The Fire in the Shadow

Stories

Celaena POV

Azriel had turned around and was now looking at her. His face was almost unreadable, the only thing that told her he was shocked was that his eyes had slightly widened when he saw her. "I didn't tell anyone." he said to her, something she already knew of course, if he had told anyone she would have gotten questions and after that pity. "I know." she told him. "Then why are you here?" he asked, "To tell you the story of how I got the scars on my back, if you want to hear it of course." He gave her a slight nod indicating that he did want to hear the story.

And she did, she told him the story of how she fell in love in Sam and how Sam died, how she got captured and what she went through in Endovier. He didn't betray any emotion but when she was done he went over to her and hugged her. Something that really surprised her because she had never thought he was a person that would normally initiate hugs. And while she stood there, in his arms, his shadows dancing around them he started talking, telling her about how his half-brothers had locked him down in that cell when he was only a little boy, about how one day his brothers thought it would be fun to see what happened when they mixed an Illyrian's healing power with oil and fire. And that was exactly what they did when they poured oil on his hands and lit them on fire. Some warriors in the camp had heard his screaming and had come to his rescue, but it was too late for his hands. 

Now that they were both done telling the stories of the worst of their scars they were sitting beside each other against the wall, just making light conversation. Azriel had said he wouldn't tell anyone about her scars until she was ready to tell them herself, and if she was never ready he would keep her secret for as long as he lived. When he had said that she knew that she could trust him, that he wouldn't betray her.

Azriel POV

What she had told him was horrifying, she had been in a torture camp for a whole year, at the age of only 17. And she had also lost her first lover. He wanted to kill every single person that had ever caused her pain but he knew that it was impossible. She was from another world and besides from what she had told him, she had already killed a lot of the people that had caused her that pain. When she had told him of that day she snapped in Endovier he didn't blame her at all, they deserved what was coming for them. And he also knew the feeling she had felt that day, he had felt it himself sometimes and he had also seen it in Cassian that day he had killed a whole village because of what had happened to his mother. 

It had been a while since Azriel had visited his own mother, she lived in a tiny cottage out in woods that he himself had bought for her. Purely so that he could get her out of that Illyrian camp. He had to visit her soon, maybe in the weekend when he didn't have that much work and would have time to visit her for a few hours. Though he was busy on Sunday, Nyx was finally coming home and staying there until his baby sister was born. He had been out visiting the other courts and also scheming a little bit with Eris, because Eris had said it was finally time to put his father into the ground.