The Last Queen (An ACOTAR / Azriel fanfiction)

The Mirror

Azriel waited for Daggerheart to leave but when she curled up on his bed, his shoulders relaxed from a tension he wasn't even aware he had. He pushed himself up on his elbows and looked at her.

"Sleep." She whispered.

"Are going to sleep?" He asked, already aware of the answer he would get.

"No." She said.

"Why did you cut your hair, Daggerheart?" He flipped himself over so he was on his stomach.

"Have you ever loved someone, Azriel?" She asked.

He thought for a moment, "Yes. I still do." Elain's face flashed before his eyes.

Daggerheart raised her eyebrows, "Then why did you sleep with me?"

"I'm your prisoner." He said.

Daggerheart laughed and shook her head. "I can not judge your love for someone, so I won't." Then, she sighed and he put his hand on her stomach. "Don't wake me up." She said quietly and closed her eyes.

He traced little circles on her skin until she fell asleep and then, he pecked her temple before laying down himself. The sun rose soon and he saw the soft buttery glow slide off the smooth skin on Daggerheart's shoulders. Her hair were cut choppily and they flew over to her face with the breeze coming from the window. He slid out of bed and got dressed. When he was tucking in his smaller blades inside him jacket, Daggerheart frowned in her sleep. She pulled the blankets closer and hid her face in it. Her breath grew heavy and she roughly pushed a hand through her hair.

He slowly climbed into the bed and pulled her head in his lap. She blinked once at that but, after one look at him, snuggled up with her face pressed to his chest. "I had a bad dream." She mumbled.

"It's okay. You're safe." He cradled her and watched his shadows knit themselves into a cacoon around her.

Leaving them to stay with her, he silently closed the door and went to where Erasmus still waited in the dark and agony.

Every now and then, he would hear her getting restless. Once, she screamed in her sleep and all of his muscles locked up.

"I wish I hadn't cut your tongue." He slowly moved the sharp edge inside his flesh. "You could have told me what happened to Daggerheart." He sighed.

Erasmus's remaining eye grew large and the Small vessels looked ready to burst as Azriel pushed his other eyeball out.

"But I think I'd rather hear it from her." He thought for a moment, "If she would tell me of course. And can you really blame me for cutting your tongue? No, you deserved it." He stepped back to inspect his work. "You have a little too many fingers for my liking." He decided and freed one of his arms.

Erasmus's arm dangled by his side, nothing left in him to fight. Azriel chopped one finger off with one swift move. The blood still came in abundance and soaked the soil under their feet. "Now, I'm going to ask you some questions and you will nod or shake your head. Understood?" Erasmus breathed heavily.

Azriel yanked his hair back and he groaned, "Understood? He said and Erasmus moved his head up and down. Blood from his empty eye socket stained his hands.
"Better. Now tell me-" He cut off another one of his fingers and his body shuddered, " +have you known Daggerheart her entire life?"

He shook his head. No.

Azriel smiled, "Never lie to me again." And cut off another finger. "So, you are younger than her? Mortal?"

Erasmus nodded fearfully.

He hummed, "If you are mortal and she isn't-" he said to himself, "- Why did she fall in love with you?"

He looked at Erasmus for a while, "You were saying something about the war against Hybern. Were the Queens planning on turning you immortal with themselves?"

Something inside of his told him that Daggerheart was not foolish enough to let Erasmus this close to herself is she knew he would die in a few decade while she lived on. It also told her that she would not have agreed to turning him immortal. Then, something else stuck him. Daggerheart worked for the Queens, she knew what they were doing. That meant that she was part of their plan to attack velaris, to kidnap Nesta and Elain and to force them into the Cauldron. She was one of those people who had attacked his home and slaughtered his people in cold blood. It was nothing but greed that drove them to do it.

A bitter taste formed in his mouth at that thought.

"Did you work for the Queens?" He wrapped his fingers around Erasmus's throat. He feverishly nodded his head.

"Did you know about their plan to betray us? To side with Hybern? Did Daggerheart know?"

Erasmus nodded.

Leaving him to rot in that small cell, Azriel flew towards Daggerheart's house.

He saw her sitting outside. She had bathed and changed her clothes and was eating her lunch on a table a little away from the house.

"You're having a picnic." He said angrily.

She nodded calmly. His shadows still lingered around her.

"Did you know about the Queens's plan to side with Hybern?" She stopped chewing and then, as if she hadn't broken something inside of him, calmly nodded and returned to her food.

"You knew about them attacking innocent people in Velaris? You knew about them forcing Nesta and Elain into the couldron?" He asked in disbelief.

She nodded, "Yes, I did. Why are you asking all of this as if it wasn't obvious?"

"I thought you loved these people!" He yelled, shocked at her calmness. "The Queens sold their freedom for immortality. How could you let them?"

"The High Lord is your brother-in-arms, isn't he?" She turned to face him.

"This is not about me." He clenched his jaw.

"I'd say he's your family. If one day, he was to make a stupid or harmful decision, you would go to him and tell him that it was harmful. Because he is your brother. The Queen were not my sisters." She finished her food.

"I would tell him a harmful decision is harmful because I love my home." He argued.

"No. You would tell him a harmful decision is harmful because you can. You have the privilege to speak your mind and still keep your head on your shoulders. Some of us didn't have that." She sounded like she was on the last thread of her patience.

"I wouldn't care about that and don't try to lie to me and tell me that wouldn't die for your people." He took a step towards her.

She looked into his eyes, "If this is about Elain Archerone, I tried to help her as much as I could."

He looked at her all baffled, "How do you-" Then, he shook his head. "No. It is about all of us. My people and yours. And what if it's also about Elain? She got turned into something else because of you." He spat.

"I think she did." Daggerheart nodded and took a step past him. "You are not allowed to leave the house till tomorrow morning."

His blood boiled inside his veins. "Oh what would you know about what you did to her! Do you even know what's it like to have a life you never wanted? Now you get to be the Queen while she has to live inside a skin that isn't hers."

She stopped and said over her shoulder, "No, Azriel. I don't know what it's like to see myself in a skin that isn't my own. I don't want to know."

Daggerheart stood naked before the mirror and traced her finger along her collarbone where there were small red dots from last night.  Nothing stared back from the mirror.