Into the Shadows - ACOTAR / ACOMAF - Azriel x OC

Chapter XIV - A New City

— Lexa —

My arms were still wrapped around Azriel's neck, my body flushed against him as he cradled me into his chest. We had winnowed four times in total.

And I only knew we had reached our destination when five individuals were suddenly surrounding us in a similar fashion to the soldiers we had just killed.

Memories of the feeling of my power simmered against my fingertips as an image of Drak's body contorting in horrific pain flashed before me.

My magik flared in my blood as the tattoo on my side sizzled. I knew it had vanished. Our bargain was for my powers to remain dormant until our destination. I guess fate had known I would end up here. Wherever here was.

Before I could react, a cement wall, different to the one I felt in the warded clearing, locked around the numbing and burning in my core.

Great... more magical wards. The thought finally brought me to back reality, where the hell were we?

Azriel peeled his body from mine but kept staring into my eyes. I moved slowly, nausea and exhaustion clutching at the last of my sanity as I peered around the large room.

A dining table lay in the centre, covered in a feast that I didn't allow myself to dream about over the last few days. A warm glow of a hearth and the fae-lit lanterns cast a dull orangey-yellow throughout the space.

A plush circle of couches and chairs sat in the corner, surrounding a low coffee table that had a deck of playing cards scattered about. Wine glasses and cheese plates lay waiting.

What had we interrupted? Where the hell was I? 

Azriel gripped my hand as my arms fell to my side. I don't know how, but I managed to maintain a look of cool indifference plastered to my face as I took in the room.

And I now I needed to assess these new individuals.

"You're early," a devilishly handsome male said. His violet black hair shimmered in the warm lighting and a pang of jealousy wiggled in my stomach. My hair only ever absorbed the light, his... his revelled in it. Or maybe the light revelled in his hair.

"The eternal winter and wards have been shattered," replied Azriel, his gaze cool and his voice like midnight as a cold chill licked down my spine.

"Finally," answered the other male in the room. He had a strong jaw and long brown hair. Muscles like I hadn't seen before rippled as he crossed his arms in front of his chest. He narrowed his gaze at me, and I had been trained well enough to learn when an enemy was sizing up your strengths and weaknesses.

I did the same, a small curl formed at my lip as my free hand stroked the dagger, now dripping in blood, but still sheathed to my thigh. It was a cover for my internal anguish. The powers I had recently discovered were once again feeling caged in a dense metal box. The glow I had cultivated over these last few days was shimmering around, and I had to force it to still inside of me.

That was not a power I was willing to let go of, it was too... beautiful... to face whatever was about to happen in this room. As if my other powers could hear my thoughts, they too moved to layer around the small bundle.

"Even in this room, her power is simmering" a small High Fae commented, she was shorter than me and her stark hairstyle made the angles of her cheekbones seem like they could cut through diamonds. But it was her silvery eyes that sent chills through my body.

"What the hell happened out there?" The most beautiful female I had ever seen asked. Her voice was how I imagined angels would speak, but a rough husk lay beneath the idyllic music pouring from her red lips.