I haven't written a fanfiction in a while but after rereading the ACOTAR series, I remembered that one Elucien fanfiction that I had started a year or so ago. So, having some tiem on my hands, and needing a proper Elucien conclusion, I decided to work on it again. I'm publishing it for the first time.

There will be some Elriel, just for closure. Sarah J. Maas has planned another novella and 3 more books in the ACOTAR series, probably to finish all the plotlines introduced in the last book, but I don't want to wait so many years to know what will happen. ACOFAS will be taken in consideration, even if I didn't like it much. and All the plotlines introduced in ACOWAR will be mentioned and more or less worked on for the sake of concluding the story, but it'll be more like background consistency for the Elucien romance.

English isn't my native language and I don't have a betareader, so I apologize for the mistakes. I am planning on updating this fanfiction every Wednesday.

I hope you will like this story!

FANFICTION

A COURT OF NIGHTMARES AND LIGHT

CHAPTER I : Prologue

The black water was so cold that Elain could feel it in her bones before she even plunged under the surface. The tears were streaming down her face as she tried, vainly, to get away from the Cauldron, to escape this horrifying fate. She didn't want to go into this terrifying water, promise of a terrible destiny – becoming Fae. And all she could think about was her father, all the way to the continent, and her fiancée whom she loved so dearly and was so far away, and her sisters who were so close but unable to do anything to help her.

No, no, no, no! I don't want this! Please, don't!

Then she was thrown into it.

Darkness so deep that she stopped thinking. An icy cold that bit into her body so sharply that she stopped breathing.

In the beginning

And at the end

There was Darkness

And nothing more

The most terrifying part wasn't being in the Cauldron, in this dark ice. It was to feel its life. The beating of pure magic all around her that seeped into her body, reshaping her despite her will. The Cauldron had no voice, no thought, but still, she could feel what it was telling her as it examined the deepest parts of her soul, judging her, feeling her, what she was, what she will be, what she could be.

Sweet, sweet rosebud… So pure and so innocent…

She could feel the whispers of magic against her cheek, caressing it almost gently, compassionate to the torture she was going through, the grief that was starting to grow and ache in her heart.

So sweet and kind…

And then she felt it, that violent sting through her body, her soul, as she was transformed. Not just into a Fae, but something more. Something that started to beat through her, crawled into her heart, her mind, her soul.

She opened her mouth, swallowing the black water that had already been seeping into her body. She tried to scream, but there was no voice, no sound, in this eternal, black void.

She only wanted to get out of here, to find the people she cared about again. Light, just a little light – that was all she needed, all she desired.

Light.

She was blinded by it.

Elain woke up startling, gasping for air as if she was still being drowned, absorbed and transformed by the Cauldron. It took her a moment to realise she wasn't into the black, icy water. It took her a moment longer to breathe. It took her an even longer moment to realise it had just been a dream. A nightmare. These few seconds, according to her friends and family, during which she had been plunged into the Cauldron, had been hours of torture for her. Nothing could compare to the pain and terror that still beat through her after all these months – almost a year now…

And yet, something had been even more painful than this torture, and it had made her life, an immortal life, a continuous hell.

She unconsciously reached for the iron ring still at her finger, and caressed it. She… she had tried to get rid of it, but had been unable to, Greyson's face appeared in her mind every time. The lovely, warm smile she had loved always twisted into that hateful expression after what she had become. Her friends and family thought she was in the process of forgetting him, getting over it, but they didn't know that every night, she could only fall asleep if the ring was around her finger. And yet, the nightmares, reminders of that night, and so many more events past and future, still haunted her.

The candle that she left on all night – for fear of the darkness consuming her – trembled.

Her attention was finally pulled to something else and she watched the constant flame. This light was nothing compared to what had struck her that time, that blinding, world-changing light when she had lost consciousness… The candlelight was so dull, so weak. Like a human life. But she couldn't look away, lulled by its quiet dance in the night.

At another side of Prythian, like every night since that day, Lucien woke up startled. He held back his gasp, his heart beating hard – and the bond he could feel coming from it, pulling hard. He put a hand on his chest, hoping it'd appease the uncomfortable feeling… but it didn't work, like every night, like every moment Elain, his mate, was tortured by the memories of the darkness and ice of the Cauldron.

Like every night, he wished there'd be a solution to their slow torture, to that non-existent relationship but undeniable bond between them… but he could only turn on the side when that tug stopped hurting. And he fell back to sleep, haunted by dreams and visions. He couldn't tell if these were his own memories, his own nightmares, or his mate's. They shared the same now.