Shadows Whisper | | Azriel

15

Astryn didn't get even a minute of sleep that night, but Killan slept so soundly that he didn't even notice her slip out from under his arm when she heard someone outside of the room. The shadows whispered to her, telling her it was the little one. Lucien.

She snuck out into the hallway after changing into some more decent clothes and found Lucien sitting outside of the door. His face heated up in embarrassment at being caught, but he looked at her so curiously.

"Is it true you're married to my brother?" Lucien asked, looking up from the wooden toys he had brought with him.

"It is," she confirmed, though she wished she could say it was a lie.

"I don't know why anyone would wanna marry him," Lucien muttered, eyes darting from his toys back to Astryn. "He's a meanie. One time he lit my favorite toys on fire for no reason!"

"I'm sorry," Astryn said softly, and he just looked at her for a moment.

"Will you play with me?" he requested. "No one here ever plays with me. Momma used to but she doesn't anymore. I think father told her to stop. Will you play with me? Please?"

"Of course," she agreed to it easily. He smiled so brightly, like the sun lived inside of him.

"You get a horse and...a dog and a soldier," he decides, handing over the three wooden toys. "I get a horse and a soldier and a dog and...oh! There's an extra dog. Would you like him?"

"You can keep him," she assured him, and he was clearly happy with that answer.

"Thank you," he hummed out before he explained the story he had made up that they'd be playing out. Apparently the two soldiers and their animal companions had a princess to rescue.

She played with him there on the floor until Killan woke up and left the room.

"What are you doing?" he asked, looking at her with clear distaste.

"She's playing with me," Lucien spoke up gleefully, "she's nice."

"She's not for you," Killan scoffed, grabbing Astryn's arm and pulling her up. He tugged her back into their room and slammed the door. "You're not here to be my brother's friend," he said sternly, sounding jealous, "you're mine. Don't leave this room in the morning until I wake up and tell you to."

"I'm sorry," Astryn apologized, mostly because she knew any other response wouldn't end well for her.

"You should be," he remarked, glaring at her. "A servant is going to come bathe and dress you. Try to behave yourself."

She was tempted to tell him that she was perfectly capable of bathing and dressing herself, but she knew arguing was a stupid idea. He went off and she waited in the room for the servant to come. The servant didn't speak, not when Astryn said hello or asked her name or a single time during the entire duration of the bath and dressing her.

Astryn was dressed in a light pink gown made of silk. Her hair was pulled back into a braid. She wasn't given shoes, but instead thin silk slippers that matched the dress. The collar and cuffs were still around her neck and wrists.

The servant began escorting her somewhere, but was stopped by the brother that Astryn recognized to be Eris.

"I'll take her," Eris told the servant, "you may go."

The servant gave a respectful bow of her head and then hurried off. Eris looped his arm through Astryn's and led her through the halls.

"It's hard to believe you and Rhysand are only half siblings," Eris commented, turning his head briefly to look at her. "You might as well be twins."

Astryn didn't speak and Eris rolled his eyes.

"Did he forbid you to speak too?" he asked, seeming bored. "I didn't realize you'd be given the same rules as the servants."

"I'm allowed to speak," Astryn said simply, and this time the eldest of the High Lord's sons laughed.

"So, then, you just didn't want to speak to me? I can't imagine I'm any less pleasant than your husband," he taunted, to which she almost laughed.

"It's not that I find you unpleasant at all," she dismissed with a small smile, "but my husband got jealous over me speaking to a toddler so I doubt he would be fond of us speaking."

Eris's lips curled up into a smile at her words, at the insult they carried.

"I like you far more than your brother," he told her. "You might want to stay quiet now. I'd hate for your husband to hear us conversing."

Astryn forced her expression into something more neutral and walked quietly with Eris. They approached the dining room, where the rest of the family was already sitting having breakfast.

"Oh, don't give her that look, brother," Eris said to Killan as he led Astryn to her seat between the two of them. "She couldn't exactly say no when I said I would walk her here. It would be terribly rude if she had refused the offer."

Eris pulled out her chair for her and had a hand on her until the moment she sat, at which point he pushed the chair forward slightly.

"It would be," Killan conceded with a glare on his face, "that just means it's you I'll be angry with about it then, Eris. Leave my wife alone. She's no concern of yours."

"Forgive me for wanting to get to know my sister-in-law," Eris apologized sarcastically, "she is part of the family now, after all."

"She's not family," Killan snapped, "she's here as a tool and nothing more. Her only purpose is to give me a son we can use to kill Rhysand."

"You're so terribly dull," Eris told his brother, "she can be useful in more than just one way. The long goal remains, but for now, don't you think it would be fun to let her roam around as if she was truly one of us? Let everyone see that Rhysand lost his sister to us? Keeping her hidden away and treating her like a servant is such a waste. Let her wander around and live here like it really is her home."

"Absolutely not—" Killan began, only to be cut off by Beron.

"It's smart," Beron commented, "rub it in her brother's face that we have her. We can glamour the scent of faebane and the...accessories she'll be wearing so it looks like she's free here."

"We could have a whole ceremony to welcome her as Killan's lovely wife. Though we might need to ease up on the faebane just a tad bit so she's coherent enough to smile and be present during the it. She should make a good first impression on our people," Eris suggested, resisting the urge to smirk at how fond his father seemed of the idea.

Beron waved his hand and Astryn's plate and glass vanished before being replaced with a meal that didn't reek of faebane.

She glanced briefly towards Eris and he gave her a grin that made her wonder just why he did this. Whatever the case, she was grateful to have a meal that wasn't poisoned.