Healer

Chapter 23

Azriel and Talia entered the house of wind side by side to Rhysand and Cassian waiting for them.

"We thought you had decided not to return." Cassian said, smiling though his eyes stayed stony.

Azriel stopped. "No such luck."

Rhysand motioned to the chairs in the sitting room and Talia sat, listening to the shadowsinger relay what they had seen while trying not to focus on the miraculously clean carpet where she knew she had laid and bled out around his hands. Hands. She looked to him and they were all she could focus on, ashamed of the events of their outing even as Azriel told them calmly and lacking any accusation. They moved as he spoke, folding and pointing from where he rested his elbows on his knees. She could feel them on her back, pushing her down and out of the path of the arrow aimed for him, the twin of one already in his shoulder, strong enough to pierce his leather armor...she realized the room had gone quiet and she looked up hesitantly.

"You.." Rhys looked at Azriel and then to her. "Winnowed you both?"

She shook her head immediately, quickly, but she didn't speak because she couldn't truly deny it. She stilled but he didn't look away.

"I don't really know. I have no way of knowing." She realized she was shaking her head again and stopped. She folded her hands in her lap.

Worried he might think she was lying, or that he would be afraid of her, or that he was angry, Talia shrunk from Rhysand's gaze as he stood. But he looked normal, and she could feel an air of curiosity in him. "We should work on that." He said, nodding to Cassian who stood and walked out with the high lord leaving the two of them alone again.

"What will they do?" She asked Azriel quietly. "About what we saw."

He stood. "I can't say. I'm not sure Rhysand can say right now either." He walked to where she was sitting and she realized she was staring at his hands again. "Talia?" She looked to his face slowly. "Are you okay?"

She nodded, replacing the remnants of her shock with a smile. "Just tired." She stood. "Very tired."

"Go rest. We'll train later." He smiled. So that's what Rhysand had meant. We should work on that. She started to walk away but he spoke again. "Thank you." She studied him, the bloody hole in the shoulder of his armor where the skin was smooth and perfect underneath. She refused to believe that he wouldn't be standing here just the same if she hadn't gone. She didn't want to ask what for, she didn't want more conversation so she just nodded and left.

Azriel watched her leave, trying to determine if she were truly just tired, until she turned the corner. As she left his presence, he felt himself let go of a breath he had been holding for over twenty four hours, but it didn't relax him. Instead it left him empty. He wanted to follow her but left to find his brothers, knowing she would need time. She was distracted, he could tell, and tired. She needed time to find her feet again. He found the males in Rhysand's office, pouring over a map of the west coast. They looked up.

"That was a disaster." He said as he entered and they straightened, listening. "We were caught."

"You got out." Rhysand said with finality, knowing Azriel would dwell on it too hard for too long.

"If she hadn't.....done what she did, she'd be dead. And I'd be as good as." He sat. Rhys shook his head, knowing he couldn't argue. Knowing he'd been in the same position, and knowing this time he had forced it.

"I meant what I said, we can work on those gifts with her. She's never had teaching, training, she doesn't know what she's capable of." Cassian nodded and so did Azriel. A chance to stay home and be with her was good, he didn't care why. She doesn't know what she's capable of. The sound of her voice calling herself expendable rang in his ears and angered him, not at her, but at all before him that had made her feel that way. They had nine days before the high lords arrived, she needed to be confident and to be able to protect herself because he wouldn't be allowed to throw himself over her, he wouldn't be able to pull her out of it.