Into the Shadows - ACOTAR / ACOMAF - Azriel x OC

Chapter I - Hybern

— Narrator —

"I wonder which one dear Rhysand will send for you" mused the King of Hybern, his eyes as black as the hair beneath his crown. He stalked off the dais where his throne of human bones stood tall in the courtroom.

The bones were thin and had yellowed with age since its creation. He gripped the top of Lexa's arms and waited. He was expecting her to answer his rhetorical question and join in his little game of guessing The High Lord's plans now that Amarantha had fallen. 

Lexa, ignoring his favourite pastime, couldn't help but notice how the bones in the splat of his throne were a sickly bright white. She dragged her eyes from the throne of cruelty, feigning interest as she smiled sweetly at the King.

"Does it matter?" Her smile and gaze unfaltering "the goal is the same, capture the member of the Dark Court and interrogate until Rhysand himself comes to the rescue."

Seeing as the High Lord of the Night Court had spent 50 years Under the Mountain with Amarantha, it had become seemingly obvious that he had remained as her whore to protect something... or someone.

Much of this speculation was confirmed when the remainder of the Fae and Faeries from the Night Court had unexplainable gaps in their memories. Names and faces were forgotten, locations and paths became mere remnants of a dusty dream. Once Amarantha's reign of terror ceased to exist, Lexa was able to quickly complete the puzzle and develop a proposition for the King.

One so rich with revenge and dripping with the promise of power and conquest, she knew he would halt her own proposed betrothal to the Prince of Vallahan and follow her wicked plan. Even if it was a plan she wasn't so sure she believed in. 

But that was the price for caged freedom. 

The King of Hybern placed a tender kiss on her forehead before continuing his stroll to the castle's window. He peered down at the gathering forces. They had been assembled for quite some time, waiting to strike, waiting to win. And without the promise of bloodshed and gore, they had grown rather rowdy and impatient.

"Tell me again why you think his Court will come" he tone demanding and cold, any previous tenderness replaced by his militant training.

"My lord, we've had this discu-"

"Again" he seethed. His gaze never leaving the army below. Carts of ash arrows ready to find their mark and faebane powder waiting patiently to poison the lungs of the Dark Court members.

Lexa stifled her jump reaction at the sudden change in the King's demeanour. She forced her shoulders to relax as she took her place next to his side by the window, not daring to look at the ground below.

"They know you've been looking for the Cauldron. And now they know you have it here in the Castle, it's why they are after the Book of Breathings." Lexa hesitated and held her breath for a moment, choosing her words very carefully.

They'd had this discussion before, and each time she had to walk the thin line of telling the truth without igniting his furious rage and yet still presenting the facts.

"But, thanks to Amrantha's rule, rumours of secret power, a masterful weapon with unspoken darkness lays dormant by your side. Combined with the Cauldron... you are unstoppable." Lexa had to monitor her tone and eye-rolling. This really was just a power-hungry discussion. "And with Feyre Cursebreaker freeing the people Under the Mountain, she challenged this unfathomed darkness."

She could see Hybern's smile in the reflection of the window. His teeth were too white and his mouth too thin. Cruelty and rage flickered in his black eyes and she felt six small but sharp chills trail down her back into each of her scars, sinking deep into her bones.