A Court of Dreams and Promise

Chapter Twenty

Azriel tossed and turned under his sheets, his skin slicked with sweat. He groaned, pressing a pillow to his face.

One of his shadows drew close to him, murmuring something to him. He sat up, eyes darting all around the room, when finally his gaze caught on something.

A purple tinted shadow hovered in the corner, zooming towards him as it saw his gaze on it. It pressed up against his face, whispering.

Velaria was alive, the shadow told him. Tamlin had healed her. Tamlin had conjured up an illusion of Azriel and Velaria–

Velaria had agreed to marry Tamlin.

Azriel swore, collapsing back onto his bed. The shadow whisked away, back into the inky night.

Dread clinging to his stomach, Azriel closed his heavy eyes and let sleep consume him for the night.

✿ ↬ - - - ↫ ✿

Azriel peered through the flap of the tent, at Velaria. She was in her own tent, and he–he was watching quite creepily.

Velaria peeled the back of her shirt off and Azriel didn't gasp, didn't balk from the many scars dotted across her skin. He had been there when the High Lord had inflicted twenty of them, but some were done in secret, where no one could ever know, as Velaria had told him.

Pure rage flowed through Azriel. He would kill her father one day for everything he did to her. His resilient mate.

She didn't know that they were mates. He had known, the bond snapping into place the day her father lashed her twenty times at the Illyrian camp for training with the Valkyrie. But she didn't know, and with a war going on, either of them could die any day now. He could just hope that she lived, lived to see a better day, when her brother was High Lord, and everything was right–

"Az?"

Azriel turned around to find Rhysand studying him. "Rhysand, I–"

Rhysand held up a hand, looking at Velaria. "I wish I was there, that day," he said quietly. "Or any of the days that he did that to her. I never got the brunt of his anger, but she–" Rhysand sighed. "I wish that I could protect her."

"Rhys, you do protect her," Azriel said, putting a hand on his friend's shoulder. "You are such a good brother to her."

Rhysand closed his eyes, deep in thought. "Az, can I ask you something?"

"Anything."

"Do you love her?"

Azriel froze, his shadows freezing as well. "W-What?"

"Do you love her?" Rhysand repeated. "I see the way you look at her, the way you admire her from afar. I can't say that I expected you two to become something out of everyone, but I know it wasn't Helion's tent she spent the night in that night in the camp."

Azriel's cheeks grew warm. He had wondered how Rhysand would find it, had known that Rhysand was too smart not to realize. "Yes, I do," he said finally. "I've been in love with her for a while now."

Rhysand looked at his friend, violet eyes brimming with an emotion Azriel couldn't place. He clapped Azriel on the shoulder. "Take care of her for me," he said. "There is no one better for her." Then he walked away.

Cauldron knew Azriel felt the same.

✿ ↬ - - - ↫ ✿

Azriel awoke. He needed to get in touch with Velaria somehow, needed to find some way to connect with her and see if she was okay.