Dance of Fate

Chapter Seventy One

Asteria didn't leave her room. Azriel watched her door as he sat with the others in the common room, not bothering to listen to Rhys and Feyre's conversation with Helion. 

Cassian had shot him a questioning glance, but Azriel had said nothing. He didn't think he could speak of what he'd done if he tried. He regretted it- yet he had meant it. He had meant every word. He just wished he didn't have to hurt her. And he wished he could stop asking himself if he had just made a terrible mistake. 

Cassian hadn't pressed him to talk, thankfully. But Azriel knew he realized the way he kept looking at the closed door of his mates room. 

Azriel suddenly felt a pang of fear so great he flinched. He shot up from his spot on the couch, his body turning towards Asteria's door just as she pulled it open harshly. 

For a moment, their eyes met. Violet eyes crashed into him, wide with terror and filled with pain. He almost fell to his knees. 

But she looked away from him, face hardening. Azriel knew he deserved it, but he felt the pain of it nonetheless. 

Gods, what had he done?

"Something is happening. With the Cauldron." She told Rhys, voice trembling. Azriel didn't miss the way her hands shook- with restraint, he realized. And the way she kept wincing- with pain, from holding back her power. 

It took every ounce of Azriel's will not to take her in his arms. To ignore the instincts that screamed at him to comfort her, to protect her. He clenched his fists, the absence of her skin against his a phantom touch. 

"What do you mean?" Rhysand asked his sister, face blanching. 

"You feel it too," a voice said. 

Azriel forced himself to rip his gaze from Asteria to see Nesta, silver eyes wide as she stared at Asteria. 

Asteria nodded slowly, throat bobbing. She turned back to Rhys. "We need to leave. Now."

Rhys exchanged a worried glance with Feyre. There was a moment of tense silence as they no doubt spoke mind to mind. 

Azriel could feel Asteria's heart pounding, growing louder and more frantic with each passing second. 

He might have said to hell with everything that he had said to her, everything he felt, and rushed to her side, had Rhysand not spoken silently to him. 

You, me, and Cassian will go to Velaris. To see if anything is amiss. He told him. Azriel nodded to Rhys.

He looked again at Asteria- only to find her eyes on him. She quickly looked away.

And so Azriel winnowed back to the Night Court. 

...

I could hardly breathe as I forced down my power. It hadn't been this bad in a while- it had become bearable to keep it leashed. 

But now, it pounded through me, thrashing like a living being. I panted, my body trembling as I struggled to hold it back.

Are you alright? Feyre asked me. 

I forced myself to stand straight, to meet her eyes. I'm fine, I lied. 

Feyre didn't look like she bought it. But she nodded anyway.

Five minutes passed. Ten. Fifteen. With each second, my power became more restless. Thirty minutes later, the three males returned, shaking their heads. Nothing.

 My eyes met silver ones. Nesta looked just as unconvinced as I did. 

But the the Illyrians said there was nothing amiss in the palace, or in the lands around it, or in the skies above or the earth below. Not for miles and miles. Nothing. Rhys even checked with Amren, and found nothing wrong in Velaris.