𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟔

𝙎𝙝𝙖𝙙𝙤𝙬𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙨𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙙 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙤𝙪𝙡

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𝟖 𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐤𝐬 𝐚𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐔𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐌𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧

╰┈˚ · ° .   TRAINING BLOOD MAGIC AND WITH IT,  the general magic that came with every Fae, there was something else that I was learning. I had to admit that winnowing was not as easy as it looked, and by far, the hardest thing that I had to learn.

Morrigan— or Mor as she preferred to be called— she was Rhysand's cousin. I had the pleasure of meeting her just a week after first stepping inside the Night Court. She was a powerful High Fae with the ability of winnowing, that's why she had offered her mentorship with this particular gift— which I gladly accepted.

We had been at it for hours, traveling within slashes in our word, depleting my magic well by transporting myself in different places. Exhausted wasn't even a strong enough word for how I really felt.

At the end of the lesson, Mor had brought us both back to the Moonstone Palace's living room. Not even giving her the time to blink, I had already lost my grip on the blonde. Few quick rushed steps later, I threw myself on the couch— quite ungracefully, if I might add.

"Tired?" Rhysand asked in an upbeat tone, not even trying to hide the amused title of his lips. He was sitting on his usual dark-brown leather armchair, a book long forgotten on the small table beside him with a half bottle of pricey red wine and half filled glass— both still kept at temperature by his magic even if it was clear that had stopped sipping it.

I groaned at his teasing, deciding that the best course of action was to bury my head further into the plush pillow underneath me.

"She is just being dramatic." Mor chuckled with mirth, a clean glass appearing in her hand for her to fill with Rhys' already open bottle. She loved wine.

"Don't listen to her. She is trying to kill me." I scoffed in reply.

"Like I said. Dramatic. I can see why she is your Eardreor. She matches your dramatics, Rhys." Mor commented, eyes moving to me to her cousin.

At least, even Rhysand seemed to take offense in her comment too now.

I opened my mouth to speak my mind but magic sizzled in my body feeling the presence of a fourth person's blood with us in the room.

I snapped upright, scanning the room. I knew that an intruder was to be excluded for the sheer privacy and safety of the palace, so with wide eyes I turned my gaze to the High Lord.

"Rhysand, we didn't stumble on you with a lover, right? By the Cauldron, you are making that poor soul hide with a glamour, aren't you?"

Rhys furrowed her eyebrow with confusion, "What are you talking ab-" The male stopped talking as I thought flashed through his head. "Of course you can feel him." He mumbled, shaking his head with a light chuckle.

"Feel who?" Mor asked, lips more pronounced as she lowered her brows to match Rhys's previous expression.

"So it's true. You are hiding th-"

"Azriel, come out." Rhysand called, cutting my sentence off.

Mor laughed as a really annoyed Azriel revealed himself from the shadows as they faded away from his body as they previously concealed his presence in the room.

To my knowledge of Rhysand's stories about his close friends, I knew that Azriel was the spymaster of the Night Court. A full Illyrian like Cassian, and a shadowsinger. His abilities to manipulate shadows permitted him to disappear, travel with them– much like winnowing— hear secrets that they whisper into his ears, and of course, use them to his own advantage.

What I did not know was the sheer beauty of the male. He was breathtaking. Tall, with dark hair, golden-brown skin, and piercing hazel eyes. On his back he had two massive Illyrian wings. Azriel was surrounded by shadows, and silence and calmness seemed to pulse around him. And he was near-unreadable. But my attention got caught by the brutal burn scars that marred the skin on both his hands.

Without any doubt, at that moment I knew that I was him. The male that I had seen in my death.

My gray eyes met his hazel one, my heart skipped a beat. I tilted my head as I tried to read the shadowsinger. It was unusual to meet someone that was so good at hiding even the slightest of emotion, someone that I couldn't read as easily as any other. His shadows danced around him and I could have sworn that they tried to move forward and only by the way his eyes widened to just a fraction— the first falter in his perfectly crafted neutral facade— I knew it hadn't been one his command. Not even the time to blink a second time and he was gone, merging back into the shadows.

Seconds later, I couldn't feel his presence in the room anymore. He was gone.

I turned toward Rhysand who had a huge cocky smirk on his lips, violet eyes shimmering like stars.

"Did I pissed him off so much?" I asked with furrowed eyebrows. I had not even said a thing. For some reason, I didn't like that.

"No, Azriel just doesn't like to talk." Rhysand said acting like the shadowinger's actions were nothing new, and still, though, I could clearly see that he wasn't telling the complete truth.

But I shrugged my shoulders and laid back on the couch too tired to think more of it. I was exhausted after all the winnowing training that Mor had made me do, but still, my mind wandered back to the shadowsinger who stole my mind with shadows and piercing hazel eyes. I couldn't read him and that didn't happen a lot of times. Maybe it was that that stole my attention almost obsessively, or maybe that wasn't the only thing that made me think about him.

────༺☽༓☾༻────

╰┈˚ · ° .   A couple of days later, like always during the darkest hours of the night, I had put in use the lessons received, and so, my magic— even if not as smooth as possible—-winnowed me to the Moonstone Palace.

I knew that Rhysand wasn't there so that meant that I had the place to myself. No other soul to wander around the hallways of the place.

My head was a mess. Sometimes the memories were too much to bear, weighing me down to the point that I could feel it even physically.

As soon as I arrived at the residence, I walked to the library— I could say that I preferred that space the most between all the magnificent rooms in the palace— and sat down on the ledge of the glassless window. My back rested against the pillar, my legs were withdrawn to my chest and my eyes remained closed as memories flashed behind the lids.

Let me out!

I was 10-years-old in this memory.

Please! Let me out!

But they didn't let me out of that cold and dark cell— not for days— and sometimes, I couldn't lie and say I didn't feel as if I was still in there. Trapped between the darkness and tears.

"Hi."

The unexpected voice made me snap my head to the side, opening my eyes and instinctively raising my guard up. And there, next to the door, cladded in leathers and shadows, was Azriel.

His voice was dark and smooth as his shadows gave form.

I was so immersed in my mind, in my memories, that I hadn't even felt the presence of another person there with me.

"Hi." I said back, making eye contact with the shadowsinger.

"I wanted to apologize for the other day." Azriel started, "I was very surprised." He walked forward until he stood next to the pillar in front of me, hands kept behind his back, posture nothing but perfect. "It never happened to me before that someone knew when I was in the shadows. It took me by surprise, I guess." He explained, tone lowering as he was forcing himself to admit something that he did not want to. I was sure that Azriel was used to pass unobserved, that he took pride in being invisible, making him the best at his job. Being discovered as he hid between his shadows might not have felt the best.

"It's okay." I replied in a soft tone, "I understand."

"I'm Azriel." Hazel eyes lifting at the corner as he extended his hand for me to shake as he introduced himself.

"Maiven." My lips quirked upwards, his own mirroring the movement.

Seconds passed after the handshake without any of us two moving, too busy to study each other. Features, the similar way we were both easily masked our facial expressions— our emotions. It was easy to fall in a loop of staring at the breathtaking Illyrian. Every second that passed was never felt, and the more I stared, the more I discovered, and wanted to. I refrained, though, stopping myself and dragged my gaze away from him.

But I could still feel his stare on me as I led my eyes to the stars above carpeting the sky with bright lights.

"You can sit if you want," I offered, tilting my head to the space remaining free next to me while still not moving away from the night sky that was almost as mesmerizing as the male.

The shadows around him had a different feeling— one that I didn't even know how to explain— different to anything else I had ever felt before. They buzzed, electrifying the air with gelid vibrations that sent shivers of pleasure down my spine.

Wordlessly, Azriel sat with his back against the pillar in front of me. Different from me, though, his eyes didn't trail up to the stars. No, they stayed locked on me, like they couldn't move away.

────༺☽༓☾༻────

𝐀𝐳𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐥'𝐬 𝐏𝐨𝐯

╰┈˚ · ° . I could feel the walls that she had built around herself. They were so high and thick that not even I could feel a whisper of her emotion. But they were written all over her face when she thought that she was alone with only her memory to keep her company.

I was hyper aware of her— of everything that was her. Obsessing over minimal details that everyone would find needless, and still, it was like a breath of oxygen for depleted lungs for me. Only because it was her.

And it was only because I couldn't keep my gaze away from her that I became aware of the way her eyes slightly fogged or the way her heart was beating a tad too quickly.

I didn't know what she was seeing in her mind— that definitely wasn't the stars— but the negative mix of unclear emotions that I got even only a whisper of it, was enough for a tendril of my shadows to escape my control. It slithered around her ankle— in my luck, fortunately, without her noticing it.

The effect was so immediate that If I had doubt on the bond we shared, this would have confided it to me fully. Maiven let out a breath, shoulder lowering as she relaxed slightly.

"Why are you sitting here?" I asked, breaking the peaceful silence that was created. I refused to acknowledge further the effects, that even only by being in her presence was causing me. And still, I couldn't look away as she never strayed her gaze from the star-filled night sky even knowing that my eyes were on her.

"Thinking." She answered, "About my past." The fact that she decided to tell the truth surprised me. And then she inhaled a breath, "Do you know about it?"

I did. Rumors about the Archeron twins had reached every corner of Prythian, and the fact that one of them was a trained assassin of the League didn't pass over anyone.

"You were an assassin." I replied. We both know that everyone knew of her.

"I am an assassin." Mai corrected me, "I don't think that it can ever change. It's what I am. What I was raised to be. "

"It's true." I agreed with her. The conflict written all over her face was not something that I would wish to see, "But you don't have to be only that now. it's your choice. You can choose for yourself now."

For the first time since her eyes landed on the stars she moved them away until I could see the astonishing gray color of them that sparkled with hidden light. A small smile grew on her lips, "Thank you." She whispered.

The shadows around myself buzzed again, feeling content at our mate's genuine feelings at that moment. Her smile was mesmerizing, nothing had ever compared to its beauty. There was something that I could now see hiding behind everything else in the whisper of her emotions that I could get.

Hope.

✎

˗ˏˋ 𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫'𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞 ˊˎ˗

Hello everyone!

Screaming out loud at this chapter.

They are already so cute!!

The bond snapped in place for Az (Cue the waterlocks) there will be still some time before Mai will be aware of it. But I hope it will be worth it.

I want for her to have some stability first, heal even if just slightly. TO be in the right headspace. And of course, I want them to know each other better first.

This book is definitely a slow burn and more focused on Maiven than her love life. But I hope that you still enjoy it.

One chapter left before the end of this Act!

Anyways, thank you for reading this chapter, I'll see you on Tuesday!

˚ · ° . 𝐔𝐩𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐥𝐞 . ° · ˚

𝐓𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲

𝐓𝐡𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲

𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐲 𝐬𝐚𝐟𝐞 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞!

– 𝐋𝐨𝐥𝐚 ☾