A Court of Scars and Shadows

Gold Lines and Heavy Scents

AZRIEL'S POV

The week had gone quicker than Azriel expected. The day after Feyre mentioned they'd be going to Spring, Azriel's bindings disappeared. He hadn't spoken to Elain about what happened until they were about to winnow to the Spring Court.

Currently, she was speaking with Lucien, whose face had healed and now is left with minor bruises. As Azriel neared Elain, Lucien spotted him and stepped in front of her, shielding her from Azriel.

Azriel gave Lucien a cold stare, "I need to speak with her." Lucien didn't break away from his stare until Elain placed a hand on his shoulder.

"It's ok," she told Lucien and Lucien stepped to the side. They seemed to be communicating in each other mind, their mating bond, Azriel realized. Lucien nodded to Azriel and left them alone hesitantly. "What do you want to speak about?" Elain didn't stare at Azriel, she stared at her feet fidgeting with her hands. Azriel hated himself for making her feel nervous around him.

"I'm sorry." Azriel said. "I'm sorry for how I reacted when I smelled Gwyn on Lucien. I don't know what came over me. "

Elain lifted her head and stared at Azriel, she chuckled before responding, "To be fair, Lucien should apologize as well since he kept the secret from us for four months. You knocked some sense into him, but just a bit too hard." Amusement lighted her face. Azriel scratched the back of his head as he chuckled lightly. "And as for why you reacted that way, you'll see soon enough." With that she left Azriel standing outside very confused.

A few hours later and they stood in the Spring Court.

"She should be finishing up her training with Tamlin. We should fly so she doesn't see us. Today is a very important day."  They flew together as a group. Cassian carried Nesta, Rhys carried Lucien, Feyre carried Elain, and Azriel carried Emerie. As they reached a clearing in the trees, Azriel almost dropped Emerie from what he saw.

He recognized Tamlin's beast, but there was another beast running besides him. The other beast had onyx hair with patches of copper. It was as big as Tamlin's and had antlers like a stag. The beast's face was lupine with a copper snout. When Azriel say its eyes he realized who it was. The eyes were multiple shades of blue. Azriel could get lost in those eyes for days. He looked to the others to see their reactions and saw all of them to be shocked. Rhysand was looking at Azriel with a smug look on his face.

"Is that Gwyn?" Nesta broke the silence.

"I believe so, " Lucien said. "She did it. She shifted into her beast. It took Tamlin six months before he was able turn into his beast successfully." He finished in awe.

"She shifted back," Nesta pointed. She shifted her body to look at Cassian, "Bring us down now. It's been too long." Cassian listened to his mate and started to fly down, everyone else following behind them. Once they touched the ground, Emerie and Nesta ripped themselves out of the Illyrian hold and threw their arms around the surprised priestess. Nesta was telling Gwyn something, but Azriel couldn't hear a thing. As he saw Gwyn in Spring leathers, he finally was able to see that she was fine, she was safe. He stumbled in his step and the action made Gwyn bring her attention to him. She seemed uncomfortable that the Inner Circle was there, but Azriel looked at her as she took in every detail of his body. He forced the blush he felt forming on his cheeks to hide.

Suddenly, Azriel's shadows stepped out of hiding and went to Gwyn. They ran through Gwyn's hair and intertwined themselves in her arms. She let out a light chuckle which made Azriel's heart start beating faster. He tried to pull his shadows in, but they did not listen as they haven't been for the last months.

Gwyn slowly lifted her eyes up to meet Azriel's gaze and Azriel froze. It was like all of his questions in line had been answered. He felt a gold line snap into place and he started to look at the world differently, look at Gwyn differently. She had always been beautiful, but now she was a goddess. The leathers she wore pronounced every curve of her lovely body. Her long slender, but muscular pale legs that led to her curvy hips. She was a true goddess in every sense. His mate.