ACOTAR - In The Modern World

What is there to do?

"Azriel. Wake up."

Azriel opened his eyes to find Mor leaning directly over his head. He cleared his eyes of sleep in an instance and took in her tear-filled ones.

"It's Rhys."

In a split second, he was out of bed, scrambling for his neatly folded clothes on the chair by his bed.

"Give me a minute." He yanked on the clothes in a frenzy as Mor left the room to presumably go and awake Cassian and Amren.

Three minutes later they were all sat in the early morning light around the coffee table in the living room, staring at the screen of Mor's phone. The text from Rhys sat unmoving - they all knew that nothing else would come through from him.

"Should we... Should we text him back?" Mor took a shaky breath.

Azriel stood and began to pace. Amren snapped at Mor for suggesting something so stupid yet it did not reach his ears. The instructions had been clear - don't go to find him.
It was so very Rhysand, so noble. He would rather die than risk their lives.

"The email Amarantha sent - and the school is shut for seven weeks - and he's trapped there -" Azriel muttered to himself as he paced back and forth, desperately trying to figure out a plan without breaking Rhysand's wishes.

"There's nothing to do," Cassian swallowed, "we just have to wait for the school to open again. I know, Az," Azriel had opened his mouth in an uproar of the suggestion, "but we can't risk it. And we have so much to do here - you know, alive."

Mor mumbled something about coffee and swiftly left the room. 

"There must be something. We have to do something. We can't alert the authorities - they can't know about - if only we had wings." Azriel pinched the bridge of his nose, frustration crawling over his perfect features. 

"We need to stay and look after them. Azriel, you saw what Rhys said. Now he's gone, I'm in charge." Amren's face was bitter but strong.  "Both of you, since you're up, go and check on everything," they opened their mouths as Amren snapped, "NOW."

They grumbled as they left the house, worry about Rhysand coursing through their jagged conversation as they headed down the path at the back of the townhouse, leading to what they tried to hide so desperately from the world. 

As at the bottom of that path was a hidden valley. The public knew about it, naturally - it was the prime dog-walking spot for people in the suburbs. A favourite haunt was the large waterfall towards the far end of the valley; at least for those who could be arsed to walk there, which was the minority of the population. Once there, they would turn and head back through the woodland to their car - all except for the five people living in the strange, large house right on the outskirts of the city. 

What most people didn't know about was the stone passage leading deep into the cliff-face of the waterfall. 

When Cassian - the only person in the world who could ever stumble upon something so strange and magical - had swum in the pool at the base of the fall many years ago, he had made the discovery that some of the fallen rocks at the bottom of the pool weren't the same rocks as the cliff. Having studied geology, he found this fascinating. Being genuinely smart for a change - much to the surprise of his friends - he explored further, resulting in the discovery of the underwater tunnel, carved out centuries ago. Indeed, as the tunnel went on, the rock type did change to match the boulders in the bottom of the pool. 

Cassian, therefore, forced Azriel and Rhysand to dangerously free dive to the end of the tunnel. This did result in their near death, but the end was worth it. 

Another valley, completely obscured by ancient trees and hills nearly the size of mountains. Completely undiscovered - until Cassian. 

This is where they were headed now - and now, it was most definitely not undiscovered - or empty. 

Rhysand had decided to make it a haven for those without homes.

It was the home for the once homeless - and had been christened with the name 'Velaris.'