Battle Scars

Wings

Eve got up blinking. She did not remember how she got into the bed or why Azriel sat beside her, hands covering his mouth as he stared at her without blinking. "How are you feeling?" he asked, his voice corroding sandpaper. "Fine," she tilted her head, "you?" "Fine."

She stared at him, trying to decipher his body language and his shadows who had now encased half her body. "What happened?" she asked him.

He blinked, the only sign of surprise she would get from him for now. "You don't remember." Eve stared at him still. "You tried scrying," he stated and she nodded, the undercurrent of anger not going unnoticed.

"And you sent me away." Eve shrugged, breaking contact, "Nesta wanted to try it without anyone present," she explained. He nodded, stiffly. "Cassian and I came to a deadly silent and cold House with you two asleep in the library."

Eve did not know what he wanted her to say, so she kept quiet.

"What happened?" he asked this time.

"We scried- well tried. We even almost found out where the objects were but, the connection was too strong and too dark. Nesta cut the link before we could venture any closer."

"Good thing she did," Az said, his shadows darkening, no doubt telling their master just how close Eve had come.

"I can do it," she started, breathless, "I can do it- Nesta doesn't need to. My connection is somehow stronger, and you know it to."

Az' jaw ticked. "What else do you remember from last night?"

"Nightmare, I think, but I cannot remember of what. It was just very cold and felt as if I was- I was drowning and on fire again."

"We felt it- Cassian and I. From you and Nesta."

"Oh."

"It scared me," he said and as if to reassure himself of her, his hands found hers, squeezing them. Her heart clenched for him. "I don't want you to scry," he finally said and Eve nodded slowly. She could let this go for him, for now.

"I will be the second resort." Compromise- he could do that.

***********************

"You look like death," Eve commented when Nesta walked in. Both Az and Cassian stiffened- much to her confusion, but regained their composure soon after that she could not dwell on it further.

"And you look as if you were drowned in nightmares," Nesta countered, taking a seat beside her.

"Maybe I was." Eve shrugged. "Maybe so was I," Nesta replied quietly and Eve squeezed her left hand below the table, away from the inquisitive eyes of the two Illyrians present.

The rest of the breakfast was quiet. Not awkward. Just quiet. Easy.

"What happened to you both?" Emerie asked as they panted through their abdominal exercises.

"You both look white as death." Gwyn added, giving them both a once-over.

"Bad dreams," Nesta said. Eve shrugged when Emerie looked at her. "Same."

Gwyn asked, on Nesta's other side, "Do you have them often?"

"All the time." Eve replied, finishing a sit-up, grunting through the weakness in her middle.

"Me too," Gwyn said quietly. "Some nights, I need a sleeping potion from our healer to knock me out."

Emerie asked her, "What did you dream about?"

"I don't remember, for the first time, but I am complaining. But there was this cold that hovers over the dead, and fire that burns your insides. I remember weeping and an unmanageable sense of loss."