A Court Of Flowers And Shadows {Azriel Shadowsinger}

Prologue

Usually, being invited to a party was a great thing. It was something that you looked forward to and something that had you spending hours planning outfits, finding out what your friends were wearing and then change your outfit last minute. It was something that Amara loved. She loved planning and attending parties, no matter what they were for.

This one, however, was meant to be one big apology party and everyone from all of the seven courts of Prythian were invited.

The party... That stupid, bloody party. That was where Amara was supposed to have been that night, her hair pinned up and a mask on her face. She was meant to have been there with her brother, her best friend, and the rest of her court. Amara was supposed to have been the perfect little sister to the High Lord of the Spring Court, the perfect and silent sister so that nothing went wrong. She should been there, stood in a dark green dress and a golden cat mask that Alis had spent so much time making for here, even after Amara had begged her not to bother since Alis had so much to do anyway.

Tamlin, apparently, had other plans for his little sister. He'd decided (without her) that she was going to stay behind instead of attending the party. Said something along the lines of "I can't watch another person I love get hurt". He didn't trust Amarantha enough as it is and it was bad enough that what had happened last time had occurred. Amara couldn't say that she blamed her brother for not trusting Amarantha but she had definitely been hurt by the fact that he'd used Lucien's injuries in his argument for her to stay behind.

It hadn't taken a lot but Amara had grown bored within an hour of Tamlin and the others leaving, so she had done something that she knew Tamlin would kill her for. It wasn't like she hadn't done it before, this time it had just been a lot easier because she wasn't trying to come up with some elaborate escape route and avoid everyone that was in the manor. She'd done this countless times before and never been caught – apart from that one time when Lucien had seemed suspicious about where she was going but he hadn't asked too many questions.

Amara got changed in to something that was actually acceptable for her to be seen in before she winnowed herself as close to Velaris as she could get. After that, it was a simple walk in to town and up to the House of Wind.

There were a couple of things that made Amara smile when she got to the House of Wind. The first thing that did was the usual and comforting sound of Amren and Cassian arguing. The second was seeing the flowers that were blooming in the boxes on the windowsill and she stopped to help them grow a little bit when she noticed little flaws.

Amara got there just as Rhys was leaving for the party. He'd stopped and given her a hug and a smile, wishing her good luck with the arguing which she had assured would be over by the time he got home so he would be able to sleep in peace. She wished him luck and made her way further in to the house once he was gone.

Something that Amara had to do whenever she visited the Night Court was avoid Azriel. They had been playing this game for decades, ever since they had first noticed the tug of the mating bond between the two of them. Neither of them spoke to each other or made any attempt to be around each other, whether that be alone or with other people around. If there ever was the off chance that they were in a room together, there was always at least one other person to act like a buffer between them. The one time that there hadn't been... things had ended amazingly but that didn't mean that they talked to each other now. The buffer was now there to prevent that from happening again and so that they couldn't talk about the one thing that Amara actually wanted to talk about. Usually it was Mor which didn't help Amara's mood at all since Azriel seemed to dote on her even more than usual when it was just the three of them in the room (yet another reason that Amara refused to be the one to bring up the topic between the two of them). It was almost like he was trying to prove the point that the bond between them didn't matter. That he didn't need her and he didn't need the Cauldron and the Mother to tell him who he should be with.

She should have been there...

At the party...

Instead, she'd hears Rhys in her head, telling her to hurry back to the Spring Court. That he'd made it so that she could winnow out of Velaris right that second but then he'd have to make the barriers tighter than ever to anyone outside of them. To not tell anyone where had been just like she never had before. He didn't want them to know what had happened if she was ever able to get in contact with anyone else in the Inner Circle. He knew either Tamlin or Lucien would tell her but he didn't want them to know. He didn't want them to worry even more than they probably already were.

Everyone in the house got a different message. They all shared a look before Amara winnowed home.

She got back to the Spring Court just in time...

But it didn't even take five minutes before she heard a crash and was wishing that she'd just stayed in Velaris.