Into the Shadows - ACOTAR / ACOMAF - Azriel x OC

Chapter XXIV - The End

— Azriel —

We fell onto the floor of the Townhouse. Rhys still holding me up as Mor appeared seconds later and lunged towards me.

"Where are they?" Amren demanded as her hands already began to try to heal Cassian's wings. She would not be strong enough for the damage my brother had taken for me.

"Lexa" I muttered out of my blood-soaked mouth. My heavy eyes peered into Rhys' and I dropped my mental shield completely.

My body was betraying me and my head was swimming with fog and pain, but I pushed it aside and showed him everything I had seen her do. Everything I had felt her do.

My mind raced with images and feelings, the twitch in her jaw when I was pierced by the arrow, the slight tap on Truth Teller's hilt, the painstaking gasp that left her lips when Cassian protected me, the glimmer of hope when Feyre had used Lexa's powers to break the wards. I showed him how she had planted the book on Mor, how she had moved in the shadows to gather us all together. How she had taken the pain away from both me and Cassian. I showered him the raw strength and pain Lexa had felt when she stopped her father from killing me. From killing all of us.

I then showed him what was happening now, her body being ripped from the inside out as the King tore his powers from her. Dragged her soul out of her being.

I lunged for her, using whatever shadow bond we now shared and pushed the last of my strength into her body.

Rhys was already gone.

"Where are they!?" Amren snapped again

But my eyes were already fluttering to close and the last thing my mind let me see before complete darkness was Lexa's bright green eyes.

— Rhysand —

I slammed into the floor of the Townhouse again, clutching Lexa's mangled body against my own. Nausea had rolled through me when I had pulled her to my chest. She had been convulsing outside by the ocean door. No doubt winnowing there through the power of her bond with Azriel.

Amren was instantly there, hands on the deep protruding wounds that oozed hot thick blood. Her silver eyes were wide at the horror that now lay before us.

Lexa's entire body had been shredded.

"And Feyre?" Amren demanded.

"Her skin..." Mor breathed shakily as she pushed her healing power into Azriel.

"What happened to Lexa? And where. Is. Feyre?" Amren said again, pressing her magic into Lexa's unresponsive body.

"Rhys, her flesh!" Mor cried.

"Morrigan" I yelled. Feeling just as utterly helpless as she did.

I pressed my own hands into Cassian's wings and willed my healing power to mend the torn membrane. I was grateful for my brothers being mercifully unconscious. But I more so for Azriel's lack of awareness. His soul would have ceased to exist if he saw the condition of Lexa's body.

Thankfully, my cousin finally answered Amren's burning questions.

"Tamlin offered passage through his lands and our heads on platters to the King in exchange for trapping Feyre, breaking her bond, and getting to bring her back to the Spring Court. But Ianthe betrayed Tamlin—told the king where to find Feyre's sisters. So the king had Feyre's sisters brought with the queens—to prove he could make them immortal. He put them in the Cauldron. We could do nothing as they were turned. He had us by the balls."

Those quicksilver eyes shot to me. "Rhysand." It was a plea. I let go of Cassian's crumpled body and shot my magic into Lexa's. I knew Cassian would rather be dead than lose his wings, but I also knew he would rather lose both of those things than have Azriel lose his mate.