A Court of Shadows And Lights

CHAPTER 20

When I woke up, what felt like days later, I was in a soft bed, the covers pulled high over my body, keeping me so warm.

Someone was standing in the corner of the room, so dark in the corner. I blinked a few times looking up at the High Lord.

It all started to come back to me, how he had been in my mind yesterday, how he had nearly made me forget everything.

What was he doing here?

"I'm not here to kill you," he said, not managing to hide the anger or disgust.

The same disgust he had felt when Amarantha had been laying in the bed in front of him.

"But I won't let you walk around freely. Not right now at least. Not when I have no clue what your motives are"

I sat up in the bed, leaning against the headboard and looking around the room I was in. It was light, too light in here.

And there was a wall of windows, overlooking the whole city of Velaris.

At least I was still here. At least he hadn't taken me away from here.

"You seem to like bargains a hell of a lot," he commented, making my eyes fall to my wrists.

The sleeves of the dress had inched up during my sleep, leaving the bargain marks so clear and so visible to him.

I tugged them down as lowly as possible, wanting them out of his view. Out of my view too.

"Let's bargain"

"I don't want to bargain with you," I spoke for the first time.

"Well I'd say right now you don't have much of a choice"

He was strongly implying that I could either bargain with him or die.

I couldn't even look at him right now.

The High Lord standing there in the corner of the room I had been sleeping in. He could have killed me hours ago probably.

And still, he wanted to bargain with me. Why did he want to bargain with me?

I didn't care. If bargaining was my way out of this, then I'd take it. Once again I'd take it.

"Okay"

"You cannot ever speak about Velaris and what happens here to anybody outside of this city. You cannot ever mention Feyre's name to anybody but one of the people in my inner circle. And if you even think about physically hurting anybody in my city, I will kill you"

It sounded more like a threat than a bargain, but once again I didn't care.

"Okay," I just said weakly, looking out at the view, not bothering to look at him.

"Don't you want to know what I'll give you?"

I didn't care.

As long as he didn't take Azriel away.

"It is not my business what you do with him"

"Is that why I'm not dead? Do you actually care about what he wants?"

It wasn't an accusation towards him. It was just a genuine question. Because Azriel cared what Rhysand wanted. Enough to do absolutely everything for him. Enough to nearly let me die. And if Rhysand didn't care about what he wanted, then Azriel was one big fool for ever doing what he wanted.

"I do," he said, noting that I wasn't accusing him.

Enough so apparently that he let someone like me live.