Into the Shadows - ACOTAR / ACOMAF - Azriel x OC

Chapter XV - The Unexpected

— Lexa —

My head was spinning from the heat of my bath. Warm vanilla and fresh citrus soaked into my pores as blood danced through the water. I couldn't help but notice how they moved like Azriel's shadows.

I closed my eyes, allowing myself a brief reprieve from the mental anguish strangling my core. The conversation... it had been laced with so many unspoken words and threats, I felt like a naive child who was being punished.

But they needed me. They wanted me to trust them. To help them and go against the King of Hybern. Go against my father. I knew Hybern was evil and with the recent discovery of that winter village and the magik coursing through my veins, I wondered if I too was evil. Could I ever be anything else?

I waited for my mother's voice or cold eyes to further torture me, but nothing came. Perhaps I was too exhausted.

Amren had felt my powers... she had sensed the raging flames and cold death that was pulsing through my blood, had she recognised something?

Or was I hoping she had seen something more... maybe she really could help me figure out what was simmering deep in my chest. I wondered if Feyre could as well. She had been so close to my mind and something inside of me had pulled towards her.

What the fuck was that about? I huffed before submerging myself under the cooling water. What the fuck was any of this about?

I pulled myself out of the tub and walked on the warm floors to my bedroom. I wasn't sure if there would be fresh clothes, but I would rather burn the ones I had been wearing and walk around naked for the rest of my life than even look at them again.

A rather large plate of cheese, grapes, and bread waited for me on the armoire. I didn't even think to try to be strategic or smell it for poison, I devoured the first half, sitting on the edge of my bed whilst I continued to eat like a starved animal.

They thought I was an animal.

At least here, they thought of me as a predator rather than a weak defenceless prey. I guess it was a marginal improvement.

After I ate, I went to dress but caught my full-body reflection in the mirror.

The tattoos... They were beautiful. The colour of a brightly lit midnight sky. Not quite black, but a hue of deep purple. The bargain for Truth Teller still wrapped around my thigh and crept up my hips, finishing below my ribs. There was a space where my previous tattoo had been, but above my ribs, sneaking around my left breast and finishing on my right shoulder was my new bargain with the High Lord of the Night Court.

It looked... I looked... fascinating.

Before I could move to dress, a small knock sounded at the door, I quickly grabbed the nearest item of clothing and threw it over my body.

Azriel walked in before I could open the door. He stopped in his tracks, as he drank in my image. A predatory grin tipped at the corner of his lips. I felt a blush creep over my chest and into my freckled cheeks.

I glanced back in the mirror and realised what I had grabbed... I didn't even know what this was, what purpose this thin piece of material could possibly offer the world.

It was silky and black but sheer as well and you could see the outlines of my hardening nipples. It was ridiculously short and I could feel cool air tangling with the heat now forming between my legs.

I met his gaze in the mirror and goosebumps raised the hairs on my body from the intensity of his stare.

"Maybe I should have packed that in the satchels," he remarked gingerly, a dark shadow rolling over his shoulder.