Amarantha's Daughter

Azriel

When she came to, she was lying in a bed. Her legs were sore and tender, her head was hammering, but her neck was the worst. She could barely breathe without cringing in pain. It took her a good couple of minutes to sit up and try to make sense of her surroundings.

If this was a cell, this was the Queen's suite of cells. She was in a giant four poster bed with silky soft sheets. The room was exquisitely decorated. There was even a crystal chandelier hanging above her. Judging by the light streaming through the big windows, it was day now. She didn't exactly feel rested though.

On a bed stand there was a plate of delicious looking food and a glass of water. She reached out to grab the glass, but changed her mind and pulled her hand back. She wouldn't put it past them to have poisoned it.

"It's not poisoned." There was that deep voice again. It made her body tingle strangely. Wait, had he read her mind?

Dianthe looked up from the plate and into a pair of hazel eyes. He was sitting on a chair along the wall, so gorgeous that half of it would have been enough. She opened her mouth to ask how he knew, but her voice still didn't work. So instead she raised an eyebrow.

"Why would we poison you when we want information from you." It wasn't a question, but she still answered by pointing to her neck which was most definitely covered in bruises by now. Judging by the pained expression on his face, that assumption was correct. At least he had the decency to look sorry about it even if he didn't say it.

She took the glass and lifted it towards him, as if to make him prove that it wasn't poisoned.

He sighed and arose from the chair. Getting to his full height, Dianthe had to crane her neck to look him in the eyes. He was very tall, strongly built and extremely good-looking. Her mouth was watering for all the wrong reasons. The smell of night-chilled mist and cedar approached her seductively as he came closer. He took the glass from her hand, but not without brushing his fingers against hers. It gave her a shiver, as if he had shocked her. Whether he experienced the same sensation was difficult to tell. Maybe she was just exhausted, in pain and on alert.

He kept eye contact while taking a sip of the water and then gave the glass back to her. It felt almost dirty watching him do it.

Dianthe didn't know what compelled her to make a point of drinking at the same place his lips had touched the glass, but it seemed to make an impact on him. The pupils in his eyes widened. It seemed as if he wanted to say something, but then the door opened and he quickly stepped away from her as if they'd really been caught doing something naughty. Dianthe swallowed the water, flinched when it hurt and put the glass abruptly down.

In came the other unnamed bat faerie from last night. He was even taller than the hazel-eyed one, but somehow less intimidating.

"Is she talking?" He asked, throwing a strange look between the two of them before his eyes landed on his pal.

"No." Mr Hazel replied.

"Amren's here to see her." The tall one said and looked pointedly at Dianthe. As if she had any inkling as to who that was.

Amren sounded like a scary character, so Dianthe was surprised when a rather small faerie woman walked in. She had short black hair and silver coloured eyes.

The scariest part about her was her walk. It was laced with deadly confidence reminiscent of her sister's.

Amren walked up to her all the while eyeing her like she was dinner. When she stopped by the side of her bed, she scrunched her nose. Dianthe sat back as far as she could without physically leaving the bed.

"There is certainly something strange about her. A heavy glamour. Powerful magic." - "But it's not my area. You'll need Helion." Amren deducted, staring her down as if she, a regular human, had bewitched herself. Was she talking about the promise she'd made to Koschei?