A Court of Lost Stars

The schoolhouse was small, and the desks were smaller. Cassian smiled awkwardly as he sat in one of the chairs, half his ass hanging off the seat.

Feyre smiled encouragingly at Zaylor, also sitting at one of the desks, as Mor asked, "You say there's a girl in the woods?" 

Zaylor nodded in response as Ms. Archie offered everyone a cup of hot tea, which they all took obligingly but did not drink.

"He sometimes has nightmares…" Ms. Archie pursed her lips, flattening out her apron.

But Zaylor quickly countered. "I have nightmares because of what I saw."

"What did you see?" Rhys asked, his voice calm- patient.

Zaylor met his eyes, and Feyre knew he would be delving into his memories just as she was about to do. His mind was soft and mailable, unlike the High Lords minds she'd entered in the past. It was almost too easy to look into his mind- his memories.

"I watched her kill them," Zaylor whispered.

The room was silent. Not even the trees outside seemed to breathe.

Zaylor continued, his ashen skin forming a bit of perspiration as he spoke. 

Ms. Archie added more tea to his cup.

"Before I was taken in here, I had to travel through the woods. I was eleven at the time and had more strength then. I came from the East, and as I walked toward the town, I felt like something was watching me. Following me," he swept his dark shagged hair just above his dulled green eyes, "I would stop, but nothing would be there. But one night, I built a fire when I stopped to rest. Everything was…quiet. So quiet I thought I'd gone deaf. I couldn't even hear the fire. Then it all came back on, and I heard…"

Feyre inched forward, watching the memory play out in his head, but the details were too blurry.

"What did you hear?" Mor asked in a whisper.

"Screaming…" Zaylor swallowed. "It wasn't a scream like someone was just scared- it was…" He shuddered and shook his head. "I don't know what I was thinking when I did it, but I followed it, and I-I saw her."

"A girl?" Az asked, brow furrowed.

Zaylor nodded. "She looked like me, kind of, but not really. I guess she was my size. My age, but she had…" He touched the tops of his ears and stretched them toward the sky.

It took everything in Feyre not to glance at Rhys as her heart thundered against her chest.

"She was standing at the river bank. I thought maybe she might need help, maybe she was the one who screamed, but that's when I saw the bodies. Two men on the grass of the bank…they were," he pursed his lips, "purple and…twisted. I don't know how she did it, but I know she did."

"Did you approach her?" Cassian asked, crossing his arms a little tighter.

Zaylor shook his head. "I couldn't move," he frowned, "I know that sounds bad, being scared like that, but I didn't know what else to do. I just stood there."

"She walked away then?" Rhys tilted his head with a frown.

"Sort of," Zaylor pursed his lips, "she walked toward me, got so close…and maybe it was a dream because her eyes were…purple. I've never seen eyes like that. The closer she got, the more she looked like…" he whispered the last word, "a Faerie." His green eyes were suddenly doused in fear. Innocent fear- fear passed down through the generations. "But maybe she wasn't because after she stared at me for a little while, she just…left. A Faerie wouldn't have done that, but I can't explain who she is or what I saw. I don't go into the woods now. Not ever."

Ms. Archie pursed her lips. "No bodies were ever found."

Zaylor sighed as if he'd been told that one too many times over the years.

"I know what I saw."