A Court of Song and Shadow

Chapter 67

Mor swirls her alcohol around in her cup as she leans against the doorway, looking out at the city. Her heart tugs as she remembers Velaris loved to do the same, she quickly shuts the door to the balcony and takes a seat next to Cassian--who is sitting with his head in his hands, he had always been impatient. Now, waiting for his brother to return has made him even more impatient. Mor places a hand on his back as he just shakes his head.

"I cannot lose him too." His voice breaks, and Mor realizes that is the first time she has heard that happen, she looks to Azriel but he is just sitting at the piano, fiddling with the keys. She knows he is not thinking of playing the piano, she knows his thoughts were on the girl he played the piano with.

"We are not going to lose him." Mor says, but even she--with the power of truth--cannot be certain that is the truth.

"We lost her." Cass says, looking up to the spot Mor was just standing at as the memory of Velaris standing there, laughing at something he had said, pops up in his memories. Tears threaten to spill from his eyes, and he has to blink back the tears. It suddenly becomes too hard to breathe for him--Az hits another key.

"Az?" Mor asks, now concerned that Az has been sitting there in the same spot for hours, pressing the same two piano keys over and over and saying nothing. She watches as the shadows move around him slowly--more shadows than before. Mor had a feeling that not all of those shadows were his. Azriel does not even acknowledge Mor as he repeats Velaris's words over and over again in his head.

She had known he was her mate.

She was his mate.

Azriel knew that though, he had felt the bond snap into place that moment she pushed him off of the damned cliff after getting whipped at the Illyrian camp.

He had known decades before that though, he knew as soon as she barged into her mothers cabin holding a bunch of stolen swords when they were children.

He had spent all that time thinking it was somehow wrong--thinking the Cauldron had been wrong because how could he deserve someone as perfect as her?

Azriel slowly pulls out what he has been holding on to for days now--trying to keep hidden from Velaris. He holds his mothers moonstone ring in his two fingers as his mothers words ring through his head.

"If you do not marry Velaris, Azriel, you are the stupidest male on the planet." His mother said.

"The High Lord--"

"Damn the High Lord." His mother takes off her ring and pushes it in his scarred hand, looking back towards the door to make sure Velaris does not walk back through the door from helping clean up the broken dishes in the kitchens"You marry that girl."

"I will."

He presses another key as the memories of Velaris flood through his head. He never got to tell her how he loved her with his entire being too, and that it was Velaris who saved him--over and over again.

He never got to tell her, but she knew.

Velaris had said she knew how Azriel felt, and if everything else has destroyed him--at least she had known how much she meant to him.

"By the cauldron, Az, stop playing that damned piano." Cass finally snaps, and Az just turns around in his seat and looks at them. Mor and Cass both freeze and their eyes widen as they take in the tears spilling down his face.

In all the years Cass had knew Az, he had never once seen him cry. Not when he was telling him about what happened to his hands. Not as he was kicked around in the camp. Not as he was stabbed. Not as he was taken in by Rhysand's mother--his mother-- who was also dead. At least they had not been alone in their death, at least the two most important females in all of their lives had died beside one another and not alone.  

A light whooshing sound comes from the balcony, and everyone jumps from their seat to run over the door. Mor gets to it first and opens it slightly. A familiar figure is standing looking out over the city.

Rhysand turns around to face his family, blood covering him with his eyes wide as they take him in. They soon realize that the Rhysand they had seen before he left was not the same Rhysand that stood before them now.

They all kneel as the new High Lord of the Night Court stands before them.