Some parts are directly taken from A Court of Wings and Ruin, especially towards the end, I merely changed it to third person, added Aelin and changed a few things to make things fit. The beginning is my own. If you want to read the real part yourself, in my copy it is page 463 – 467. The High Lords meeting ends on page 445. I hope this clears up where in ACOWAR we are, please ask if anything is unclear.

Feyre jumped from the bed as a loud crash woke her. They were in the palace at the Dawn Court, the morning after the meeting. Six of the seven High Lords had decided to fight against Hybern, which wasn't bad at all.

She brushed against the wall surrounding Rhys's mind. Rhys, something's wrong.

Less than a second later, her mate opened his eyes, immediately alert. He was about to ask what was wrong, when another crash came from the sitting room. Rhys got out of the bed and dressed both of them with a snap of his fingers.

Feyre grabbed his hand and pulled him to the door. She threw open the door and took in the suite.

The door to the hallway was wide open, which wasn't a good sign, since they'd locked it the night before. It wasn't broken, however, and neither was the lock. Feyre's eyes trailed from the door to couches, which were toppled over. From the corner of the room a loud, enraged tweeting sounded, and when Feyre looked, she saw that one of the bird's cages had fallen over as well. It was as if a hurricane had run through the room.

Feyre followed the path of destruction with her eyes and, at last, reached the window, where a figure stood, holding a man pinned to the window.

"You just had to make a mess and wake everyone up," the figure said, sounding incredibly annoyed, "I wanted to do this quietly, let everyone enjoy their beauty sleep, and ask when they woke up what they wanted to do with the body of their would-be assassin."

The figure sounded female, but Feyre couldn't be sure if they were. They wore a long, pine green cloak, reaching all the way to the floor. The ends of it seemed to be stained slightly black. The person wore the cloak with the hood up, concealing all their features.

Feyre looked more carefully at the pinned man. He was bleeding from several wounds, and he had a bloody nose. Strangely, his blood seemed to be black.

The figure grabbed a blade from under their cloak and pressed it to the man's neck. The cloak fell back slightly, revealing the skin-tight black material underneath. "What is your name." It didn't sound like a question to Feyre.

The man at the window laughed, dark hair falling into his eyes, which Feyre could now see were black. "Your human tongues cannot pronounce our names."

The figure sighed. "I thought so." Then Feyre saw a flash as the figure moved the blade in their hand. They separated the man's head from his shoulders with one clean cut. Black blood sprayed and coated the figure's knife as the body slumped to the ground. "Gods, what a mess," the figure sighed, wiping their blade on their thigh.

Then they turned to Feyre and Rhysand and pushed their hood back from their face.

She was definitely female. The first thing Feyre noticed were her striking eyes, bright blue with a ring of gold, then the blond hair, practically gold in the light, tightly braided back. The next thing Feyre noticed were her ears: they were round.

She's human, Feyre shot down the bond. What's a human doing over the wall?

I don't know, darling, Rhys answered, sounding just as perplexed as she was.

Rhys overcame his surprise before Feyre. "Who are you, and why are you here?"

The woman cocked her head to the side, a move which didn't seem very human to Feyre. "I'm here because a hallway is the least concealed place to murder someone. Who are you? You're clearly important, since that bastard was here to attempt an assassination."

"I am Feyre, the High Lady of the Night Court, and this is Rhysand, the High Lord of the Night Court." Feyre had come to the conclusion that the female most likely wasn't an enemy, since she could've just let the man have a try at murdering them if she wanted them dead.

The woman nodded. "That would make you important enough, I guess," she said absentmindedly. She seemed to be thinking things over.

"Who are you?" Rhys repeated.

"Celaena Sardothien, at your service." She did a mock bow. "I didn't just kill a friend of yours, did I?"

"You didn't. So, Celaena, what is a human doing in the Dawn Court?" Rhys looked her up and down.

How did she get here? He said through the bond.

Walk? Feyre offered weakly. It was something she was wondering as well. Along with a hundred other things.

"Preventing High Lords and Ladies from getting murdered, apparently." Celaena winked at him, then her face seemed to fall. "What a downgrade," she mumbled.

Feyre wasn't sure if she was supposed to catch that or if Celaena was used to human ears around her. She didn't seem afraid of the fae, which was surprising. Maybe she hadn't noticed yet?

"Well, I hope you'll understand if I say that we can't just let someone so well equipped for murder walk around the palace without notifying our host," Feyre said, "would you like to join for breakfast?" She felt Rhys's approval.

Celaena's face brightened. "Oh yes! I'm starving!"

Rhys snapped his fingers, and the body and the weird, black blood disappeared.

"Nice trick." Celaena nodded appreciatively. "I was worried the owner of this place would have to buy a new carpet."

Rhys led the way to the dining hall. There, Mor, Cassian and Azriel already sat at a table. Mor didn't look like someone who had spent the night tumbling with a gorgeous High Lord. She seemed pale and her eyes had a far away look.

"What was that noise coming from your room?" Cassian asked, with a wink. "Got wild?"

"Murder!" Celaena answered in a sing-song voice, while piling stacks of food onto the plate she was holding. All eyes turned to her. It was clear most of Feyre's friends hadn't noticed she was here. Celaena held a chocolate pastry under her nose and inhaled deeply. Then she sighed happily. "Nothing quite like murder and the smell of chocolate to start the day off right!"

"And who are you?" Cassian said.

"Celaena Sardothien," she said, plopping down in one of the chairs. Feyre stared at Celaena's plate for a moment, before grabbing her own breakfast and sitting down as well.

How does she stay so slim? Feyre asked Rhys, if I ate that much I'd be as round as a barrel within a month. Rhys's amusement curled along her shields, and she could feel his mental grin.

More for me to love, was his reply.

I'd make you carry me around all day. She stuck out her tongue at him both physically and mentally.

Nesta burst through the door, pain clear on her face. She took another step, and promptly vomited on the floor.

Feyre rushed from her chair, helping Nesta up, Mor joining them. "What's wrong?"

Nesta shook her head frantically. "Not with me."

The cauldron.

Rhys nodded to Cassian and Azriel, and the both of them immediately prowled out of the dining hall.

Then the ground shook. Kallias, Viviane, Helion and Thesan stormed into the room.

"What's going on?" Thesan asked, eyes wild.

"The cauldron," was all Rhys offered, before a shudder went through the earth. As if some great god blew a breath across the land.

Then the impact came.

Rhys threw himself over Feyre, shielding her from the debris that rained down as the whole mountain shook. Feyre could feel him getting ready to winnow—

It stopped.

The palace became wholly silent.

Nesta vomited again, narrowly avoiding Mor.

"What in hell—" Helion began.

Rhys and Feyre stood up, Rhys's face draining of color as he stared southward.

Feyre felt his magic spear from him, a shooting star across the land.

When he looked back, his eyes immediately went to Feyre. She felt her blood run cold from the look in his eyes—the fear and sorrow. Rhys swallowed once, twice, then he declared, "The King of Hybern just used to Cauldron to attack the wall."

He swallowed a third time, and Feyre felt the ground slip away as he clarified, "The wall is gone. Shattered. Across Prythian, and on the continent." He said again, as if convincing himself, "We were too late—too slow. Hybern just destroyed the wall."

No one made a sound for several moments, everyone was stunned.

Then Celaena loudly said, "What in hell is this 'cauldron'?"

I hope you liked it! Tell me what you think.

I liked my last chapter a bit better than this one, but it'll do.