The Fire in the Shadow

Winter Court

Celaena POV

Today was the day of the lady of the winter court's birthday. Celaena was ready to go, she was wearing the dress that she had bought when she was out shopping with Mor. She had put her hair in a loose braid that went to the middle of her back and she had put cosmetics on to accentuate her eyes. She was looking at herself in the mirror when there was a knock at the door, when she opened it Feyre was standing there, her hair was hanging down in soft curls and she wore a beautiful black gown with a plunging cleavage, the dress was glittering and when it moved she could see that it wasn't a completely black gown but rather a very dark blue gown, as dark as the night sky in Velaris. There was only one way to describe how Feyre looked and that word was 'Radiant'. 

"It looks like you're ready to go." was the first thing Feyre said to her. "Yeah, I am. How is the night court's relationship with the winter court?" Celaena asked. "It's good. Mor and Vivienne are best friends and they have been for a long time and well I am also really good friends with Vivienne. Her birthday is only around a month before mine, because I was born on Winter Solstice." It made sense that Feyre was born on that holiday, the longest night of the year. She was the high lady of the night court after all.  

They went to the living room, where Celaena assumed the others were. And she was right, everyone was ready to go and Feyre was the one that Celaena winnowed with. She really didn't like winnowing, it made her own magic try to get out, something that Celaena was trying to avoid. They winnowed to a beautiful castle that was covered in snow, Celaena thought that the winter court was probably always completely covered with snow and also very cold. She couldn't fathom how the people here weren't tired of it. But she guessed the beauty of the court was worth it, because it was almost prettier than Velaris was. Almost. The winter court reminded her of the winter's she had spent in Terrasen when she was a little girl, how happy she had been back then, but that was before her country fell, before her own family was killed.  In the entrance to the castle there were two people, a man and a female, they both had white hair and ice blue eyes and they were wearing all white. This was the high lord and high lady of the winter court. And the high lady was heavily pregnant. "Oh my, Vivienne, you're pregnant!" Mor yelled. "Oh, I didn't notice thank you for telling me." Vivienne said with a sarcastic undertone, Celaena already knew that her and Vivienne would get along well. "And you didn't tell me!" Mor yelled again, apparently Vivienne hadn't told Mor as soon as she had found out. They all went inside and towards a ballroom and Celaena ended up standing beside Azriel. "You look beautiful." he said quietly, "You don't look so bad yourself." she said back to him and he smirked at her. "So, not everyone has gotten here yet, we invited all the high lords and everyone accepted the invite and now we're only waiting for Thesan, Beron and Tamlin." Kallias said, Mor had told her earlier what the names of the different high lords were. And they were waiting for the high lord of Dawn, the high lord of Autumn and the high lord of Spring. Apparently Feyre had some bad history with the high lord of Spring, Tamlin. Mor had said that he was kind of sexist towards women, and Celaena didn't like that, she had first debated killing him or injuring him, but he didn't have an heir so it would only lead to chaos in the spring court. And well, his people were not at fault for his actions. 

The doors opened and 3 men, 3 powerful men walked inside with a few people behind them. The men were all keeping a distance towards each other and Kallias went up to them and was the perfect host he was supposed to be. It was clear that he wasn't a fan of two of them because he was a lot more friendly to the man on the left. Thesan she assumed, Mor had told her that he was probably the high lord people talked the least about, and also the one that had no drama surrounding him at all. He had brought with him his lover. A tall and muscular soldier who was very aware of all the people that could hurt his lover in the room. The dawn court was anxious about them being together, because of the problem with heirs. But Thesan had a little sister that would sire some heirs who would be trained to be exceptional options for the position of ruler of the dawn court. 

Azriel POV

The music was playing and people were out dancing on the dance floor. Feyre and Rhysand was there and so was Cassian and Nesta. Mor was on the other end of the room talking to Vivienne. He had been in love with Mor for the past years, he knew that she didn't like him the same way and now he could feel that he was starting to fall out of love with her, which was something he was glad of. 

Azriel had given up on trying to stay away from Celaena, as soon as he saw her in that dress she was wearing. He was looking for her now, she had suddenly disappeared. When he found her she was standing at the food table stuffing her mouth with cake. She looked up at him with wide eyes. She swallowed and he chuckled a little, she was cute. "So, would you like to dance." he asked her, his hand stretched out. She took it, "Well yes, of course I would." They had fallen in a friendly banter where they joked with each other, and he really liked it. He might not want to be with her because she was human and would grow old and die, but they could at least be friends.