Rhysand walked into his father’s office with his back so tightly straight his muscles ached. He rarely stepped a foot on there if it wasn’t ordered by his father, for anything, ever.
Maybe because he always feared he would be unfortunate enough to encounter a deeply uncomfortable scene that involved his father and a slave, or slaves. Or maybe because every time Rhysand looked at his father’s eyes, the ones that resembled so much like his own, he saw nothing but disappointment in them.
Or both, really, he just liked to think the first one was the most accurate because it felt way much better than admitting to himself the throat-closing feeling of failure faced by his progenitor.
“I don’t think we had anything scheduled, son,” Rhett did not looked up from the documents he was looking at when his son entered.
Rhysand sent a silent grateful prayer to the Mother that he didn’t encounter any traumatic scene.
“We didn’t,” he answered, keeping his voice even and calm.
“Then you came to visit your father willingly? What a surprise,” the male laughed so coldly Rhysand’s back shivered, but he didn’t make a move to show that.
“I want to take a slave with me to Illyria, if that’s ok with you,” the word tasted bitter in his tongue, something that made him irk every time he even heard it. But now, referring to Ariadne as a slave…
Because she was one. He reminded himself. Ariadne was a slave. And if his father so much as suspected that Rhys considered her anything but…
The thought alone was enough to send a cold tug at his heart.
The High Lord finally turned around to look at him, his thick black eyebrows raised with amusement, while Rhysand did everything to keep his expression completely unbothered.
“A slave, huh? I did not know you fancied human girls, son,” the wicked grin his father gave him made Rhysand’s entire body shiver with disgust, but he did not let the sentiment slip into his expression as much as it was beating in his heart.
He forced himself to return the smile, lowering his head if only for a moment to nod to his father, and to not look at him for a second in order to gain back his calm.
“Then do as you please, my boy, she’s your slave, after all, there isn’t much she can say or do in protest,” Rhett walked to his son and put a big, calloused hand in his shoulder, giving small pats that made Rhysand’s skin burn and his disgust only to increase.
“Thank you, father, I’ll be leaving to Illyria first thing in the morning.”
The High Lord dismissed him with a shrug of his hand and a mumble of something like a goodbye, while not even looking back at him as he went back to the documents he had been staring at before Rhys arrived.
Rhysand didn’t waste another second in getting out of that room, his entire body felt dirty, he felt dirty, wrong.
All while Ariadne’s eyes never stoped burning feelings of shame in his mind.
Just how easy that human girl could alter him, that without even her present, with only the mere mention of her, his heart and mind both reacted against all of Rhysand’s protest.
༺ ♡ ༻
Both Ariadne and Tara were picking up their things as they finished the day with a successful work. They hadn’t spoken in all day, not even Ariadne had said a word yet, and had even focused entirely on the job without drifting away in her own thoughts.
But that was only because both knew what was coming, what inevitably would happen tomorrow, because earlier on that day, Rhysand had come to tell her first thing in the morning that they’ll be leaving the Moonstone Palace by tomorrow morning.
The reality of it all only settled in now, for both of them.
But the silence was killing her, her thoughts were consuming her, and not in the way they usually did, but rather intrusively
“Say something, please,” Ariadne said with a heavy sigh to her friend as soon as they both were entering the slaves quarters of the palace.
Tara stoped walking and so did she, for a moment, neither said anything, and Ariadne was growing nervous of all the silence.
Then, so unexpectedly that it took her a moment to register what was going on, Tara threw her arms around her, bringing her close. Ariadne didn’t move an inch at first, Tara had never hugged her before, they had never shared a moment like this before, a moment that felt so intimate, so close, so meaningful.
Neither said anything, they only kept each other close for as long as they could, because what they were to each other, what they had meant to each other over the last years, it meant more than anything, they had kept each other alive in more than one way.
They had become the closest thing both had of a family, and the worst thing is that they only really realized it when they were being pulled apart.
After some time holding onto each other, it was Tara who let go first, her eyes were glazed with tears but none of them ever reached the outside, she tried to smile softly to Ariadne, and took her hand to continue walking before a guard came.
“Come on, let this be your last awful meal here.”
༺ ♡ ༻
Ariadne couldn’t even blink an eye the whole night. Anxiety creeping up and replacing any tiredness she might have felt.
So exhaustion naturally followed the next morning when she had to wake up for the day. As if all the events that were to take place weren’t enough already.
Her hands were abnormally shaky as she walked through the halls of the Moonstone Palace being escorted by two guards. She had no idea where they were taking her, they hadn’t said a thing besides “come with us” when they had come to get her at the slaves quarter that morning.
She already knew, though, what would be waiting for her at the end of that hall, who would be waiting for her.
“Gentlemen,” Rhysand’s graceful voice made her entire body freeze suddenly, every hair in her body stood on end, and her heart started beating so fast her cheeks turned red at the embarrassment of knowing the High Fae around her could probably hear it. “Thank you, you may go,” he finally dispatched the guards after a long, agonizing moment of him just staring at her.
Ariadne couldn’t still raise her eyes to him.
She only heard the guards leaving, didn’t take her eyes off the floor. After some seconds that seemed like whole minutes, when the steps of the guard faded in the distance, she heard Rhysand clear his throat, and a slight tug of curiosity made her raise her head even just a little, enough for her to catch a glance of his completely black outfit, and those gorgeous, hypnotizing wings.
“Are you…uhm…” Ariadne didn’t need to look up at him to know he was failing to find his words, which, in truth, did amused her ever so slightly.
The male that always seemed to have a sneaky comment, a witty remark for everything.
“Are you ready?” He finally asked with a sigh.
Ariadne lifted her head, then, showing her troubling, untrusting eyes to the male for the first time. She saw him take a deep breath the moment they met eyes, saw his shoulders roll back and his wings tend behind his back. His eyes roamed her face in a way that made her feel exposed, almost as if he could read her mind, her thoughts.
But wait, he could read her mind.
That only increased her nervousness, Rhysand was the last person she wanted roaming in her mind, especially since most of her thoughts had been lately consumed by this confusing male. He seemed to have read her concerns, for he broke the eye contact, lowering his head for a moment, and smiling in a way Ariadne could see a side of him that did not stopped surprising her; that kindness, that understanding and compassion, not pity, but seemingly genuine compassion.
“You’re gonna be ok, Ariadne, I gave you my word, trust me.”
His word. But what did that really meant? Ariadne’s first principal ever taught by her family, in fact, every human’s first principal, was to never trust a High Fae, ever. But then here she was, putting whatever trust meant in not only a High Fae male, but the Heir of the Night Court.
If her mother were alive, Ariadne would’ve killed her of a heart attack by now.
“I don’t know what trust is supposed to mean,” she admitted with a sigh, fidgeting with the hem of her dirty clothes, but when she looked up again, she found the sweet, understanding smile of Rhysand looking back at her.
“Then let me show you,” he extended a big, tanned hand towards her.
A final offering, a final choice, as he liked to call it.
She could turn around right now, forget all of this, go back to her normal life only daydreaming about a future without chains. Or, she could take her chances with him, let him take her somewhere far away from this haunted place, where she lost everything she once ever loved, including herself.
Her hand was already raising before she even realized it, and once she felt the soft skin of Rhysand’s hand compared with her calloused one, she lifted once again his gaze at him, finding two starstruck violet eyes shining right back at her.
“It’s been a long time since I heard your voice. I had almost forgotten how it made me feel.”
“Yeah? And how is that.”
“Like I could drown forever in it, like it’s my only source of energy, like it twists everything in me and pulls me towards you with the force of a thousand suns.”
while her hands had always been chained, her heart had never been tamed, it sang a song so beautifully mortal that even the stars seemed to cry when she sang it to their endless pits of beautiful darkness.
i was so bored so i made this ai photos of my oc’s :) (instead of writing, what i should be doing) so enjoy, because they’re gorgeous beautiful perfect
Mareena
a court of gods and monsters
literally losing my mind over how pretty she is. that glow???? in my mind her eyes were even more greener (and with the so called “specks of gold” like tamlins) but nonetheless everything else is perfect
Demetria
cold starlights
SHE’S SO BEAUTIFUUUUUL, literally ethereal. i need to do a version with all the new gen and I WILL. also i couldn’t give her the double colors in her eyes so just imagine she has one gray eye ok? ok :)
Kallistrade
dark tides
she looks like she could kill you AND SHE WILL. you can just SEE the evil smirk in her eyes. the only thing i’m not so happy about is that i feel her skin is whiter than i envisioned, like miss gurl’s job is ocean, i feel like she has more of a tan, but the facial features the hair and the accessories are on point
Karina
cruel cauldron
SHE’S LITERALLY PERFECT STOP. this is EXACTLY how i pictured her. the hair the skin the eyes EVERYTHING. she’s literally mesmerizing (and those eyebrows???? i’m obsessed)
Ariadne
legend of a mortal love
i’m crying 🥹🥹🥹 my baby girl 🥹🥹🥹 i’m sorry but the DEFIANCE in her eyes???? she’s 100% looking at rhys in this pic. also the messy hair looks incredible
Maeve
born to die
OMFG. that’s all i’m gonna say bcos that’s all that NEEDS to be said. JUST LOOK AT HER PLSSSS
and that’s it i think, i’m gonna do more bcos im obsessed whit how this turned on. i wanna know what y’all think, is this how you pictured them too or what would you change? let me know pls!
