their clothes so he could inspect them. Ah yes there were the clothes. He went over to a pair of them and scented her on them. The evidence kept stacking up in his favour. Underneath her scent he smelled it. Pine and snow. He moved on to the other pair of clothes. The ones from the night court. And he smelled the night court on them. He reached into one of the pockets and pulled out a piece of paper. when he opened it he stilled. There were instructions on how to make a portal with Wyrdmarks. And there was the symbol of night court and Terrasen. He pocketed the paper. He had to be completely sure before he did anything. But he had a feeling that this was real. He might finally go home. And beg for forgiveness.