Healer

Chapter 21

     Rhysand's demanding voice in Azriel's mind had him rising before the sun. He rolled out of bed, stretching his tired muscles, watching himself in the mirror as he dressed. Was it really such a short time ago that he had laid in this bed, unable even to move, and asked to touch her face? That she had sat and read aloud to him? He hadn't know then what that feeling was, and since he had learned, he had barely let himself touch her at all. You would never do anything to willingly hurt her, Cassian had said in the cabin.....was keeping away from her like this protective or was it detrimental? No. What she didn't know couldn't hurt her. He looked at his hands, recalling what her pain had done to him. His enemies could certainly hurt her, and they already had. With that thought moving him, he left his room and met the others in Rhysand's office. He would go back to autumn court to find out more about weapons and who was purchasing them. And why. It could be a days long process. He stood in the kitchen for a moment, sipping his drink before leaving. Cass met him at the door. He must have looked worse than he thought because his brother stopped him with a hand on his chest.

"She's safe here, you know."

Azriel studied him. He knew she was, he knew this was the safest place she could be, but the image of her blood pooling beneath her on the carpet kept finding it's way back to his mind. He shook it away. He needed to focus. He nodded. "I know." He left without violating her privacy again though he desperately wanted one last look.

Talia woke slowly, feeling the light grey of the almost-risen sun against her closed eyes. She lay like that for a moment before the events of the night before flooded her memory and her eyes snapped open. She sat up, placing a hand over her side. She could feel that the wounds had healed but she was sore where the arrow had pierced her. They had intended to kill her. She was night court by blood. Rhysand could now call it a direct attack on his court. What would be next? She groaned, placing a hand over her tired eyes and slowly laying back down. She wished she wouldn't, but she replayed the moment over and over again in her mind when she was hit and the lights went out, and then when Azriel somehow found her in that invisible crowd. Had she called out for him? She knew she hadn't. 

The rest was a blur of blood and pain until the moment the others arrived and he had kissed her. Kissed her. Right on the head like a child. Or a lover. She grimaced. That wasn't a mystery she wished to solve now. He had saved her with steady, tender hands, and that's what mattered. She ran her own hand over the place his lips had been anyway, wondering if it looked different than the rest of her unkissed skin. She eventually crawled out of bed and dressed, quickly realizing that she wouldn't be able to train due to feeling weak and sore. She told herself over and over that that was okay, that she had experienced a trauma she needed to recover from. She managed to eat breakfast without seeing anyone and slowly walked to the library. She half hoped she would run into the shadowsinger, to make sure they had made it back safely, to see if his eyes still looked the way they had the night before.
The air of the house had changed. It was tense. Court to court conflict was exactly what the king wanted, and now Rhysand would have to guard his lands from both sides. Maybe it wasn't her fault, per se, but it was because of her existence. The thought made her head ache. She sat at the desk in the small library but couldn't focus on any of the words before her. After a while alone, she could hear Nesta's feet coming up the hall. She entered with a plate in one hand, picking up a pastry and taking a bite, setting the rest before the healer.

"I sensed you needed these." She said, smiling.

"Thanks." Talia took a bite. She had needed them. And she had needed to see Nesta's smiling face, to know the Illyrians had returned. She got up to sit by her friend near the window.

"You're taking it easy today, right?" she asked. Talia nodded, her mouth full of frosting and jam and sweet bread. "Then let's go see Gwyn. She's worried about you but her boss has her keeping busy."