The Last Queen (An ACOTAR / Azriel fanfiction)

The Spies

"You can not not accept a bond, Azriel. Only the female can reject a bond." Rhysand sighed.

"Well, she will. I know she will. She hates fae." Azriel set his jaw with stubbornness.

"And you will live the rest of your life with the burden of a rejected bond? You are ready to do that?" Cassian leaned forward in his chair, his eyebrows raising.

Azriel didn't say anything for a moment, looking at the dark sky and then nodded, "Yes. I'm not going to live with her."

"Why?" Rhysand cocked an eyebrow.
Azriel stared hard at him for a long moment before he replied, "She hates me. She hates our kind and she killed my spies."

"Then make her like you. You know Feyre hated fae her whole life. Nesta and Elain hated us. It is your job to make her love you. You are her mate, after all." Cassian shrugged. "What reason does she have to like you? Or any of us?"

Azriel took a deep breath, "She wants to kill us."

"Yes. Because she looks at us as enemies. I do not blame her." Rhysand nodded. "Fae and human have not had the best relationship ever. She is now the only authority the human realm has. Her people are looking at her to bring things back to normal. Hybern was our enemy but he was still our kind."

"Besides, -" Cassian added. "If she accepts the bond or even comes to understand us, it will only help us. If she can kill your spies, she has to have an arsenal of skilled spies and warriors. Not to mention, she must be a clever ruler. Humans love her. She is the key to gaining favour in the human realm and make things peaceful as soon as we can."

Azriel gave his brother a side long glance, "You speak like a courtier."

Cassian smiled, "I am only trying to help."

Azriel felt Rhysand's eyes on him but decided to ignore him until he said, "Go to the human realm and observe her. See if it's worth it. If not, and you think you can live with a broken bond, ask her to reject it. I can't force you to love someone simply because it's convenient for me." He leaned back in the high backed chair.

"I'm going right now." Azriel took a deep breath, looked at the sun that was peaking over the horizon, and left.

The human realm was much the same as nighttime, that is, until Azriel came upon a place where many narrow streets combined.

There seemed to be a market of sorts with people running in and out of small cottages and several chimneys poured out smoke at once.

What made him stop, however, was the sight of a dark head.

He silently landed on a roof where he was sure nobody could see him and gazed down at the streets.

Three burly men were standing with huge sacks in each arm and in the middle a smaller, leaner figure bent down.

She was wearing all white. Azriel noticed that she was also wearing white when he last saw her. The sleeves of her shirt were folded up to her elbows and her shirt was a little unruly. It was carelessly tucked into her pants and she didn't seem to mind that the child she was talking to was crumpling it further.

The men stood silently by her side as she kneeled besides the girl and listened to her. Then, the boy that he had seen last night came running up to them and held the little girl's hand. He was not crying anymore, however.
Azriel swiftly moved closer to where they were standing to listen to what was being said.

"He did!" He heard the little girl say.

Then the boy smiled brightly, "He won't come out of his little hole. I have never seen him so scared."

Then, he heard her voice, just as sickly sweet as it was when she held the knife to his throat, "I am glad you two are safe. Come to me as soon as that man tries anything new." She pulled the girl closer and kissed her gently on the forehead. "I promise nobody is going to take you away as long as I'm alive."

The girl wrapped her arms around daggerheart's shoulders and then, as if on cue, a bunch of children ran outside from inside the houses.

Their voices got muffled together as they shouted over each other and Azriel could not see or hear daggerheart for a minute.

He saw the three tall men put the sacks down and retreat as the children swarmed towards them.

He narrowed his eyes and tried to look for the white shirt again but the crowd slowly increased in size and he backed away from the corner.

Just as he had thought he should follow the men, somewhere behind him a voice came, "I do your job better than you, darling."

He stopped dead in his tracks. Behind him, leaning against another house, Daggerheart smirked.

He grounded his teeth to stop himself from showing any signs of that anger he felt everytime he looked at her. "What do you want?"

She pretended to think for a moment, "Let's see. I want you to..... I don't know? Leave?" There was a bite in her words that would have made someone else flinch.

Azriel, on the other hand, barely controlled his rage. "Or?"

She cocked an eyebrow, "Or, my dear spymaster, you will see many more dead bodies in the coming days. I hardly think that that is something you would enjoy before breakfast."

"Do you know I could kill you right now?" Azriel took a step towards her but she smiled and tilted her head to a a side.

"But you won't." For a second, he thought she knew and relief flooded over him. Maybe this is why she was here - to reject the bond.

"What makes you think that?" He carefully asked.

"Becasue if you killed me -" she picked at her sleeves, "- you will never be able to gain favour from humans. They love me and you know that. I don't think your High Lord is stupid enough to risk such an opportunity because his spymaster wants to be the tough guy."
Her dark eyes glistened like gems under the morning sunlight and Azriel's heart plummeted.

He didn't let his disappointment show on his face. As soon as he had opened his mouth to speak, she said, "Three days."

He frowned.

She swung her leg over the roof, "In three days, I'm coming to your court. Tell your High Lord that I come as the only Queen."

With that, she fell backwards and if Azrie had not wanted her dead, he would have leaped forward to catch her.

She gracefully landed on the ground and disappeared in the crowd, leaving Azriel to clench and unclench his jaw as his annoyance threatened to turn into wrath.