A Court of Smoke and Shadow

Chapter Twenty One: Azriel

If there was one thing that I could absolutely count on, it was Selene sleeping until nearly noon.

Every night, she slept like she hadn't slept in years. It didn't surprise me. Half the time she's up long after midnight working. I was fairly certain she would sleep all day if I let her. It worried me a lot but at least she wasn't neglecting eating as much as she used to.

I walked into her room to find her sprawled out on her mattress, dead asleep. I honestly didn't understand how she did it. I didn't understand how she was sleeping so soundlessly. It was like someone slipped a sleeping pill into her food and it just completely knocked her out.

I gently shook her awake. She tried pulling me onto the bed with her but I held my ground.

"You need to eat," I said.

"5 more minutes," she responded, sleepily.

I sighed. "Hybern is planning their attack. We need to mobilize now."

She sat up so fast, I was almost concerned.

"Why the hell didn't you say that from the beginning?"

Before I could respond, she began getting ready. I was already in my Illyrian armor so I waited on her. Selene ran around the room prepping herself for this upcoming fight.

"I cannot believe you didn't tell me," she scowled.

"By the time I got back, you were sleep and I didn't want to wake you," I said, lamely.

"Absolutely ridiculous. This is the most important thing at the moment," Selene berated me. "Honestly, Az, I wouldn't have even been mad."

"The others already left. They took Ares, Ryoko, and Falkor with them."

"So it's just us then? Lovely."

I could hear the sarcasm in her voice.

As soon as she was done, we left for the battlefield.

***

Each court had their own designated spot on the outskirts of the battlefield.

The High Lords – and Lady, their generals, and their commanding officers crowded in the tent designated for coming up with strategies. The biggest issue was the formation of the battlefield. Hybern was concealed by the forest, so we didn't know how many troops they had.

And none of us wanted to cross the lake to check, because we'd exhaust our magic and strength. It was undeniably genius of Hybern to choose this specific area – far enough from the Middle to not wake any monsters that might still be lurking, and close enough to a forest that they could conceal their numbers.

In addition to us not knowing how many soldiers they had, the King also had the Cauldron as well as those dogs Jurian had warned us about when we'd met with Graysen.

Selene was looking at the map very intensely, like she was thinking of strategies that might work.

"What if we leveled the trees? Knocked them down so Hybern couldn't hide?"

"Takes up too much magic. Plus, they're still in mortal territories," Rhys said.

"We need to evacuate the humans," Feyre said. "I know it would take up a lot of magic but I don't want them caught in the crossfire."

After a moment of consideration, Rhys nodded and thus the High Lords, and anyone who could winnow, began evacuating the human lands.