Risk and Reward

Chapter Nine-Music

Everyone stares at me and even Azriel's brows furrow. I look over at Rhysand and walk in front of the stairs. "I need a piano." His eyes glimmer as he snaps and the piano from the House of Wind appears in front of me along with the bench. I settle down as everyone shoves their way to the opening between rooms, including Nesta with Elain's arm tugging her. I take a deep, steadying breath as my fingers coast over the ivories. My hand reaches into a fold and brings out the music I'd composed while my shadows gather around the pages to turn them as I play.

Then, I start.

"Amren." Her name is the first note and I start in the lower keys. Her start was being imprisoned, like me, then I move into the average notes with dips to the deeper. A little foreboding, but playful. The female tilts her head as she listens and a smile inches across her face.

"Mor." I look to the flame made flesh and her eyes are already swimming when I shoot to the high notes. Even with everything that had happened to her, everything she'd been through, she's always light and gives love so freely.

"Cassian." The broad male winks at me and I nearly laugh as I dip into the deeper notes with my other hand dancing over the middle. He never slows down, my partner in the Steppes, but always stays strong and steady. Even he has his mouth screwed up slightly as if trying not to cry as I move on.

"Nesta." The Archeron sister goes stiff at her name, but I don't let it bother me. My fingers slow a bit as I play her with the middle of the lower register with brief trips to the middle of the higher. Calculating, seemingly cold, but near the end my fingers hurry on with their playing to betray her inner depths. Nesta's lips are white as I move on, but her eyes shine.

"Elain." Her eyes widen as if she didn't expect her name to be said as I mix the middle notes with the higher in a light, wavering tune that reminds me of a spring breeze. At the end of hers, I only play one note in the very middle of the piano that beats along with her heart. She doesn't hold back her tears.

"Feyre." Her hand tightens on Rhysand's as I begin to play. Feyre is the perfect balance of the middle of the darker notes with the lighter dancing with one another. Nesta's was the slowest and the fastest, Elain lay somewhere in the middle, but Feyre's tempo remains steady. She'd always been the steady one, even when I knew her in our little village. Her hand is on her heart when I finish and she looks to Rhys as if she knows he's next.

"Rhys," I say and a lazy smile stretches across his face as my pace slows to an easy coast along the deeper notes with a trickle of middle notes coming in. I'd chosen to give him a gentle song that represents his heart rather than that immense power also coursing through his body. In so many ways, he's the foundation of all of us and I lean on him more often than not. Have since I arrived here. Lighter notes fill out his end and frame his future with hope, as I frame all our futures with hope. His arm wraps around Feyre and holds her close as if he knows.

"Azriel." I save my greatest love for last. His eyes are affixed on me and have been the whole time without wavering an inch. Of course, I start in the deeper notes that leap into only slightly higher notes; the way his shadows sway and move with him. Even being in the darker notes, the tune is sweeping, romantic, decadent, and devoted as he'd always been with me. My mate leans forward as I play as if he'd like to sweep me up into his arms to take me away this instant.

Finally, the symphony of songs comes to an end with me playing a minuscule piece from each, then I take my hands off the keys. Silence engulfs the house as I release a huge sigh and rise from the bench to stand beside the piano while my shadows return to their place in my curls.

Mor is the first one to break. She rushes over to me so fast that I nearly fall over when she collides with me and tosses her arms around my shoulders. "How much do I have to pay you to play for me all the time?" She requests and I laugh as I'm stolen by Cassian who scoops me up and spins me in the air.