A Court of Golden Shadow || Elain x Azriel

Chapter 42 - Hello My Pretty

Azriel was lurking in the shadow just beyond the rocky side of the lake, watching the scene unfold.

He felt his heart hammering in his chest, the pulse at his neck nearly falling out of his skin as he watched with tense focus, barely able to register anything other than Elain, gauging whether or not he should just fuck the whole mission over and winnow her away right this damn second.

But as he considered his options, he paused, watching Lucien slam up against an invisible wall. Vassa was stuck behind some sort of enchantment, still Koschei's prisoner. Fuck. He was going to have to wait this out a little more—see what hand the death God would play next.

Azriel dissolved further into mist, edging to a different part of the lake, trying to see how far the barrier between Vassa and Lucien went. Maybe he could come up from behind it? He winnowed to the opposite side of the lake, trying to see the boundaries of the shield, winnowing, dissolving, and traveling the entire perimeter of the lake. Where was the edge? Could he even get to Koschei? But no. In an instant, the sick realization hit him: there was no opening. There was no way to get her out and no way to strike Koschei. Vassa was tethered to the death god, the shield bound to his body, no doubt protecting his prize until he got what he was truly after: the Cauldron.

Shaking his head, Azriel returned to his original hiding spot, his shadows still pooling near Elain's ankles behind some rocks, undetectable to Koschei. He looked toward Elain then who was trembling next to Lucien, her hands wrapped around her waist as she balked at the being.

"Let her go." Lucien commanded, his voice laced with a surprising amount of confidence, despite the scene that was unfolding before him, his hands slammed up against invisible barrier, his knees sunken into the rocky sand as he wrenched his face up toward the enormous being.

"Interesting that a fae should care so much for a human woman." Koschei drawled, his voice ancient and slow, rasping against the raw wind blowing and powering across the lake. Small waves had begun to lap up against the shore, the wind picking up speed and drowning out the voices as Koschei's stare lingered on Lucien. "Going to such immense lengths to rescue her."

Lucien's eyes darkened as he glared toward the death God, his hands still flat against the barrier before he dropped his face to look at Vassa. "I'm going to get you out of here. I promise."

"Lucien... don't..." Vassa slid her hand down the barrier, tears still pouring from her eyes as she rasped the words.

"Silence." The death god commanded quietly, glancing down at Vassa who immediately stopped speaking, almost as if her mouth had been bound.

Koschei laughed then, drawing Lucien's attention back upwards. "You have not fulfilled your part of the bargain youngling." He drawled, his skull-like features filling with shadow as he glared toward the fireling. "Summon the cauldron and I will release her."

"Form the unbreakable vow." Lucien growled, ignoring the command and rising to his full height which was still heads shorter than the hulking death God towering above him. "Promise that you will release her to me."

"The unbreakable vow? Tat is an ancient magic little one. I'm surprised you are familiar with such nasty practices." The death God spoke with an accent Azriel was unfamiliar with... almost as if he had been carved from the earth itself, his hulking body looming over the faeries as his words lilted and twisted around them.

"Do it." Lucien snarled, his brows furrowed and heavy as he glared at Koschei, small flames licking the ground around his feet.

The creature smiled then, speaking in an unfamiliar tongue. It was dark and broken, throaty and foreign: an ancient language, Azriel mused. He felt his breathing hitch and quicken as he waited for the spell to take affect, Lucien standing so confidently before the impossibly powerful creature.