Touched by the Flame || Azriel Shadowsinger [EDITING]

Chapter 33

Soraya leaned her hips back against the kitchen counter, sipping at her juice. An excited Morrigan shouted from the living area. A peek through the archway told that it was because she'd unwrapped a pair of strappy, far-too-high-heeled shoes.

All of the gifts that had been revealed so far were much the same. Blinding jewelry that looked too heavy to wear comfortably, expensive clothes, hideous matching sweaters exchanged between Feyre, Cassian, and Morrigan. For next year's Solstice, they claimed.

 Feyre received some art supplies and Cassian's gift from Nesta had indeed been a blade as Mor predicted. Little Nyx got more toys than he could ever possibly play with in his immortal existence.

It was exhausting. And she had done nothing more than watch. 

There was the nipping anticipation of what could be inside each carefully wrapped gift. Everyone throwing out their last-minute guesses like their lives depended on its contents. The excitement once the present within was finally revealed. Whooping and shouting.

There was the knowing that she didn't quite fit into place as the rest of them did. At Azriel's side was the only place she seemed to fit, and he'd left nearly an hour ago with the promise that he would be back as soon as he could.

Rhysand made sure to tell her that Azriel was off to receive an emergency report from one of his spies and that he wouldn't have gone had it not been urgent. Even during the time set aside for his family, Azriel couldn't catch a break.

Soraya had slipped away into the kitchen when she herself needed a break from the Solstice excitement. There she stood at the counter minutes later, basking in the near silence. Hoping to herself that wherever Azriel had gone, he was alright.

A winged figure stepped through the threshold and for a moment, her heart soared. Until Cassian lumbered through, the grin he'd been sporting all night still strapped firmly in place. 

"There you are," he sang, pushing further into the kitchen.

"Here I am," she agreed with a shrug. Soraya twisted at the waist and set her glass on the countertop behind her.

Cassian set his own emptied glass beside hers and started for the highest cabinets just to her left. She ducked as he swung one open and scrounged through, pushing aside everything within until reaching the very back.

"Everything okay?" He asked as he retrieved a fancy looking bottle of wine. 

There was a tray out in the main room with a whole assortment of bottles atop it. Surely they didn't drain them all yet. Cassian noticed her eyeing the bottle and his smirk turned mischievous.

"They keep the best stuff hidden in here," he explained, touching a finger to his lips as a way of asking for her secrecy. As if she cared that this family had a serious wine addiction.

He opened the bottle effortlessly, the pop making Soraya flinch.

"Why are you hiding in here?" Cassian asked, tipping the opening of the bottle to his nose to smell it.

She scoffed, feeling only mildly offended. "I'm not hiding," she argued, folding her arms.

Cassian raised a brow in challenge and reached past her to fill his glass with bubbling wine. She scowled, shoving weakly against his chest in annoyance. He drifted backward until he touched the counter opposite of her. 

"I'm not," she repeated. Cassian shrugged, popping the cork back into the bottle and setting it on the countertop beside him

"Okay, not hiding," he gripped the counter behind him. "Cowering."