A Court of Made Madness - Azriel's love

17.

Asterin
****700 years ago

We lay on a towel on the sand, my head rested on Amarantha's chest, both of us looking out to the sunset illuminating the sea and making it the colour of Autumn Flame.

"I love you" I whisper loud enough for only us to hear.
I've never said it before to anyone, I didn't have anyone to say it to until now.

"I love you too As", I feel her kiss the top of my still wet head.

I take her hand and kiss her bruised knuckles one by one, before looking up to her and staring into her beautiful glossy green eyes.

One scream, snap
Another scream, snap

I sit up to see the forest before me on fire, but feel a sharp pain in my shoulder and a scream escapes Amarantha underneath me. I feel I'm wounded and I look down to see black blood trickling out from an arrow inside me.

I fall back onto the sand, staring at the beautiful blue sky and red hair blowing through the wind and can't hear anything but the forest on fire and branches falling, bones or twigs snapping underfoot.

Amara is healing me, slowly and barely but I feel the pain of the arrow come out of me and her hands being engulfed in my cold black blood. I'm different, she knows my blood doesn't clot or work the way that red blood does but she's trying anyway. I'm immortal beyond the average High Fae but I still get injured.

"Get up! Get up Asterin!" She slaps me back into my senses and I feel the paralysing pain in my shoulder.

"We have to go!" She shouts at me above all the screaming, waves crashing, Valkyries burning alive.

"We're in Summer Court, why is there fire?" I ask, propping myself up by Amara, coating her silk white gown in black.

"I don't know! We need to get out of here, can you glamour us?" She asks with a panic, but I shake my head and she looks around surveying the area. We're surrounded on so many fronts but I let her lead me wherever she believes to be best. She is the best of the best and I trust her with my life. If I didn't, I'd surely be dead by now.

We run through the forest for what feels like hours and when my legs buckle, she keeps me upright until she stops and her legs collapse with an arrow through each thigh. She drops in my arms and I cradle her, ignoring the stinging deafening pain soaring through my right shoulder.

"No! What do I do?!" I ask, not knowing how to help her, only that she could die.

"There's nothing you can do. Listen..." she brings me in and I hold her in my left arm, and kiss her in the dark burning woods with ash and tears clouding my eyes and my lungs.

"I love you but you have to leave me Asterin"

"No!" I shout, "I can't go"

"I can't move, the arrow is poisonous but your blood won't get infected like mine already has been, you need to go. Now" I look her in her green eyes with my darkness spread across her face, tinting her hair into a dark dirty brown from her usually glowing mermaid-like red hair.

"I did this, they want me" I cry.

"Imagine their disappointed faces when they see my beautiful face instead" we both laugh at her remark with tears pouring down our faces.

"Go my love, and don't look back. If you find my sister, make sure she knows-" she starts coughing and shaking badly.

"She knows Amara, she knows. I do too" I croak.

I hear thick accented words coming closer and I place her down on the ground, covering her body with leaves as much as I can.

I let out a whimper at the knowledge of what I'm about to do and I stand, scanning the area and run.

I run away from her dying body and by her orders I don't look back. I feel something shift within me as the entire forest goes dark around me, spinning in my vision and I scream a clearance of trees into ash, facing the High Lord of the Autumn Court waiting for me on the other side.