𝒜 𝒞𝑜𝓊𝓇𝓉 𝑜𝒻 𝑅𝑒𝓈𝒾𝓈𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒸𝑒 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒮𝒸𝒶𝓇𝓈 | ᴀᴢʀɪᴇʟ

Chapter 68

Chapter 68

His name tumbled from her trembling lips. "Cassian."

Cassian lay on his stomach across his bed, deep in a nap. At her voice, he roused but didn't fully wake. She leant over him, vigorously shaking his shoulders. Azriel had been so angry. She didn't know what he was talking about, what he would do.

Cassian jerked onto his side and it took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the low moonlight to make out the details face. He squinted up at her, a hand rising to his face as if to wipe it before it snapped out toward her instead. "Ar..." Kicking the blanket that had been up to his hips away, Cassian swung his legs over the edge and sat up along the mattress's edge. "What's wrong?"

Arwen's chest heaved with each breath, so very aware of the carpet underneath her bare feet. The coarse fabric prodded its way between her toes, and she swore she could feel every individual fibre. "A-Azriel. H-h-he—"

"Hey." Cassian clasped his hands to either side of her face, forcing hazels to meet violets. "Calm down. Is someone hurt? Is Azriel hurt?" Arwen tried to pull her head away to look over her shoulder as if she could find Azriel standing somewhere behind her, but the general did not relent his grip. "Talk to me. You have to talk to me."

She shut her eyes, focusing on each breath as Cassian had taught her to practice after her nightmares. He counted to her breaths. Arwen blocked out the sensation of anything below her hips, pretending that she couldn't feel the carpet. Azriel was more important. "Azriel. We were speaking, and he got angry and stormed off. I've never seen him like that."

Cassian kept his voice calm and slow. "Angry about what, sweetheart? What were you talking about?"

Gods her mind would think straight. Her eyes fluttered to the far corner of his ceiling as she collected them once again into something Cassian could understand. Her toes curled upwards, her stomach twisting and tightening and dropping all at the same time. "He says Rhys lied to him. I think he's gone down to the town house."

She watched his face shift with that information. His eyes turned away in thought as hers had, his breaths growing even but long. "I'll go after him."

Arwen snatched his wrist as he moved onto his feet and veered around her. "Take me with you."

"Stay here," Cassian told her.

But Arwen did not let go of his wrist. "Please," she uttered. They shared a silent moment of looking at each other, defiance and stubbornness ruling their stances. She couldn't stay behind, thinking and worrying until someone deigned to return to her.

Soon they were flying over the starlight city. Arwen shivered against the winter's hissing winds that belted against her bare arms. The town house front door had been left ajar. Arwen tore through it first, though Cassian had a grip on her wrist now, not letting her get ahead beyond a reach that he could pull her back.

Lights filled the town house and scents hit her nose, leading her to the sitting room. Before she entered past the threshold, Arwen could already see the tipped armchair, as though it had been thrown towards the hearth. Mor and Feyre stood together, staring wide-eyed at something along the wall adjacent to the arched entrance. Mor looked to Arwen upon her arrival, red painted lips parting.

Azriel had Rhysand against the wall, a forearm to his throat. Her brother, for all it was worth, looked nothing short of calm. He held Azriel's eyes, arms by his side. Cassian knocked into Arwen's shoulder as he bolted past her, wedging between the High Lord and spymaster.

"Azriel, what the fuck are you doing?" he growled when Azriel would not give him the space to push away. Cassia gripped his shoulders but even his strength could not tear Azriel away.