#if you missed that one ask the joke is that Nyx is more of a moth than...whatever she is in canon. bird woman

[hobiebrownismygod]

Forgotten Girl Hobie Brown x Fem!Reader Part 2/2!

A/N Sorry this took so long 😭 I've been pretty busy.

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Taglist: @therealloopylupin2099 @rinverse @l0starl @daydreaming-en-pointe @itsparis-077 @vileviale @puff-hugs @d0ubl-tr0ubl3 @lauryn2558 @sunasslut69 @ask-1610-miles @axels-garden @s6onder @nyx-lyn123 @eli21345 @miniaturesuitfox @spotconlon55 @riris-radioactive-panther @ask-1610miles

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───> TAGLIST --> MASTERLIST

He hadn't spoken to you in weeks. In fact, Hobie didn't think he'd even seen you around much after your last conversation. You were always so slippery, avoiding him every time he tried to come talk to you and heading out on missions almost every hour of every day.

He didn't understand why you were being so distant. Well, the two of you had never been friends friends, never been as buddy-buddy as he was with Gwen and Pavitr, but he always had liked you. He thought you were sweet, kind, the all-around good girl that he could start up a conversation with every once in a while.

And now he couldn't help but a feel a little put-off by the way you were acting. After all, if it was just slipping away, he wouldn't mind as much...but you were also being so snarky.

Giving him bored looks when he tried to start up small-talk (conversation which he absolutely hated by the way, he only did it so he could try to figure out what was going on with you), being louder, no longer as quiet as you'd been whenever he was around before, and best of all...you were funny. He couldn't even remember you making a real joke, a sarcastic, fiery one around him before...until now.

And if he was being honest...he liked it.

He liked this you.

It was like you were finally being your real self, the one he'd heard about from your friends and other Spider-people, and even if this personality wasn't the sort he was used to from you, it was still fun to see.

"Oi!" he grabbed your arm as you attempted to walk past him, your eyes dead set forward as if you didn't even see him. "Where'ya off to?"

"Nowhere important" You replied normally, looking up at him. Seeing him staring down at you, a coy smile on his face, made your heart wrench slightly. But you'd already given up. There was no point.

"Nowhere? But you're waddling away so quickly" he teased, leaning down slightly so his eyes met yours. When you didn't respond, his smile faded slightly and he cleared his throat, standing up straight.

"Have you been avoidin' me these past weeks?" He asked abruptly.

Your eyes widened slightly and you immediately scoffed and pushed his hand off your arm. "Not everything's about you, you know" You said, biting the inside of your cheek.

"Oh?" He asked with a laugh. "Someone's gotten snarky, 'aven't dey?" His accent thickened slightly as he stood back, searching for a way to get you to stay. "Come on, dove, jus tell me where you're going!"

"Miguel called me for another mission" You said, folding your arms over your chest.

"You going with anyone?" he asked curiously, cocking his head to the side.

"Why's it matter to you?" You asked with a slight smile.

He shrugged. "Maybe I want to come with you."

"To...?"

"No reason. Just tagging along." He rubbed the back of his neck, looking to the side. "Just haven't talked to you in a while s'all"

"Aww, did you miss talking to me?" You teased, "I never knew our little convos mattered so much to you"

"They did." He admitted, a little more solemnly. He hesitated for a moment, taking a breath before explaining, "Look, dove, I like you, alright? I really do. And honestly?" He smiled, leaning in slightly again. "I missed you a little bit." He pinched his fingers together in front of you, taking your hand. "Just a little."

You felt your face heat up slightly and you immediately looked away. "I never knew that." You said quietly. You'd always thought you were more of a burden to him. That he never noticed you or that you just weren't noticeable. Yet apparently...he did notice you. More than he'd admitted.

"Really? Thought I was making it obvious...always talking to you and shit" He said with a raised brow. "Was the small-talk not plain enough?"

You chuckled, looking up at him with a grin. "The small-talk was horrific."

"That was the goal" He winked, pulling you in a little closer. "I think I like seeing you like this. All smiley and fun."

"Really?" You asked, smile fading slightly as a feeling of warmth began bubbling in your chest. "I'm fun like this?"

"I mean the whole 'sweet', 'quiet' look suited you fine, yeah, but I think you're a lot more interesting when you're open with me, darling" He chuckled, pressing his lips gently to the palm of your hand.

You smiled. So...you weren't as much of a burden as you'd thought you were.

Why had you even stayed hiding your real personality from him all these months? You'd expected him to not like you, to think you were too loud, too annoying. That's what you'd been told before.

But it seemed like the reason your little antics hadn't been working was because they weren't real. They weren't the real you.

And now that you were showing him the real you...well it just felt better, both to him and to you.

You were snapped out of your thoughts, eyes widening as he wrapped his hand around your wrist, holding it in his rather large palm.

He hesitated at your action, pulling his head back slightly. "I'm not moving too fast, am I?" He asked awkwardly.

Suddenly, you pulled him into a needed hug, burying your face in his chest and taking him by surprise. He stumbled back slightly, not having expected it. It took him a moment to adjust before returning the hug, patting your back gently. "Dove?"

"I think I've waited long enough" you mumbled with a smile, looking up into his eyes with your arms still wrapped tightly around him. "So let's speed things up, yeah?"

#atsv #across the spiderverse #hobie brown #spiderman atsv #spiderman #beyond the spiderverse #atsv hobie #across the spider verse #spider punk #hobie my love #hobie brown headcanons #hobie my beloved #hobie spiderverse #hobie x reader #spiderverse hobie #hobart brown #hobie x you #hobie x y/n #hobie brown x reader #hobie brown x you #hobie brown x y/n #hobie brown x female reader #atsv x reader #atsv fanfiction #fem reader

[izpira-se-zlato]

Munich, 26.03.24

Gig report! Can’t believe this tour is almost over :o In true Joler Ot fashion I am writing this while our train is losing a broken carriage so we're picking up delays. Fun.

The queue was. Insane. I just. Boggle at how we went from the chill Berlin and Hamburg and Leipzig queues to this.

The actual queueing was pretty chill regardless, thankfully

There was a whole-ass. Like. Tumblr meetup? Not like, planned, but I met (at various points) @occhi-verdi-come-il-mare, @nyx-aira, @itskrejsaitsparty, @j-restlessgeek, @lovvecherrymotion, @thisismyobsessionnow, @zadig-fate, @mogoce-nocoj and probably more because my brain is a sieve. So wild to just meet these people irl, you know?

My place in the queue was right in front of the person who sold Kris and me our EA tickets, which I thought was super funny

Kris was technically way further ahead of me but traded her place with a teenager whose only gig on this tour was this one and who was super bummed by someone cutting in line in front of them, and instead joined me further back and jfc we had so, so much fun. So glad I didn't have to be all alone. Gigs are more fun with friends, as it turns out (who woulda thunk)

I got a lot of short messages for my gig memory book 😊

I'm actually out of I 💛 Hojan and medium Hojan stickers. And I think tall Hojan stickers? So there's an end in sight 😂

super late gig start (EA doors was at 19:00)

The Munich venue is tiny and so Kris and I were… 7th or 8th row Jance side. I saw pretty well for the soundcheck, but after general doors a tall girl with two friends pushed her way in front of us (cutting in from the side) and severely limited my view… until a queue friend asked if we wanted to swap places bc she's taller and also wanted to be next to her friend (who was another tall person in front of us). So Kris and I went on Jan-side kinda in front of the speakers and it was a really great view 😊(thank you again)

We got NGVOT (no Kris version) and Vem da greš for soundcheck

Jance played each others' instruments (again). Well. I think Jan played Nace's bass while Nace either touched the dials or the tremolo. I hate them

there was also another Jance moment that got such a homophobojan from Kris I had to laugh. I think Jance were playing their instruments at each other at that moment? Kris was just "jfc guys" from his expression

Sector 5 were so, so good from our spot. Finally heard the lyrics again (I heard only the drums and maybe a bit of the guitar in Cologne). Sound-wise, our spot was excellent ngl.

I'll definitely miss them. If they have a concert in Berlin I can swing (or come by where I live), I'll definitely go. But yeah, I really grew to like them! (also they're babies. like. 21. They all studied music in Berlin, which is where they met. And the guitarist used to do parcour for several years which is why he did a backflip on stage each show)

they were definitely adopted into the family with glasses given to them (they kept falling off Mika's face so the guitarist, Johann, put them on and looked slej) and people singing along and just. The vibes were great. You could also definitely tell they'd settled into the stage compared to Berlin (which was their first gig for JO)

JC Stewart 🥰

I really grew to like his set, if he ever comes near where I live, I'll go for sure

I still don't understand the timeline of the boys meeting JC tho. It doesn't make sense. According to JC, Conor introduced them at the end of last year, but I'm pretty sure they didn't have time to be in the UK. At least not all five of them

Kris and I attempted to speak JC's jokes at the same time as him. It worked worryingly well

Actual gig was Katrina opener

Jan in only a leather jacket, worn open?? Maybe Bojan was right and they did run out of shirts xD boys have you heard of the concept of a laundry machine?

Nace in a simple white shirt, tucked into his pants. Jfc. Truly starting to be Nace girlie (gn) period

Kris wore a half collar underneath a sweater vest which was a look. What kind of look? I'm still not sure, if I'm honest

Jure in the sleeveless jeans vest and otherwise topless. I caught glimpses of him and hnnng

Bojan was also there ig

well. There was a small girl in the audience (on her mom's shoulders) of around. 7 or 8 years? So we got a whole lot of heart-eyes-Bojan

the girl sang UM and Bojan pulled her onto the stage (no Bojan in the audience bc of the speakers)

no idea how long UM lasted bc I put stuff on Instagram in the meantime

we got Barve 😭 I screamed so much and was so happy and gaaaah. I love this song so so much. And of course Bojan did the Ju-re Ma-ček! (and so did the audience)

we got Schlager 😭 Bluza my beloved where are you

tho tbf they look so fucking happy playing that song

Nace almost went to his knees in front of Jan twice (at least)

they also did that "leaning against each other"-thing again

I didn't film a lot bc I was too busy vibing, though I did take a bunch of pictures

Fairy!Bojan. Or as @itskreisjaitsparty put it on tumblr: Prinzessing Lilifee at home

People threw stuff on stage like a crown with a veil attached and sparkly glasses and so Bojan went, "Kris, you have to put on everything they've thrown at you!" and Kris did

Nace got heart-shaped glasses with rainbow studding and tried to show Jan immediately but Jan was busy 😂

The atmosphere of the gig was really, really good

The girls next to us started bawling during Barve iirc and just. Didn't stop. The cute security guard near us (who I think recognised me from the December Strom gig) shared amused glances with me bc the girls were kinda adorable. At least that's how I chose to interpret their expression

someone fainted ahead of us. Though not badly enough to be removed, just sat down for a while while the security guard stood, well, guard and had the girl drink something

It was actually so freeing not to be not in the very front but off to the side. We had space to dance and make snarky/funny comments at each other and just laugh

I got a Vita wave! She was shooting from behind the merch table, which was up two stairs from where I was, and so I kept glancing back, and just before she made her way into the crowd to shoot from there, she waved at me :D

They got food (Trolli gummi bears 😂) and Nace fed Kris two of them. I didn't catch the moment on video but it was so cute

After the gig, we talked a bunch to the Sector 5 guys. They're kinda adorable

JO left immediately without even saying goodbye to the Sector 5 guys. Guess Bojan wasn't the only one out late last night (it was a bit disappointing because Munich didn't get them last time, either)

we still stayed and talked to each other a whole bunch well after it was clear JO had left -- chatted with Mika (Sector 5 singer) a bit more, and then just the tumblr girlies

as we turned to leave for Astrid's hotel room (just like last time) well after the band had left (just like last time), I said, "well, at least this time they won't have reason to tag me on IG" (unlike last time), only to open my phone to a tag from Jan bc he restoried my pic😂 collecting yet more twinning moments from Jance ig

#jan peteh #nace jordan #kris gustin #joker out #bojan cvjeticanin #jure macek #jure maček #kris guštin #bojan cvjetićanin #gig report #Somewhat delayed bc I didn't finish it yesterday on the train oops

[azrielsbitches]

Could you please do one where after Hanna has already become Fae and she gets a cold and everyone (ESPECIALLY Azriel) gets really worried about her?

A/N: sorry i've been gone so long lol life has been crazy!! I passed my NCLEX and I am officially a registered nurse :) i've been adjusting to night shift after starting on an oncology floor so I can't promise regular updates but I'm going to try my best!

i thought i would start off with this and see if i get any more inspiration but please please please send in some requests if you have any!!!

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I wrapped my coat and scarf tighter around my shivering body as I made my way to the River House for dinner. Ever since things had calmed down Rhys and Feyre tried to get everyone together once a week for a family meal.

It was great to have a set day to see everyone, especially since we were living more separately lately. Cassian and Nesta were at the House of Wind, Mor was spending more and more time with Emerie, and Elain had decided to move into the River House with Rhys and Feyre. This left Azriel and I alone most of the time in the Town House.

We had been thinking of getting our own space somewhere just outside of the city, but while I was training everyday with Madja it just made more sense to stay close.

I was even more excited for this dinner because I hadn't seen anyone all week. Even Azriel had been gone on a mission for Rhysand. But I had Madja and the other healing apprentices at the clinic to keep me company.

"Ahchoo!" I violently sneezed as I made my way to the front door and knocked. I had been struggling with a stuffy nose for the past few days now, but the sneezing was new.

"Hanna," I heard Rhys reprimand me as he opened the front door. "We've told you not to knock."

"It feels weird just walking in," I explained myself, smiling at my brother-in-law as I stepped inside and handed him my coat.

Rhys lead me into the living room where everyone was gathered drinking wine. I was so excited to see Azriel that I practically skipped over to where he was leaning up against the wall.

He grinned at me as I approached him and wrapped my arms around him in a hug.

"I missed you," I whispered into his chest, snuggling into his warmth.

"Missed you too, sweetheart," he murmured into my hair as he rubbed his warm hands up and down my cold arms.

I pulled away slightly, planning on going in for a kiss but I was interrupted by yet another sneeze. Luckily I was able to pull away in time to not spray snot in his face.

"Sorry," I laughed lightly as I looked up at Azriel. The look on is face had me worried though. "What's wrong?"

"Are you feeling alright?" he countered. It was then that I realized that the whole room had quieted down aside from Nyx's baby babbling in Elain's arms.

And everyone was staring at me. I blushed at their attention before turning back to Azriel to see his shadows swirling anxiously.

"I think it's just a cold," I tried to reassure him, but the look on his face didn't change. "I've just had a stuffy nose for a few days... it's okay, Az."

"And you're sneezing," he said matter-of-factly.

"Well that's a new development," I tried to joke but he didn't seem to find that funny.

"Hanna you should be at home resting," Feyre approached us in concern.

"Do you want some tea?" Elain asked.

"Have you told Madja about this?" Nesta interjected from across the room, Cassian nodding his agreement.

"This isn't like before when I got sick," I told them all. "I'm not some fragile human anymore. It's different now."

"We don't know that for sure," Azriel sounded strained. "We're going home."

"No! Dinner smells so good," I pouted at him, but I didn't see this going my way.

"You can take some home," Elain reassured me.

Before I could protest more I sneezed again. So hard that I jolted backwards into Azriel's chest.

"Okay, fine," I sighed. "You win."

"Nuala and Cerridwen will bring you dinner and I'll send Madja a message to check in soon," Rhys informed us as Azriel grabbed my coat and helped me back into it.

Azriel still seemed tense as he grabbed my hand and he winnowed us back to our bedroom at the Town House.

"I'm going to grab some more blankets," he said as he grabbed one of his sweaters from the closet and handed it to me. "Try to get warm okay?"

He was out the door before I could stop him. I sighed and changed into the sweater he gave me and climbed into bed, not wanting to fight with him.

Azriel came back quickly with a few blankets in his arms that he spread out on the bed. I grabbed his hand before he could walk away again and pulled him to sit on the bed next to me.

"Azriel... I'm okay," I told him. "This isn't like the last time I was sick."

I can vaguely remember his stricken face when I was practically delirious from the sickness when the Mortal Queens visited our home when I was still human.

"I can't lose you," he whispered after a moment of silence between us.

"I don't plan on leaving anytime soon," I reassured him.

#azriel imagine #acotar x reader #acotar series #acotar #acotar imagine #acotar x oc #azriel x you #azriel x oc #azriel shadowsinger #azriel archeron #hanna archeron #archeron!reader #archeron sisters #feyre archeron

[sarcastic-kaz]

things i will PAY for to have in tsats

1. nico to make a bones joke

2. will to wear cargo pants to tartarus

3. apollo to give them a ride somewhere

4. them to say goodbye to some people

5. wear the ‘tartarus club’ shirt

6. will to critisize the river phleglon (river of fire)

7. nicos big sacrifice to be some super rare mythomagic card he brought

8. them to stop next to elysium to say goodbye to some dead people (jason) edit yk what that would alert hades who expressed that nico dont go back to tartarus

9. bob. please, bob be real.

10. solangelo to meet akhyles (goddess of misery)

11. will to use his glow in tartarus

12. them to hug as they fall down

13. please show meg somewhere i love nico and megs dynamic

14. will to be completely shook that nobody ever brings med kits on quests

15. meet with cupid/eros and will goes completely ballistic

16. apollo cabin to solely refer to nico as ‘brother in law’

17. yk i dont think plauge powers really would fit canon will but its a cool idea to think about @iwnut 

18. the brochure from when percabeth talked to nyx. yes @mistresscitrusslice . let them give their brochure to solangelo. “ok so in about 15 minutes and past the empousi cave, hellhound pack, and plauge spirit home should be the hermes temple” “oh thank the gods”

19. mr d to say goodbye to his favourite demigod and his boyfriend and hand will a rifle/ak47 and go “youre shit with any other weapon. the bullets are already in the bag.”

20. hunters of artemis. just. nico acting uncomfortable and will knowing part of the story so he shields nico away from most of them

21. shelper shelper shelper

22. this ones a bit far but please get married? and will to make a joke about ‘secret jedi wedding’ and for piper to officiate it and leo as the witness because he also made the rings and theyre trying not to rope that many people in

23. will to just say ‘there is a disturbance in the force’ in tartarus

24. nico to still hate pomogranites

25. please let us see nicos zombie chauffur jules-albert somewhere. 

26. mr d to force nico and will to watch something that looks like the orientation film but when they play it its percy and annabeth telling the dos and donts of a quest and percy is such a bad actor that theres so many cuts of percy saying ‘line?’  or ‘whats next’

27. and at the end percy goes ‘well what did you learn about going on your quest?’ dora the explorer style ‘great!’

28. trogs to go ‘ah its the son of hades and his bioluminecient boyfriend’ and will to just give a small sigh

29. mr d to talk to will in private and just: ‘wheel’ ‘thats still not my name’ ‘thats how nico says your name’ ‘well its just his accent’

30. please let there be an oath to styx. just not one as stupid as apollo because nico and will are smarter than that but yk what swearing to an immortal river who will get revenge on you if you break that promise doesnt sound that smart

31. solangelo to run into lukes shoes. we were robbed of this from percy and annabeth. imagine how funny itd be if they just ran into some winged shoes.

32. yk i want nico and thalia to meditate together and when asked what they were doing thalia to just respond ‘photosynthesizing’

33. orpheus and eurydice reference (this actually can become canon because on the cover it shows them holding hands with nico slightly more forward than will and pointing to the doors so nicorpheus and willdice)

34. will backstory will backstory will backstory will backstory will backstory will backstory will backstory will backstory will backstory will backstory will backstory will backst-

35. some memories of nicos for jason to show how much he misses his friend

36. just a fleeting mention of bianca from either of them

37. if theres a will pov make him hate percy. mans was partially responsible for both his older brothers deaths. he did shit to his boyfriend which include strangling him at godsdamned twelve years old. will shouldnt exactly adore percy is more what i mean.

38. solangelo smooch.

39. nico is the new percy of chb. think of it, big 3 kid, very powerful, hero, lives at chb, close to percy, knows a lot of people. nico is just the go-to now that percy is at college and nico is a permanent resident. 

40. nico fan club. made of new younger campers, reyna, will, percy, annabeth, meg, apollo, hades, and a whole bunch of long-time campers.

41. just to have some new campers act like ttc!nico and follow nico around like he did with percy just asking questions and instead of finding them annoying like percy did nico would answer their questions truthfully like how apollo actually did for nico

these arent in order. id die to see the ‘tartarus club’ shirt to be worn by percy annabeth or nico though or at the end of the book for will to be gifted one though and more to be added

#the sun and the star #nico di angelo #will solace #percy jackon and the olympians #heroes of olympus #trials of apollo #please #tartarus club

[gabessquishytum]

maybe the ask didn't go through but hi, it's the House of Night anon again?? bless💄for adding to that ask btw bc here is more

so something only hinted at in the last ask is that it's an au to the comic canon. Basically what if Morpheus reincarnated like Nada once Daniel took over?

he still met Hob in 1389, but because in this universe Night/Nyx is meddling permanently with humans, her reaction to Morpheus' wager is "alright then, he's mine now", leading to Hob being an Ultra-Late-Bloomer (thirties instead of late teens-early twenties back then. doesn't make sense to turn some malnourished 15 year old if the change woud kill them, does it?)

his working theory is that the Trackers just missed him in the midst of the plague and battlefield and that his Stranger gave them a firm talking to, since no other mature vampyr has heard of a similar case and hey he gets it, it's kinda Embarassing to admit if it was their fault

now this is a bit of a problem, because when Morpheus entered the house of night, it was easy enough thougt to push back. Hob wasn't joking when he said that Morpheus fit right in- he's pale and graceful, but clearly still human. any similarities to his Stranger are a coincidence

and then they go from sneaking around to sneaking around, Morpheus cornering him in the classroom or the stacks in the library, expression every bit of imperious Lordling while also shyly wringing his hands

it's so easy to draw him in, to press kisses to his high, dramatic cheeks, to offer his own neck in return while shoving his tigh in-between Morpheus'. everything he'd wanted to offer to his Stranger but didn't get a chance to

which means this is the perfect time for one of Hob's old mentees to pay a visit

the first time Morpheus finds Hob sitting at one of the library tables, deep in conversation with this unknown vampyr, all he wants to do is take a seat in Hob's lap because Hob is his. Better yet, drag Hob back to his flat and rub up against hjm until every vampyr in London can smell Morpheus on him

of course before he can actually try to follow through on that impulse, Hob catches sight of him and waves him over

"this here is Jim", Hob introduces them, "my very first mentee. i thought maybe you'd like to hear someone else chatter about their experiences for a change."

of course when he hears "Mentee" Morpheus hears "other person I slept with" and is as grumpy and taciturn as always

Jim, bless him, takes the entire thing with good humor and pulls out the most embarrassing stories of Hob he has once they are left alone together

only under the threat of death will Morpheus admit that it works and that he starts to relax eventually. even permits Jim to squeeze his shoulder

"Don't worry about the crush", Jim says, "But don't get your hopes up either. Hob will never do anything to embarrass you, but he's too far gone on this 'old friend' to consider anyone else"

Morpheus thinks of all the things he did with Hob barely 24 hours ago and swallows

I’m so sorry your first ask got lost!! Thank you so much for making the effort and resending this.

As I mentioned, I haven’t actually read this book series but. BUT. I am still so invested in this au. Hob pining for his Stranger, not knowing that Morpheus is his stranger??? Amazing. The internal angst of Hob wanting to remain loyal to his stranger, loving him eternally but also…… he has this spark with Morpheus that he can’t ignore! He can’t stop himself from wanting to give Morpheus everything, too!!

Also love and appreciation for Jim, I love all Jim content but this feels especially perfect with Morpheus being jealous aksjdjfjf. I’m imagining them seeing the tension between Morpheus and Hob and slowly, slowly realising… Jim pulls Hob off to one side and is like “are you????? fucking??????” And Hob turns bright red. Oops.

It’s too late now, Hob doesn’t think he could stop if he tried. And Morpheus is obsessed. There’s probably nothing he wouldn’t do to stay with Hob. This “old friend” person can kindly fuck off, alright? Hob belongs to Morpheus now.

Little does he know… he always did.

#the sandman #dreamling #nsft #cw teacher/student #comic spoilers

[arizona2004]

Courts of Love and Hate CH5

Nyx x Juniper (Tamlins daughter)

WC: 2411

Chapter 1

Nyx

It takes me several hours before I come up with a way to make my father think of an arranged marriage as a solution to uniting our court with Spring and a whole day before I get my parents alone to bring it up.

My aunts and uncles lurk around the entire afternoon and evening following my stay in the Spring Court. It’s annoying, but it’s not like I can blow up at them and tell them to leave without making them worry, so I just wait anxiously. 

I barely get any sleep that night as they drink and joke. Tomorrow at lunch is my chance; Uncle Cas will leave for the Steppes in the morning, Mor is on her way to the continent, Amren is headed to the Summer Court, and I can only hope Az doesn’t stop by for lunch. Though, I could probably bring up the conversation without him dissuading my parents.

So in the morning, after barely sleeping and being completely unfocused while training with Dad and Uncle Az, I eat a quick breakfast and go to my room to memorize exactly what I’m going to say at lunch. 

As we sit down at the table, I barely pay attention to my food and try to look like I’m thinking. It takes a few minutes, furrowing my brow and barely eating my food, for my mother to speak up. 

“Nyx, baby, what are you thinking about?”

“Hmm?” I ask absentmindedly as Az walks in and try not to seem annoyed by it.

“You look like you’re thinking pretty hard. What’re you thinking about?”

“Oh, um, just how to make peace with the Spring Court,” I say, “but that’s difficult because we don’t trust one another. The only way we’d ever be really civil, I think, is an unbreakable bond between courts.”

“There’s no such thing, Nyx. Unless you mean marriage,” Dad says. I try to look like I hadn’t even thought of that and hope the surprise shows.

“And we would never ask you to do such a thing-” Mom says from his side.

“I would do it. Marry someone if it means peace between our families. If it means we don’t have to wonder if the Spring Court will decide to attack us or our people in the future.”

“Nyx-”

“You don’t have to ask. I’m offering. If you think this could solve the issue, then I’ll do it.” 

They look at one another for a moment, conversing in their heads before my father says, “We’ll think about it.” I can feel uncle Az looking at me but refuse to meet his eyes. It was stupid to think I could bring this up with him in the room; he’ll surely know I’m lying about something.

-

Juniper

I don’t get a new letter from Nyx for a while after he leaves, but when I do, he tells me it went well, bringing the idea up to his parents and that they’re thinking about it. I hope everything continues going well and they agree to the marriage because I’d hate to live a lie, but not for the first time, I’m considering running away if I have to.

Shortly after Nyx and I first started writing to one another, I got into an argument with my father, and he grounded me. That’s the first time the idea popped into my head. I can shift, not as much as my father or Kai, but I have some powers.

I’m certain I could change some of my facial features and the color of my hair. Maybe even the size of my breasts or waist. Or even my height. I had planned it all out. I’d change my name and enough of my features to look like a different person then I’d run away to the Night Court.

In the end I didn’t go through with it. I was a little scared Nyx wouldn’t want me to come to his court to be together, but more than anything, I knew Kai and Oak would worry. I didn’t want them wondering if I was dead or alive, and I knew I’d miss them. 

Now, though, I’m seriously considering it again. I know Nyx would want to be with me, and I even think I could tell Oak about my plan, and he would keep it secret. We could write letters back and forth to one another under my new name, and no one would be the wiser. Then, one day, he could tell Kai without making my older brother think I’d been kidnapped. 

I didn’t want to tell Nyx about my backup plan yet because it would do nothing for the relationship between our courts, so instead, I wrote to him about trying to put the thought in my fathers head and told him I really hoped it worked, but that I was working on a back up plan in case it didn’t. 

I didn’t say anything else about it and hoped, beyond reason, he wouldn’t ask unless our current idea failed. 

Nyx

Another day and a half goes by before my parents ask me to meet them in their office. Mother above, I hope Az didn’t tell them about his suspicions. I have no idea what Juniper’s back up plan is, but if it’s taking a back seat to our current idea, I probably don’t want to have to resort to it. 

Both of them look up as I walk into the room and take a seat in front of them, preparing myself for an interrogation, but I’m completely wrong, apparently.

“How many friends do you have?” my father asks.

“What?” I ask, confused and completely caught off guard.

“Friends. We know you have one penpal but do you have other friends? How many people have you met since we’ve given you less work? Have you even left the house since we gave you time off?”

“There was that time he disappeared for almost 24 hours,” my mother says. 

Shit! No one mentioned it, so I was hoping they hadn’t noticed.

“Of course we noticed, Nyx. We were worried sick.”

“And a few hours away from sending people outside the court to search for you,” Mom adds, crossing her arms over her chest.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you guys would freak out so much. I’m nineteen; I can make my own choices.”

“We know that, Nyx, but we couldn’t get ahold of you. Do you know what that tells us?”

When I don’t say anything he continues. “Either you were ignoring us, too far away to speak to, or dead.”

Mom takes a deep breath in as he speaks the last word, and suddenly I realize just how much trouble I’m in. Everything else makes sense too. My aunts and uncles checking in on me the past couple of days, Mom asking if I want to paint with her like I used to, Dad opening my bedroom every night to make sure I’m in bed sleeping. 

“I’m sorry,” I say, honestly, “I promise I won’t go away for long periods of time without leaving a note or something.”

“Where did you go?” Mom asks.

I open my mouth to respond but realize I haven’t come up with a good lie yet. “Um, hanging out with a friend. In the Summer Court, so I was too far away to notice if you were trying to speak to me.”

“You know we’re supposed to run it by the Highpeople if you go into their court. Otherwise, they’ll have reason to think you’re sneaking around.”

“I know. Sorry,” I say again. “It was just a last-minute meet-up. It would have taken days if not weeks for Tarquin to agree.”

Mom starts drafting a letter to him as we speak, probably calling me out for my insolence and making me seem like a spoiled brat in the Highlord's eyes. “If it happens again, Nyx, we’ll have to-” she hesitates, looking up from the paper, “ground you,” she finishes sounding unsure of the decision herself. 

“You’re going to start grounding me at nineteen.”

“I don’t know, Nyx. You’ve never done anything punishable before.”

“We can’t ground him,” Dad says, “he never leaves the house anyway.”

“I think I need to take offense to that.” I frown.

He just shrugs. “To punish you, if you do something like that again, “I’ll get some information about a few party’s and force you to attend.”

“Are you serious?”

“Absolutely.” 

“Dad, you can’t-”

He cuts me off, “you wanna bet?” he smirks, so I just stay quiet and cross my arms.

“Fine,” I agree, “no more misbehaving.”

“Alright, you can go then,” dad says, returning to the work on his desk.

“What about- Have you made a decision about the arranged marriage?” I try to keep my expression neutral.

“If you’re certain, Nyx, we intend to arrange a meeting with Tamlin as long as he is willing.”

“Good,” I say. “Do it.”

-

A few weeks go by with letters to Juniper and anticipation of the day Tamlin has agreed to meet us in the Court of Nightmares. I anxiously stay up at night wondering about the decision and wishing Juniper would tell me about this backup plan she has.

When the day finally comes, I'm practically shaking from nerves. In my room, picking the most professional outfit I have, I take deep breaths and think about the arguments that may need to be made to convince the High Lord of Spring. 

“Are you ready, Nyx,” Mom asks after a knock on the door.

“Yeah,” I say before leaving the room to meet my parents and Azriel in the foyer. 

We winnow to our home above The Court of Nightmares and sit in the meeting room, placed above the rest of the house with no walls at all, it's only accessible by staircases. A pillar of dark stone stands in each corner, and curtains billow between them as we take our seats along half of the rectangular table. My father to my left, and Mom on my other side, Azriel stands behind us.

We expected Tamlin five minutes after our arrival, but eager to take control, he shows up 20 minutes late. Dad just decides to fill the time reminiscing on his childhood and how he ‘kicked Azriel’s butt’ in a game of Illyrian hide and seek, which my uncle just rolls his eyes at.

He stops, though, when the distant tap of footsteps sound a few floors below. A minute passes as they get closer, and we all look to the door as Tamlin enters with a few of his guards and one of our own-Lillian. She could probably take them all down without losing her breath, and none of them even realize it.

“Alright,” Tamlin starts, immediately taking a seat while his guards remain standing, “Are you going to tell me about your plans for a peace treaty or not? I don’t have all day.”

My father only waits a few more moments and looks at both me and my mother before explaining to the other highlord how we could make a deal uniting the courts through the marriage of me and his daughter. 

When Dad finishes speaking Tamlin looks contemplative for a second and remains silent before finally speaking.

“How is that fair,” he says gruffly. “If you get my daughter, then I want yours promised to my son.”

“We don’t have a daughter,” Father says, and I can hear the frustration and anger rising just by his tone.

“Not yet,” Tamlin agrees, “but you could, and if you don’t, then it should be the next female born by your blood.”

“That could be your own daughter's child,” Mom pipes up. “She would be marrying her uncle.”

Tamlin just shrugs. “Thicker blood has been crossed.” He’s not wrong, it wasn’t long ago that courts tried to maintain ‘strong blood’ by marrying within families. It still isn’t that outdated, honestly.

My parents share a long look, and I know they must be speaking to one another. It’s not difficult to figure out what they’re saying either. I signed up for this, whatever daughter they may have did not. If they agree, they’re doing the one thing they never wanted: keeping their child from finding love, from choosing love.

“We need to think about it before we decide,” Mom says, breaking eye contact with dad, “but if we agree, you do too? Your daughter Juniper will marry Nyx?”

“Yes,” Tamlin says simply with the wave of his hand, “that’s no problem.”

Anger rises in me at his dismissive tone. How can he care so little about setting his daughter up for an arranged marriage? I tamp the feeling down, though. I can feel my magic rising, and don’t want to lose control in front of anyone.

Mom see’s Tamlin out not long after, promising to send word if they come to a decision, and dad goes to the table at the back of the room to grab a drink. Uncle Az, with his eyes glued to Tamlin until the second he vanishes from our court, plops down in a chair beside me. He doesn't relax, though, until his shadows return to tell him, saying Tamlin is back in his own court. 

“What is everyone thinking?” Dad asks, a drink in each hand as he and Mom return to their chairs. 

“I understand if you don’t agree to his offer. I’m a willing participant, but whatever daughter you have won’t be,” I say.

“It’s not just our daughter,” Dad says, “maybe we don’t have any daughters, then it’s your daughter in an arranged marriage.”

“I think I’d do it,” I say after a moment's thought. “Maybe that’s selfish of me but-”

“It’s not selfish, Nyx,” Mom says, “you’re trying to unite our courts, that’s the opposite of selfish.”

If only they knew my true reasons. Uniting the courts is just a bonus, really. Would they still agree?

“A part of me thinks we should agree too,” Mom faces Dad as she says it.

“I’m going to get some information on both of Tamlin's sons before you make a decision,” Az says. “If they both seem decent enough to be a good husband, then you can decide what to do.”

With that, we all go our separate ways, winnowing back to Velaris and whatever waits for us there. For me, it’s nothing but a lonely house and a lifeless bedroom.

#Courts of Love and Hate #a court of thorns and roses #a court of dreams #Feysand #NYX #adult nyx #nyx x reader #nyx x female reader #nyx archeron

[jeeperso]

D&D Quotes Without Context

Ravenloft edition, Fundertainment Land arc part 1

GM: Alright, last time on the Yawning portal runners. OOC: Wrong channel. OOC2: Wrong thread. OOC: Wrong channel thread. And our heroes took a well earned vacation to the most luxurious vacation spot in all of Ravenloft: The beautiful Sapphire Islands. Where there was sun, surf, a wedding, fabulous door prizes, and surfing against werewolves. Jonni: “I got this book of tips on being hotter.” Gorbash: “In a physical attraction sort of way or a things in my proximity burst into flame kind of way?” Jonni: “Yes!” “Okay, so, Marsh, I’d ask what I can set on fire, but I’m guessing everything. So we need a safe word for when you want me to light everything up. Normally, I’d suggest ‘funderful’, but given the locale, I’m guessing that would be triggering. So…’Bigbooty’ when you want me to go nuts.” “I find the best defense is a good fireball.” "Welcome to Gunder and Danzi's Fundertainment Land,” the woman says in a chipper tone. "We welcome you to our funtastic home, and we kindly ask you to acknowledge and abide by all the rules here. So that we can maximize our fundertastical experience. “ "No running, no outside food or drinks, no loitering, no littering, no intimate moments, no questioning the rampant consumerism no escape. No escape. No escape. No hope. No escape. No escape NO ESCAPE.” Gorbash: “This is why I picked mercenary work instead of retail.” Jonni: “Wait, BACK THE FUCK UP. What was that about no intimate moments? I demand to speak with and murder your manager!” "Sorry, just on hour 42 of a 72 hour shift. You get used to it.... Or you get a knife and start stabbing people.” "As said, we're the Union. I am here to ascend the Murderhorn, awake the Yettirrasque, and lead us all to freedom from the burning ruin I will leave.” “I get to make the ruin!” Yog-sothoth: "So Poom's character sheet now says 'Wizard' on it, and—" Azathoth: "I think we missed something.” Nyarlathotep: "Awww. But I liked breaking the game with.....uh, ahem, paying attention now….." Nyx: "Bad, Nyar, bad. No breaking the fourth wall: it was just fixed after the last time." Edmund: ”OH COME ON!” Vesh: ”You know, as a cleric of Ioun, you probably should have seen this coming." Jonni: “I suggest violence.” Poom: "I think I'm on Jooni with this one: light everything on fire, and light the stuff that doesn't burn on harder fire.” Jonni: “So, we’re 3 for on that. One more and I can start burning.” “Okay, honey, you relax. We’ll meet back up after I help Marsh topple the banality of evil and smite its ruin upon the mountain.” Gorbash: “Ah, yes. Money talks around here. If only until they part you from it.” Jonni: “Jokes on them: Vesh makes her own. Sometimes they’re baby mimics.” “If they try, give them this.” Jonni hands her a card. It reads “You put my wife in a flask, you’re next. Jonni.” "Let's get to the action of taking this place down already. The longer I have to smell all this over-sugared food the sooner I'm going to snap.” “Am I becoming a responsible adult?” “Maybe, but I doubt it.” "Until closing time, topside cast members try not to get caught.” OOC: Kruez, save some 20s for the rest of us. “I think he’s sweet on you, Eddie.” You suddenly see a stream of black blood start coming out of his mouth. “That doesn’t disprove my theory.” Jonni: “Man, why is it always ‘nightmare circus’. When do we get to go to the magic porno circus?” Azathoth: "Insert 'big top' joke here.” OOC: Gets you right in the nostalgias. “Bigbooty?” Edmund takes up a defensive posture. "I have... Funderful Dollars.” "Come with me I have something to show you.” “Is it a world of pure imagination?” "Only 20% imagination, We have to conserve.” "You want access to the Murderhorn, I will grant it, if you can fight six golden tickets hidden throughout the park.” Gorbash: “Sorry was that ‘fight’; not ‘find’?" “Please. We’ll obviously succeed because we are pure of heart. Mine’s full of lust. You all get your own vices.” “They got an adults only zone?” “I doubt it. Even if they did, the best you'd get is overpriced booze in novelty glasses.” "All kid friendly and no porn, Jonni.” “This is the worst place we’ve been.” "Flaws not withstanding, everyone here has pure and noble hearts that would face down the world if their friends needed them. I'll wager on our side anyway.” “What have we told you about gambling?” "The lab we go to last, please leave the lab for last, I just know we have a big fight waiting there.” “So we go there first while we’re fresh.” "Rats, I knew my logic would ruin it for me.” "Gorbash, don't do that. You are creepy when making those kawai eyes.” “Sure. Let do this and get out of this hellhole.” "That may be an insult to hellholes.” GM: Anyone who gets over a 15 notice something odd about the food vendors. OOC: Odder than being carny food vendors? "None of this will do your cholesterol any good... Not to mention I think its nutritional quality is equivalent of a piece of cardboard.” "Bet you cardboard is healthier.” "That's a big Big Burger.” "Oh god, it is the size of a cart wheel.” "The Double Triple Bossy Deluxe on a raft, 4x4 animal style, extra shingles with a shimmy and a squeeze, light axle grease; make it cry, burn it, and let it swim. Doesn't quite roll off the tongue.” ”MARSHAL, AS I LIVE AND BREATH.” Jonni: “I sincerely doubt you do either.” "I'm with the union. Together we can shut this park down and you return to the Indigo Moon of Yarrl.” "This guy here was my top student, the one I entrusted all my recipes too.” “He killed a man with one of those. Or at least put him in a diabetic coma.” Gorbash: “What's the game, Big Steve?” Big Steve: "Eating contest. One of you against me.” Gorbash grins. "Don't threaten me with a good time.” "Hey we got vegan dishes. Try our new cheese injected fried pickle. Or our goat liver filled with okra. Which is also fried.” "Neither of those are remotely vegan!” "Sure they are. Cheese is a vegetable right?" Marshal: ”Remember to eat the trough, too.” Gorbash: “Is it deep fried?” Big Steve: "And slathered with Hollandaise.” Jonni polymorphs Gorbash into a whale. “Marsh. Get a shovel.” Gorbash: “I feel like this was unnecessary.” Yog-sothoth: "As opposed to what else we've done?” "Ioun... Give pity to this good soul. Protect him from gastritis and heartburn…" Gorbash: “This is delicious Steve.” Big Steve: ”The secret ingredient is lard.” Nyarlathotep: "Not sure how secret that is.” GM: Next up: Baked Bean pizza. “The devil’s pizza!” "Told ya we had vegan stuff here. I mean if you eat around the pork.” "I traveled all across Yaarl, learning from the finest chefs I could find. Then I burned all my notes and made this in stead.” GM: Next up is... Meat Gelatin. “That was quite the quick escalation from unhealthy to war crimes.” "I think at least 3/4th of this park can be called war crimes, Jonni.” GML Next up is... LUTEFISK. Nyx: "No, not that abomination! I can't believe humans came up with that dish and demons didn't inspire them.” Yog-sothoth: "It was Deep Ones.” "No, how could you? That dish is banned on so many planes of existence.” "You think that’d stop me? I ate the last health inspector came round here.” "... I think i'm going to have to stick to salads for the next week…” "I used to eat people, and I agree." "Try our new Lasanga salad, with eight types of meat.” Gorbash: “Nothing teaches you to appreciate food quite like starvation.” "Await the sign, then all employees shall be released.” Inside is utter bedlam, you see dozens of screaming kids running around, jumping all over. OOC: player is getting Chuck-E-Cheese flashbacks…. You're pretty sure you see the kids pull down a waiter and skeletonize them. "Oh no...my irony sense is going off. It’s in the ball pit, always the ball pit.” "I hope not. I really hope not. do you know how unsanitary those are in NORMAL places?” “Those things are 60% urine by volume.” "As the one of us actually immune to disease, I volunteer as tribute.” “You'll rust from the ammonia.” Poom: "Wish whatever's in there'd eat a few of the kids. Turn the volume down.” "My guess, the balls are acid proof and that pit has acid underneath it hiding an acid swimming shark in it. Nasty things.” "Or it's a plastic-ball-ooze.” "No, no, no, no. Not again, not again. That happened at my 12th birthday party.” "I was distracted by the tiny slime.” “Why am I covered in goos!?!” "Sounds like a fowl condition.” “I say we cure the badger of his rabies and make him our standard adoptee for the domain.” “I mean wouldn't be the strangest thing we picked up. Also he should be a union rep.” Jonni makes a badger papoose and straps him in. “You shall be Vesh and I’s only son. You shall see the world through my eyes as I see the world through yours.” Gorbash: “Starting a family right after the honeymoon eh?” “Bitey. Avert your eyes. Mommy has to light some assholes on fire.”

#dungeons and dragons #dnd 5e #quotes without context #ravenloft

[loisinherlane]

so i got the new chb book, and i'm going to "liveblog" it, but this is all under the cut in case anyone who follows me is going to read it!

to start off: the dedication says to all the nicos, wills, pipers, and everyone in between. does that mean canon bi will? PLEASE.

also canon curly-haired will.

Sometimes, Nico's brain thought of a joke and it came out of his mouth a second later without any sort of filter at all. That's exactly what happened when he blurted out, "My whole life is a disorder!" Will hadn't laughed at that.

mood

nico notes that he's felt guilty about leaving bob in tartarus everyday for the last three years. has it been three years? what the hell

NICO'S FULL NAME IS NOW CANONICALLY NICCOLO

nico acknowledging that he misses percy ;-;

the changes in the backgrounds of the pages have me intrigued. i have suspicions about what it could mean, but i'm holding my thoughts for now

well shit. what a prophecy.

i adore how nico just. prefers people who are kind of obnoxious. the gray sisters. mr. d. love his energy of asking to share his popcorn.

nico gets points for pointing out that a mortal life wouldn't be the equivalent of an immortal, but i'm not convinced this is all about bob. i'm going to call it: i think bianca will appear.

i know it's been talked to death but cargo shorts boy will gets my heart

GROVER AND JUNIPER!!!

Nico didn't answer, though one theory lurked in a dark corner of his mind: Maybe because Bob thought I would help, but he wasn't sure about you two.

yes,,,,

if this ending is what i'm worried it will be, i'll be pissed

huh. i guess they've been separated but don't realize it. is this some dream of events that (may have) already happened?

nico mentioning jason among the people he missed even in the first trip to tartarus--continuity error or were they friendly before?

error??? it wasn't hypnos in manhattan but morpheus

lmao will liking true crime

wow. i do not like nico's actual coming out because that sounds like hell to me. but whatever. at least there's more canon queer?

i'm so excited just for persephone to be here. marking the page 243 of the conversation i want to remember but "then why not offer him your darkness?" is so romantic.

the editing for this book is so fucking bad. my mother is bianca??? literally what the fuck. this isn't even consistent within the book.

i'm sorry, nico having children with nyx, even with the way it's portrayed, is fucking disgustin

alright, in the end, the book is meh. i think it just didn't dive deep enough into anything i was wanting, but i'm okay with that. i'll do it myself. the queer stuff was nice for the kids, but i still think it was a little overzealous in the portrayal of how nico would act. just... in my experience, it's never that easy. anyway. the end.

#megan moments

[sirenspells]

I’ve decided in p3 chariot/fool swap au they defeat Nyx by making a giant lightbulb that she’ll fly into and die

#/j ofc #if you missed that one ask the joke is that Nyx is more of a moth than...whatever she is in canon. bird woman #p3 chariot/fool swap au #siren speaks

[hauntedwitch04]

Hey girl, how are youu??

Hope everything's all great with you😊

Can I request touching,number 16, but specifically giving them a wing massage, with adult nyx?

Stay great,kisses😘

Magic hands 

Nyx x reader 

Words: about 1.8k words 

Warnings: none, just pure fluff 

Author’s note: Hi! I'm quite good right now thank you, school isn't giving me much homework these weeks so I'm hoping to be able to post more, but I don't know how much I'll be able to from the next few. Moving on, I loved your idea (they are always great), and immediately came up with this oneshot. It's a continuation of the other two oneshots on Nyx, sorry not sorry, I really like the relationship between the two characters in those oneshots, and I immediately had a super cute idea between the two of them. I hope you're all doing well, and I hope you enjoy it! 

Requests are always open | Ask

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Amantium irae amoris integratio est

Lupum non timet canem latrantem

Today was a particularly tough day. Cassian decided to increase the training of us Valkiries, and I'm not kidding to say that Az, who trained with us today, was out of breath at one point from how heavy the training was. I couldn't feel every single muscle in my body anymore, the wings were heavy on my back, but the determination to go home to my mate kept me going. Nyx had a day off today, so he stayed home, and I think I've never had a tougher mission than leaving my bed this morning, when I was wrapped in his arms, watching the sunrise through our window curtains and the sunlight faintly kissing our faces. The view was not the one through the window though, but the one next to me: my mate, his bare chest rising faintly, his dark hair illuminated by the sun, his violet eyes that struck by the light looked like a lavender field in summer and his smile capable every time of making my heart stop beating. My desire to return to him, however, was not immediately fulfilled. After the hard morning of training, some of the priestesses of the library stopped me on my way out of the field where we train, and asked me for a hand. I couldn't say no to them, and so I found myself going up and down the library stairs a billion times, carrying books, delivering messages, and rearranging papers. After what seemed like ages I manage to escape from that hellish place, but my escape route is immediately blocked by Rhys in front. 

"Hello my dear, I was just looking for you, couldn't you run an errand for me? I would be extremely grateful." 

I stop and look at the clock hanging on the library wall and see that it is already six o'clock in the afternoon, and I hesitate to answer the man in front of me. I want nothing more than to go home to Nyx, but I don't want to disappoint Rhys, but just as I'm about to answer, he interrupts me. 

"You know what my dear, it's okay. You look very tired and I understand that you want to go home to Nyx. You can run that errand for me another day. Take a day off tomorrow, tell my son he's off tomorrow too." He says with a smirk as he gently takes my arm and miter in front of the door to the apartment Nyx and I share. 

After vacationing at the Summer Court, as promised to Az, we took the whole family and sat them down, then told them that we are together and that we are mates. 

When we finished talking they all burst out screaming, happy with our relationship, while Nesta turned to Az and shouted "I told you so!" and he replied "ButI already knew!". I'm not kidding when I say that she was mad at Nyx and me for a week because we didn’t tell her. From that moment until now none of them has ever missed an opportunity to tease us, with jokes, smiles or glances. we knew it was going to be like this, but it could have been worse. In general they were very understanding when Nyx told them that we were fine with their teasing, but that we demanded some privacy, and for that I am extremely grateful. 

"I would recommend relaxing and letting him take care of himself. I know how important it is for a partner to know that their company is okay." He says smiling at me as he watches me walk to the door and put my hand on the handle. 

"I will.Thanks for the ride." I reply smiling in turn. 

"You're welcome daughter-in-law." He says before disappearing winking at me. 

I laugh and then turn the knob to finally enter my home. Immediately a delicious smell of food, my favorite dish, comes to my nose. I close my eyes and then lean against the door behind me and enjoy that delicious smell, when I hear the voice of the man I love say my name. 

"Y/N, honey, you're finally home, I was starting to get worried. I made your favorite dinner, I don't know if it turned out well, but I followed Aunt Nesta's recipe step by step. I wanted to make you a hot bath, but I didn't know when you would arrive so I preferred to wait, so in the meantime I tried to clean the house a little. You must be exhausted, just wait let me help. " She says as she walks over to me. He makes to reach out a hand, to help me remove myself from the door, but in return I take his hand and pull him towards me. He rests his hands on my hips, being careful not to hurt me as he rests his forehead on mine. I see he's wearing a pink apron, which I've never seen in the house before, soiled with something, and I can't help but laugh. 

"Why are you laughing love? Did I do something wrong? I knew I was out of line...." 

"No, no honey you were amazing, really, I don't deserve this. But I'm laughing at something else...Where the heck did you get this apron?" 

"It's nothing to laugh at, it gives me a more professional look...Nesta gave it to me, I didn't wear it at first, but after changing my shirt three times, I realized maybe it would be a good idea." 

"I have to say it makes you look very...sexy." 

"Ha ha funny honey, really funny." 

"You're really touchy you know...Let's see if I can make it up to you that way." I say before wrapping my arms around his neck and drawing him even closer to me to kiss him. The kiss is slow and passionate. Our tongues caress each other as I run a hand through his hair, pulling him even closer if possible. His hands move from my hips to my buttocks as he pushes me against the door harder, deepening the kiss. I suddenly feel a twinge of pain in my wings from the pressure on them since they're between my body and the door, and immediately Nyx's lips leave mine as he looks at me worriedly. 

"Are you okay? Did I hurt you?" 

"No, no relax, I'm fine, it's just that Cassian has stepped up his training and my wings hurt a little." 

"You should have told me, I wouldn't have crushed them." 

"Never mind, don't worry. Am I forgiven then?" 

"Let me think about it...I'd say... yes, totally. And by the way, you deserve everything I've done, if not more. I couldn't ask for a better mate." He says as he nuzzles my cheek. 

"Well then that makes two of us, because I couldn't ask for someone better than you either." I say kissing his forehead.

"Come on, let's go eat so you can take a nice hot bath afterwards to relax and then you can go to sleep." I nod at his words as he lifts me up, his hands still on my buttocks, and I bring my legs around his waist. He carries me to the kitchen countertop, sits me there, and hands me a plate. We eat, talking about this and that, while I congratulate him on a great dinner. When we're done, I try to propose the idea of washing the dishes, but he immediately shouts at me saying that he would take care of it. He picks me up as before and takes me to the bathroom. He sits me on the edge of the tub and turns on the hot water. While we wait for the water to get to the right temperature he helps me get out of my dirty, sweaty workout clothes and then helps me into the tub. 

"Take all the time you need honey. I'll be there as soon as I finish doing the dishes." 

I nod as I watch him walk out of the bathroom. I sigh wondering how he found such a perfect man (believe me honey I wonder that too). I lean my head against the wall of the tub and let the heat seep into my veins, and I relax so much that I don't hear my mate coming until he speaks.

"Baby did you wash your hair." I nod my head no and he nods as he continues saying. "Don't worry, I'll do it." He sits on the edge of the tub, after pulling his pants up to his knees, as he dips his feet into the water on either side of my head, then grabs little bottles on the side containing soap and starts washing my hair. I almost fall asleep to his gentle massage as he runs his fingers through my hair to clean it. I realize it ends because I lose that sweet contact, and I open my eyes. 

Once the bath is over he helps me out of the tub and hands me a towel. 

"Do your wings still hurt? I could give you a massage just in case, if that's okay." 

I feel my muscles lock up for a moment as I consider this option. Despite the fact that we've been doing well for months, and there's a relationship of extreme trust between us, I hadn't shown him my wings yet, at least I hadn't allowed him to touch them. Then his father's words come to mind and I decide to let go. 

"I would love that since they still hurt a little." He immediately nods and goes to get a small bottle of oil resting on the bathroom windowsill above the sink. We make our way to the bed where I lie on my stomach on the mattress, my wings lying on top of it as well. I feel the bed move under the weight of my mate. Then a cold substance touches my right wing that makes me jerk a little, and soon after a light touch caressing it. I enjoy those expert movements, which relax every muscle in my body and suddenly I find myself in another dimension, of total relaxation, where not even the most important of thoughts could reach now. 

"You have magic hands." I say in a sleepy voice as I hear him shift to the other wing. I hear him laugh, then everything gets fuzzier and fuzzier, my eyelids getting heavier and heavier and all of a sudden I'm completely asleep, thanks to Nyx and his amazing massage. I only realize I've fallen asleep in the morning, when I wake up with my shoulders light and still relaxed from last night, Nyx holding me tightly in his arms still asleep, under the covers.I fall back asleep with a smile on my lips, happy to had found him, and to be his mate. 

Taglist 

@winchestersgirl222

#acotar x reader #imagine acotar #nyx x reader #nyx archeron x reader #acotar next gen x reader #hauntedwitch04's writing

[antiloreolympus]

11 Anti LO Asks

1. I don't get it, weren't the fans praising Persephone for wanting to own up to her crimes and saying she deserves any punishment she receives? Why are they now upset she got a temporary punishment  that isn't even different from her life pre-uni? Why is Persephone upset too? It's not forever. It's almost as if the fans only care about the aesthetics of looking morally "good" while they really wanted her to get away with murder, and Persephone is a bad person who lied to keep up her nice facade.

2. I legit do not get why LO fans act as if it's some personal affront when people don't like it and even critique it. How self centered if their worldview to think everyone has to obsessively love and praise what they like? What reality are they living in where this is a thing? Get a grip, kids, you're not important and people not liking what you do is not a personal insult, it's just life.

3. LO would probably be better handled if it was put under an age restriction like more mature romances and other comics are, but WT and Rachel would never allow it because then they can't market it as YA and get the biggest draw of tweens and teens to spend their parents' money on it, so now LO is left w/ trying to be tween friendly while also trying to do serious topics with all the nuance of "bullying is bad >:(" but instead of bullying it's being critical of rich mass murdering slave owners 🤔

4. how does rachel have at bare minimum four people working on LO and it only looks worse?? like is it because they arent paid well, is the pay as low as the effort theyre expected to do. i dont care how much thhe fans are obsessed with it they seriously cant think this looks better??

5. What's going to preemptively anger me is that with IRL people I know, r/aita, and even tumblr anecdotes, giving a teen time away from a grown man for a long enough period of time usually results in the teen going, "wow, that was actually fucked up. thank you for stopping that disaster." Yet I KNOW that in LO, Persephone's probably gonna have her love grow by tenfold and miss her dearly totally-not-creepy beloved.

From OP: On a side note, I hate when fans try to justify the age gap by saying “it’s normal” or “perfectly fine since they’re adults” when most people (especially from tumblr, reddit, and just people irl) find it weird as hell and very questionable on the older person’s end. It’s just a blatant lie to try and justify this creepy dynamic.

6. introducing a major villain with no actual build up or reason for them to be in the plot right before a season finale is, no matter how you cut it, bad writing, and that's only one of several poorly planned and executed writing in this thing.

From OP: Yeah, even Apollo had some kind of foreshadowing. The only thing that hinted at Eris was an old tumblr ask from RS (Before LO became an original, RS said something about Eris and Hades having a bad date but that’s probably retconed) and Hera’s line to Hebe about getting her sister. With the sister thing, it’s too vague to pinpoint on Eris since she could also be Nyx’s daughter.

7. ok now LO fans are just lying and saying it was "always supposed to be a dark story" and people who are calling out it didn't develop these aspects well and it should have stuck to its original lighter tone "cant see context clues" like?? yes it did have SA shown early on ... which was IMMEDIATELY dropped and had rachel right way go into making puns! even persephone admitting she killed a village was framed with fart jokes and forced romcom flirting! how is that being a "dark and serious" story?

8. Rachel Smythe seems to have taken a weird approach to making HxP sympathetic? Like, I feel like she's trying to make the infinitely threatening villains more infinitely threatening as a way to make it seem like the rich, straight, cis, white coded deities in the story are the underdogs. The classism almost seems to come from her being too concerned about the image of rich people. Which, come to think of it, actually makes a lot of sense.

9. Even if we get Perse aow "justified" by Eris blessing it still doesn't mean she is innocent. She knew for a very long time that there is something "wrong" with her and she may be dangerous to others but she did nothing with it. Even now after everything that happened she still let that feeling affect her and didn't tell anyone beside Hades who equally doesn't care she may hurt someone again. Her wrath may be not her fault but her actions are

10. Part of me wonders if RS actually took any writing classes or even... just did basic research about how to write cohesive stories? The plot and timeline of LO is all over the place and it includes a lot of unnecessary scenes with characters who don't have a large bearing on the plot (like that whole subplot with Eros and Psyche, Thanatos and Daphne, that flashback with Persephone and the yellow war god who's name I can't remember. Like what was the point of that flashback? She could have just told us they'd met before and left it at that). Even just stuff that could have taken much less time than it did, such as those Medusa ladies spying, that dinner with HxP, Hera, and Zeus, or Hades taking the photographer's eye out.

I just always found the story very confusing to read. I've taken writing classes for my novels before and LO follows none of the guidelines for good writing.

11. I'm just upset that RS chose to make Persephone a young, impressionable literal teenager when she could have made Persephone an older, elegant goddess with years of knowledge and experience about how her world works. Like, if she wanted the r*pe subplot so badly, it could have been set up as Persephone deliberately avoiding Apollo/trying to expose him throughout the story, whilst the readers and Hades try to piece together what happened between them in the past before it's actually revealed. It also would have eliminated the gross age gape and Persephone acting like a child, etc. While we're at it, we could probably just take out that whole uncomfortable, unnecessary subplot where Apollo takes those photos.

#lore olympus critical #lo critical #anti lo #anti lore olympus

[snelbz]

Life As We Know It {Chapter 24}

Summary: After the sudden deaths of Nesta’s sister and Cassian’s best friend, they gain guardianship of their nephew, Nyx.

Based on Life As We Know It (2010) and a prompt sent in by anonymous for our Nessian fanfic contest. This is a modern au.

Instead of doing a tag list for this story, we have decided to have a set posting schedule. Chapters will be posted weekly on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays. Occasional surprise chapters could be posted at miscellaneous times. Chapters will be posted on both my and Tara’s blogs! >> @tacmc.​

Life As We Know It Masterlist

Shelby’s Masterlist

Tara’s Masterlist

A/N: Sorry for the late post! My baby shower was today, so Tara and I have been extremely busy! Look for Chapter 25 on her blog on Monday!

Warning: 18+ content.

Cassian got to the restaurant and took a look around. There were people everywhere, bustling about, getting ready for the night’s grand opening.

It had become the talk of the town - and the local groups on the internet - so they were expecting a good turnout.

At least, that’s what Cassian’s guess was.

He hadn’t talked to Nesta since he stormed out two days before, with the exception of one text exchange.

Cassian had texted, Tell Nyx I love him and I will see him tomorrow.

Nesta had replied, Ok.

Now, he was searching for that tiny little man with a mop of dark, black hair.

When he finally found Nyx, he was in his stroller eating cheeto puffs off the tray. When he saw Cassian his eyes lit up and he was instantly reaching for him.

Cassian laughed as he unbuckled him from his stroller and picked him up, giving him the biggest hugs. “Hey, buddy. I missed you, too.”

“This is his third helping of cheetos,” Helion said, from where he leaned against the wall. “Sorry about the next diaper.”

Cassian chuckled. “All this going on and Nesta stuck you on baby duty?”

Even saying her name out loud hurt, but he didn’t let it show.

He gestured toward the kitchen and said, “She’s been here since six and she’s in one of her moods. I decided I’d rather be on baby duty than caught in the crossfire.”

He winced, figuring that didn’t bode well for the two of them today. “I’ll stay in the bar, then.”

“That’s probably a good idea,” Helion replied, looking him up and down, before pushing the stroller behind the counter. Cassian had the distinct feeling he was looking for a crack in his armor. He didn’t bother telling him that he’d been broken for two days, and the only person who could fix him was currently yelling at some poor employee in the kitchen.

Cass crossed the threshold into the bar area and let out a low whistle. He’d had a hand in the design, but most of this was all Nesta. It accented the restaurant perfectly and he immediately loved the place.

“Nice, right?”

He turned to find Kallias carrying a tray of fresh glasses from the dish area and the smile on his friend’s face was infectious.

Cassian nodded as Kallias said hello to Nyx. “Yeah, it looks amazing.”

Kallias nodded. “You and Nesta did good.”

“Thanks,” Cassian muttered, not wanting the conversation to go any further. “How long have you been here?”

“Just got here,” Kallias said, as Nyx started playing with the strings on Cassian’s hoodie. “Viv will be here soon to help out. She said she can watch Nyx while we work.”

Cassian nodded. “That would be great.”

It would be helpful, of course, to have Viviane help out watching Nyx. Cassian had a ton to get done in the next six hours before the opening began. He didn’t want to let Nyx go, though. Two days. It was the longest he had been away from Nyx since...everything happened.

“Well, little man, until then, you get to help me unpack liquor bottles,” Cassian said, trying his best to sound excited.

Nyx giggled. “Ba ba ba ba ba ba.”

“Yeah, different kind of bottles,” Cassian chuckled, and carried Nyx with him into the back room.

Kallias had been at the bar for the past two days, getting most of the stock ready to go. A few texts to explain the situation was all he’d needed and Cassian was thankful he had such a loyal friend and coworker.

Elain hadn’t been as understanding the first night he’d been there, but after talking to Nesta, even she backed off. He had no clue what Nesta had said to her, but her frustration turned to sympathy and she was back to treating Cassian like the brother-in-law she loved and not like a man who’d hurt her sister.

After pulling the carrier out of Nyx’s stroller, he strapped the baby to his chest and set to work, carrying case after case of liquor up to the bar. Kallias was busy stocking the assorted glasses they’d need, so the two worked in silence for the most part.

He had just walked back into the store room, short one case of whiskey, when he heard Nesta talking from the dry pantry separating the store room and kitchen. Cassian’s heart lurched and he was about to make his way back into the bar, but Nyx squealed as he heard her voice.

The swinging door flew open as Nesta hurried into the store room, wondering how Nyx had gotten in there in the first place. She froze when she found Cassian there. Their eyes locked and she blinked.

“Hey, Nes,” he said, quietly.

“I…didn’t know you were here,” she breathed.

He shrugged, turning back to the boxes of bottles. “Got here about an hour ago. Didn’t want to interrupt you.”

Nyx was reaching for her, so he unclipped the carrier and gave him to her. He giggled happily as soon as he was in Nesta’s arms, but she froze, unsure of what to say. “You should have let me know you were here.”

Another shrug. “You were busy, and I knew what I needed to do. Kal said Viv would be here later to watch him.”

She nodded, silence filling the space again.

Nyx pointed at Cassian, reaching for him. “Dada.”

Cassian stilled.

He opened his mouth to say something, then closed his mouth.

A second passed.

Then, at last, he said, “What did he just say?”

“Dada,” Nyx repeated, and clapped his hands together. He reached for Cassian. “Dada!”

Cassian took Nyx, although he was moving slowly, stunned into silence. Nesta watched as a thousand different emotions crossed his face.

“Dada?” Cassian breathed, looking from Nyx to Nesta. “He just called me-.”

“He’s been saying it for the past two days,” Nesta said, staring at a spot on the wall behind Cassian.

For a moment, Cassian didn’t say anything, but then he asked, “You didn’t bother to tell me that?”

Nesta’s eyes narrowed and she slowly met his gaze. “You left.”

“A simple text letting me know that Nyx said his first word wouldn’t’ve killed you,” Cassian snapped. “Especially since his first word was…” Cassian shook his head, that fury fading as quickly as it had come. He looked at Nyx and chuckled, softly. “Dada, hmm?”

“Dada,” Nyx said, taking Cassian’s face into his hands before patting his stubbled cheeks with his chubby little palms.

Cassian watched Nyx for a moment, chuckling softly, before asking Nesta, “Has he said anything else?”

Nesta shook her head, even though Cassian wasn’t looking at her. “Just that. Probably wondering where you were. He’s been saying it nonstop, after all.”

“I’m sorry, bud,” he said, softly. He kissed the top of his head. “I’m still right here though.”

He was about to buckle him back into the carrier when Nesta reached for him. “I can take him. You’ve got a lot to do.”

“No more than you,” he said, settling him back into the carrier. “And I’ve missed him. Viv will come see Kallias when she gets here. Let me keep him.”

Her hands fell to her sides. “Fine.”

The tiny room felt like it was closing in on him, looking at her. They were so close together, whether they wanted to be or not. Without another word, Cassian grabbed the closest box and shouldered his way back through the swinging door.

Kallias caught the look on his face as soon as he came back. “That must have been the first conversation you two have had.”

Cassian grunted in response, letting Nyx continue to pat at his face.

“And how’d it go?” He asked, leaning against the bar.

“About as well as you think.”

Kallias watched his old friend for a moment before nodding, deciding to let the conversation drop. Cassian was grateful for it.

He was thankful for Nyx, too, for an endless amount of reasons, but right now, he was a distraction. With Nyx here, he was only thinking about Nyx, not about Nesta.

Cassian spent the next couple of hours lining up liquor bottles, and when Viv got there, she happily took Nyx and let Cassian work.

Once Nyx began playing with Viviane, Cassian’s thoughts were once again on the last person he wanted to be thinking about.

He continued to work, trying his best to keep his mind on that. It was kind of hard, though, when the owner of the restaurant was Nesta. He guessed he was part owner now, too - owner of the bar, anyway.

The hours flew by and by the time Cassian decided to check his watch, he realized he only had thirty minutes until the doors were opening for the main event.

He needed to get out of his old hoodie and into something nicer.

After making his way into the stockroom, he pulled off his hoodie before digging into his backpack for the black henley he’d brought. It wasn’t fancy by any means, but it was sure better than his ripped hoodie.

The door swung open as he was pulling his shirt over his head, and when he turned around, he saw Nesta, once again.

She stilled just in front of the door. “Are you planning on being in here every time I come in?”

It was meant to be a joke, something to lighten the mood, Cassian knew, but the light didn’t exactly reach her eyes.

He looked down at his shirt. “Just had to change. Didn’t think a hoodie was appropriate for an opening celebration.”

Nesta nodded, giving him a forced smile. “Couldn’t have gone all out with a button down?”

“This is Azriel’s,” he said. “All of my nicer things are at…home.”

He said the last word hesitantly.

Nesta’s eyes fluttered shut. He knew she was dying to say something, but what it was he couldn’t tell. He thought he knew her well enough to read her face. It seemed he was wrong though.

“I’ll come by and get my things on my day off this week,” he said, saving her the request. He pulled the Henley over his head, leaving his backpack against the store room wall. “You won’t even know I was there.”

“Cassian…”

He pushed back through the door without waiting to hear what she was going to say.

This was agony. Every moment of being around her hurt, because every time he saw her, he knew that he’d wasted the past three months of his life. He’d wasted his time falling in love with her, because she still hadn’t said it back.

“Dada!”

Nyx and Viv sat at one of the new tables, Nyx munching on some crackers, and even Kallias’ eyes dragged to him. Nyx’s blue eyes were the only ones he cared about though.

“That’s new,” Kallias said, from where he leaned across the bar.

Nyx’s new favorite word was one of the few things that had made him smile all day. Even if it tore him apart at the same time.

He didn’t mind Nyx calling him that. He was still too young to understand what had happened to Rhys. So one day, he’d explain to him who he really was, and who Rhys was. But until then, he was content to be Dada.

Cassian lifted him out of the high chair he was in and smiled, wistfully. “Hey, buddy.”

On the other side of the room, Nesta pushed through the double doors and into the restaurant, making sure everything was in order as the clock ticked down.

Cassian couldn’t keep his eyes off of her.

He wondered if she knew.

*

This was the biggest night that Nesta had in quite some time. A new bar would be amazing for business, and she was expecting a hell of a crowd.

And she wasn’t disappointed.

At exactly six, people began to pour in. They sat, and they ate, and by the Mother, they drank. She was amazed at how well Nyx was doing. She kept expecting to see him sleeping in a corner with Viviane, but he was being passed around to Viv, Kallias, Helion, and Cassian, having the time of his little life.

Nesta was glad someone was enjoying their night.

She should be enjoying her night, should be pumped at the booming business, but she could hardly focus.

All she could think about was him.

Cassian.

Every time she even got a glimpse of him, she wanted to run into his arms and tell him that she loved him. But she couldn’t do that. She had no clue what the repercussions of their relationship would do to Nyx, especially if something were to happen. If they were to break up, would this be their future? Barely speaking, passing the kid back and forth, both of them in misery?

Even when Elain and Azriel got there, both giving her hugs and warm smiles, the one on her face wasn’t real. She knew Elain could tell, knew she wanted to pull her aside, get the whole story, and quite possibly talk some sense into her, but she wouldn’t.

She couldn’t.

Not tonight.

As much as she tried to spend most of her time in the dining room, greeting guests and asking how they liked the drinks and new menu items, she kept ending up in the kitchen.

She got word that there had been a small grease fire on the line and she was about to rush into the kitchen when Helion stepped in front of her.

“Take a breath.”

“I can’t,” she replied, pulling her hair back off of her face. “There was a fire and-.”

“And it’s under control,” he said, gripping her by the shoulders. “It’s been put out, and I can go deal with Emrys and Luca and any potential fallout. Go have a drink, relax with your sister. You deserve a glass of wine and a moment to sit down.”

Nesta hesitated, but Helion wasn’t having it.

“Go,” he said. “Kallias is currently manning the bar. Go order a drink before the next wave of people come along.”

With a huff, Nesta nodded and exited the kitchen. True to Helion’s word, it was Kallias that was behind the bar. The second he saw Nesta coming, he was pouring a glass of wine.

She took a sip as soon as she reached the counter. “Vodka.”

Kallias blinked, then obliged her. He poured her a shot, Nesta downed it and thanked him, then took her glass of wine around the room to greet people. She eventually found Elain and Azriel, and was getting ready to take a seat by them, until she noticed Cassian already sitting with them, Nyx in his lap.

Bypassing their table, she gave them both an apologetic smile, before redirecting herself towards the bar. She breezed past it and Kallias, draining her wine and leaving it by the sink, before she entered the store room.

Cassian must have handed the baby off to Elain or Viviane, because not even a few seconds later, he was right behind her.

“Is this how it’s gonna be, Nes?” He asked, not stopping until he was right in front of her. “Are we just going to avoid each other, unless Nyx is concerned?”

The door hadn’t even finished swinging shut, but she noticed Kallias stacking a few boxes in front of the door.

For all intents and purposes, do not enter.

Their first night working together and already a fight. She couldn’t blame his frustration, this was all her fault.

“It hurts to see you,” she breathed. “It hurts to see you because I don’t know what the hell is going on.”

“You don’t know what the hell is going on?” He asked, incredulously. “I don’t know what the hell is going on! You’re so-.” His words fell away and his eyes shut as he rubbed his temples.

Nesta arched a brow. “I’m so what?”

“Infuriating,” he said, and met her eyes with a pained expression that knocked the breath out of Nesta. “It hurts for you to see me? It kills me to see you, but you know what? That’s on you. I wasn’t the one that started questioning everything. And you want to know what’s ironic? You’re pushing me away because you’re afraid it won’t work out. But, it’s not working now, Nesta. In pushing me away, you made what you’re worried about a reality.” He shook his head, slowly. “What the hell is the point of that?”

Nesta didn’t say anything. Her jaw locked and she refused to break his gaze, no matter how much it tortured her.

“It’s better for it to happen now rather than later,” she said, and hated herself for it the second the words left her. “It’s better for it to end before it really begins.”

Cassian chuckled, humorlessly, and shook his head. “That's bullshit and you know it. It already began, Nesta.”

He took a step toward her, and in such a small room, it left very little space between them.

Nestas breath hitched, and judging by the way Cassian’s eyes flared, he definitely noticed.

“Tell me you don’t care about me, and it’s done. We’ll pretend these past few weeks never happened, and we can move on,” he whispered, and she could feel his breath fan over her face. “Tell me this all meant nothing to you, and it’s over.”

Her eyes flashed down to his lips before meeting his own. “I can’t do that.”

Cassian wasn’t sure who moved first. If he grabbed her face or if she leaned up and pressed her lips to his, but before he knew what was happening, he had her back pressed against the store room wall. Gods, it had only been a few days, but kissing her again, the feel of her lips on his, it felt like he hadn’t been able to breathe.

Her hands were clawing at his back and he found her thighs, lifting her up to wrap her legs around his waist. He hadn’t even noticed she’d changed into a loose, sundress but thanks to her own wardrobe change, there was very little fabric between them as she let go of him to fumble with his belt buckle and jeans.

There were no words necessary, not when they both needed the other as badly as they did.

Their lips never broke, that contact remained, hungrily, needily, as Nesta pulled Cassian’s cock out and, moving the thin scrap of fabric beneath her dress aside, he pushed himself up into her.

Nesta moaned into his mouth at the feeling of him filling her. He bit her lip, and that moan deepened as he began to thrust deep inside of her, over and over again.

There was no foreplay.

Foreplay wasn’t necessary, not this time.

Two days, two nights, had been far too long when they had become so accustomed to this same ritual every night, time and time again.

Cassian’s head fell back as he fucked her, relentlessly, then he met her lustful gaze. His forehead fell against hers as he slowed his pace. With a soft, reverent curse, Cassian breathed her name.

She clung to him, the smell and taste and feel of him making her feel far more drunk than the wine or liquor had. Nesta buried her face in his neck, trying to cover the sounds tumbling from her.

He captured her lips again, knowing her body better than his own at this point, and thrust into her as hard as he could.

The bottles on the shelves rattled gently, but he didn’t care if anyone could hear them in the bar. He didn’t care if anyone caught them. All he cared about was that he was deep inside of her, listening to the quiet whimpers and moans that she couldn’t stop.

There was no way she could walk away from this.

Not just from the sex. Which, yeah, was incredible, but there was more to it than that.

Their souls were connected, which is what made the sex so mindblowingly phenomonal.

It was more than just sex.

It was something that Cassian swore no one else had ever witnessed before. Or, maybe they had. Maybe this is what it felt like when you found the person you were meant to spend forever with.

No, Nesta couldn’t walk away from this.

He swore, hoped, prayed she couldn’t.

He wanted to say those little words. Wanted to tell her, so desperately, that he loved her, but he didn’t.

He just kept saying her name over and over and over again with every thrust of his hips.

I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you.

“Nesta,” he breathed, and she cried out as her legs began to shake around him. He cursed, his fingers digging into her thighs as his body flooded with the need to explode.

As soon as her release slammed into her, he met his own, her name a groan as he spilled into her. They stayed like that for a moment, him still buried inside her, even as his seed started to drip down her legs. Thankfully, the sound of the party out front had covered any and all noises they’d made. Her breathing was still uneven as he pulled out, and he pulled that ripped hoodie from his backpack and silently used it to clean her up.

Tossing it back towards his bag, not caring if it made it inside or not, he paused in front of her, and tried to tilt her face up to his.

She refused.

He breathed, “Look at me, Nes…”

She shook her head, and damn him if those weren’t tears starting to spill down her cheeks.

He gripped her chin, forcing her eyes up to meet his. “Damn it, Nesta, talk to me. Just talk to me and tell me what you’re thinking.”

“I think you need to go,” she breathed.

He hesitated. “What?”

“You need to go,” she repeated, but there was no bite in her voice.

Cassian took her face in his hands and brought her eyes to his. “I’m not leaving. Not after that.”

“Go,” she repeated, and another tear slid free. “Go, Cass, please.”

He shook his head, fury, frustration, utter misery filling his core. He dropped his hand and stepped back. “Damn it, Nesta! What do you want?!”

“For you to leave,” she hissed.

“You’re a fucking liar,” Cassian snapped. “You say you can’t tell me that you never cared, you fuck me in a damned store room, then you ask me to leave?”

“You’re making this harder than it has to be.”

“I’m making this harder?” he asked, breathlessly, unable to stop his darkened laughter. He looked away from her and sucked in his bottom lip.

A moment passed, and Cassian refused to meet her gaze. “I don’t get it,” he said, at last. “I don’t get it. I don’t know what you want. I don’t know what you want from me.” His words were coming out rushed, frazzled. “Know what? Fine. If this is the way you want it, this is the way it is. I’ll be at Elain’s and Azriel’s tonight, and I’m taking Nyx with me. I’ll bring him by tomorrow, when Viviane is there.”

With that, he was gone.

And Nesta was left alone, her hands flying over her mouth as she sobbed, still able to feel the soft, tender, alluring feeling of his lips on hers.

#snacmc lawki #snacmc collab #snelbz tacmc collab #life as we know it #nessian #acotar #acomaf #acowar #acofas #acosf

[emilia3546]

Wingbeats - Nessian

Written for Nessian Month using prompt: Babysitting Nyx

Babies are a handful anyway, let alone when they start to learn to use their wings, but at least Nesta is used to looking after Illyrian babies.

*****

Cassian tossed his head back, laughing loud enough to raise the dead, and Nesta glared at him,

"You could be helpful," she clipped, gasping when Nyx tumbled from her arms again, his little wings beating furiously as he fell, squealing in delight when Nesta scooped him out of the air,

"But you're doing so well," Cassian laughed, "Welcome to the world of Illyrian babies,"

"I'm familiar with the world of Illyrian babies," she looked pointedly across at him, "But I've changed my mind," Nesta bit back a curse when her nephew wriggled again, "I don't want one, another one," Cassian raised an eyebrow and she couldn't even keep a straight face, "Once this one is a bit more grown up, I don't think anyone could cope with him and however mischievous your child will be,"

"Oh no, you don't get to blame everything our future child does wrong on me,"

"Who else is she going to get it from?"

"I see to recall you being up for a good number of mischievous activities," Cassian raised an eyebrow, and Nesta flushed, grateful that Feyre wasn't around to hear that joke within Nyx's earshot, even if he wouldn't understand it just yet.

"Only under your bad influence," Nesta retorted, but conceded the point, he was right after all, but she turned her attention back to the wriggling infant in her arms, "Nyxie," she crooned, and he tilted his head back, leaning half out of her arms, "You want to play a game?" He might not have mastered words yet, but Cauldron did that child have an 'up to mischief' look, and he was giving it to her right now, "Go and get uncle Cassian," she set Nyx on the ground, giggling when he started to crawl for her mate, flapping his wings to move faster, occasionally managing to lift just off the ground. Cassian dropped to the floor, scooping Nyx up when he reached him, and flopped onto his back, letting Nyx squeal with joy, sitting up on his chest and grabbing at his hands when he reached for him. Cassian shifted underneath him, and Nyx laughed, more of a squeal than anything but a laugh nonetheless, Nesta sank into a chair, relieved to see Cassian allowing Nyx to 'fight' him and win, flopping onto the floor,

"Nesta! I've been defeated!"

"Such a mighty warrior," she crooned, half talking to each of them, but she did take Nyx from Cassian's lap, setting him down in her own, a children's book appearing beside her, "Story?" Nyx fixed her with those bright blue shining eyes, and gurgled,

"Story," he repeated, and Nesta immediately looked across to Cassian,

"Was that him?"

"Story," Nyx repeated, a little more insistent this time, and Nesta gaped at him, suddenly worrying how she was going to tell Feyre that she'd missed her son's first word,

"Has he done that before?"

"No. They're going to be upset they missed it," Cassian said, crossing to room to perch on the arm of Nesta's chair, "C'mon, let's read this little warrior a story,"

"Story," Nyx mumbled again, snuggling into Nesta's side when she started to read from the book, sighing when Nyx's eyes fluttered shut, not realizing the story was about his own parents, albeit a watered down version, but she kissed the top of his head as he slept, not daring to move for fear of waking him. Cassian pressed a kiss to her cheek,

"Now just imagine he's ours,"

"We're going to have a daughter,"

"Oh really?"

"Yeah. I just have a sort of feeling that we'll have a girl, maybe a boy later,"

"You want two?"

"I don't know, we'll see how one goes, I might swear off children forever, especially if the first one takes too much after me, they'll be far too much of a handful to consider a second one," Cassian snorted at that,

"You're not too much of a handful,"

"I would be if I was five,"

"Perhaps, but then you can just get me to take them for a day or two, or as many as you need, I'll be here anyway, you know you don't have to do it alone, we can just call in all the babysitting days Feyre and Rhys owe us if we need to escape." Nesta chuckled at that, rocking Nyx from side to side as he yawned and grasped at her hair in his sleep, "Besides," he laughed, "You really want them to take after me?" Nesta looked over in his direction,

"Our children are going to be a handful anyway," she admitted, "But I do think we're going to have a daughter first,"

"And she'll probably follow Nyx around as soon as she can, especially if he's only a bit older than her,"

"And she'll have you wrapped around her finger from the moment she's born,"

"She'll end up being a genius at sneaking out, or sneaking others in with you protecting her, all the boys will be too scared to go near her,"

"Then she'll just have to make the first move," Nesta laughed, "Or date females, slim pickings for decent males, she'll be lucky to find one,"

"Like you did?"

"More or less," Nesta shrugged, laughing at Cassian's false hurt,

"My own mate! I thought you loved me!"

"Being dramatic again are we, brother?"

"Rhysie!" Cassian practically tackled him when he entered the room, with Feyre right on his heels, darting to the side to avoid getting squashed,

"How was he?"

"Trying to fly away," Nesta chuckled, "He didn't get very far, but he was angel once we sat him down for a story, your story actually, and, uh,"

"Is he okay?" Nesta waved a hand at the panic in her sister's eyes,

"What? Oh he's fine, it's just, he spoke, I feel bad for being the ones to see it,"

"He spoke?" Rhys' head shot up at that and he twisted out of Cassian's hold to cross to where Nesta was still holding his sleeping son,

"What did he say?"

"I asked if he wanted a story, he usually just nods and stops wriggling, but this time he repeated it, 'story', and then again when I didn't immediately start reading, very demanding your son, you know," Feyre chuckled, lifting Nyx into her arms, and laughing when he grabbed onto her,

"He's a dreamer, Rhys."

#fanfiction #fanfic #acotar #acosf #a court of thorns and roses #a court of silver flames #nesta #nessian #nesta archeron #nesta x cassian #nessianmonth #nyx acotar #nyx archeron #nyx #feyre archeron #feyre x rhysand #rhysand #rhys #feyre #babysitting

[emikadreams]

May I request a prompt?

Feyre being comforted by Cass and Az when Rhys isn't available or all the bat boys comforting her? Just their fluff?

And maybe Lucien and Rhys bonding because Lucien means so much to Feyre and Rhys making an effort for her?

Ahhhh I LOVEDDD THISSS!!!

thank uuu sooo much for sending this in and I hope u enjoy this fluff monster!💕

Also please be kind with me, I haven’t edited this properly, studying for exams iss a bitchhh

Spoiler warning for anyone who hasn’t read acosf...

Uncles Retreat 

Rhys was gone.

Well, he was not home.

Ok fine he was at the Palace of Jewels but Feyre missed him horribly. She had thought it was impossible to miss him with every cell of her body but each new day shows her that her love for Rhys was like time; eternal and sweet. 

Feyre sighed and decided that she wouldn’t get out of bed today, she had meetings to attend herself but after being pregnant her duties had lessened and Rhys made sure that she was stress-free, “Cauldron, I love him so much.” She said to their empty room but she heard a chuckle from the bond. 

Her heart leapt as Rhys stroked talons down her shield and she lowered them instantly to let him in.

“Missing me, darling?”

“Horribly.” Rhys chuckled but she knew that he felt the same for the feelings he pushed back told her more than words could convey.

“I’m afraid that I’ll be stuck here for a couple of more hours darling.” Rhys sighed exasperatedly.

“Ugh fine, but can you bring me some dessert from Rita’s before you come home, I had been dreaming about it and now I’m starving!” She could feel Rhys smile with joy and pride as he said, “Tell our son that his father loves him to the end of the galaxy and back and that he will do anything to keep him and his mother happy.”

Feyre laughed, “He’s already got you wrapped around his finger, hasn’t he?”

“Oh most definitely darling, but I’m not complaining. You and Nyx are my everything.” 

She could feel his promise resonate through her body but the moment was broken when her stomach rumbled and Rhys took that as his cue to bid goodbye, not before telling her to eat well.

“Overbearing mother hen,” Feyre said softly before getting out of bed to find something to eat.

Seeing the house empty she touched her belly and said to her son, “Looks like it’s just you and me, love.”

“Aha! Not so fast high lady!” said Cassian as he breezed into the house through the front door followed by Azriel who looked at her and her belly and smiled unabashedly, his eyes twinkling with mischief.

“Oh no.” Feyre exclaimed, “I know that look Az, that’s your ‘Cass has something planned but I won’t let him do it alone lest he burns another building’ look.”

Cassian squawked in offence and turned to glare at his brother who simply shrugged at him, “What? She’s not wrong is she, I didn’t come to that trip to the summer court and you managed to burn down an entire building.”

“It was one building for cauldron’s sake, a teeny tiny building.” 

 Feyre laughed seeing them bicker and shook her head but her heart warmed that she was finally a part of a family that cared for each other as if they were all related by blood.

Her eyes burned and her throat tightened with emotion, both the Illyrians were at her side in an instant, turning her this way and that, scanning her entire body before saying in unison,

“What hurts.”

“Do I need to call Madja?”

The former from Azriel and the latter from Cassian. Feyre stuck her tongue out at them before answering, “Nothing, you overbearing uncles. I’m fine. Pregnancy hormones, remember?”

They breathed a sigh of relief before beaming,

 “Uncles. You called us uncles.” Cassian said, love, etched across his face.

“Well. that’s what you are, aren’t you? Might as well get used to it.” 

They laughed and Feyre joined along before asking, “ Why are you here again?”

This time it was Az who replied albeit shyly, “Well, we know Rhys is stuck at meetings so we thought we’ll enjoy some quality time together.”

Feyre squealed with happiness and hugged both Az and Cass or rather squished them together awkwardly.

“ If we knew you were going to be this happy about spending time with us we would’ve kicked Rhys out, a long time ago.” Cassian grinned but frowned as Feyre yelped.

“What’s wrong,” Cassian asked, a promise of death swirling in his eyes at whatever threatened his high lady and her baby.

“I’m fine, he just kicked.” 

“What!” they exclaimed,

“Oh that’s right we didn’t tell you guys, he started kicking a while ago.”

Cassian and Azriel stared, their jaws on the floor before Az cleared his throat and motioned whether he could feel her stomach, Feyre nodded, her face softening.

Az’s fingers were slightly shaking as he placed them gently on her round belly and waited, Nyx kicked with all the strength of an Illariyan almost as if he knew that his uncles were watching.

“Oh wow.” Az’s eyes were silver-lined and his lips were shaking, Cassian paid him no heed as he shoved Az and knelt in front of Feyre to put his hands on her belly.

Nyx replied with the same vigour he had shown Azriel. 

“Hi, nephew! This is your awesome uncle Cassian speaking, I can’t wait for you to get here so that I can have someone as awesome as me to annoy your mom with.”

Feyre giggled and Cass stood up grinning.

“Now what?” Feyre asked, curious.

“Well, we can do whatever you want,” he replied

“Whatever I want.” Feyre grinned devilishly.

“Yup.” 

Feyre giggled, a plan forming in her head. Cassian paled and tried to back away but Azriel caught his collar.

“You’re not going anywhere, you made your bed now lie in it,” Az said only half-joking.

                                  ~

Rhys was exhausted.

All he wanted to do was cuddle his pregnant mate and go to sleep not before she enjoyed the special dessert that Rita had made for her High lady, Rhys’s heart swelled with pride at how loved Feyre was. Which was what propelled him to get through with all the hour-long meetings but on arriving at the river house, a sense of dread washed over him.

His home was eerily quiet. 

He called Feyre’s name but no reply came, he guessed that she was probably already asleep and decided to go into their room and found to his surprise his brothers sitting on their bed with feyre, all in loose clothing, a huge tray of food on their laps and with face cream and cucumber slices on their faces, their heads were leaned against the bed rest and it seemed as if they were getting facials.

Rhys burst out laughing causing the trio to turn their attention to him, cucumber slices falling out of their eyes and to Rhys’s eternal pleasure Cass and Az opened their mouths to explain but was rudely shushed by Feyre, “You’ll ruin it.” and they immediately shut up

Which caused Rhys to double over with laughter, a hand on the side of his face, they continued staring at him with disinterest.

After a good five minutes of Rhys laughing, he sobered took a steadying breath and said, “Mate, Shadowsinger, General,” nodding towards them he mentioned their names, “ can someone put it on my face too?”  he asked and they all squealed with pleasure.

#feyre archeron #rhysand #cassian #Azriel #bro tp #uncles #acotar #nyx #baby nyx #fluff #also i completely forgot what rhys calls az(spymaster?shadowsinger? or both) #answered #anon <3 #ask mee #prompt

[smallraindrops-blog]

Call It Calamity.

4.2k

Hypnos/Zagreus, unrequited Thanatos/Zagreus

Warnings:just some kissing and alcohol uses. No beta at all.

Hypnos just wanted to be a good brother.

A/N: This is an au but it will run pretty close along the game, just with some differences.been wanting to write for this pairing for a while but wasn't sure I could get it right. Still don't, to be honest. Oh well hope you enjoy it.

The rumor mill was alive and well, even the underworld.

But this was a new one. And not one that Hypnos really believed.

Hypnos wasn't sure what to say when he heard that Zagreus had politely but firmly rejected Thanatos.

No one had told him really what happened, every worker shade Hypnos asked, he got a different answer.

A mistake surely. Even if Zagreus had rejected Thanatos, maybe he meant as a 'Not right now' while he worked though some family issues. And darkness knows with Hades as a father, there were issues.

Hypnos tapped his quill on his ledger, trying to listen to the shade that was telling him it was a bull shark, not a tiger shark that ate him and it was a common mistake really.

"Okay, just let me cross this out." Hypnos said, not really remembering what the shade told him. He just wrote tiger with a question mark.

His eyes kept going to the pool of Styx, waiting for Zagreus to come out. It took an hour before Hypnos just gave up. He made excuses as he quickly floated to his mother.

"Mom, have you heard?" Hypnos said quietly. He went to touch one of her flowers to fidget with something but she batted his hand away. She had gotten very fond of her purple flowers, and even taken up to watering them.

Hypnos wasn't entirely unconvinced that she didn't talk to them when no one else was around.

"Have I heard of what, my child?" Nyx asked. Her eyes watched him carefully, never leaving his face.

"About Zagreus and Thanatos. I've overheard some stuff." Hypnos leaned forward to whisper, "I doubt it is true but I haven't seen either of them."

Nyx sighed, and gave him a very pointed look. "It would be best not to bother them. This is a very personal matter, my child."

Hypnos crossed his arms, not liking the look she gave him. "I just wanted to know if you knew if Thanatos was okay since he isn't talking to me right now. I mean everyone but Zagreus seemed to know how Thanatos feels about him."

"I haven't heard anything, but even if I did this would be a matter best left alone."

Hypnos pouted, "Boo, you're no fun."

She shooed him away, a slight smile on her face. "Now go back to your work, and I will see you later."

Hypnos waved goodbye, a new plan on his mind already.

💤

It wasn't often that Hypnos traveled the underworld itself. Only when he knew Charon could see him for a chat and maybe buy something.

Thankfully for him, Zagreus left a breadcrumb trail of ruin, upset shades and broken urns everywhere.

Elysium was just as beautiful as Hypnos remembered. The lushness of it made him think of his cave with the soft as a cloud grass and poppies everywhere.

Darkness, he missed his cave. And having Thanatos closer and actually being friends with his own twin.

There was a lot he missed.

However, he didn't missed the sound of Zagreus's screams of rage. He drifted into the field and he ducked when an arrow went sailing past his head.

Zagreus in battle reminded Hypnos of the storms of old, more powerful than gods yet desperate with how little time they had left. Beautiful yet terrible.

Zagreus' sword swung down on an unlucky shade and shattered it. Zagreus stumbled backward, panting and sweating. His mismatched eyes darted around, looking for the next fighter.

Zagreus didn't see the two shades behind him, with their spear at ready. Hypnos bit his cheek for a moment, he didn't want to take the spotlight from Zagreus but he already made the trip and it would be a shame if Hypnos didn't even get to talk to Zagreus.

With a snap of his fingers, Hypnos casted a sleep spell over the shades. Zagreus whirled around, surprise on his face at the sleeping shades. After a moment, they melted away without ever waking up.

"Wow." Hypnos dragged out the word and grinned when Zagreus saw him for the first time. His mismatched eyes blinked, not quite believing what he was seeing. "Just some advice, always check behind you."

For a moment, Hypnos thought he saw a flash of hurt before Zagreus' face hardened. This was new, Hypnos mused but so was his presence.

"Hypnos, has Father sent you?" Zagreus asked quietly, his fingers curled tightly on the helt of his sword.

"Oooh, no. I came on my own will, Zagreus." Hypnos waved his hand. Zagreus didn't relax, his eyes still on Hypnos.

Hypnos rolled his eyes, "I just wanted to talk, really."

Zagreus held his battle stance for another moment, his eyes studying Hypnos' face. Then he relaxed, his lips twitched into a small, tired smile and his sword rested against him. Hypnos sighed, while this wasn't the happy, polite Zagreus he knew; this was better than the battle one he just met

"Hypnos, what could be so important you need to come out here to talk to me?" Zagreus froze, "Is everything alright at the house?"

"Yes, yes everyone is fine." Hypnos held his hands up, "I would have been waiting at the house but lately you've been taking too long to die."

Zagreus scoffed, "Excuse me?"

Hypnos wagged a finger, "You used to come back so quickly, but not anymore! Now I've to go forever without seeing your pretty little face, it's so cruel Zagreus." Hypnos joked.

He didn't see the faint blush on Zagreus' cheeks. "Haha, very funny. Alright, Hypnos what can I do for you?"

Hypnos smiled nervously,"I heard a rumour. Of course, I doubt it's true. But just in case, I heard that Thanatos had… talked with you." Hypnos hoped that Zagreus would get the meaning without Hypnos saying that his twin had hit on Zagreus.

The guilty look on Zagreus' face told Hypnos everything.

"Oh. So it is true." Hypnos said. "I mean you don't mean like forever though right?"

Zagreus ran his hand through his hair, his eyes not willing to meet Hypnos' and for some reason, it made Hypnos think of a little boy who did something he was told not to do.

"Really, I thought-" Hypnos spoke but the sharp look from Zagreus cut him off.

"Yeah, so did everyone else. Everyone but me." Zagreus snapped.

"I didn't… I just…" Zagreus struggled to find the words. "I just can't, not for Thanatos, not like that."

Hypnos didn't know what to say. So he didn't say anything. For once in his life he didn't have a smartass reply.

"I'm sorry." Hypnos said finally, "I didn't realize we put this pressure on you. You know you don't have anything to feel guilty about, right?"

Zagreus shrugged, "Is this the only reason you came out?" His toes curled in the grass, leaving burn marks there. Hypnos crocked a brow, he hadn't seen Zagreus do that since they were children.

"I think I just wanted to make sure everyone was okay. I mean I know Thanatos doesn't want to talk to me anymore but I wanted to make sure he and you, of course, were alright. I just happened to find you first."

"Oh." Zagreus said softly. Almost sadly.

Hypnos frowned, he hated when he knew there was something he was missing and he didn't know what to ask or do to get the missing piece.

"You're a good brother, Hypnos." Zagreus said, trying to sound like himself again. He glanced at the chamber's door, Charon's bag gleamed in the glass. "I have to get back to this but I will let Thanatos know you were looking for him if he even shows up..."

After a moment of just studying Zagreus, Hypnos spoke. "Alrighty, but just one more piece of advice."

Zagreus turned back to look at Hypnos, his brows raised.

"I would suggest trying not to die. Crazy, I know." Hypnos said, not able to stop his lips twitching in amusement.

Zagreus laughed,"Oh fantastic advice, like always." He smiled, a real smile and not the tired, sad one he seems to always have lately. "Even if it means you will have to suffer without seeing my pretty face?"

Hypnos places his chest on his chest in mock agony. "Anything for your happiness, Zagreus."

He grinned at Zagreus' laugh. It has been while he heard Zagreus express some else behide urgency or anger.

"Oh, and here." Hypnos tossed Zagreus a small bag who caught it easily with one hand. The obels rustled noisily and Zagreus stared down at the bag.

"Are you sure? Three hundred is a lot of obels." Zagreus blinked, his face unreadable to Hypnos.

Hypnos waved the question away, "Think of this as a bonus of dealing with me taking up your time."

He yawned loudly, "I've better get back before your father notices I am missing. Good luck!"

And with a wave that Zagreus returned, Hypnos vanished.

💤

Of course, Hades noticed the exact second Hypnos abandoned his job.

After much yelling and banging his fist on the desk, Hades freed Hypnos.

He made his own escape quickly. When Hades got like this, It was best to stay out of sight until he got angry with something else.

Hypnos realized that he had missed Zagreus' return amist Hades' raging. He felt a pang of disappointment but shrugged it off. It's not like Zagreus won't be doing another attempt soon after he had some time to lick his wounded pride.

With a sigh, Hypnos returned to his much hated duty and waved forward the next shade.

💤

It was during Hypnos' napping that Thanatos finally showed up.

Hypnos tugged his sleep mask up, "Thanatos! I haven't seen you in forever. Or weeks since the whole you know what." He beamed until he saw how cold Thanatos looked at Hypnos.

"Is everything alright? I mean I heard what happened. I think everyone did. Um, forget I said that. I tried to find you but couldn't and mom wouldn't tell me where you were-" Hypnos rambled nervously.

Thanatos closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Like Hypnos was an annoyance that he wished he could be rid of. Which hurt but Hypnos would move past the hurt if it meant he could talk to his twin again.

"I need to talk to you. Alone." Thanatos said between gritted teeth.

"Are you going to kill me?" Hypnos eyed him. "Because even though you're our mother's favorite, she would be upset with you."

"Hypnos." Thanatos snapped. "Alone. Now."

"Fine! Fine. At the old hangout?" Hypnos asked.

When Thanatos vanished without another word, Hypnos rolled his eyes and murmured "Drama queen." And without even looking at the long line of shades, he followed his brother.

When Hypnos saw his old cave, he sighed happily. The bedchambers at the house were very luxurious and all but he missed this.

Thanatos stood in the middle of the field inside the cave, his arms crossed and his eyes on the river Lethe, the mist that covered the water drifted slowly, hiding the fast undercurrent under it.

Whenever someone tried to drink from the river, Hypnos had to warn them how easy it was for Lethe to pull someone under. And there were quite a few rescues he had to make. Not all of them were successful.

Hypnos floated next to his twin, he tried to decide what to say but settled on waiting for Thanatos to speak.

"Zagreus is getting closer to the surface." Thanatos said quietly, breaking the almost comfortable silence for the first time.

"So, he is." Hypnos agreed. "Once he gets a handle on the damn Satyrs, I don't think anything will be able to stop him."

Hypnos looked at Thanatos as he talked. "Hades had been leaving his desk more often."

Thanatos just nodded, the weight of the unspoken words, of their knowledge, of what hurt that Zagreus will have to face alone weighed on both brothers.

Hypnos stopped floating and stood, they were of equal height and for some reason, Hypnos felt this would be fair for both of them.

"Is this the only reason why you wanted to talk to me? Not anything else, you know like why don't we talk anymore?" Hypnos asked.

"I just don't understand." Thanatos said.

Hypnos tilted his head in confusion. "We all know why he really wants up there, Mom told us, remember? We would do the same in his place."

Thanatos shook his head, "Maybe not all of us. But that isn't what I'm talking about."

For the first time since coming into the cave, Thanatos looked at him. Hypnos was surprised by how sad he looked. There weren't tears but there didn't need to be.

"I don't understand what I don't have but you do." Thanatos said, his mouth twisted.

"Okay, now I don't understand." Hypnos said, "I don't have anything you don't. Unless you count our powers."

Thanatos rolled his eyes, like Hypnos was being dense on purpose. "Haven't Zagreus talked to you?"

"Sure, you mean about your feelings, right? He felt guilty, brother. He really did." Hypnos tapped his fingers against his belt, just to be able to touch something.

Thanatos didn't say anything for a few minutes then he sighed. "So he hasn't then."

"No we did, I found him in Elysium. We talked some." Hypnos watched Thanatos' face carefully, for any hints of what to say.

"Tell me brother, why did you, upon hearing Zagreus rejected me, seek him out?" Thanatos' eyes narrowed at him.

"I was worried! For the both of you. We all thought you guys were it, you know?" Hypnos pushed away the guilt he felt, he had no reasons for it. He never did anything to wreck Thanatos' chances. Not that he would be able to anyway.

"Oh, is that it? Do you really think I would buy that? I saw how your eyes followed him, you know."

Hypnos closed his mouth with a clink of his teeth, and both brothers stared each other down.

Hypnos crossed his arm to match Thanatos. "I have never said or done anything. I knew you cared for him, Thanatos. I wouldn't hurt you like that."

"Not even if Zagreus wanted you?" Thanatos asked.

"It is not really a problem since I can assure you that is not the case." Hypnos said dryly, not happy that Thanatos brought up the impossible.

Thanatos scoffed a laugh at him,"You're an idiot." And he stepped away, not even looking at Hypnos anymore. "I've been away from my job long enough and so have you. Goodbye, Hypnos."

"Hey-" Hypnos reached for his brother but was already gone.

Hypnos gave a shout of resentment, of hurt and kicked the grass. It didn't help the anger so he kicked again and again.

He sat down next to the river, crossed legged and head in his hands.

He loved his brother, really he did but blood and darkness he wanted to shake him sometimes.

💤

When he made it back, Hades wasn't at his desk. Hypnos' heart sank, and he just hoped Zagreus would be able to push through this escape.

Thankfully it wasn't that attempt or the one after that.

It was during Hypnos dealing with two shades, a pair of sisters, arguing over who was at fault for the cart tipping over when Zagreus' name appeared on his ledger. Next to his name, the word Redacted appeared.

Hades did it. The bastard really killed his own son. Hypnos' mouth twisted, anger burned hot in his chest. He would have to play dumb, the less Hades knew what Hypnos and his family knew, the better.

Hypnos looked over the still arguing sisters and noted down, 'killed by inability to communicate with their sibling.'

Hypnos totally wasn't projecting his own issues.

He saw Zagreus step out of the Styx. Even bloodied, Hypnos could see what his brother liked about Zagreus. Zagreus shook off the blood, and Hypnos' eyes unwillingly followed his movements.

Nope, Hypnos tore his eyes away. He didn't see anything, he told himself. Just his brother's crush, he reminded himself. Even if Zagreus didn't return Thanatos' feelings, Hypnos wouldn't do that to his brother.

"Hypnos." Zagreus greeted him and before Hypnos could respond, Zagreus shoved a bottle of nectar in his face. Hypnos grabbed it before he knew what it was and blinked at it.

"Oh for me? You shouldn't have!" Hypnos grinned. He shook the bottle gently, the liquid glittered in the candle light.

"It's my thanks for the gift you gave me before. It was a huge help." Zagreus said softly.

"Anything for you, Zagreus." Hypnos grinned. He could see a sadness that cling to Zagreus, and wondered if he should say something. His chest twisted with how helpless he felt. He wanted to take away the sadness and make sure he never felt it again.

"Do you want to go see my old hangout?" Hypnos said before he could stop himself. Zagreus perked up a little, "The cave, right?"

Hypnos grabbed Zagreus' shoulder and pulled him along for the ride. The sisters are still loudly arguing in front of the line.

💤

It was nice to return a second time. It was much calmer than the house. The house carried a heaviness to it that made it hard to call it home. And Hypnos had no plans for staying forever in that place.

Inside the cave, it was lit only by the numerous candles that floated about and the river Lethe's own light but it was enough to see most of the field inside.

Zagreus immediately began walking around, his eyes drifting from the river to candles to the little poppies dotted the land to the cottonwood that lined the cave's wall. Hypnos just watched him explore.

"This is much more calming than the house." Zagreus said as he turned back to Hypnos. "Why do you stay at the house? This seems much more like you."

Hypnos floated closer to Zagreus, "It was part of the whole deal, me and everyone else had to stay at the house. Or close to it, so Hades could 'keep an eye on us'. Charon is the only exception because he bonded too close to the Styx to stay long."

At his father's name, Zagreus sighed bitterly. "I swear, that old man causes everyone problems and for no good reasons."

"You telling me." Hypnos agreed. Normally he would try to be nicer but the word Redacted flashed into his mind. And an overwhelming sense of anger for Zagreus who just wanted to see his mother again.

"Come on, I know where the comfortable spots are." Hypnos floated toward the river, waving Zagreus along.

He and Zagreus sat close to the river, where the most plush grass grew. It took Zagreus a few minutes to settle, as if he had forgotten what it was like not to move all the time.

Zagreus's fingers dipped into the mist as Hypnos worked the cork out the bottle.

One loud pop later, and the sweet nectar was his. He took a sip from the bottle and hummed. "Thanks. Do you want some?" Hypnos wiggled the bottle, thinking Zagreus would say no like he normally did.

But Zagreus didn't this time. "Sure, thank you." He took the bottle from Hypnos and hummed at the taste.

Hypnos tried not to think about the fact Zagreus' mouth was where he was a moment ago.

Zagreus grimaced as he handed back the bottle, "I forgot how strong those are."

"Lightweight." Hypnos teased, his tone fond and Zagreus shoved at his shoulder with a laugh. He took a big sip and handed it back to Zagreus.

It's not weird if you don't make it weird, Hypnos told himself.

They passed the drink a few more times, until it was close to being empty. "Want the last bit?" Hypnos asked, feeling a slight buzz. Zagreus shook his head, his cheeks were more flushed than Hypnos.

Zagreus looked good like this, flushed and relaxed, and it took all of Hypnos' willpower to pull his eyes away.

Hydnos tossed the now empty bottle next to him and sighed. He bit his cheek, this was probably a mistake but Thanatos' words had been haunting him.

"Have Thanatos checked up on you?" Hypnos tugged at the grass, trying not to think about how close Zagreus was.

Zagreus shrugged, "Not really. He had been helping in some of the fights but he disappeared before I could talk to him."

"He had a weird conversation with me. First time in months that he talked to me and it was about you." Hypnos grumbled.

Zagreus' shoulders tensed up and he wouldn't look at Hypnos. "I have to apologize, Hypnos. I think I might have made it worse between you and Thanatos."

"Zagreus, whatever is going on with Thanatos and me has been going on for a long while. There was nothing you did to cause this rift." Hypnos leaned back on his hands. "I know he cares for you, always has. It was a weird conversation. He sounded like- like… I don't know. I can't explain it."

Zagreus said nothing to that. Hypnos noticed how Zagreus' toes curled into the grass. He almost said something about it but he didn't want Zagreus to get self conscious and stop so he kept his mouth shut.

Zagreus plucked a nearby poppy, full bloom and a vivid red. He spinned between his fingers before he turned to Hypnos who crooked a brow at him. Zagreus very carefully placed the flower on Hypnos' ear and smiled, "That is a good look for you."

Hypnos snorted, "Your highness, I do believe you're a little drunk right now." He grinned at the pout Zagreus gave him.

Zagreus simply plucked another poppy, and placed it in one of Hypnos' curls. His hand stopped and Zagreus lightly stroked his hair.

"Hypnos, would I upset you if I try something?" Zagreus asked softly.

"Probably not, you are already putting flowers in my hair." Hypnos said, alarm bells were going off in his head but he couldn't be bothered to listen.

Zagreus cupped the back of Hypnos' head, fingers buried in his curls and pulled him into a chaste kiss.

Hypnos' heart stopped for a moment and suddenly the talk he had with Thanatos came back in sharp clarity.

But all Hypnos knew at this second was how nectar tasted on Zagreus' lips and how warm the prince of the underworld felt.

Hypnos knew he was going to hate himself for this. But he did it anyway. May the fates and Thanatos forgive him, but Hypnos knew this would be the first and last time.

Hypnos pressed into the kiss, pleased at the soft gasp Zagreus gave and slowly they both deepened the kiss.

Hypnos wrapped an arm around Zagreus' waist and pulled him closer. They broke the kiss for a moment, for breath but Zagreus quickly returned.

Hypnos felt like he was drowning. Between the sweetness of Zagreus's kisses, the shared heat between them and his guilt of doing this, Hypnos was sure he might be going mad.

After somewhere between an eternity and a few minutes, Hypnos pulled away. He and Zagreus stared at each other, lips full and cheeks equally flushed.

Hypnos stared, trying to remember everything of this moment. His heart felt so full but he already could feel the cracks forming.

Zagreus was so beautiful, so unlike anything or anyone else he ever saw. Hypnos loved him for that reason alone.

"Zagreus-" Hypnos' voice cracked, "I can't, you have to understand. I really can't, not to my brother."

Zagreus shushed him, cupped Hypnos' face in his hands. "I know. You're a good brother."

And Zagreus kissed him again. Hypnos went along almost mindlessly.

"If I could, I would." Hypnos murmured against Zagreus' lips.

Zagreus pressed a quick kiss before pulling away. "You can, I'm willing to deal with whatever happens, are you?"

Hypnos hated how much he wanted to bend to Zagreus, to give in. "My brother will never forgive me.* He said weakly.

"He will, he is your brother and he loves you too. He just has a different way of showing it."

Hypnos mutely shook his head and Zagreus sighed.

"I will wait then. However long it will take." Zagreus said decidedly.

"What? Zagreus, no I can't do that to you." Hypnos looked into Zagreus' eyes as he pressed his forehead against Zagreus'. "Listen, I don't know if he and I will ever be friends again and I don't want you to lose out on something because you are waiting around for me to get my stuff together."

"I already decided. You're not the only with stuff left unfinished. I still need to find my mother and deal with my father. Will you wait for me?" Zagreus asked softly.

"Centuries-" Zagreus kissed him but Hypnos kept talking. "Millenniums. Zagreus, I didn't know this was a possibility. I thought you wouldn't even look at me twice."

"I thought you didn't notice me, Hypnos. I thought you just saw me as someone bothering you with how paperwork I must create."

"How could I not notice you, Zagreus? I just couldn't do anything about it." Hypnos said helplessly.

His and Zagreus' eyes meet, and Hypnos' heart shattered. He knew it was decided the moment they kissed, they would have to deal with the consequences of their actions. With his brother, with Zagreus' own family and everything else he couldn't think about right now.

But at least, it would be together.

This time Hypnos pulled Zagreus into a kiss.

All in due time. For now, Hypnos wanted to enjoy this time for as long as he could.

Fin

#hades hypnos #zagnos #i love them okay #hades zagreus

[exquisitley-obsessed]

Cardinal Catastrophe

Author: @exquisitley-obsessed

Summary: Elain reaches out to Azriel after that dreaded Solstice night and they once again meet under the moonlight in the River House - but everything is different now (post ACOSF, Azriel’s the focalizer) 

Pairings: Azriel x Elain, Elriel

Word Count: 13,300+

Warnings: This does get a bit smutty and then there’s some violence towards the end.

A/N: This is like super long. It basically has everything it’s fluff, smut and angst so yeah, something for everyone. This is probably the longest oneshot I’ve ever written, I don’t know where this has come from but it’s taken me way longer to write than any of my other stuff. There’s a lot of catharsis in this and reflection on how I think both Azriel and Elain think of the situation. You’ll also get a bit of Rhys’ pov towards the ned ;)

Preview: With Elain’s eyes closed he allowed himself to greedily devour the sight of her. Just her face alone captured his attention entirely. With his eyes he memorised the curve of her cheekbones, the specific angle of her brows, even the exact chocolatey shade of her lashes. He went over it again, and again, and again, like a worshipper devouring the holy text. Azriel needed the perfection of Elain committed to memory, because he was sure that one day his luck would run out entirely. That soon he would not be permitted to even these meetings in the dead of night, with only a thousand stars as witness to their mutilated fate.

“Elain...” He tried again; his voice softer than he had ever heard it before. The person he became around Elain was foreign to himself. He had never been someone privileged enough to both love and be loved, not like this. Now that he had tasted such passions, he found he could not always recognise himself. Because he was Azriel, and he was cursed and damned, destined to be alone, to be unloved, mutilated both in mind and morality. He could not love; he shouldn’t be able to love - and yet.

MASTERLIST

It was no exaggeration to say that Azriel’s work was of a most gruesome nature. His daily routine involved cutting into people, making them sing to his shadows, working them like a carcass in a machine until they’d spilt their guts to him before painting the walls with those same organs. As the Night Court’s spymaster, Azriel knew things that would bring kings to their knees, secrets that were interwoven into the foundations of courts, hidden information that would dissolve alliances in seconds; and yet, here he was, pacing the room like a schoolboy as he tried to swallow the fluttery ‘butterfly-like’ feeling twisting his gut.

He’d noticed the note the minute he’d entered the room. A tiny slip of paper that glowed in the moonlight from where it was perched on his work desk, a stark contrast to Azriel’s messy, tea-stained paperwork. Azriel had smelt her on it before he read it, in fact, the second he opened the door to his River House bedroom he was surrounded by her faded aroma. She must’ve breezed in and out, not wanting to overstep her bounds as she left him a note no one else was to read. Knowing her, she was probably currently riddled with guilt for entering his private space, even though, quite frankly, Azriel wouldn’t mind her invading on every aspect of his life, personal or not. Not wanting to face what her scent in his room did to him, he’d crossed the room in three strides and devoured the note in seconds; the words still rang in his head.

I need to see you.

Everything had been fine. Ever since Rhysand’s outrageous demand of Azriel several months prior, Azriel had fallen into a routine, stricter than the last, for ignoring Elain Archeron. He was working more than he ever had before, not just in quantity but in quality. Unnecessarily detailed reports were showing up on the High Lord’s desk of situations that were entirely irrelevant to the current political climate and yet, Azriel thought it was only fair Rhysand suffered somewhat from this situation too.

I’m sorry for everything.

While he was anywhere but Velaris, Elain was never anywhere else, specifically in the River House, a place he had thus far avoided with painful success. Until his High Lady had demanded he come to dinner to celebrate Nesta’s birthday, Nesta who was happier than he had ever seen her before, practically glowing with the dreaded mating bond. It still baffled him how much prevalence mating bonds had played in his life the past few years after 500 years of silence, strings of fate which seemed to only bring about the greatest happiness or the wickedest pain.

I just want to make things right.

They were so happy, all of them. Rhysand with Feyre and Nyx, Nesta and Cassian - and though he just wanted to be glad for his family, the miasma of their bliss was suffocating. Because Azriel had never felt more alone, had never been so buried in his work, so achingly tired from the unnecessary flights and dreary missions, and his harmful behaviour was turning his body into something foreign. Azriel never used to have the constant tautness across his shoulders, nor the constant black shadows under his eyes from the sleepless nights, or the aching muscles that never seemed to heal. But it was necessary – if he wanted to obey Rhysand’s order, if he wanted to maintain civility between courts, and for a plethora of other supposed noble reasons – it was necessary.

I miss you.

He just wanted her. Not in any possessive way, he just wanted to be around her. He’d come to find a specific kind of peace in her company, something about that soothed his worries and aches. So, he missed their walks in the gardens, their shared book recommendations, their inside jokes, their unspoken understanding, their healing. And above all he missed her: her smile, her laughter, the shade of her flushed cheeks, her kindness, her silence.

Azriel hadn’t realised what had been happening to him as they had gotten closer, hadn’t realised how far he’d fallen till Rhysand had pulled him out of the air. Now all that was there, was a lacking. He was busier than ever, but all around him hung the privation of her.

Meet me in the foyer when the sun sets.

So he couldn’t be around his family, couldn’t face their overwhelming joy when he was so, so alone. Maybe it would’ve been better if he had never met Elain, or at least if he hadn’t allowed himself to fall for her. But in those soft moments he shared with her, the brushes of fingertips to the sun-kissed smiles, he’d been forced to face just how alone he was, how alone he had always been. Through Elain, Azriel had had a taste of honest, unwavering love - and yet he was expected to turn his back on such a discovery, by his own family no less.

Please.

He would meet her in the foyer when the sun set. He would follow her to the ends of the Earth if she asked him to, because maybe he was just so masochistic that he didn’t mind meeting Elain only to be reminded of everything he couldn’t have. Reading the note Azriel couldn’t help but think bitterly of how the flower-grower was far more courageous than he. That she was reaching out to him after he had rejected her so brutally. Azriel jolted, flaring his wings slightly to stop the train of thought. That pained, confused look in Elain’s eye when he had said that word, haunted him. Mistake. He’d called it a mistake. Azriel raked his hands down his face and sighed.

He wished he were strong enough to either commit or drop it entirely. He wished he had it in him to do something. Azriel should’ve bitten back at Rhysand all those months ago, should’ve just dealt with this catastrophe back then rather than let it fester and rot under the proverbial carpet.

As time passed in Azriel’s knotted thoughts, the sun plummeted towards the horizon. It was a perfect summers evening, and Azriel stilled at the window to watch as the sun melted the sky into shades of pink and purple. He saw it and thought of the colour of her dress tonight, or even that dress she had worn when she’d made traditional Illyrian biscuits and demanded he tried one. He’d taken it in his pocket and only took a bite when he was alone in the shadows of a different court, and he had savoured every bite, quietly smothering his growing adoration as he did so.

Elain, Elain, Elain. His shadows whispered to him, as though they knew they would soon be in her presence. No one had ever had such an effect on his shadows, and around her he was more aware of them being a separate entity to himself. Though they were bound, around Elain they seemed to grow more confident, they acted of their own accord and would often disappear in her presence, as though his shadows knew he wished to be entirely alone with her.

Foyer...Elain...flower-grower...beautiful. Azriel was inclined to agree. And before Azriel could lose himself to shyness, the sun finally dipped behind the curve of the land, allowing a thousand glimmering stars to prickle through the endless black sky.

She would already be waiting for him, and though Azriel was nervous, he had to restrain some part of himself that longed to throw open the door and jump down the stairs two at a time. Instead, he used the shadows, stepping through them to the base of the large foyer staircase. It would be more silent this way. He wouldn’t make the same mistake of not listening to the corridors as they spoke. For Elain’s sake, he would demand the utmost privacy, even from his High Lord and Lady.

He could see her before she saw him. She was leaning of the Foyer’s centre table, fiddling with the bouquet of flowers in a glass vase - of course she was. All he could see of her was the lower half of her pale gown and her dark golden hair, cascading down her back like a waterfall. The moonlight streaming in through the large French windows gave her an angelic glow, whereas the more sensuous light of the flickering candles painted shadows across her thinly veiled curves. Both warm and cold light coming together to worship the woman who seemed to him as light herself. At the sight of her, Azriel involuntarily sucked in a breath and felt her scent hit the back of his throat, his entire body seemed to sing from her aroma alone, as though it were his own personal drug. Dangerous, this was dangerous, to be with her and to be so alone. He didn’t care.

“Elain,” she didn’t start as he spoke into the thick silence. If she had the confidence to call him here tonight, then he must source some of his own. He at least owed her that. Delicately, Elain turned and looked over her shoulder, her beautiful brown eyes finding his and melting the whole world away.

“You came,” She breathed, her shoulders sagging slightly out of relief. She turned to him properly then, and Azriel flickered his eyes over her so quickly she might’ve mistaken it for a mere blink. But he saw her, saw what she was wearing, and some core part of his soul longed to weep at the sight of her beauty.

Elain was in a nightgown, off-white cotton and silk, with cream and dusty pink lace. Pale ribbons pulled the nightdress around her breasts and down to her naval, dipping in a slight ‘v’ before the skirts flowed around her natural curves and then dropped to the floor. The neckline was agonisingly flattering, though Azriel was sure he wouldn’t look twice at the nightdress on anyone else. Her creamy skin seemed browner in the warm candlelight of the house, and as the shadows flickered, he was aware of how her collarbones stretched out to the curve of her shoulders, how she didn’t have freckles on her chest and arms but rather a specific constellation of moles, even how her hair was impossibly thick and, if memory served him well, soft too. Upper sections were pulled away from her face in an intricate pattern of braids and ties, and yet lock after lock of pale brown hair cascaded down her back and over her shoulders, framing her angelic face. Oh, that face. Poets and painters alike would weep at the sight of that face. The small, angled eyebrows that somehow made her doe eyes bigger, the freckles across her cheeks and nose, her plush lips-

“I know that you’re avoiding me,” she began, crashing Azriel back into reality. He shifted slightly, ruffling his wings as though to wake himself up. Her voice wasn’t accusing, but calm and quiet, “I know there’s a reason why you’re never around. For a while I thought you were just cooped up at the House of Wind but Nesta says that she never sees you...no one ever sees you anymore.” Azriel stayed quiet, just holding her gaze. He never needed to speak around Elain, she had quickly understood that when he had something to say, he would say it, but till then, he was comforted by the silence. And so she continued, more nervous now.

“I don’t want to be...narcissistic...but it seems to me that you’ve been distancing yourself with everyone after what happened on Solstice and...” She shifted uncomfortably, her confidence running out as she looked down at the floor and wrung her hands. “I can’t take it. I can’t take being the person whose pushed you away and I...I think we need to talk about it - or not talk about it - I’m not sure. I just, I don’t want you to avoid me anymore, even if that means we pretend that it never happened, that’s fine. I just...”

He could tell her right now the exact reason why he couldn’t be around her. Elain, he would say, I would do anything to be around you. I would kill a thousand men just to have the privilege of your company. But I can’t, Elain. Because when I’m around you, everything turns inside out, I forget everything I’m supposed to be afraid of. I become this person around you Elain, I become someone who I’ve always wanted to be, and I don’t know how to be him, if I even can. I’m not used to this, to wanting something so viscerally it feels as though I might fall apart every day I don’t see you. Elain, I don’t know how to choose happiness, I don’t know how to be selfish in that way, and above all...I don’t know how to fix this.

“I don’t care if you don’t want me like that, not if it comes at the price of your friendship. I still...need you in my life, Az,” Elain was whispering now, her large eyes slightly glassy in the candlelight. 

Azriel couldn’t help but think that Elain was evidentially stronger than him, that she could still want to be around him even if he supposedly didn’t want her. If the roles were reversed, if it had been Elain who had pushed him away, he was pretty certain he would’ve manipulated his work to make him leave the Night Court for at least several years. Of course, she was stronger than him, he was beginning to think she was stronger than them all, because of this exact trait of hers - forgiveness.

“Please...say something,” Elain’s broken voice rose through the silence. She looked at him again, tears threatening to spill. Her looking at him in such a way made something deep in his chest twist, and twist and keep on twisting. 

He didn’t know what to do, so he took a step forward, and another and another, until he was a foot’s distance away from her. The whole time her eyes never left his, her hands still twisting together at the front of her beautiful, beautiful dress. He opened his mouth to speak but once again Elain had rendered him speechless. Where could he begin, how could he begin - how could he fix this?

“Elain...” was all he managed in the end, but that seemed to be enough to soothe her as her eyes fluttered shut and she breathed deeply at the sound of her name mingled with his breath.

With Elain’s eyes closed he allowed himself to greedily devour the sight of her. Just her face alone captured his attention entirely. With his eyes he memorised the curve of her cheekbones, the specific angle of her brows, even the exact chocolatey shade of her lashes. He went over it again, and again, and again, like a worshipper devouring the holy text. Azriel needed the perfection of Elain committed to memory, because he was sure that one day his luck would run out entirely. That soon he would not be permitted to even these meetings in the dead of night, with only a thousand stars as witness to their mutilated fate.

“Elain...” He tried again; his voice softer than he had ever heard it before. The person he became around Elain was foreign to himself. He had never been someone privileged enough to both love and be loved, not like this. Now that he had tasted such passions, he found he could not always recognise himself. Because he was Azriel, and he was cursed and damned, destined to be alone, to be unloved, mutilated both in mind and morality. He could not love; he shouldn’t be able to love - and yet.

“I’m sorry,” He began, his voice barely audible. And by the way Elain’s brows furrowed slightly and her mouth tightened, he knew that she knew he was talking about the last time they’d been here, in this foyer. “I wish things were different,” He whispered, now trying to memorise the exact constellations of her freckles.

“Me too,” She breathed, her eyes still closed. “I wish I was different,” She surprised him by whispering.

“Don’t...” He murmured, silently stunned, “You...you don’t know how you...” But he had to stop himself mid-sentence, had to bite his tongue between his teeth hard enough to draw blood. Because if he started to talk, he wouldn’t stop. He would tell her everything, and he wasn’t quite ready to be so vulnerable, not when he didn’t know how to be vulnerable at all.

“I...” She opened her eyes and seemed to look at him as though for the first time. After a long pause she spoke again, “I wish I had courage.”

“Courage?” Elain paused and shifted slightly from foot to foot, as though she were debating what she would say next.

“I want to be strong, like my sisters...I want to etch out my own path rather than fumble in the dark.” Azriel thought for a moment.

“You are strong, whether you perceive yourself to be or not.” He wanted nothing more than to reach up and stroke his hand along her smooth cheek, instead he dug his nails into his already marred palm and focused on the pain’s bite.

“I will never be a general,” Elain whispered, her eyes still damp, “I will never be a High Lady or a leader, I don’t care for any of that...I wish I did. You can’t imagine how badly I wish I...” Her words ran out and her eyes became slightly glossed over and detached. Again, he felt the urge to touch her, to ground her back in reality, but he just dug his nails in deeper. “I don’t belong on battlefields, though I’d always fight when the world needed me but...I’m not a warrior; and that petrifies me.”

Again, Azriel paused, taking time to absorb every word Elain offered to him under the moonlight. Azriel adored Elain, he could’ve stood there for an hour and listed everything about her that had brought him hope. How her outlook on life had been so foreign to him, so unrealistic when he first met her, that it was extraordinary now just how jealous he was of her ability to look at the morbidity of the world, and still seek out the good.

“In a world of endless bloodshed and bitterness, do not be ashamed of not wanting to be a warrior,” Azriel whispered.

“But I’m useless,” Elain quickly interjected, “I have all this power, I feel it stirring in me and there is no part of me that wishes to manipulate it or-or exploit it.” Elain’s hands came up and danced in the air as she spoke, another quirk of hers he’d both memorised and adored. Azriel thought again, long and hard, before he spoke.

“I’ve been around a lot longer than you, and from what I’ve learnt of people is...that they’re horrible,” Azriel watched as Elain’s eyes widened and drank in his words and something twisted in his chest. People didn’t look at him like that when he talked. His brothers would wink and laugh with him, his enemies cowered and flinched, those whom he bedded would smile slyly or watch his mouth as he murmured dirty things in the dead of night. But no one looked at him like that, as though he were reciting poetry, as though he were beautiful enough to say something worthy of those big eyes and parted lips.

“You wouldn’t believe the horrors I’ve seen, or the court secrets I’ve uncovered. The way people, particular those in positions of power, treat each other, treat those around them and those below them - it’s tragic. It’s merciless and cruel.” Elain was still drinking him in, still hanging onto his every word.

“I think over the centuries, I myself became desensitised to the horrors of power and politics. Especially given my start in life. When you were human I understood your naivety, your belief in the good of the world, especially after your riches had returned and your life was content.

“But what I didn’t understand was how you continued to believe good after everything you went through. After facing the most brutal torture from the Cauldron itself...you still chose to believe in the wonderful and I-I didn’t understand that. Because I couldn’t do that. Because I’d never believed in the good of people the way you do...I had never even believed in the good of myself.

“Please don’t think that kindness is something small, or something that can be overlooked. Because when the world is little more than ruin and rubble, kindness is all we have left. We’ve just been alive so long that we forget about it, us Fae, we’ve spent so much of our lives at war that it’s easy to forget why we’d even engage in such bloodshed. It wasn’t till I met you that I was reminded that such things as tenderness and humanity even existed outside my family, and once the wars were about defending those virtues rather than snuffing them out…I just, I can’t help but think that if there were more people like you in the world, maybe Prythian wouldn’t succumb to carnage every few decades, just so that the heartless noblemen of this land can feel something.”

Azriel hadn’t meant to speak for so long, in fact, he didn’t quite understand where the words had even come from. They were true, of course. He did whole-heartedly believe everything he had just said, he just hadn’t realised how much he’d ached to say it aloud. Elain was still staring at him wide-eyed, and then there was the worst thing of all, a single tear spilling over her damp eyes and trickling down her cheek.

“I’m sorry I didn’t mean to-”

“No,” Elain whispered, suddenly reaching out and sliding her palm into his from where it was hanging limp at his side. Electricity shot through his arm, and he forced himself to look at her in the eye as he tensed his legs so that they didn’t crumple underneath him. “No, it’s good I’m, I’m glad you said it I...”

But again, words seemed to evade Elain as she looked up at him. Azriel was now hyperaware of her how close she was, of her smooth palm that fit so nicely in his own. His body often reacted on its own accord around Elain, and he had spent months leashing his desires into chains, beasts that could only come out in the dead of night. But since that dreaded Solstice night last winter, everything had changed.

Life these past few months had consisted of the battle between two extremes. Either he was drowning in the way his body seemed to ache and beg for her, his mind obsessing over their stuttering relationship as though it were a philosophical debate. Especially since he now knew that some part of her wanted him and had wanted to kiss him even with her mate sleeping upstairs. The fact that he now knew what her scent tasted like, how her voice sounded when it was breathy and desperate - it all fuelled the fantasies that haunted him the moment he made it back to his room. He could be on the other side of Prythian and somehow the presence of Elain Archeron would find a way to him.

The other extreme was complete and total deprivation. The reality that he hadn’t seen her for months, that she would soon exist more in memory than experience. Even though his fantasies of her were so visceral, so tangible, the reality that she was not in the room with him always came crashing down by the time his head had cleared - and then he’d feel more alone than ever before.

But when he was here, with her, the argument ceased. The torture and the pain, the writhing mind and aching debates, it all fell into beautiful silence. And so, looking at her now, he was unable to help himself. And without thought, he reached up and tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear as he murmured under his breath, no more than a whisper, “Elain Archeron...saviour of the cursed and damned...”

As Azriel’s fingers grazed Elain’s cheek, a horribly confused and upset look twisted her face. She seemed to freeze at the contact and Azriel halted at her discomfort, internally berated himself for pushing her too far, for being so arrogant in thinking he could touch her in such a way.

“I...Azriel...I don’t understand,” Elain’s breathless voice seemed to caress him, and once more he found himself tensing his legs so that they wouldn’t give out under him. “You don’t want me...you said it was a mistake...” Azriel stilled, and he caught her eye in a moment of alarmed sobriety.

“You and I both know that’s not true.”

He couldn’t stop the words before they spilled from his lips. It didn’t matter how soft, how quiet, his voice was, the words were innately harsh and something deep against his spine lurched at the thought of her hurting her - of hurting her again.

But Elain didn’t flinch. Her eyes, instead of widening in shock, stayed stoically still and calm. And then Azriel watched as those honeyed eyes he loved so much lapsed darker and darker, the floral musk of her arousal drifting to him like a moth to a flame, the same scent he’d been dreaming of for months, the memory of it alone making his body achingly hard and taut, as though his own skin existed only to respond to the call of hers.

The scent surrounded him, sending blood to his cock which was now throbbing viscerally against the seams of his leathers. His arousal had never felt so tight before, so extreme and sudden. He felt it, heavy in his lower abdomen, twisting and knotting his guts in both pain and pleasure. That was familiar, that he’d felt a hundred times before, but for Elain Acheron his whole body seemed to sing. His blood burned under his skin as it pounded through his body, whilst his heart was light and fluttery in his chest, as though it might edge up his throat and fall from his lips. His eyes felt heavy lidded as though he were drunk, and even though he were standing stoically still, even though he hadn’t done anything yet, he found himself short of breath.

He had never wanted something more - never. Not Mor. Not a job. Not a secret, not information. Not salvation, not mercy. God, it seemed as though in this instant, Elain had invented want for him.

He would beg for her. Right now, in the foyer where he’d first tasted this personal drug. Had Elain not been holding him up by her eyes and a single palm he would already be on his knees. He moved to fall down before her, like a worshipper at a temple, when movement at her mouth caught his eye. Azriel watched as her delicate, pink tongue slowly dragged along her lower lip to wet it as she blinked innocently at him. Azriel’s resolve was gone in a puff of smoke.

Fuck Rhysand. Fuck Lucien. Fuck the Mother, the Cauldron, the world. Fuck anyone who stood between him and Elain who he knew, he knew, wanted him as badly as he wanted her. Because of course she did. Because whatever this was, whatever was happening between them, was otherworldly and impossible to ignore.

And good luck to them, was the last though Azriel had before he leaned in. Good luck to anyone who ever dare stand between him and her, because he’d kill them - he’d fucking kill them.

Despite his body beating like a drum for Elain’s melody, he did not kiss her right away. Once he’d accepted that he would kiss her, once he’d come to that inevitable conclusion it felt like a thousand doors of golden light opened before his eyes, and it took everything he had to not sob with joy.

All those fantasies he had revelled in for the past year that had been shrouded in a miasma of fantasy and shame, rolled through his mind clear as day. He could kiss her lips. Those soft pads of blushing rose that he had already committed to memory. Or he could trace down and press his lips to the sensitive spot between her neck and shoulder, a crook of intimacy that he’d already figured out from watching her protect it with her hands when someone stood behind her. He could kiss her temples, her cheeks, her throat - every fucking inch of her.

Now that his resolve had snapped like an elastic band stretched too far, he found that he was finally free. Looking at her he hadn’t realised how long he had taken, how slowly he was leaning in until Elain’s fingers suddenly gripped the leathers across his chest and her brows furrowed as she pulled closer to him, her eyes dark and desperate, her mouth wet and parted as she half-gasped, half-whispered, “Please....Azriel...”

He did moan then. A low, throaty sound that escaped him at the sound of his name intertwined with her breathy gasps. He snapped.

He had intended to savour every second of kissing her, but the moment his lips touched hers, he felt fire. Elain’s hands ran up his chest before intertwining themselves in his hair as she pulled herself against him and he moaned again, the second time in a minute, into her mouth. Because he could feel her, all of her, pressed against his hot throbbing body. The soft pressure of her breasts, the bones of her hips, even one of her legs had tucked between his own, the sides of their knees brushing together. She was going to kill him. She was going to fucking kill him.

And then there was her mouth. Softer than petals, and so obviously hers in taste and touch. Every time their lips brushed, every time he felt her perfect breath mingling with his own, shivers erupted across his body. Unable to stop himself he brushed back her hair before firmly grasping the side of her neck, his hand was so large against her velvet skin that he knew he could probably hold her entire throat in one hand. He put it there as an ode to the last time he’d been here. He’d put it there as a fuck you to fate.

His other hand curled around her waist and pressed against her back where - and he moaned again - Elain’s exposed skin greeted him.

He wanted to take her right her. Wanted to lie her down on the carpet and bury his head between her thighs as he had done so many times before in his fantasies. How he ached to taste her, all of her, to pin her writhing thighs back with one hand and wrists with the other. He wanted to look at her perfect angelic face as he made her sing sinful sounds for him. Wanted to make her toes curl and back arch as she came on his tongue. Again, and again, and again.

Elain tugged slightly on Azriel’s hair and he was thrust back into his body, back into the present, and he had to stifle another moan because those thousands of fantasies had nothing, nothing, on this.

In response to Elain’s needy tug, Azriel bent slightly and curled a hand around the back of each of her thighs and hoisted her up against his chest. Elain, much to his delight, snapped her legs around him as he lifted her against his chest, their lips still ferociously dancing. He only had to walk a few paces to set her against the edge of the lobby table, but that particular move was one that had been haunting him more recently of late.

He went to pull away after she was set down on the wooden tabletop. He wanted to see her, with her hair ruffled and her cheeks flushed, her lips swollen and her chest heaving. He wanted to commit that image to memory because there was still some part of him that could not believe this was real.

But as he moved to step back, Elain caught him off guard as her legs tightened from where they were wrapped around his hips, something of a growl arising from the back of her throat as she fisted his leathers and pulled him against her. Azriel obeyed her, like a puppy on a leash, leaning his hands against the table, either side of her hips, in order to stay standing.

She was flushed against him once more. Her breasts pushed against his chest which felt suffocated by the Illyrian leathers, he ached to have her skin brushing against his own, but all in good time. He slipped his tongue into her mouth then and revelled in the juxtaposing thrill and relaxation of exploring her in this way. But there was still an inch of space between their hips. He didn’t know why he left it there, even when Elain dragged him against her, perhaps it was because he knew the minute they were aligned in cardinal perfection, there would be no turning back. He would be hers and vice versa, and she would be his muse and his priority, and he would put her before everything - even his High Lord.

To steady himself, Azriel made the mistake of taking his hand and bracing himself on Elain’s thigh. What he was not expecting was for his palm to find the soft, exposed flesh of her leg from where her dress must’ve mischievously ridden upwards when he had lifted her.

Purely on instinct, Azriel moaned and drove his hips forward into her core, earning a breathy sigh from them both as they finally found an inch of friction in their writhing. There was only fabric now. Measly layers of fabric that came between them.

“Fuck...” Elain gasped into his mouth and some outrageously animalistic part of him growled in satisfaction at having pulled a sinful swear from her angelic mouth. Azriel kept one hand against the wood near her hips to stay steady, to stop himself from grounding his hips into her like an uncontrollable beast, the other stayed on the warm, smooth flesh of her exposed thigh.

Slowly, he began to trace rough circles with his thumb on her inner thigh earning a flutter of breathy sighs to dance from her lips which pleased his soul to no avail. Azriel parted from her lips and began to pepper kisses along her jawline as he torturously inched his thumb up, inch by inch with each circle. When Azriel began to kiss and suck on the spot just below her ear he allowed himself to peek at her as he worked.

Her head was tilted back slightly, her throat bobbing as high hums fluttered from her. If he could paint he would paint the perfect blush of her swollen lips. If he were a poet he would turn her breathy moans into the sweetest of sonnets. And then she tugged on her bottom lip with her teeth as a soft moan escaped her and he had to look away, if only to stop himself from reaching down and fisting himself at the sight of it.

With his head turned Azriel hissed out of surprise as his thumb rubbed against a sticky sweetness coating her inner thigh. God she was wet. And as he rubbed further, coating his thumb in her essence, he had to bite his cheek as to not come in his pants like a schoolboy. Azriel stopped rubbing circles in favour for taking his first finger and tracing back and forth over the highest point of her thigh, slow and torturous as he familiarised himself with the feel of her. His heart threatening to beat out of his chest when his fingers brushed against a lacy frill at the apex of her thigh. Tilting his head Azriel was able to husk into her ear.

“What do you want Elain?” His voice was low and breathy before he caught her lobe between his teeth. Another shuddering gasp floated from her lips. 

“I want you to touch me...and I don’t want you stop,” the sound of her voice so mingled with pleasure and need was almost enough to undo him. “Ever,” She went on, “Not until I don’t know my own name.” 

She was going to kill him. Growling in satisfaction he rewarded her answer with one quick brush over her lace underthing's, the touch was like electricity for them both. Elain physically tremored as Azriel finally brushed where she needed him most, and Azriel shuddered at the contact with the girl of his dreams. 

“Please, Azriel,” Azriel stilled for a moment, wondering how she would react to his instinctual next move. His particular flavour of making love.

“Say that again,” He said slowly, his voice barely more than a brutal, low husk. As he spoke Azriel allowed some of his power to ebb into the words, the siphons a top his hands guttering as they came to life. It felt slightly wrong to use such a voice on her, the one he so often used with enemies, but Azriel watched as Elain’s lips parted, her pupils expanding as her breath grew heavy in response to his dominant voice. Oh, Azriel couldn’t help but think in agonising awe. Maybe his deep assumptions, the ones that only haunted him in that void he entered before he fell asleep, were true. That Elain, the purest of sisters, was also the filthiest.

“Please, Az,” Her voice was breathy and pleading, but there was something alight in her eyes as she begged him.

“Good girl,” Azriel couldn’t stop himself from husking as he peeled back the top of the lace. They both stared unwaveringly into each other’s eyes as Azriel dipped his hands along her, not touching just hovering. He held his hand there, an inch away from where she needed him most, waiting until she almost whimpered before he slid a single finger slowly through her folds. 

Her reaction was blissful to see. The way she bit her lip, her back arched, and her eyes fluttered shut. Azriel moved with her, his own mouth parted, and brows furrowed as he stroked her again.

“Don’t close your eyes,” He murmured in his voice of steel, “Look at me.” Elain’s eyes snapped open, and it was his turn to be caught off guard. Gone was the hazelnut colour, even the sensuous black he had somehow lulled them into, what met him was the colour of bright honey and her eyes, they were glowing. They stood out like gemstones being pierced by golden light. It was then that Azriel began to take note of their surroundings and realise that the thrumming was not just happening inside him but all around him. Ripple after ripple of raw, ancient power was bleeding from Elain, fizzing into the air and turning the entire foyer into something alive and electric. A shiver ran along Azriel’s entire body as his own powers itched to sing in harmony with hers; cobalt energy rising to meet her golden light.

Her folds were dripping, and he was having an internal debate on whether or not to rip off her underwear. On one hand he would have better access, he would be able to pleasure her better, and he could even push her back against the table and lower his head and taste her. On the other, he couldn’t stand being disconnected from her for a second. 

Whilst he debated, he slowly raked his finger up her again before finding that small bundle of nerves. When he caught it with his fingertip and began to drag slow, luxurious circles over it, a throaty, guttural moan escaped her lips. He bit his cheek again. He wondered if anyone had fucked her like this and again, that pride bloomed when he realised that he might be the first. Not her first, but the first person to show her the true ecstasy of pleasure.

“Oh fuck, oh fuck,” Elain gasped as her head fell forward on his shoulder. Azriel allowed the eye contact to break, too absorbed by the feeling of having Elain writhing under his fingers to care.

He’d always thought that he could die a happy man if ever he was blessed enough to experience such a joy as Elain Archeron, but now he realised what a stupid notion that was. Because Elain wasn’t cause for death but cause for life. He’d live for Elain, Azriel realised. Elain who was writhing and mewling into his shoulder as he slowly brought her to the ecstasy she deserved. She was close and following this he would winnow them away to either his unused apartment in central Velaris, or deep in the gardens on this summer night, where they would be entirely alone, and everything would be perfect. And once they’d had their fill on the pure bliss of one another they could talk about everything, and they’d find a solution and they’d work it out, and everything would be okay - and then Rhysand walked in, and everything came crashing down.

Some part of Azriel’s hazy mind had been aware of the movement deep in the house but it had been so, so inconsequential compared to what was in front of him. And his shadows, well his shadows were nowhere to be seen, not with golden light quite literally thrumming from Elain. There had been no warning, and as Rhys met Azriel’s eye when he still had his fingers flush against Elain some primal part of Azriel reared its head.

In an instant Azriel’s siphons were spluttering to life as power surged through Azriel, his wings instinctively flaring as wide as they would stretch, so that the cresting talon of each wing scraped into the polished walls. Rhys, who was standing at the edge of the foyer, an unrecognisable expression scorched into his face, was a threat at that moment, and the whole world seemed to still as Azriel slowly came down from the high of his arousal.

Slowly, Azriel removed his hand from Elain’s underwear and smoothed down her skirts to cover her legs, all the while never moving his eyes from Rhys. He didn’t care if he was in for the doghouse, didn’t give a shit about what consequences his happiness had just induced - Elain came first.

And right now, even though it was a ludicrous thought, Azriel was preparing himself to protect Elain from Rhysand. Elain’s whose nightgown had slipped down her shoulder, whose eyes were wide as she glanced over her shoulder at her brother-in-law, exposed and vulnerable just as she’d been on the worst night of her life.

“Azriel,” Rhysand finally spoke and Azriel shifted slightly to pull Elain closer to his chest. “My office...now.” It seemed as though all sense of formality had dropped as Rhysand’s High Lord voice billowed into the room. Azriel didn’t speak, didn’t move either, just shifted his eyes to Elain whose face was blanch and confused.

“Can’t this wait?” Azriel asked, his voice low and full of strength. Instantly he realised that he should’ve worded his question better. He didn’t want time in order to finish off what he and Elain had begun, but rather to give Elain a moment to breathe, for her to fix her dress and smooth her hair, for her to do whatever she needed to do before she was forced to face her family. Rhysand’s eyes darkened, and he entered the room in a low stride, both hands digging deep into his pockets. Azriel moved instantly, stepping around Elain to put himself in front of her as Rhysand approached.

Without a word Rhysand came closer and closer, and Azriel continued to stretch his wings to cover Elain from whatever vitriol was about to be thrown his way. But Rhysand didn’t say anything, he didn’t even move suddenly, just reached out a single hand until it was barely touching Azriel’s arm as darkness surrounded them both.

Before Azriel even had a chance to realise that Rhysand was winnowing them away – away from Elain – they were standing in his office, and Azriel couldn’t help but shake his head at the slight Deja-vu of the whole situation. Except this time, he wouldn’t be bounding himself in shackles, he’d be setting himself free, whether Rhys wanted him to or not.

Azriel was standing in front of the large mahogany desk of Rhysand’s office whilst it’s owner moved behind it, one hand still in his pocket. Already the air in the room was taut with energy, as though the very air were cowering in the face of the upcoming argument. And still Azriel’s mind was still thinking of the girl in the foyer, her name like a mantra beating through his body,

“Put your cock away Azriel,” Rhys immediately spat in response to the ripples of cobalt energy rippling from Azriel’s form. Azriel didn’t deem the childish comment with a retort, though his arousal was already gone, and quickly replaced by the tautness of anger and frustration. His shadows had returned to him now that he was away from Elain, and they were writhing uncontrollably around his legs and back.

Azriel stayed standing, folding his arms over his chest just for something to do. It was then that Rhys sighed heavily, leaning against his desk and hanging his head. He wasn’t as tired nor as desperate as when they’d last spoken like this - of this. No, now Rhys had everything. Everything he had ever, and could ever want, and now his fight lay in protecting the paradise he had found in Feyre and Nyx. Whilst Azriel was still in the dark, still alone, still secretly in agony - they were not the same.

“I gave you the simplest of orders,” Rhys sighed like a disappointed father and something brutally aggressive awoke in Azriel. How dare he, how dare Rhys speak to him like that?

“I know,” Azriel said, his voice indiscernible and calm. Rhys swung his head up to glare at Azriel, something emotional lingering in his violet eyes.

“You know? Then, Azriel, why did you take it upon yourself to disobey me?” Azriel’s grip on his biceps tightened. 

“Elain is...” Azriel began before he had to lower his eyes. What was Elain? How could he explain to Rhys the inexplicable way he felt about the angelic gardener? The effect she had on him, it was both irrational and yet made perfect sense. And right now, he could barely focus with knowing that somewhere in this house she was looking around confused, wondering what the hell had just happened. “She’s important to me. More than you realise.”

“She has a mate.”

“That is irrelevant-”

“Irrelevant?” Rhysand looked as though he might laugh and Azriel once more gripped his arms tight enough to bruise. “I thought I made it perfectly clear to you Azriel that the bond between Elain and Lucien-” Azriel growled at his name, Rhys ignored him, “-is paramount to the civility between us and not just the Autumn Court, not just the Spring Court or the Day Court, but also the Band of Exiles and the Human realms.”

“And have you ever wondered if maybe Elain deserves better?”

“Better than Lucien-” Rhys practically squawked. 

“No,” Azriel growled, allowing his anger to show, “Better than us. Better than a family who reduce her to little more than a political pawn-”

“She is my sister,” Rhysand spat, standing up straight with a newfound intensity. “Don’t you dare question my treatment of her, don’t you dare suggest I don’t care for her.”

“Are you truly so out of touch that you do not see the shackles you’ve tied around her wrists?” Azriel uncurled his arms, “You’ve stripped her of any choice-”

“This is not about choice!”

“This has everything to do with choice!”

“Elain is a valued member of my family but also of my court. As her High Lord, I have made a difficult decision but one that will undoubtedly strengthen this us in the now impending war. It was a tough decision and if you want me to be the bad guy, fine, I’ll be the bad guy, but you will obey my orders as this is the best choice for Elain.”

“Then why don’t you ask her,” Azriel growled, grappling with the internal leash on his powers, “Why don’t you actually include her in the decisions you’ve made about her life.”

“I don’t know what you’re insinuating,” Rhys flicked invisible lint from his suit, “But Elain is a valued member of these discussions.” 

“Then why isn’t she here?” Azriel husked quietly, full of venom. Rhysand apparently didn’t have anything to say to that, so Azriel went on. “You claim to value choice Rhysand, and yet you’ve stripped Elain of not just her own volition, but the simple knowledge of the choices made about her life.”

There was something bitter clanging through Azriel as he spat the words, he knew what it was, it was a word - hypocrite. Because whilst Azriel was fighting for Elain, really he should be allowing for Elain to fight for herself. He should’ve left the office the minute Rhysand winnowed them and searched for Elain. He should’ve told her, all those months ago, about why he could no longer be around her. And that’s why Elain deserved better, better than Rhys and better than him, because even now they talked of her rather than with her.

“You are to stay away from her,” Rhysand said at last, glaring out the study’s window almost as though he was ignoring Azriel.

“I can’t do that. Not anymore,” Azriel husked, and Rhys paused, catching Azriel’s eye before he hastily looked to the side and raked a hand through his hair. 

“I told you, Azriel. I told you to stay away from Ly-” Both Azriel and Rhys’ eyes widened at the name that nearly fell from Rhysand’s lips. A revelation occurring to them both as the name Rhys’ long deceased sister was brought into the room. “Elain,” Rhys corrected himself, acting unbothered by his slip. “I told you stay away.”

Azriel didn’t know how to respond. He’d spend hours in training rings, on long haul flights or espionage ventures thinking of this specific argument. The way he’d tell Rhys all the things he should’ve said on that Solstice night, about the disservice they were both doing to Elain, about how it was outrageous of Rhys to demand Azriel put politics before his happiness after, well, everything. 

After Azriel had spent 500 years alone with only a doomed infatuation with a woman who would never love him back. After Azriel had always favoured to be alone, to suffer in silence, to take the blame, and now he finally had an out. After Azriel had to put up with both his brothers finding their perfect happiness, Rhys himself almost starting a war by perusing and protecting Feyre.

Why was it so different for him? Why was it the moment Azriel had happiness within an arm’s reach there were a thousand excuses for him not to have it? What was so poisonous about his desires? About him?

“She’s not Lydia,” Azriel said at last. It was a low blow. Especially since Rhys had so clearly tried to cover up his slip a moment ago. “For one, you would never treat Lydia with such little respect. Elain is her own person and I’m not going to fight with you, or Lucien, or anyone for that matter like she’s some kind of prize.”

This argument was too real. Of course, they’d had arguments before, all three of them had. Azriel could remember a particularly nasty one between Cassian and Rhys where they hadn’t spoken for a year, Azriel bouncing between them like an owl. But this wasn’t a brotherly squabble, not when the stakes were so high.

Rhys sighed, still not meeting Azriel’s eye as a muscle in his jaw ticked. It seemed as though the High Lord also understood the irregularity of the dispute, or maybe he was just furious at facing his own errors, at his spymaster criticising him on failing someone so important on a matter which Rhysand prided himself on - the volition of the women in his life. After what happened with his mother and his sister, to find out he was now failing his new family must be driving him mad.

“You just can’t keep it in your pants can you Azriel?” 

It may have been less shocking if Rhys had just leaned over and stabbed Azriel in the gut. His words clanged into the air with a sour metallic taste, and for a moment Azriel lost his breath, his jaw slackening as his shock registered before he could swiftly cover the expression with the mask of steel he’d perfected. The silence following the comment was perhaps worse than the blow itself. Now it was Azriel who couldn’t stand looking at his brother. He didn’t care if Rhys looked apologetic, didn’t care for him at all. 

“Do you really think so low of me?” Azriel’s voice was deathly quiet, before he finally shifted his eyes up to see the raw regret plastered on his brothers face.

“No, I-” A vicious knock came at the door then, interrupting whatever apology Rhys was going to throw his way.

“Open the door,” Came Elain’s voice, more brutal than he’d ever heard it before. Something electric shot through Azriel at the sound of it, of her. If anything, her voice was a reminder that this was real, that his hair was tousled, and lips swollen because of Elain-fucking-Archeron.

Rhys didn’t move for the door, so Azriel did. Turning around, he walked the length of Rhys’ office to the large double oak doors and pulled one back without hesitation. He knew she deserved to be here, that she should’ve been here from the start. 

Azriel was so set on opening the door for the sake of justice and fairness that he momentarily forget that it was Elain on the other side, and the sight of her made his breath stop in his throat. Her hair was still ruffled from where he had raked his hands through it, and her lips still blushed from where he had tugged on them with his teeth. There was also a faint flush of her cheeks, either from their previous activities or from running through the River House searching for him and his brother.

Something electric and charged ran the entire length of his body at the sight of her - not arousal, something deeper. And by the way her glowing eyes drank him in, he knew she felt it too. Azriel stepped aside and let her pass into the office and walk up to Rhysand’s desk. As he followed her, something bitter twisted in his gut - whatever was blooming between himself and the gardener was a thing to celebrate. Such love, light and warmth in his life which had thus far consisted of cold loneliness was a joyous and wonderful thing. And yet he was made to feel ashamed of his happiness, by his brother. His own damn brother.

“What’s going on?” Elain spoke in her traditionally soft voice, but even Rhys must’ve picked up and the unwavering steel that seeped from her tone, so similar to Nesta’s pitch. 

“Nothing, Elain. Just a dispute between myself and Azriel. It’s nothing you need concern yourself with,” Rhysand’s easy smile warmed through his cheeks and Azriel was sure he was going to punch him before the night was out.  

“Don’t lie to me Rhysand, it’s not a good look for a High Lord,” Elain spoke smoothly, folding her arms over her chest as Azriel had done moments ago. Rhys’ expression only flickered in response. “Now, what’s going on?” Elain asked again.

“Well,” Rhysand began, “Me and Azriel have been discussing you actually, you see, your bond with Lucien is unfortunately paramount to a lot of peace and unity between our court and others.” Rhysand looked blankly at Evie as he spoke, completely dethatched from the emotional anger he’d unleashed on Azriel moments ago.

“Is this about me breaking the bond?” Elain said, her voice smooth like honey, healing the sparking energy in the room as Azriel and Rhysand had geared up for a fight. Something about the question twisted Azriel’s guts. It was her terminology; it was all wrong. There was no such thing as breaking a bond, one could reject it and render the attachment limp and lifeless, but breaking a bond was only achieved in death, and even then some believe the bond to continue in the next life. It was just a reminder that Elain knew nothing about this world, Lucien had placed the acceptance or rejection of the bond in her hands, but she did not even know what either option would truly entail. Her education, it was another thing they’d all failed her on.

“If you wish to reject your bond with Lucien I, nor anyone in this court, will prevent you from doing so,” Rhysand said smoothly, “However, given the current political climate, I must say it would be best to leave this till after the war.” Elain did not look away as she thought.

“I don’t want the bond,”

“That’s perfectly okay-”

“No,” Elain interrupted, “I don’t want the bond at all. I don’t want to have to accept or reject anything - I just don’t want it...you....you don’t know what it’s like, to be pulled apart limb by limb, and be remade against your will, to find yourself destroyed and then re-crafted by something as unapologetic as the Cauldron itself. I was violated to the most extravagant degree and when I finally came around, when I finally managed to find something recognisable in myself, months after that night, I came around to find that I had been reduced to some ancient claim a stranger possessed over me. You are all kind, and you all mean well, but I know you all see myself as his.

“It was on the worst night of my life, the night when I had been pulled apart till I was only vessels and blood, he called me his. He is not a bad person I can see that,” her voice wobbled slightly then, “He is kind and witty, he’s working harder than any of you for the forgiveness of my sister. He doesn’t deserve…” She choked up slightly, but cleared her throat to cover it up, “He’s not bad…but this bond is terrible, it’s worst then terrible, it’s suffocating. And when I think of that bond, tied around my ribs like some kind of violating shackle, I just think of how it felt to suffocate on black water...that’s what this bond means to me, it’s a violation on top of a violation. So, to hear that to you, this bond gives you a political advantage, that you get a gain out of it and that you wish me to continue living in torment I...

“I wish I could be sorry about feeling this way, but I don’t. I have stayed quiet, and I have played the role you needed me to play. I keep out of your way; I busy myself with the gardens and dinner and I do everything I can to not bare my teeth every time he visits. But I...” Her wide, damp eyes turned to look at Azriel, “I have found something living in the never ending grave of my life. After I found myself again, all those months after the Cauldron, it felt as though it was only then I emerged from the black water. After I found...” She trailed off, stilling holding Azriel’s eye, “...I was not just out the black water, but back on the ground.” 

A small silence settled over the room as Azriel and Elain found themselves quickly lost in one another again, Rhys was merely glancing between the two, his mind whirring as he tried to click together the puzzle in front of him.

“I tried Rhys…I really did,” Azriel finally whispered into the heavy silence, still not looking away from his beloved. “I’ve done everything short of chaining myself in the dungeons to stay away, but I can’t.” It wasn’t until the words had left Azriel’s mouth that he realised his error. And it wasn’t until Elain’s brows furrowed and her eyes moved to Rhysand, that he felt his heart drop.

“What?” Elain whispered. One of the thousand questions she no doubt harvested. Azriel couldn’t look away from her, couldn’t meet his brothers eye. He had this awful feeling now twisting his guts, the feeling that everything was about to come crashing down.

“I ordered Azriel to stay away from you,” Rhys said evenly. Always the honest man.

“I...what?” Elain spluttered softly, her eyes narrowing on Rhysand. “What?”

“He called me away on solstice night when I was about to kiss you, that’s why I stopped.” That’s why I called it a mistake. Elain’s eyes burned even brighter and Azriel wondered if he should’ve held his tongue. If he should’ve just waited to have this conversation tomorrow where whatever ancient power that was stirring in Elain had calmed down. Now Elain’s glowing eyes seemed to fill the room with golden light, even the black night shrouding Rhysand’s figure ebbed back and inch.

“What?” Elain’s voice rung out, the magic in the room quickly turning volatile.

“I am sorry Elain; I didn’t mean to meddle with your private affairs, but with Lucien under the same roof it would’ve been too risky for those in the house. He could’ve invoked something called a ‘blood duel’.” Of course, Elain didn’t know that, of course none of her friends or family had taken the time to explain that to her. 

“You…you sanctimonious dick,” Elain spat. Had it been any other day, Azriel would’ve had to fight an astonished grin at hearing the words on her lips, but not tonight, not when everything was turning so morbid in front of his eyes.

“I’m sorry Elain, I truly am. But I’m not just your brother-in-law but your High Lord and I cannot risk my entire court for the mild infatuation of a-”

“Don’t speak to her like that,” The words were writhing in venom as Azriel spat them out. He would go down with her. 

“No, Azriel, you don’t speak to me like that,” And with that Rhys’ last straw was gone. In an instant his power was billowing into the room in clouds of black smoke. Rhys acting in such a way in front of Elain, who was already vulnerable, her dress already ruffled and her eyes wide in alarm, made Azriel furious.

“I am your high lord, Azriel, and I gave you a direct command and you have disobeyed me-” Without thinking Azriel’s own icy power rose to the surface, his siphons lighting on fire at the surge. If Elain was frightened by their display of bottomless power she did not show it, perhaps as her own fire was still burning vividly behind her eyes, perhaps since she knew she had more power than them both.

“Have you ever thought perhaps you stepped out of line by asking such a thing of me?” Azriel had never heard his voice so loud and angry before. He didn’t do this. His arguments were stoic and brutal, but mostly silent. He never fought politics - he carved into people who were in chains, and when there was an argument he stayed in the shadows and listened.

“You are my spymaster-”

“I am your brother!” Azriel’s choked sob echoed into the room. “Do I not deserve to be happy?” Rhysand at least had the decency to flinch, to reel back and allow his jaw to slacken in shock.

“Of course, you deserve to be happy brother,” Rhysand’s voice was low and strangled, “But this isn’t just romance – it’s never just romance – this will be a battle-”

“And I’m willing to fight!” Azriel roared, his hands slamming into Rhysand’s desk, his power causing the entire house to shudder, right down to the foundations.

“Azriel,” Rhys’ voice was deathly quiet, “I need you to calm down.” For a moment Azriel didn’t understand, his mind was so focused on Elain, on his own shuddering heart and writhing powers that he simply could not comprehend the words that came out his brothers mouth. Finally, the message registered in his mind and he became aware of his shadows, flourishing and filling the entire room, crawling over the windows and blocking out all the light. The only way he was seeing Rhysand was via the golden glow that came from Elain’s eyes. Disgust racked through his body at the sight of the manifestation of his swirling pain, but before he could do anything, the leash on his powers snapped.

“Azriel-” The next series of events was a blur. Power billowed into the room in a quick explosion, God knows whose it was. Perhaps it was initially Azriel who had finally lost control on that leash on his Illyrian gifts, perhaps Rhysand moved to repress Azriel’s powers with his own, premature or not. Maybe the quiet Elain had had enough of the noise. In an instant, a cocktail of three brands of magic billowed towards each other before exploding outwards, sending a wave of pure, unhinged chaos through the room, the house, and the whole of Velaris.

They all were thrown back from each other, Rhys flying up and landing on his feet, bracing himself against the ornamental globe as his wings appeared and flared. But even he, the most powerful High Lord in history had his knees bent and his arms raised as he braced himself against the fizzling aftershock of the ancient power that tore through the air. Azriel’s centuries of training kicked in as he was catapulted the length of the room, his own wings flared to slow his flight before he caught himself on the doorframe, the weighty wooden doors having flung open, it took an immense amount of physical upper body strength to keep himself upright as the wave of power subsided, his teeth grinding together as his muscles screamed.

But he wasn’t aware of the pain of his screaming muscles, wasn’t thinking about how his wings were in danger of being shredded by the power that ripped through the room. There was only one person, that his entire being seemed to lurch for as his mind screamed her name over and over. Elain.

Elain.

Elain.

He had seen as her pale form was flung away from him towards the cabinets, had heard the shattering of glass over the howling in his ears. Of course, he and Rhysand were okay, they had centuries of power and training under their belts but Elain…Elain didn’t have training, and she had flown through the air the fastest, taking the brunt of the powers rebound, her small form crashing into the case of Rhysand’s prized artefacts.

The minute Azriel had control of his own body and wasn’t being thrust back into the hallway, he winnowed to her, stepped into the shadows with a haste and urgency he’d never felt before. Wrong. He’d felt this fear before, he recognised it’s taste from the poisonous memories of that night Elain had been ripped away from them, leaving behind nothing but a vacant cot and warm sheets. Memories of that night often haunted his dreams; how ridiculously lucky they had gotten that they had reached Elain minutes before the King of Hybern got his hands on her. In his dreams he was too late. In his nightmares he fails her, and by the time he and Feyre find the tent she’s already gone. Sometimes there’s a body, and sometimes his unconscious mind is kind enough to just leave behind her lingering scent. That night he learned what it was like to truly fear, to have the blood leave your body, to feel the world still.

And that’s what the world did as he stepped onto the other side of the shadows. Elain was crumpled on the floor underneath the large bay windows, moonlight streaming into the mutilated room and illuminating her still form. It was as though the starlight was searching for her, reaching out to her with hands made of silver shadows.

Glass crunched under Azriel’s boots as he took a step forward, and another, and another. Because he could scent it before he saw it – the blood. The sour metallic taste that clogged up the air, interwoven with her own delicate scent. Wrong, it was so wrong, to have Elain’s scent fused with that of blood. She was facing away from him, crumpled on her side in a foetal position, and he could see her arms, her beautiful nimble arms so like the legs of a doe, limp on the floor and marred with what seemed to be a thousand cuts.

Her blood was black in the moonlight, and was colouring her beautiful, beautiful night dress. The roaring in Azriel’s ears was nothing short of explosive. And before him he saw a black wave, taller than the Ramiel, heading straight for him. One that was made of self-loathing, anger, frustration and agony, and as he dropped to his knees in front of Elain he felt it wash over him, burying him deeper in himself than he’d ever been before, and he knew he would not resurface.

Slowly, as not to hurt her further, Azriel rolled Elain over onto her back and into his lap. With shaky fingers he pushed back her hair, just as he had done less than an hour earlier. Her eyes were shut again, but this time he didn’t look at her face for beauty, but for a sign of life.

“Elain…” He whispered; his voice was softer than petals. She did not stir.

“Elain…” He murmured again as he bowed his head and pressed it against her chest, sticky blood rubbing against his cheek as he did so. For a moment it was all silent, and Azriel felt the world drop away, felt himself falling through bottomless black water only to never resurface.

And then there it was. The familiar ‘thu-thump’ beating slow and steady in her chest, the sweetest melody Azriel had ever heard. But before he could revel in the relief of Elain being alive, movement at the side of his eye made him snap his head, turn up his top lip and let loose a nothing but feral growl. It was his brother, and a small wave of shame rolled through him at having behaved in such a way to someone whom he owed so much.

“Azriel…” Rhysand’s voice was soothing, calm, “She’s having a vision…look, Azriel look. She’s okay, she’s just having a vision.”

And so, he looked again and yes, she was having a vision. Behind her eyelids Azriel could see her pupils flurrying side to side as though she were engaged in some riveting dream.

She’s having a vision; she’s having a vision. His shadows chanted to him, running up his back and whispering in his ear. It didn’t soothe him, but rather caused the cloud of anger around him to disappear, so that he was numb again. Some movement deep in the house pulled at his attention, but it was like a ribbon trying to move an ocean, there was nothing for it to hold onto.

And soon both men were turning to the worst thing of all: Feyre and Nesta, standing at the doorway looking at their sister unresponsive in a pool of blood, both primed and ready to kill. 

“Get away from her.” Nesta’s voice clanged through the room like steel as she strode forward, seeming to fill the broken room with her strength alone. As she moved she revealed a slightly dazed Cassian behind her, still dressed in his night clothes and yet armed to the teeth, clearly having been awoken in a haste. Rhys took a step back, there was too much power, too much energy, in the room already, provoking Nesta would surely lead them all to their sudden deaths.

Then there was Feyre, walking into the room behind her sister, quiet but observant, the perfect High Lady. She seemed to assess everything around her. The tautness of her husband’s stature, the silent flood of emotions that seemed to be rippling from her spymaster, Elain’s shallow breaths and bloodied night gown. After a moment of quiet assessment, she moved forth to the stoic and emotionless figure of her shadowsinger.

“Azriel,” Rhys recognised Feyre’s tone as she approached his brother, it was the tone she used with Nyx, motherly and soft. Azriel pulled his eyes from Elain to look at Feyre vacantly. “It’s okay, everything’s going to be okay…but I need you to let me take her.” Azriel’s mouth contorted in pain as he pulled Elain slighter closer to his chest.

“I know,” Feyre whispered, dropping to her knees next to him, not caring that her own silken nightgown was turning splotchy and red. “I know it’s hard but everything’s going to be okay. She’s my sister, and I as your High Lady will not let anything harm her.” There’s no need, Azriel thought bitterly as he looked down at Elain’s deathly pale skin, her abuser is here, right in front of you. The only harm you need protect her from, is me.

But he didn’t say any of that out loud, he wasn’t even sure his voice would work for him in that moment. Azriel didn’t quite hand Elain over to Feyre, rather he just let his arms go limp around her, and Feyre was able to scoop her sister out of his arms as though they were passing Nyx from one another. Every instinct Azriel had was screaming at him to take Elain back, to at least look at her unconscious form in Feyre’s arms as they moved away from him, but he kept his eyes on the floor, now kneeling to only the pools of Elain’s blood.

Voices began to erupt around him in hushes whispers, he could distantly hear Rhysand guiding his subjects through the plan, explaining to them what had happened whilst withholding the reason why. It was all numb to him as he continued to float under that black wave, sinking deeper and deeper, their voices were above the surface and so they just sounded warbled and strange.

But one movement did catch Azriel’s eye. It cut through the room’s silent chaos like a knife, a figure appearing at the ruined doorway that caught Azriel’s attention the same way an earthquake would. It was him.

Lucien.

“What happened?” Lucien growled out and something roared in Azriel. He knew that tone of voice, could smell the mate-tarnished anger that was rolling out of him. That animalistic claim on the woman Azriel had nearly lost himself in only moments ago. That’s why he was here, because he would’ve felt the energy down the bond, because even though he was at the other end of Prythian with his own family, he had that claim. 

“She’s okay,” Feyre breathed softly as she lifted her sister up into her arms, “Her cuts are already healing, it looks worse than it is. She’s just had a vision so it might take a while for her to come around.” Feyre’s voice was so like her husband’s, even and balanced, reassuring everyone in the room that everything was okay, even if that were not necessarily true.

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

Azriel didn’t want to hate Lucien, even now he could see that the Autumn son was grappling with the bond that was no doubt screaming at him to rip his mate from Feyre’s arms and winnow them both to the other side of the continent. Azriel knew, because he felt it too. Like Elain he didn’t really hate Lucien, he hated the bond, hated what it told him about himself, clear as day, that he wasn’t worthy of Elain. And though some part of him already assumed just as much, no one was so self-deprecating to not at least hold of a sliver of hope in the face of such agony.

“She’s fine,” Nesta snarled at Lucien, one hand on Feyre’s shoulder, the other on Elain’s pale and bloodied forehead as she guided her sisters towards to mutilated door frame. They were right to take their sister away from the scene, God knew that no one there could help Elain now.

And so Elain disappeared around the corner, and Azriel slowly brought himself off the floor, trying to ignore the sight of his marred hands, covered in her blood.

What...even...Cassian’s voice swam into Rhys mind, dripping in confusion and concern. Did you and Az have a fight?

Rhys put off audibly groaning. Whenever he and Az fought it was normally not difficult to keep Cassian oblivious, he didn’t always pick up and stuff like that and sometimes it was just easier to deal with debates behind closed doors. Not to treat Cassian as his and Az’s overgrown child, it was just that Cassian was never meant to be a mediator.

It’s complicated, Rhys reported back keeping his voice level and calm - his High Lord voice.

I’ll let you off for tonight but, Rhys, you have to let me help you. Especially when it comes to Az. He was right of course, just like Azriel had been.

Deal, Rhys shot back, for tonight I need eyes on Az, I don’t care if he pushes you away I need someone with him at all times, at least until Elain comes around. We’ll re-group then. Cassian didn’t respond besides the smallest of nods. He stayed where he was, more awake now with his eyes trained on their other brother, and Rhys knew Cassian wouldn’t take his eyes off him for the foreseeable future.

Rhysand couldn’t help but sigh, it’s not as though Azriel or Lucien were aware of him to notice. This was a mess. Worse than a mess, it was a catastrophe. Everything Azriel had said was right but, he had broken his order, he had defied rank in a way he’d never done before and that squeezed something deep in Rhysand’s gut. Above all he needed to be able to trust his friends, so that when push came to shove he’d be able to make the tough decisions and his friends would let him go into the belly of the beast. But tonight, that had changed. Everything had changed.

And Elain, Elain who he had nearly called by his sisters name, she’d stood up for herself tonight. And then there was the situation of her powers, savage and rippling out of her like a beast. He had tasted those powers when they’d tore out of her, and they were ancient. The same power that was interwoven in the very fields of the earth, concentrated in the form of the sweetest girl of all. Rhys knew at least a thousand fae who would pay a hefty price to possess Elain, a hundred who might be willing to go to war - and then there were the Fae who would claw for her hand, the noblemen who would see her for her potential offspring. Rhysand physically shuddered as he sent his wings away.

Yes, tonight had been a catastrophe all right.

Rhysand looked away from Cassian’s half-hidden grimace and turned to the two males standing off, the blood of the woman they were unspokenly fighting over still pooling across the hardwood floors. Lucien glaring with restrained anger at Azriel, his masculine mating bond clogging up the air, whilst Azriel wore an impenetrable mask, hiding the bottomless torment and agony that was no doubt running rife in the shadowsinger, as he stared at the weeping puddle of Elain’s blood.

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