The Forgotten Sister: An Azriel fanfiction

The Hewn City

Azriel's PoV:

Azriel waited at the bottom of the stairs as Mor was getting Cal ready for their trip.

When they finally arrived, Azriel couldn't help but stare.

Cal was dressed in an ivory dress that reached to her calves. It fit her chest perfectly and flared in a loose skirt from her waist. It was full sleeved and the sleeves were a bit puffy. A deep green corset was fitted over the dress, nicely highlighting her bosom. He couldn't stop staring at her chest when he realised that was the point. The corset was meant to drag the attention away from any other parts of her body, especially her face.

As Azriel looked at her face, he had to suck in a huge breath. She looked beautiful. Beautiful, but very much human. Her lips were coloured with a pink tint. Her cheekbones were highlighted with a slight amount of bronze. Her large soft eyes were lined with black. Her forehead was covered in deep brown bangs which were swept a little to her left. Her long hair went down to her waist. He noticed pointed ears sticking out from the hair, fake ears that Mor had placed.

"Stop staring," Mor whispered in his ear and Az jumped out of his skin. He hadn't noticed her standing beside him. "Its rude."

"Shut up," Az said through his teeth and Mor chuckled. But he was grateful to her for dressing Cal up so nicely.

Az was dressed in his Illyrian leathers, seven siphons on him; his usual attire for the Court of Nightmares.

"Do not speak," said Az as Cal walked up to him. He gently held her elbow, waiting for Mor to winnow them. "If they hear you, they might know." And don't be scared of me, he almost added.

Azriel in the Hewn City wasn't the Az that Cal had always seen. He was a monster, a monster who lived to kill whoever his High Lord wanted him to. A monster who enjoyed killing. A monster who never looked at people with kindness. A monster who would never look at anyone in the Court of Nightmares the way that he looked at Cal.

"Okay," said Cal. She looked at his eyes and then hurriedly looked away. He knew why.

She didn't like how he was looking. He knew he wasn't looking like the Az she knew, the Az who had offered her his blood to save her life, the Az who had bought her a box of eclairs and had sat with her under the bridge, watching the rain.

Right now, he looked like Azriel, the shadowsinger, the spymaster, the interrogator, the torturer.

Before the thoughts could paralyse him, Mor winnowed them right outside the Hewn City. She had already talked and made arrangements for them to visit the library. Az was carrying a leather satchel for the books that Cal would select.

They walked in and Az was anxious if the guards could smell Cal. He shifted closer to her to mask her scent. She didn't flinch from him. She held her head high as she walked through.

Az remembered that she had been surrounded by ruthless faeries for years Under the Mountain. A few guards wouldn't really scare her.

They kept walking until they reached the stairs that wound down all the way to the library. He felt Cal's breath come faster as they kept descending.

This must feel like that time when she had been taken to Under the Mountain. She had been very young at that time, but the trauma that had followed, her body would remember. He felt fear through the bond and he shifted closer to her until their hands touched.

"Relax," whispered Az under his breath, right at Cal's ear. "You have us now."

Cal stiffened a little, not saying a word. Az noticed her face, frozen in some sort of expression that Az couldn't place.