A Court Of Shadow and Blood

☆ Crown of Midnight ☆

Azriel turned to thank her; for protecting Cerridwen at the very least. She might be a spy, but she had still saved the life of a wraith and put herself in danger to do so. But when he twisted, he found Eblis walking away, and his gaze snagged on the darkness on her back.

He stared after her tottering form as it disappeared down the street, eyes glued to the wings he had nearly forgotten she'd had. Even closed against her back as they were, Azriel could see the tattered ends of them. They were shorter than his, as if even after they were shredded, they were eaten into. It was horrifying.

Her wings.

Her gods damned wings.

Even distrustful of her as he was, he could still admit that if either one of his brothers-or even Feyre, when she summoned wings with her shapeshifting ability-had gone through that, there would be lingering trauma and it would take years to even talk about. Centuries even.

He watched her limp away for a while longer, blood leaking from her thigh. She bore a crown of midnight still, one that slowly dissipated. Those wings became shadowed until they disappeared, too, and she was just a girl stumbling away, head bowed, eyes vacant.

He struck the sliver of worry that gathered, stifling it. He was sure something had happened, something worse than the wound in her thigh. But he didn't dare to acknowledge it.

She was not to be trusted.

Azriel glanced up just in time to watch as Cassian finally latched on to the attor still remaining in the sky, an arrow of red striking through it's wrists so the crossbow plummeted to the ground. The attor itself slowly followed. Both Rhysand and Cassian landed beside him as that final attor struck stone and died almost instantly. Together, they surveyed the three unconscious attors already there.

"Eblis took the two in the back and was fighting with one more when I arrived," he reported. Rhysand nodded, lips tight and face grim.

The male glanced towards where Eblis had disappeared off to. "It only took less than a day for someone to come after her," he said aloud, words tight.

"I'll take Cerridwen's place and keep an eye on her."

Rhys shook his head. "You need to get back to the Illyrian camps in the Steppes, Cassian. I don't care what you tell them, but they need to be readied for battle, just in case." Cassian nodded, the smell of leather permeating from his armor in the heat. Rhysand turned to Azriel. "I know you are going to leave for Hybern again tomorrow."

"I was," Azriel said slowly.

"I want you to watch Eblis instead." He blinked, but Rhys only continued, saying, "Whatever information you would normally get from Hybern, try to get from her. I'd rather have you close by then an ocean away in case of an emergency."

Azriel sighed as Rhysand and Cassian disappeared with the attors-most likely winnowing to the Court of Nightmares and the dark cells beneath for questioning.

Cerridwen dwindled in the shadows, but Azriel beckoned her forward to check the wound on her side despite her protests. The wards had been tripped off, but she'd been the one to tell them exactly where the intruders were. Even then, Feyre and Mor continued to rove over the city and search for more. He almost nodded his head to send the wraith off when the female instead dashed to one of the buildings.

They were just starting to open up to the warm day again, the threat gone. He could've cursed them for not doing anything and idling by while Eblis and Cerridwen were being attacked -possibly even more of the city; but he knew these people had been through enough, and many had had the fight taken out of them during the last war. He also knew there were many brave people who had died during that time, and many afterwards who learned from the others' mistakes.