A Court of Secrets and Moonlight

9: Life and Death

Azriel

Healers were already waiting for us at the House of Wind, along with Mor. I didn't know how she'd known, and I didn't ask. She had the same look on her face that she had for weeks, since Feyre came home clutching that crown telling stories of pools of starlight and 500 year old secrets.

It was a mixture of shock, pain, and somewhere beneath it a simmering rage. I knew the feeling, but my own was closer to desperation.

Mate

Mate

Mate

My body had sung and cried for her from the second I felt the bond snap back into place in Hybern. It had been dormant and black so long, lifeless, and then in an instant it was glowing and as strong as the day I'd felt it the first time. And I couldn't breathe, like inky black smoke had filled my lungs, like I was trapped in the silent darkness again. I couldn't think, her name running in repeat over and over. I needed to touch her, to feel her, to know it was real.

The second Cassian and I landed, I dropped Lucien on the table and found myself ripping her out of my brother's arms. She was fully unconscious now, her body frail and weak in my arms. But it was real, she was real, alive, breathing. Something inside of me, something I had thought long dead sparked to life.

"I'm here. I'm here. You're going to be okay." I was repeating over and over, as if it hadn't been half a milennia since I last saw her, as if my words held any weight, as if I hadn't been as powerless to stop this as I was to stop her death- or at least what I had thought was her death.

I growled as the healers pulled her from my arms, Mor at my back begging me to stay calm as I finally saw her in the light. Blood and bruises, clear evidence of torture if the look of her arms were anything to go by, her left leg stuck out at an odd angle, clear bruises in the shape of hands around her neck. Poison, jet black in each of her veins. Tearing through her body like a hurricane.

"You need to let them help her." Mor's voice was quiet and soothing, "I know it's hard."

Somewhere deep inside of me, I vowed. I vowed to the cauldron, to the Mother, to everyone, to everything- I would personally destroy whoever had done this to her. I would spent hours, days, years, ripping them to pieces limb by limb. I would ensure that I matched every wound on her body, and then I'd rub salt in each one.

"Az." Cassian was in front of me now, pinning my back to the marble pillar, "Stop it. You need to stop it."

I hadn't realized what I'd done, how I'd lunged for her, working on nothing but instinct by now. Feyre ran into the room, looking frantic. Her eyes scanned the room, searching for something until her eyes landed on me. Cassian ripped Truth-Teller from it's sheath on my hip, handing it to her while keeping me in place. He had me pinned so hard that the marble was cracking under my body.

And then I watched.

I screamed and I cried and I watched.

I watched Feyre, High Lady of the Night Court- slice her arm open with my blade, straight through the swirling ink of her tattoo, dripping the blood into Leur's mouth.

The shock of it didn't hold me for long, seconds later I was thrashing against Cass's grip again, everything in my body begging me to get to her. Protect my mate, keep her safe.

Mate

My mate

Please

"We're losing her." One of the healers said, "That poison is moving too fast."