A Different Type of Ending

Chapter 16 - Rhysand/Feyre/Azriel

Rhysand

I stood in the same building in which Feyre had torn apart Devlon two weeks ago, or was it only one? Time had lended together so thoroughly that I couldn't even remember how long she had been here for, when she had left. But I wasn't thinking about that, wasn't thinking about anything, as I shouted commands at the soldiers below in the space between the buildings, each falling into perfect lines, each knowing their place. The winter wind was bitter cold as it blew through the Steppes, but none of the soldiers flinched, I didn't flinch, as that icy cold hit our exposed faces. 
"We need to leave very soon." Cassian murmered to me as he, too, watched the soldiers scurry around like ants below, falling into their places. I could see the red glow of his siphons out of the corner of my eye, each was blazing bright and glinting in the feint sunlight that streamed through the parted clouds. Neither of us had seen Azriel since he had disappeared from the dining room, and I was scared for my brother. I had hurt him, opened a wound so deep I feared it would never be fixed, feared I had made it worse. 
"We leave now." I said strongly, and Cassian bellowed the command to the soldiers below, and in turn each Captain set about getting their section into the air and flying towards the South. I flew at the front, Cassian at my side, and I stared only at the horizon. I thought of nothing, felt nothing, as the killing calm of battle soaked into my very bones, into my core. We flew silently towards the Spring Court, towards my mate, towards war. 

Feyre

I strode through the camp with feigned confidence as I monitored the stoic faces of the lines upon lines of Spring and Hybern solders who had assembled into their perfect formation effortlessly, as if this whole thing had been in planning for far longer than I had previously thought. 
"I'm leaving this in your hands now." I said to Sion, who walked beside me cautiously, as if on a tightrope. As we finally reached the end of the lines of soldiers and beheld the full might of just one camp, I turned to face him and Jurian stepped beside me. I took his hand, preparing to winnow back to the manor. A feline, predatory smile crept across my features. "Don't mess this up." The threat was clear enough in my words, "I'll see you on the battlefield tomorrow." I didn't give Sion a chance to say anything else as I winnowed myself and Jurian back to the Spring Court manor.

We arrived in the same place we had left from only this morning. We both stood there for a second, staring at the manor, I couldn't tell if either of us was breathing. This was it, this was the last time we would set foot into this damned place, and then we were free. I was free from more than just this, I was free from the incessant calling of the void, the shackles of this world, this life, and everyone else was freed of me. 

We both snapped out of our trance at what was effectively the same second and shook out of each others' grasp, and I walked towards the manor, Jurian in tow, and that mask planted itself firmly back over my features, as if even the sight of this place triggered that reflex. I stormed through the entranceway, black flames trailing behind me, and then I heard the shouting coming from the meeting room. My boots thudded on the marble flooring, my flames burning the surface after me, making the white marble ashen and black. I pushed through the double doors to find Lucien in a corner, snarling at the approaching guards, who halted their effort at capturing the fox when I burst through the doors. Tamlin was red in the face, and Hybern was sitting in his usual chair as if nothing had happened. 
"What in the hell is happening in here?" I shouted at them all, and Lucien's face slackened ever so slightly with what I could only think was relief. Little did he know, I was the indirect reason he was in this position. 
"He's a traitor." Tamlin snarled in Lucien's direction.I smirked, as if this fact delighted me.
"Then why isn't he already in the dungeon?" And with those words Lucien's feet and hands froze over, to prevent him from moving or using his powers.
"I did nothing!" He shouted back as the guards closed in again, the fear on his face as clear as day. he looked at me, pleading, hoping maybe the female he thought he used to know was in her somewhere. But she wasn't, that poor, naïve young girl was trapped in the centre of the swirling storm inside me, trapped behind bars of the darkest shadow in this world. 
"Save it." I snapped at him as he was finally dragged out of the room towards the dungeons, where ever they were. I smiled sweetly as he passed me, "Ta ta now." And waved slightly, mockingly. I whipped my attention back to the two males seated at the table and grinned. I willed bloodlust into those swirling shadows in my eyes, willed the psychotic emotions I had only ever seen Under the Mountain into the darkness inside of me. It went wild, running its claws through my mind, begging to be let free, begging to get out and unleash hell upon the world. Begging to finally own me as I owned it. I let none of that show, let only the subtlest hints of my thoughts show on my face as I said those words I had been waiting on for too long now.

"To war we go." And as I spoke, Hybern and Tamlin rose from their chairs. I looked out the window behind them, towards the North, as if I could already see the grass there waiting to be stained black and red, waiting to be covered in ash and blood. 

Azriel

I sat in front of that grave again, sat on top of the bones of a person I had made a promise to all those years ago. The shadows wrapped around me, wrapped around the stone, spread through the clearing, and whispered to me. Where they leaked out, an empty space resided, deep and black. Then something snapped in me. Something so sure, it glowed in that dark wretched thing I called a mind. A plan to keep that promise. I stood and turned, staring North, past the wall, past the battlefield, to where I knew my brothers now flew. I smiled slightly and shot into the sky, praying I wasn't too late, praying war would wait for someone to end it.