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The morning air was cool, coming in through the opened window of the Forest House. It was the absence of the body that normally slept beside him that had awakened him. Pulling on a robe, Eris made his way out of the bedroom and searched the quiet house.
Only when he caught movement on the front patio overlooking forests of orange, green, and yellow trees, did he find her. Y/n had settled herself on the ground, one knee up with the other leg extended and her back against one of the supporting beams of the patio. A cup of tea balanced on her thigh as she looked up at the woman sitting on a chair with their back towards him. His mother.
He couldn’t hear their conversation but he watched Y/n’s body at ease. A gentle smile would pull at her lips on occasion and she wasn’t rubbing at her neck as she normally did if a conversation had her nervous.
Helion’s voice disrupted his gaze. Spinning on his heels, he found the Day Court’s High Lord relaxing at the kitchen table swirling a finger over the lip of his coffee mug. “Distracted?”
“Could ask you the same.” He poured himself a cup and took a seat across from him. Both watching their respective females outside.
“You should know,” Helion finally said after they drank in quiet. “For what arrogance and brutality you showed to the world, I always knew you were doing your best to protect her.”
“My mother or Y/n?” Helion’s illegitimate child.
“Both.” He chuckled warmly. “If Rhys was able to act like you did and spin around to become one of Prythian’s most favored High Lords, I have a sense you will too.”
“Is that suggesting competition?” Eris knew Rhys’s history. How the man looked like a beastly demon to so many for the sake of protecting Velaris and his people. Secretly, Eris had always hoped he could do the same. It was because Y/n knew Rhys that she saw through his facade so easily.
“No. I just know Feyre, Y/n, your mother? To say they are gifts is an understatement. We are made better by them.”
It felt odd to Eris. A conversation he’d never dream of having with his true father, may he rot in hell. It was so mundane and yet it acted as a salve against some burn within his heart. He knew of Helion’s many escapades within bed yet whenever the man looked at his mother, she was the only light in the world that existed. It was a thousand times better than how Beron ever saw her.
The two couples had slept in the Forest House as there would be a small gathering to celebrate the new High Lady of the Day Court here. Having woken in the mid morning, he estimated they had maybe six hours before guests would arrive. It was then that he smelled something baking in the kitchen.
So Y/n really had gotten up early.
He watched her laugh and pull her maroon cardigan closer to her body, oblivious to the two males talking nearby. There was a beauty to her always, but a different type when he saw her do something as small as that. She could have a pencil tucked behind her ear as she scanned documents, be mulling over a drink by a window, or teaching a village girl how to properly punch and he’d find it exquisite. He would sketch those images over and over, seal them in his mind and never let them fade.
But soon Helion and Eris would have to rise and attend a High Lord meeting. They’d be back in time to help prepare but for now, they stood, dressed properly, and winnowed away.
It was just a bit past midday by the time they arrived back. He’d winnowed into the same spot by the dining table from the morning and found Y/n now in the kitchen with strands of hair pulled back by a clip and whisking away at whatever concoction she was creating.
“How was it?” He could hear the smile in her voice and made his way behind her to snake his arms around her waist and rest his head against hers.
“The usual. What is this?”
“For tonight.”
Instead of paying attention, he focused on that clip binding her hair and found himself despising it. No part of her should be restricted. Not one bit from her voice to her heart to her hair. Fingers gently combing downwards, he unhooked it and watched with satisfaction as hair fell to its normal position, almost imagining its sigh of relief.
“Eris,” she chided as she turned around to face him. “My hair was in the way.”
“It should be free.” His eyes traced the quirk of her brows.
“It will be later now put the clip back in please.”
“I refuse.”
She reached for it as he knew she would and he pulled it just out of reach. Then again. And again. Each time stepping back and forcing her to follow away from her work. Until finally she snatched it and pushed him back with a chuckle. “Child!”
“Are you calling your High Lord a child?” His eyebrow raised, a challenge upon his lips.
She mirrored the look but added a smirk. Placing both hands against his chest, she pushed him back further till he was near the opposing hallway where Helion and his mother were temporarily residing. “I am. Now get out of my kitchen please.”
“I’d listen to her, Eris.” From behind him came his mother, shushing him with a pat on the shoulder and a book in the crook of her arm. Y/n gave a cheeky, victorious smile, then returned to her work. A warm grin graced his mother’s lips when he turned to look at her and in a much quieter voice she said, “I’ve always hoped I’d have a daughter.”
Time stopped.
His mother and Helion were aware that he and Y/n were mates despite the fact they’d yet to do the mating ceremony. (They thought it best to wait till after his mother’s and her father’s.) But to hear that? To know that their marriage would be supported so deeply?
Love swept down the bond. It seemed he didn’t cover his stunned expression well enough from Y/n. He sent a feeling of assuredness towards her, looking back at his mother who’d left only to be drawn back to the kitchen when he heard Y/n call, “Helion!”
She had just slapped the High Lord of the Day Court for taking one of the sugar coated cranberries from the bowl she was using. He’d winnowed in after Eris and had placed himself directly in her workspace, which Eris knew to be a dangerous thing when she was focused.
“You dare slap your father?” It was baffling to see such a man fein such shock, nudging her and stealing another cranberry before leaning back on the countertop. Helion was young when he and her mother had their one night stand which birthed the woman he was lovestruck by now.
“I’ll tell your lover you’re in my way.”
“Dirty trick.”
“Learned from you.”
“I can’t tell which one of you looks more like a child.” Eris breached the conversation, leaning against the wall with his arms folded and amusement evident on his face.
“I’d say the woman hoarding a bowl of berries from my grasp.”
“You can have whatever is left but you can’t be here while I finish this!” She answered.
“How do I know you won’t just give them to your mate?”
“Oh that’s a good idea,” She looked up and burst out with a hearty laugh at the High Lord’s face.
“I’m the one who bestowed your powers, the least you could do is let me have a berry.”
“You’re digging for scraps, Father.” There was a mischief to her grin Eris could now see mirrored in Helion’s. “Go find your High Lady already. We’ll be out soon.”
He popped a few more into his mouth and departed down the same hall Eris’s mother had gone through. The patio doors shut, where friends from the other courts along with his brothers, Lucien and his mate, Elain, had slowly begun to trickle in. It was a small celebration for the couple who’d recently consummated their mating bond and a celebration for his mother who, without his father’s hand around her throat, was now Helion’s High Lady. She seemed to glow just a bit brighter every day and he was glad for it. Eris had tried to protect her the best he could from his wretched father and now with his death, it was a time of healing for her. For all of them.
He watched Y/n bring out a two tier cake she’d been working on throughout the day and twirl the platter around, carefully looking at the cake that’d set and deciding where to place the rest of the fruit decorations. Cinnamon came from the cabinet and she was careful to sprinkle it atop the dessert.
Only when she seemed satisfied did she relent, setting the bowl down and stepping away, gesturing for him to have his fill. Coming to the island, Eris inspected her work and bestowed a kiss on her hand as a sign of approval. “Want to bring it out?”
“You do it. I’m shaky,” She showed him her hand, how it shook ever so slightly in the air.
“You can bring out more champagne then.” He was proud to make her laugh, proud for every smile he coaxed from her. Eris knew her story.
The bastard daughter of the Day Court’s High Lord and a Valkyrie inevitably lost in the War five-hundred-some-years ago along with the rest, it was a miracle she managed to survive. Y/n had gone to the Night Court, became their lead researcher as well as the general’s second in command who’d travel amongst the courts helping anyone she could. When she eventually found her way to the Autumn Court to help his mother, he never expected how much she’d help him too. How much she’d show him about finding purpose in the pain, healing oneself by healing others. If he could give her even an ounce of happiness for all the horror she’d endured, it would make it all worth it.
“Stars bless your wine cell—“
His lips pressed against hers, swallowing up the noise of surprise and feeling her smile against his mouth. From the first kiss to now, it never ceased to leave him with rosy cheeks. She was a thousand colored fairy lights at once, warm blankets on a cool morning, and security personified.
Breaking for air, their foreheads touched and she chuckled lightly. “I love you.”
“I love you.” He answered in a honey-smooth voice. “Two more days.”
“Two more days,” she grinned, separating to take her bottles and lead the way to the patio. Two more days till they’d perform the mating ceremony, he’d have her sworn in as his High Lady, and they’d enjoy a week of consummation. Something he’s been planning with each day they get closer.
Following her out with the two tier cake in hand, they were welcomed by the guests of the Forest House out in the cool, evening air. The cake was cut and dealt out amongst the people and pop the champagne.
A glance amongst the crowd and he found her talking with the Valkyries she helps train and lead, Nesta, Gywn, and Emerie as well as Cassian and Azriel. Rhysand, holding baby Nyx, and Lucien provided him with laughter. Mor kept towards Helion and her Night Court friends (and he understood why) with Amren nursing her wine nearby.
“I’m surprised your brothers are acting on good behavior, High Lord,” Cassian snickered, dolling himself a large forkful of cake.
“It’s because they know Y/n won’t put up with it,” Feyre walked forward, spooning some of her cake as well. “I’m surprised you haven’t had your ceremony yet.”
Eris watched over her shoulder where Y/n and his mother were hugging and Helion had twirled her into a short dance. “We knew this little soirée was happening and figured it best we weren’t mid-Frenzy when it did.”
The period, usually a week, after a mating bond is sealed the male tends to get…disproportionately protective. Some of the most respectable, reserved, intelligent men have been seen breaking the arms of their brothers if they so much as looked too long at their mate.
“Wouldn’t do us any good to have you burn down half the forest the instant any of us looked at her would it?” Cassian smirked. At first, he and Azriel had been staunchly against Eris courting Y/n, the woman they considered their sister. Now they found it amusing.
“As I recall, wasn’t it you who triggered a small avalanche while tumbling with your mate?” He shot back. Cassian’s cheeks grew darker but he still had his chest pushed out with pride. Granted, if Eris had a week alone with Y/n he imagined he wouldn’t care for the collateral either.
“And wasn’t it you who gave half of Velaris a show when you conceived your prince?” Feyre’s cheeks bloomed in color but she didn’t shy from it, chuckling with a nod.
Cassian wagged his fork in Eris’s direction. “You’ll have your stories, just you wait.”
“I’m counting on it.”
The distinct clinking of a utensil against glass caused all to silence and turn to the source. Rhys had taken it upon himself to begin with a toast which bounced to Eris and then to Helion. By the time each finished, everyone was filling their glasses with seconds.
In a moment where Y/n managed to sneak away from the others, he found her pulling him closer by the shirt.
The side of her finger brushed the bridge of his nose, her other hand around his neck and fingers playing with the hairs at the nape of his neck. With his father gone, he finally felt better about letting his hair grow out again and she’d been very happy about it. His hands rested against her hips, keeping her close and basking in the image of the smiling goddess in front of him.
If these were the people to rule Prythian with him, he was willing to let himself hope and be curious for the future. A future with his High Lady Y/n.
“Two more days,” she said, seemingly having read his mind.
“Two more days.”