A Court of Death || ACOTAR

39

This time when summoned, Death was significantly more put together, dressed in a loose black, long sleeved silk shirt and black velvet pants. He held the pants he had borrowed from Cassian.

"Thank you for the pants, General," Death said with a pleasant smile as he gave them back before he turned his attention to Azriel. "You. Tell me everything. Now."

"She's in Hybern," Azriel began, his tone carefully controlled, "from the look of it, a daemati has some degree of control over her. Her mind has to be at least somewhat intact because they're keeping her power locked down, but physically they seem to have control over her. She's...she's chained to the King's bed."

"And he knows you know this?" Death asked, eyebrows raised.

"Yes," Azriel answered stiffly, "he planned to leverage her to make Rhys surrender the Night Court to him, offer her safe return in exchange for this Court. But he has no intention of following through on it."

"And Rhys wouldn't have surrendered anyway," Death drawled, tossing a dry look towards the High Lord.

"I can't sacrifice every person in this Court for her," Rhys murmured, "and he wouldn't have stopped here. He would have used my Court as an entry to the rest of Prythian."

"I know," Death replied with a shrug, "I just wonder if there's anything you would sacrifice for her." Rhys stared at him, jaw clenched and eyes shining with resentment. "We have already established you value your own safety more than hers. How did it feel slitting her throat over and over, sitting in her blood? How many times did you choose your life over hers? You can try to justify it with the fact that she kept coming back, but you knew there was a chance she would stop coming back. She was so close to giving up. She was exhausted. The only reason she was still going was because she didn't want you to have to live with the guilt of having ended her. But, honestly, would you really have been that torn up over it?"

"She's my sister," Rhys snapped, "I'll never forgive myself for what I did."

"You wouldn't have mourned her the way you mourned your other sister," Death said it like it was an undeniable truth, no accusation in his tone. "If it had been your other sister, you never would have sat back and let her walk out four centuries ago. If had been your other sister, Azriel would have been the leaving because you never would have stood for him treating her the way he treated Astryn and you'd have kicked him out of your little family."

"That's enough," Azriel cut in, and Death let out a humorless laugh.

"Did you know, shadowsinger, that out of the countless possible futures I saw, wasn't a single one in which she walked out on you like she did all those years ago? Do you know how terrible of a mate you had to have been to create a new future? Lose the attitude and remember exactly what you caused. She'd still be your mate if you hadn't been such a possessive, jealous little thing," Death taunted, eyes alight with disdain.

"You were the one lusting after someone who was in a relationship," Azriel shot back quickly.

"I backed off the moment she said she had no interest in me," Death told him dryly, "and, honestly, Azriel, that deep insecurity you're showing right now is usually only seen in males who are lacking in certain areas."

"We're not about to have a dick measuring contest," Cassian groaned, shaking his head.

"What was it about me that scared you so bad?" Death surged on, staring Azriel down. "You had no problem sharing her with Cassian, but a simple friendship with me was too much for your fragile ego? What was it that made you so scared that I would manage to steal her heart? Don't tell me that you think so little of her that you thought a crown and some jewels were all it would take to sway her heart away from you. What was it really? Or are you just that insecure?"

"Now is not the time," Cassian cut in again, though he voiced no disagreement with anything Death had said. "We need to focus on figuring out how to bring Astryn home."

"Oh, I already know how I'm bringing her home," Death dismissed with a wave of his hand, "I wasn't certain before because it had been quite some time since I was last summoned, but the longer I'm here, the more of my power filters to me through the divide between the realms. At this rate, I'll be able to just walk in and take her with no problem soon. I'll be on my way once my power has reached a satisfactory level. On that note, don't summon me for your little war with Hybern when that inevitably comes to pass. I can't be involved in things like that, as much as I would love to crush that entire army like a bug."

"So we just...sit and wait?" Cassian muttered, clearly not a fan of that.

"I'll be in my way within the hour," Death assured him, understanding exactly how frustrating sitting and waiting felt. "Until then, I would love to continue telling my friend's former mate all about how spectacularly he failed her. Truly, in all my history, I've never seen a love so pure be lost so fast. So pointlessly. You could have had centuries with her, Azriel. You could have had children with her, had a perfect little family. But you...you just had to go and build a brand new future, didn't you? What an utter waste."