Daisy Blooms - Azriel

Chapter 22

Someone had poured sand into my mouth. And taken a hammer to my head. Was still pounding on it, apparently.

I pried my tongue from my teeth, swallowing a few times to work some moisture back into my mouth. My aching head-Scents hit me. Male, varied, and so many-

Hard, cold ground lay beneath my legs, pine needles poking me. Chill, blood- icing wind carried all those male scents above a tide of snow and pine and dirt-

My eyes flew open. I see a broad male back, most of it obscured by a pair of wings. Bound wings.

Then I remember last night: the males who'd grabbed me. I feel something on my wings and look to see they're bound too. Ha, jokes on them. My wings could easily slide out of these ropes, but for now I'll leave them.

Looks like I'm in the Blood Rite, so I'll go along with their game. It's not like I could just fly away anyways, I think there's a rule against it. No ones going to help us, theres rules about that too.

Unconscious Illyrians were strewn around me. At my back, at my head. At least two hundred, stretching between the towering pines.

I must have awoken before the others because recently Azriel has been having me taking poisons to build up a tolerance, incase I'm ever taken, they wouldn't affect me as much. Huh, who thought that him poisoning me would ever pay off.

Whatever time I had wouldn't last long. The others would soon stir. And find me.

Hey, if I'm here than probably so are Nesta, Emerie, and Gwyn. Must be they didn't like us empowering women. Eh, they'll get over it eventually. If those three are here, and there are three dumping sites, most likely one is here because they would want to separate them like they did with Azriel, Cassian, and Rhysand.

I stand up and start searching for another female, most likely without wings. That shouldn't be hard to spot.

I start getting a little nervous because I don't see any of them and some of them are starting to stir. "I'm a Peregryn general and a fierce warrior. I can do this." I tell myself.

I have to clear this general area though. I walk over to the edge of people when I see someone stand up. Oh, no they're going to attack me. Oh wait, it's just Nesta. I can spot her skinny ass anywhere.

Looks like she's just in a nightgown, probably got snatched in her sleep. I run over to where she is and help her up.

"What are you doing here?" She hisses.

"The same reason you are. Now we need to get out of here."

"I know." We start walking towards the edge of the group again.

"Have you seen Gwyn or Emerie?" She asks.

"No, they probably put them at different sites like they did with the bat boys."

"Bat boys?"

"I'll explain later. You need something warmer and shoes. I'm glad I'm not in my nightgown." I say.

"Well we're not all as lucky as you. We also need a weapon." She sneers.

"I'll make something once we're a ways away from them."

"We should head that way, get to higher ground to survey the land and see if we can see the other dumping sites." She says.

Nesta pressed a hand over her mouth to keep her trembling exhale to near-silence. Move. We had to move. But someone already had.

The rustle of his wings gave him away. Nesta and me whirled.

A hundred feet off, separated by the sea of sleeping bodies, stood a beast of a male.