A Court of Vows and Shadows | Azriel

prologue

It was a well-known fact throughout the Autumn Court, and perhaps even all of Prythian, that the High Lord Beron did not pay his farmers fairly. He never had and knowing what sort of male he was, he likely never would. It was, therefore, no surprise at all to hear that many farmers were desperate for any extra wealth and willing to do anything to receive it. If only to tend to their lands and feed their families.

Rynn Blackwood was one of those farmers.

For ten gold marks, he had provided a group of human-hating faeries with two horses and a carriage to travel to the most southern parts of Prythian. All the way to the wall that separated the realm from the Human Lands. And those human-hating faeries had managed to cross it through a hidden gap, only to end up killing a group of soldiers stationed on the other side.

One of those human soldiers was a young woman named Briar.

Only twenty-two years old at the time and accompanied by four other soldiers, Briar was tasked with investigating a series of vicious attacks that very clearly did not come from animals or other humans. They were told that there might have been a crack in the wall, and ordered to find a way to salvage it. An impossible task, really. What could five humans do for an invisible, magical barrier?

They busied themselves with guarding it as they searched for the source of the attacks. But their presence did not stop faeries from coming through and it did not stop those faeries from killing the five soldiers on sight. They had been so eager to murder and slaughter. The humans fought bravely until their very last breaths. Even Briar. Especially Briar. Bruised and bloodied, she had crawled towards the barely-alive soldier closest to her, Second Lieutenant Gabriel Wells, and she had reached for him. For his hand. But a sword was pierced through Briar's back before she could get close enough and she died beside Gabriel.

Beside her partner. Her best friend. Her fiancé.

Briar awoke exactly eleven minutes and four seconds after her death, her bloodied hand only inches away from Gabriel's. Not only her skin was stained red but her uniform too. Front and back. And when she frantically pulled up her clothing to check her abdomen, it was as flawless as it had been that morning. Not a single cut or wound to be found where she had been stabbed by that faerie's sword.

Physically, she was completely fine.

* * *

The iron ring around Briar's finger, with its intricate filigree and the cobalt blue sapphire, felt like a heavy weight on a good day and a reminder of her worst nightmare on a bad one. Even four years later, she had yet to remove it from her left hand. She could never find the strength to do so. Physical or emotional.

It was the only part of Briar that was not currently hidden underneath black fabric and leather, or the mask that she wore to block her face from view. To hide her identity. She wore her mask because she stupidly wished that it might somehow detach herself from what she had become over the last four years, and from what she was about to do. She might have been twenty-six years old now and perfectly capable of taking responsibility for her own actions, but this was the one thing she did not wish to dwell on. The one thing she wanted to forget about once she was finished.

Large fields and farmlands surrounded the vividly colourful forests of the Autumn Court. If it hadn't been for Briar's strange ability to vanish into thin air and reappear elsewhere miles away, it would have taken her two weeks to journey to her destination. Perhaps even longer. Her abilities were yet another thing she did not wish to dwell on. So she focused instead on the white farmhouse in front of her. Small compared to other farmhouses she had seen while travelling, but large enough to keep a family and dog or two judging by the doghouse only a few feet away from her. Nestled at the eastern edge of the court and with the neverending sea as its backdrop stood a rustic house, surrounded by a few acres of land. Wildflowers coloured the garden and the scent of growing plants and herbs was rich. There were fruit trees and even a wooden swing set. This wasn't just a house or a farm, this was a home.

Getting inside was easy enough. The owner most likely did not feel the need to lock the doors or windows with how secluded it was, or perhaps he had forgotten. Briar walked through the front door as if it were her own home, right past a particularly dark corner. The cloak and mask still hid her face and any other distinguishing features because Gods forbid someone recognised her. She wasn't Briar today. She was something and someone else entirely.

"Dearest?" The warm and kind voice of an elderly male echoed through the farmhouse, followed by the creaking of wooden floorboards and a gentle tapping coming from another room. "Did you forget something?"

Rynn Blackwood opened the door to his study and slowly appeared from around the corner, supported by a wooden cane that rhythmically tapped against the floor of the hallway. There was a gentle expression on his face as he glanced around the living room of his own home, seemingly expecting to find his wife who had travelled to the shore half an hour ago with her two grandsons. To go fishing. But Rynn would not find her here. And that gentle expression vanished soon enough when he came face to face with something, someone, no one wished to see. His face paled into a white similar to the mask hiding Briar's face.

"Please..."

Before Rynn could say anything else, Briar had already reached for the dagger— Gabriel's dagger, and pulled it from its leather sheath around her thigh. It took her two seconds to cross the distance from where she stood to the male on the opposite side of the hallway, and she sliced his throat before he could utter another word. Before he could plead for his life or beg for mercy. She couldn't stand the pleading. Nor could she stand the sight of death, and so Briar vanished before her target hit the floor.

She reappeared deep into the forest she had travelled through. Briar stumbled forward and held a hand against the rough back of a tree while her other hand pressed against her stomach, and she hunched over and threw up almost everything she had consumed that day. She ripped off the mask right on time. Her eyes stung with tears just like they always did after a kill. Once her stomach had emptied itself, she raised a trembling hand to wipe her lips and she took a few deep breaths to calm herself. And then she pushed herself upright, away from the tree and away from the ominous darkness that lingered in the clearing, and she began to walk.

She only had nine left to kill.