A Court Of Flowers And Shadows {Azriel Shadowsinger}

Chapter One

It was quiet.

It was way too damn quiet compared to the usual hustle and bustle and loud chatter that usually could be heard throughout the Spring Court Manor. The only sounds that could be heard was the occasional clatter in the kitchen and Amara's footsteps as she made her way down the many stairs that would lead her from her bedroom and down to the dining room.

Amara was already fully aware of the fact that she wasn't going to see Tamlin at the dinner table or anywhere else in the Manor. Nobody had seen him in the week since the party had occurred and the curse had been set on all of Prythian. She doubted that any one other than the person delivering him his meals would see him for a really long time. Lucien and Amara had been around to make up for the lack of leadership in the Spring Court but things had been weird between the two. Every time that Lucien looked over at her, she could see a hint of jealousy in his eyes and the two of them worked in dead silence, never exchanging a single word and only knowing what to do by looking over the other's shoulder at what they were doing.

A soft sigh left the High Fae's lips as she sat down opposite Lucien, forcing her gaze to not go over to the empty seat at the head of the table that was usually occupied by her only living brother. Amara couldn't focus on Tamlin right now. When he was ready to go back to being High Lord again, then she could focus on him but right now there were multiple other things in her life that she was trying her hardest to ignore.

First there was the fact that since the party, every single servant in the manor seemed to hate Amara more even more than they had ever hated anyone that was a part of the High Lord's family. She used to be the favourite. When she was little the cooks would teach her different dishes, the gardener would use Amara's powers to his advantage, the maids would let her help organise everything in the house to her liking even though it meant more work for them once they were ordered to put things to how her father wanted. But all of that was gone now. They all hated her. Sure, Tamlin was the one that had been the reason that they had all been cursed in the first place but everyone hated that Amara had gotten away with not having to wear a mask at all. It wasn't like she had asked to stay behind – even though she had been more than willing to once she'd realised that she could sneak out to the Night Court – but she understood why they were all taking their anger out on her. If anything, she deserved it a lot more than any of them did. She'd been disobedient the second that they'd left. She'd just disappeared to the Night Court all because of a stupid mating bond that Azriel refused to acknowledge even existed between the two of them.

That was the other problem that she was having. There was this stupid bond tugging at her heart and making her chest ache at all hours of the day which made it practically impossible for her to sleep or even pay attention to any of the work that she was doing. All because this mating bond made her want to be around him, even if that meant that he was spending the whole time ignoring her and acting like she didn't exist. And yet... she still always went whenever she could. She showed up and she acted like everything was perfectly fine. Like it didn't feel like he was punching a hole through her chest whenever he didn't return a smile or a greeting or whenever he didn't look in her direction or he left the room whenever she walked in. She showed up every single damn time because being around him made the ache subside just a little bit so that she could handle being away from him. Being around him hurt, but it also made things better... never completely but always at least enough that she could sleep through the night.

Next was the issue with Tamlin not running his own court. Amara and Lucien were both stuck trying to find a way to fix everything that was happening with the people of the court while Tamlin just sat back and occasionally sent one of his guards off to the human realm in their varying animal forms. It wasn't that Amara didn't understand that doing that was painful enough for her brother, it was just the fact that she was always the one that had to deliver the news to the waiting soldiers who were more than willing to go because they saw it as a noble death. They saw this stupid court as something worth dying for. However, by some strange miracle, the three of them were running the court almost to the standard that it had been run before the party and the curse. Amara was in charge of filling out all the paperwork, Lucien made the rounds every single day to make sure that there was still some degree of peace amongst the people despite the rise in their anger, and Tamlin was sending his people out like a lamb to slaughter.

Somehow it was working but that didn't mean that it was the best option for the court in a long term sense. Maybe this was what would work short term but in the long run this could be the downfall of the Spring Court. A downfall that so many people in the other courts just kept waiting to happen.

Amara looked over at Lucien, someone who was more of a brother to her than her actual flesh and blood, and set her cup of coffee down on the breakfast table in front of her. Even with the mask she could see the bags under his eyes and the fact that he had been getting less sleep than she had. However, while Amara just laid her in her bed when she couldn't sleep, Lucien went out to do another round. There had been two days where she just hadn't seen him because he couldn't sleep. She'd had to slip him a sleeping tonic and lock him in his room so that he would actually start taking care of himself again. Just because they weren't talking didn't mean that she didn't care about him at all.

"Can you please talk to me? Even if it's to yell at me or to tell me that you hate me and want nothing to do with me. I can't stand you not talking to me," Amara practically begged, her desperation evident in the tone of her voice.

"I don't exactly have anything pleasant to say to you right now, Amara," Lucien told her bitterly and Amara had to bite back her tears.

"I understand..." she said quietly before she dismissed herself from the table and set herself to the library, picking up her stack of paperwork from the desk and moving to the window seat.

That was the first time she'd talked to someone since the night of the party. She'd been living in a world of silence. Conversations stopped when she walked in, Lucien wouldn't look at her and even the birds seemed to stop chirping whenever she went in to the garden.

She was stuck in a world of silence and she wanted nothing more than for it to come to an end.