A court of water and worlds

Chapter #46

Azriel had found close to nothing.
Almost a week there and he didn't see Koschei once.
Though he did see some strange things.
On the lake he saw swans. An abnormal amount of them for the space of the lake.
They were crowded in the middle, unmoving but still alive.
He hadn't seen Vaasa in her fire bird form once.
Nothing really seemed to be happening.
Azriel had Discreetly traveled around the lake looking for Koschei and the Illyrian females but they were nowhere to be found.
Today he decided to get a closer look.
The lake could have been glamoured and if he wanted to break the glamor he would have to get up closer.
He winnowed down from the tree he had been in and was surrounded with darkness.
It was currently night time, but from the top of the tree the full moon provided a source of light.
Now under the canopy of trees there was nothing but black.
Good thing he knew how to navigate in the darkness.
He made his way to the water's edge and nor him or his shadows sensed any sort of glamour.
He looked into the lake at his reflection and found that it was not him looking back.
It was his father. Those cunning, stone cold eyes at odds with all the sharp angles of his face.
Azriel grimaced.
"What the hell," he said under his breath.
He rubbed his eyes. It had been a long week and he hadn't gotten much sleep.
He looked back into the lake where the water rippled and found Gwyn looking back at him, but she wasn't a reflection.
He backed away from the waters edge.
This can't be real. This isn't real. Azriel has been tricked before, and he has learned the hard way that glamours and hallucinations are definitely not reality.
He watched as Gwyn, not Gwyn, rose out of the water, the thin almost sheer dress clinging to her like a second skin, leaving nothing to the imagination.
He kept his eyes focused on her head, her eyes. They were not the same.
They didn't have that moon light tint that the real Gwyn's eyes did.
She slowly and gracefully walked towards him and his shadows swarmed around him, in a thicker layer than before.
But, seeing as she was still walking towards him the shadows were doing nothing to keep him invisible.
He commanded the shadows to stop and the second they stopped surrounding him and sat on his shoulders he felt it.
It hit him like a fucking title wave.
How was an illusion of Gwyn using Gwyn's power?
He felt way too loose and relaxed and... turned on.
Fuck, she was using Gwyn's Indomitable Sexuality.
Azriel could resist, but only for a short time.
Azriel tried to winnow but he felt himself weakening.
He felt his shadows go to sleep.
He was too relaxed; he needed to make himself alert again.
Gwyn kept moving closer, and closer.
Five feet away.
Four.
Three.
He was overtaken by her power. He let her walk so close to him that their chests were now touching.
He watched in awe as the water droplets slid down her body. She pressed further into him and he groaned at the feeling.
She abruptly backed away and held out a sword darker than the night itself.
Gwyn ran her fingers over the blade and Whispered, "come find me."
——-
Azriel shot awake, eyes alert, muscles groaned at the sudden movement.
Just a dream, it was just a dream.
Azriel rubbed his eyes and his shadows caressed his cheeks in comfort.
What the fuck?
He braced his hands and feet and pushed off the damp ground shaking awake his wings.
He listened for something, anything, but he could not even hear crickets.
Azriel unsheathed his short swords and searched the area around him for a threat, but found nothing.
He turned around and saw it, a group of Carrions.
Fuck.
Azriel killed as many as possible but they kept coming back to life.
He tried to winnow but just like in his dream, he was unable.
What the hell was happening.
Just as Azriel turned to cut down another carrion he felt something slice across his stomach.
Shit, shit.
He felt the poison of the Carrions claws start to infect him.
The world became blurry then, he saw nothing but darkness.
—-
"Az, you need to drink this," he heard a soft voice say.
He felt surrounded by warmth and soft cushions, not cold and the damp forest floor.
He pried open his eyelids and blinked away his blurry vision to find that he was laying down in a bed.
Where was he?
"You have to keep drinking this or the poison will reach your lungs and you won't be able to breathe," he turned to find Elain holding a bowl of some steaming liquid.
He sat up, body still feeling tingling and sedated with sleep. He stretched his wings and looked down to find his bare chest and his cut mostly healed, but his chest felt very tight.
Elain pressed the bowl into his hands and nodded.
He drank deeply until the tightness of his chest went away. He handed the bowl back to Elain.
"What's going on?" He asked as Elain got up from where she was sitting on his bed.
She was wearing a deep blue dress, not quite the colors of night court, but it seemed to suit her very well. When she wore anything from night court it seemed to wash out her features. But this deep blue dress seemed to enhance them.
"A Carrion cut you, and we found you," she said and added, "get some rest you need it to fully keep the poison out of your system."
She started to walk out of the room.
"Wait," he called out and Elain turned around to face him.
"Elain what's going on?"
He didn't want to seem too eager and interrogate her but he needed to know what was happening.
"We are currently at Vassa, Jurian, and Lucien's estate in the mortal lands near the continent."
What?
"Why are you here?"
"I have been visiting every so often."
Like that was an answer. She probably came here to see—-
"Is everything alright?" He heard Lucien ask from the doorway.
He was most likely the reason why the room was perfectly warm.
Azriel nodded trying to have some control over this situation.
"I need to leave," he said simply and stood up still feeling weaker than usual.
"You have to rest," Elain repeated and Az tried to use his shadows but they were already sleeping.
He couldn't winnow, and he sure as hell wasn't going to fly all the way back in his weakened state.
"Az, just stay for the night, we can winnow you back tomorrow morning," Elain took a step towards him.
He nodded.
He could last one night here.
—-
Azriel had found a notepad in his room and began to write.
Though Rhys could look into his mind to get a report, Azriel still needed to reflect on everything that happened. he would usually write it all down, read it then burn it.
Swans but no Illyrian woman. Carrions guarding the lake but no Koschei. The carrions guarded the lake, mostly at the north east side. What were they guarding? Some would likely now be guarding the south side where they had found him. And—-
"When I said rest, this was not what I meant," Elain said by way of greeting.
She strode in with a tray of food.
"I thought you might be hungry."
"So, this is where you have been staying," Azriel said too calmly, twisting on his chair to face her.
"Not that it is any of your Business, but yes," she bit back with equal calm.
"So, does this mean you and Lucien—
"It might shock you to know, but not everything in my life revolves around a male."
"Then why are you here?" Azriel looked into those deep secret filled eyes.
He used to like that about her. that she had her secrets and he had his, but that was no longer something he wanted, or found enticing.
"Can't I leave the night court?" She crossed her arms, closing herself off to him.
"Of course you can, but why out of all the places, would you go to the human lands. If not for Lucien then..." he trailed off refusing to say his name.
Grayson.
He saw something like anger flicker in her eyes but it was gone too soon to tell.
She turned to walk out of the room but said over shoulder, "tomorrow night, Rhys and Feyre are having a dinner party, I hope we can be civil by then."
Then she was gone and Azriel for some reason... hurt.
His heart hurt. when had he and Elain become so volatile?
Their relationship used to be peaceful and a quiet safe understanding.
Even if they couldn't be together he wanted that, but it seemed Elain did not.
But maybe he was still mad at her.
Maybe his heart still hurts because of how she had refused it.
Just like what Grayson had done to her.
"No male owns me, but you own my heart—
"I do not want it!"
Azriel still remembers those words and how deeply they had cut her.
Regardless of how horrible that man was, Maybe she never truly got over Grayson.