A Court of Golden Shadow || Elain x Azriel

Chapter 34 - I Can Hear Them Crying

Elain sighed.

She was exhausted.

The past week– the mission on the continent, Rosehall, and then the argument with Lucien... it was all she could do to just put one foot in front of the other.

Arm-in-arm with her sisters who were nodding and patting her comfortingly, Elain allowed them to lead her to the end of the main hallway. "He says he just wants more time."

"He's being ridiculous. Did he not SMELL you?" Nesta wrinkled her nose as Feyre patted Elain's hand rubbing her soft fingers along her sister's skin, shaking her head.

"I'm sorry my dear. Maybe he's just angry right now. Perhaps he won't actually call for a–"

But before Feyre could finish speaking, Elain stopped dead in her tracks, her face drained of color as she began to sway slightly, tipping into Nesta. A familiar sensation had rapidly begun firing up her fingertips and arms, tingling and sparking as a golden light began emanating from her palms, her head swallowed up in nauseous pounding as her heart began firing erratic within her ribcage.

"Elain?" Nesta cried out into her ear, though to Elain, it sounded as if she was a mile away.

The visions came then, evil and twisted.

An onslaught of pictures charged at her as she felt her head tip back, her body dissolving into nothing but a vessel as she received the visions. A walled fortress, open and vulnerable to dark evil, bogges and picts, magic and misery pouring into a town, the people running for their lives, babies crying and horses dying: screams and savagery surrounded a dark lake, the whimpering cries echoing through a forest.
The images slammed up against her, wave after wave before receding, leaving the Seer in a sobbing mess on the floor of the mansion, her golden light in stasis, resting in the air above her, glowing ominously down the corridor she had just walked through.

Elain struggled to open her eyes as her head pounded, the weight of the horrific terror she had witnessed heavy on her soul.

Nesta and Feyre were holding her up, their faces twisted and white with worry."Elain! What in the hells just happened?!" Nesta screeched as Feyre spoke over the elder sister– "tell me what you saw. Show me your mind."

But the fear and desperation had swallowed her voice, Elain completely incapaciatated, save for the realization of what she had seen. Her eyes darting between her sisters, Elain felt herself begin to shake, convulsing as the sobs wracked her body.

"Graysen." She gasped the word out between tears. "It's Graysen's fortress. They're being attacked. Families. Babies... I can hear them crying. There's no time."

Feyre stared at Elain in abject horror, her mouth agape and eyes despairing. And without so much as another breath, the High Lady lunged toward her sisters, grabbing them by the wrists and winnowed them out of the mansion.

Tumbling and swirling in the ether, Elain felt herself scream as she landed in a heap on top of Nesta, her cheek hitting cold solid ground, cracking into the gravelly muck. Rubbing her elbow, Elain tried to sit up, blinking in the murky light, looking beyond Nesta's shoulder as her eyes landed upon an impossibly tall stone wall.

The fortress.

"Feyre, for Mother's sake! You idiot! Why did you bring Elain too?" Nesta hissed at Feyre, dragging her younger sisters into the cover of a nearby bush. "What in the hells is going on!?"

But before Feyre could reply, a sick piercing scream carried over the foggy air, followed by thunderous crashing sounds. "I didn't think! I just winnowed. She said babies Nes! Babies!" Feyre's voice was hysterical, her eyes wide and sparking, primal and fierce, her mind no doubt pulling toward Nyx.