A/N: Hello! This story has bitten me and would not go away so here is the first chapter. Let me know your thoughts.

Feyre

I sat up with a start. Snow covered trees surrounded her. I was in a tree with a strung bow. I was in the woods and not just any woods. I knew these woods well, too well. My heart pounded in my chest and I reached a hand up to my ears. The tips were round not pointy. Something was wrong. I was human again. I was in these woods. In this tree.

It was a dream. I pinched myself and flinched. What if this wasn't a dream? Icy wind bit into my face. I unstrung the bow and climbed out of the tree as I had before. I moved next to the river as my thoughts raced. It wouldn't be long and then I'd see the deer and then the faerie wolf. Oh by the cauldron could I kill him again? Could I go with Tamlin?

What the hell was going on? Why was I here? I had forgotten how thin I'd been before and how weak. Had something happened? It all felt real but most of my nightmares did. I saw and heard it all just as I had the first time — the howling wind, the snow that mesmerizing and lethal. The bushes rustled and I pulled by bow just as I had the first time. I saw the doe and my mouth watered again. My eyes shifted to where the wolf prowled. Everything I'd gone through flashed through my mind. I'd regretted killing him and the faeries under the mountain but here I was again. No. I wouldn't do it. I couldn't do it again. I forced the bow down.

Rhys. Rhysand.

Where was Rhys? My mate. Where was my mate? If this wasn't a dream…then Rhys was in Amarantha's clutches. I would do this for him and only him. I raised the bow again replaced the ordinary arrow with the ash arrow and released the ash arrow. I watched him whirl towards me and wait for me to kill him. He'd come here to die. Then I drew the next arrow and knocked it before it sunk into his eye. He collapsed and so did I. I was not the hateful mortal girl I had been the first time. It was the pathetic pawing at the ground that shook me to the core. Could I skin him? Oh Caldron. No I couldn't. I wouldn't.

I stood on shaky legs and moved to him he was dead now. I could wake up now. Rhys shake me awake. But I didn't wake from the nightmare not that this was my usual sort of nightmare.

I took a deep breath and skinned the wolf just in case Tamlin didn't come.

When I returned to the cottage the same things happened. Elain's gasp. The questions. I forgot the annoyance of it all and it hit me like a pile of bricks.

"Will it take you long to clean it?"

"Feyre." My father's deep rumble shook me to the core. If this wasn't a nightmare. If this was a curse of some sort … or perhaps the entire life I'd lived in Prythian had been the dream. It was possible. I'd woken up in that tree. I could have just fallen asleep. I was so tired I could barely stand.

"We can eat half the meat this wee," I said, shifting my gaze to the doe. Yes this was real. Tamlin, Lucien, Rhys, Mor, Amren, Cassian and Azriel had all been the dream. I felt empty. It'd been a nightmare. I'd gone through hell for Tamlin. Then Rhys had put me back together. But it'd been a nightmare. A nightmare that had felt so real. "We can dry the other half. And I'll go to the market tomorrow to see how much I can get for the hides."

I looked at my father's ruined leg that was stretched out before him. Then the fire and felt myself deflate again. I looked down at the table and at the flowers I'd painted. I remembered Rhys' words about the dreams. The dream of me painting the flowers. He's probably not even real I reminded myself. But what if he did exist in Prythian? Maybe he wasn't cursed under the mountain but maybe he did exist. It didn't matter if he did I reminded myself again. If he was real then he was immortal and I was not.

"I'd love a new cloak," Elain said with a sigh.

"I need a new pair of boots."

Here they went. Just like in the dream.

"But I'm freezing with raggedy old cloak," Elain pleaded. "I'll shiver to death." Then turned her eyes on me. "Please, Feyre."

Nesta clicked her tongue then ordered her to shut up. I drowned them out as father stood and inspected the deer then the wolf pelt. His dark eyes met mine. "Feyre. Where did you get this?"

"The same place I got the deer," I said.

It went on and on just like it had in my dream. Then I got into it with Nesta just as I had and that's when I questioned what was real and what was a dream.

Just as the night before the day progressed just as it had in my dream or nightmare whatever you wanted to call it. The arguing, the children of blessed and the mercenary.

"What is your business with me, girl?"

I eyed her and she was just as I remembered from my dream. "I have a wolf pelt and a doe hide for sale. I thought you might be interested in purchasing them."

"You steal them?"

"No." I held her stare. "I hunted them myself. I swear it."

The conversation went on and on right down to, "doesn't seem like a faerie, though."

That was it. Either Rhys and all of it had been real or I was having a serious case of déjà vu. I thought back over the dream-nightmare but couldn't remember anything about going back in town. Fear gripped my heart as I thought of Amarantha. If she was real and she had cursed them. If only I could talk to Rhys but the bond it wasn't there. Or at least I couldn't sense it in my mortal magic less body. Assuming he was real.

So I was back to assuming he was real? Assuming I was repeating the worst year of my life? I had once told Rhys I would do it all again to find him. Well here I was. After Nesta clamped down on my arm and I found Isaac there. What was I supposed to do? Rhys would still be servicing Amarantha but he didn't have a choice I did.

I went with him but made excuses of being tired before I returned home. Then dinner passed and I waited and as I turned to her the roar I would know from anywhere filled my ears. Tamlin. And for the first time in a long time I was happy to see him even if he was in the beast form. He roared the bit about murders but I wondered if he remember anything. Was it just me? What about Rhys?

"P-please," my father babbled. "Whatever we have done, we did so unknowingly and —"

"W-w-we didn't kill anyone," Nesta added, choking on her sobs.

"WHO KILLED HIM?"

Tamlin went on to describe the wolf.

I repeated the same lines I'd said before, "If it was mistakenly killed what payment could we offer in exchange?"

Tamlin let out a bark. "The payment you must offer is the one demanded by the Treaty between our realms."

"For a wolf?"

"Who killed the wolf?"

I stared into his eyes. "I did."

I watched as he blinked and looked at my sisters. It was exactly the same as last time. "Surely you lie to save them."

"We didn't kill anything! Please…please, spare us!" Elain sobbed and Nesta hushed her despite her own sobbing.

"I killed it. I sold its hide at the market today. If I had known it was a faerie, I wouldn't have touched it."

"Liar," he snarled. "You knew. you would have been more tempted to slaughter it had you know it was one of my kind."

I couldn't tell him that I hadn't wanted to kill him but had thought it was all part of a nightmare. "Can you blame me?"

"Did it attack you? Were you provoked?"

It went on and on until he said the lie about the treaty. He needed any excuse to take me back to the spring court and romance me. My fathers words cut me deeper than I remember them hurting before when he told me not to return. Then I was sure to annoy him with my questions until his magic swept over me and the blackness swallowed me.

Rhys.