A Court of Fire and Shadow

Chapter 13

Nala and Azriel left the early the next morning before anyone else had gotten up. The two flew over the Night Court in silence. They reached the mortal lands on the continent before the sun had gotten over the horizon. Compared to the Night Court, the human lands looked bland and poor Nala noticed.

Reaching the castle ground of the queens both Shadowsingers came to a clear stop, one feeling the magic the other seeing it.

"Fuck..." Azriel grumbled as they landed in the shadows of the trees. "Now what? That is old magic."

"It's strong, maybe our shadows can get through?" Nala commented as her eyes shined with her fire as she looked over that of the barrier she could see.

"You can see this as well?" Az asked, his shadows coming to a stop at the new information about their master's female.

Nala only nodded as her own shadows snuck their way across the grounds, Azriel's followed shortly after.

Nothing Miss, her shadows reported back a few seconds after. "Nothing here," Nala reported out loud, looking back at Azriel to see his shadows around his ear. He too shook his ear; his shadows couldn't get past either.

The two didn't linger much after that, couldn't risk being seen or they might not have a chance of convincing the Queen to give their haft of the book over.

The flight home was silent. Nala looked around most of it, seeing the different strands of magic all around. Azriel was planning how to get into the castle and trying to figure out why Nala could see the magic in first the Wall and now again in the barrier around the Queens' castle.

They reached Velaris by lunch and landed at the House of Wind, Mor ready at the glass doors.

"How did it go?" She asked Az, ignoring Nala completely, so the winged female gave the same energy back. Walking away with nothing more than a brush of her hand against Azriel's as she walked in front of him, cutting though Mor's sentence.

Nala made her way up to the training area where she could here Cas and Feyre training. Going through the door a breeze caught her cape making it flow behind her, giving her an aurora of darkness and mischief.

"How is the fighting?" Nala teased her sister, seeing her stumble on her left punch.

"Shut up." Feyre snapped back, all in good fun, knowing that Nala didn't mean anything mean with her teasing.

Nala threw herself onto the sun chair and kicked her boots of and throwing the cape across the armrest.

Azriel came up a few minutes after Nala, gave Feyre an almost polite hello before throwing himself into sparring with Rhys, his face grim and tight. Just like Nala felt, she just hid it behind a neutral mask as she watched the two Illyrians fight.

The two fought nonstop for about an hour, then removed their leather jackets and shirts, despise the slight chilly sunny winter day.

Their tan, muscled arms were both covered in the same manner of tattoos that adorned Feyre's hand and arm as well as Nala's thigh.

"We get the tattoos when we're initiated as Illyrian warriors – for luck and glory on the battlefield." Cassian said, following the girls stare. All though the warrior wasn't drinking in the picture like the sisters were, the stomach muscles gleaming with sweat in the bright sun, the bunching of their powerful thighs, the rippling strength in their backs, surrounding those mighty, beautiful wings.

Cassian jerked him chin toward his brothers, distracting Nala from her mate. "Rhys is out of shape and won't admit it, but Azriel is too polite to beat him into the dirt."