A Court of Made Madness - Azriel's love

1. The Prison

I've been sitting in my cell of stone and magic that contains the most dangerous beings for 700 years, twisting my brown knotty hair and listening closely to the sounds of my cell mates, recalling conversations of the High Lady with the Bone Carver who has since died and Prythian has become so fragile that even a whisper of mine could shatter it into a million pieces and leave me surrounded in more destruction.

I've been mute for this entire time...
Until my gate opened and my collar broke, making me gasp and breathe in the stench of misery and suppression.

The lights all went out and the voices rushed back to me, telling me to run as fast as I could, guiding me up the slope toward the blinding light. Only one powerful being has ever made it out of the prison by herself and both she and the Bone Carver faced their death as a result.

I hear shouting ahead - men.

I pause and crouch at the sight of Lanthys being slain by two Fae: Cassian and Nesta, the voices whisper to me Find them. Find them and stay with them. As I get up to reach for them, they winnow out with a harp of some sort.

Then silence... followed by the shouts of the same red haired men who locked me in here, violated me and took away my voice.

Their scent of ash makes me scream in pain when I see them turning the final corner and it echos out all around, letting out an invisible blast, knocking the men back off the mountain in front of me. Dropping to my knees, I start laughing with tears dripping down my face at the freedom in front of me and the cold wind pushing my hair back and I welcome the sweet bitterness of the once sacred mountain that I begin to descend.