A Court of Death and Retribution

one building

I think I've had way too much to drink. Everything around me was a blur, but for some reason I knew where the ground was in relation to my feet as I took my steps.

Adira, Maeve, Cal, Nyx and I had overindulged at Rita's, and now we were laughing and struggling to walk back to the Townhouse.

"Hey! Wait! Everyone stop moving and listen the fuck up." Adira held her hands out to stop us as she swayed back and forth on her feet. "I don't want to go to sleep. The night is young!" She slung her arm over Maeve's shoulder. "Let's go to the ruins."

Cal chuckled mischievously. "I'm down."

Nyx sighed. "Maybe that's not the best idea. Those buildings are so old they'd probably fall right on us." His voice was slightly slurred.

"Oh please! It'll be fun! Plus, Bella's never been." Maeve bumped my shoulder, causing me to slightly lose my footing. Luckily, Nyx caught me before I fell over.

—

I don't think I ever agreed out loud to go to the ruins, but somehow we ended up there.

Tall buildings made of crumbling stone were scattered about. Some of them had already fallen over, but a few still stood.

Adira and Nyx were set in a drunken argument about wingspans while Maeve just laughed at them. I'm not exactly sure why it was such a big deal, but apparently Adira has the biggest one, followed by Nyx, then Cal, then Maeve. If I still had my wings to compare, maybe I'd understand the argument more, but in my drunken state I didn't care.

Cal nudged my shoulder. "Wanna make a bet?"

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Of course I do. What are we betting on?"

Cal raised an eyebrow. "Who can hit each other first."

My face twisted with confusion, but before I could ask him what he meant he flew off to the other side of the ruins and gathered up a snowball.

I let out a rueful laugh and stood from the fallen stone I was sitting on. "You're so on Cal!"

I balled up my own snowball, then rolled out of the way as his flew past me. The quick action didn't really agree with my stomach, but I held in my nausea as we began the snowball fight.

Cal ducked behind a stone wall, just barely missing my attack. Adira, Nyx, and Maeve had quickly joined in, laughing with us as we threw snow back and forth.

The three of them were struck early, leaving Cal and I once again to battle one on one. I breathed heavy as I dodged another attack, then, I packed a tight snowball, making sure it was hard and heavy to make the distance. When I threw it, I put all of my strength in it. The snow hurdled through the air and I quickly noticed that my aim was off.

My eyes grew wide as the ball hit a particularly fragile stone column that held up a building.

"Shit." Nyx's winnowed to me and then brought us far enough away as the building came crashing down hard.

Cal, Adira, and Maeve joined Nyx and I with shocked faces. "You just destroyed a building!"

My cheeks grew red with shame and embarrassment as I winced. "Sorry."

Nyx let out a small chuckle. "Nobody lives here and nobody was hurt, it's okay."

Three loud thuds sounded from behind us. We all turned to see Rhys, Cassian, and Azriel looking from the group of us, to the building, then back to us.

"Bella did it!" Cal yelled as he shoved me in front of him.

I punched him in the arm and shot him a glare, then cringed as I looked back at the three Illyrians. "Sorry."

Rhys looked at me with amusement in his eyes. "You knocked over a whole building Bella?"

I nodded slowly.

Cassian chuckled as he wrapped his arm around my shoulders. "Ahh, I remember the day when I destroyed my first building."

"Really? What happened?" I asked with curiosity, chasing away the shame I felt.

He patted my shoulder while smiling wide at everyone. "That's a story for another day Bella."

—

A/N

This is the end! I'm so sad to let go of the characters I've created. It's definitely been a fun journey to write about them and develop their personalities.

Thanks again for all of your support! Please check out my new Azriel x OC fanfic!! I'll have the first chapter published soon. They will have longer chapters so the updates might not be as fast, but I'll try my best to get them done quick for you all! I'm still working on a cover and a title, so it might be changed in the future haha.

I hope you all have a great summer!

-Em