A Court of Gold and Shadows

Something good and right and real: Chapter 1: Lonesome I came

Chapter 1: Lonesome I came

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To be quite frank, Oriana hadn't expected Azriel to show up again.

(She had fully expected to never see him again, to be honest. And that had resulted in her spending three days moping around before she had forced herself to act like an adult again.)

She had hoped he would. Of course, she had. He was her mate.

She had spent two centuries waiting for him. And it made her feel half-grown, giddy to know that finally, there he was . He existed. He was alive. He was... right there.

But...she also looked into these hazel eyes and saw...pain. So much pain and hesitance and....he had looked at her like he had expected her to turn him down any second. Like in her very hands, she held the key to lock away any chance of happiness he ever would have.

It terrified her to see him like that.

She didn't even know him. Not really. But he was the one fate thought she should have and she didn't want to see him like this .

He didn't deserve that. Nobody did.

Still, she hadn't wanted to push.

She didn't ask him what was wrong, because she knew that she had the tendency to want to fix everything and that could be... overwhelming. And she didn't think he was going to answer her questions anyway. So instead, she had offered him an open-ended invitation and then waited.

She treated him like a skittish cat, putting out the milk.

Her patience was rewarded a few days later.

Much to her surprise.

She was just getting ready to close up her shop for the day, cleaning up the displays of the jewellery she sold on a daily basis. She may no longer live in the mountain full time, but some things would always stay with her, and her love of jewellery was one of them.

Mentally she was taking stock of the things that she had sold, of what she needed to make more and which was probably going to end up being remelted down because it hadn't sold for so long.

There were a few pieces that she never would melt down, even when it was going to take years for them to sell because she was too proud of the workmanship she had put in them.

However, there were very few of these. Most things she did these days were easy enough to replicate if the mood struck her and if they didn't sell... well then she had only lost some of her time and none of the materials that had gone into them.

A dark winged shadow showed up at her doorstep and she smiled to herself as the door closed behind him.

He didn't look any less broody than he had the last time he showed up. Still looked like he didn't quite know what he was even doing here.

But Oriana could work with that.

"You can put the closed sign on, I am done for the day," Oriana said with a bright smile as she finished wiping down her counter. He did as she asked, silent as he crossed the room, the always present shadows skittering around his feet.

One tendril immediately wrapped itself around her wrist, a soft touch, just like velvet, slightly cool. She patted it as greeting, holding back a laugh as it playfully tugged at her fingertips in response and then looked up to find Azriel standing before her, watching her play with the shadow, wiggling her fingertips at it enticingly.