Into the Shadows - ACOTAR / ACOMAF - Azriel x OC

Chapter XXII - The Reunion

— Lexa —

My mind was still reeling even as I felt Rhys appear between me and Feyre.

Instincts took over as the tattoo on my chest rippled and slightly warmed. A warning for me to move, on my next exhale I discreetly placed the book in my jacket pocket with all the knives Azriel had insisted I wield, and on my inhale my arms rested back by my side.

Jurian continued speaking, not noticing that I had even moved.

"Worked your way up the ranks, did you? Congratulations" he sneered to Cassian.

"You look good, Jurian," Rhys said as he stalked to Cassian's side. Casually placing himself between Feyre and the human warrior. "For a corpse"

"Last time I saw you," Jurian mocked, "you were warming Amarantha's sheets."

"So you remember," Rhysand mused. "Interesting."

Jurian's eyes sliced to Mor. "Where's Miryam?"

"She's dead," Mor said flatly. A lie that had been told for 500 years.

My mind filled with fog again as the Book pulsed against my ribs, luring me to think about the memory it had shown me

Was what I had seen in the Cauldron a memory? The scene of my parents enchanting their blood with Magik. The spell and language my mother spoke, it was the same as the Book of Breathing.

That's why I reacted to it, why it reacted to me. A creature made of both.

"Liar" Jurian crooned, bringing my senses back into the room. "You were always such a liar, Morrigan."

Azriel growled and slightly braced his stance, a coiled snake ready to pounce.

I knew he had once held feelings for the beautiful warrior and I had no qualms against him defending her honour. It was who he was to defend those he cared for and loved.

Jurian ignored him, his chest starting to heave as he snarled "where did you take Miryam?"

"Away from you," breathed Mor. "I took her to Prince Drakon. They were mated and married that night you slaughtered Clythia. And she never thought of you again."

Wrath twisted his tanned face. A pang of recognition registered in my chest. He had turned himself into a monster as evil as the ones he fought. For a woman who chose another man.

Is that really why he now stood with my father? To kill the same beasts again, even though the animal he allied with would do the same to the humans?

Azriel held my hand, as Mor moved to grip my shoulder. But it was too late. I felt the adamant wall wrap around my powers. We weren't going to winnow out of here.

But Rhys had winnowed in... and it was a trap.

The same heat from my tattoo set my mind into strategy. I whipped my hand from Azriel's and strolled to Jurian before Mor could touch me.

"Gods, I haven't even met you and listening to your voice was worse than being surrounded by them." I drawled to Jurian as I passed the guards who now bowed to me.

"This was a trick?" Rhys seethed. And I couldn't tell if he knew I was playing.

I didn't dare to look into Azriel's eyes, I was too scared to see what they would tell me.

"I thought you knew a distraction when you saw one, Rhysand?" I smiled sweetly. My words playing into the idea that perhaps my mere presence in Velaris, the focus of Azriel on my safety during that week in the woods, and now here by the Cauldron. It had been my father's plan all along.

And I was now going to pretend that I wasn't the sickly pawn, of his game but rather the masterful Queen.

I felt the dark power from Rhysand rise and rise, and I wondered if he would have misted me.

"Then there's that" Jurian said, his gaze returning to the Night Court. "Didn't you remember? Perhaps you forgot. It was a good thing I was there, awake for every moment, Rhysand. She stole his book of spells - to take your powers."

"He made sure," Jurian went on as I allowed myself to look at Azriel. I banged against that internal wall, trying to summon my own powers to no avail, "that particular book was returned to him. She didn't know how to use half of the nastier spells. Do you know what it is like to be unable to sleep, to drink or eat or breathe or feel for five hundred years? Do you understand what it is like to be constantly awake, forced to watch everything she did?"

It had made him insane—tortured his soul until he went insane. That's what the sharp gleam was in his eyes.

"It couldn't have been so bad," Rhys said, "if you're now working for her master."

A flash of too-white teeth. "Your suffering will be long, and thorough."

"Sounds delightful," Rhys said, they turned, as if they really thought they could run from this room.

But someone appeared atop the stairs, his shoulder-length hair as dark as mine caught my eyes first. His pale skin, still darker than my own, burned through the air between us.

My father was skilled with both good and bad magic. And I could now feel the spell my mother had spoken was also lying in his veins.

The King of Hybern said, "The trap was so easy, I'm honestly a bit disappointed you didn't see it coming." He approached me and finally looked into my eyes. His black orbs of death burned into mine as if he could see the power he had given me was now awake and clawing to be free.

I briefly wondered if knew I had fallen for the trap he had lain. That I had foolishly thought I could outmanoeuvre him. Would his magik tell him that mine was as volatile as he had hoped? Would he sense the change within? The change that had been simmering in my chest over the last 10 days.

Not 6 months, 6 days, and 6 hours. Just 10 days.

But, the most harrowing question that strangled my warm glowing gift: would he know Azriel was my mate? 

"Daughter." He greeted me. He touched the side of my face delicately, similar to how he had before I left for Vallahan. Before all of this had happened.

I dropped to my knee. He was and would be the only male I would ever bow to. And I swore right then and there that I would never bow for any King, High Lord, or man ever again. I only did so now to complete the lie I felt the room believe in.

The lie Azriel now believed.

I rose slowly and kept looking into my father's eyes.

Faster than any of us could see, Jurian fired a hidden ash bolt through Azriel's chest.

Mor screamed.

I didn't take my eyes off my father. It was a test. And if I failed, they would all be dead.

My heart was unnaturally calm in my chest and my expression remained neutral. If my father even had the slightest inkling that the arrow protruding from Azriel's chest was ripping my soul in half, he would kill him.

My soul... That's what was shattering. It was my soul.