Raisa knew the shadowsinger would follow her if she left; after they returned to Morrigan's house, her mind refused to sleep. She had enough sleep even if her body still ached. Adrenaline ran through her veins along with crazy ideas. But knowing Azriel was in the next room trying to sleep while making sure she didn't escape, she tried her best to ignore the ideas and go to sleep.
It was well past two in the morning when she was sure that Azriel had deemed that she was asleep and left. She figured he was running off to tell his High Lord what she had told him. She hoped he wouldn't tell his High Lord everything she had told him but she wouldn't hold a grudge if he did. They weren't officially allies and he owed her nothing.
A part of her though, would be grateful if he kept her secrets to himself. She shouldn't have told him but it felt good. Her heart was less heavy. His reaction was also unexpected. At the most she thought he would have nodded his head along to what she said. But to get upset? That was a surprise.
Her sigh filled the silent dark bedroom as she remembered his face. Why does it feel good that he got upset? She figured she wasn't used to people actually caring about her. She had her ladies in waiting that followed her around and told her when she was pretty and laughed at her jokes, but they didn't actually care. They feared Caius and their husbands too much. Raisa was just a gem in the court. Nothing more than a pretty face and easy target to try to get closer to the king. Little did the idiots know, getting close to the Queen didn't get them any closer to the king.
That was going to change soon. For that to happen, she'd have to get out of the miserably soft bed she had wasted too much time in already.
She knew Azriel was gone the moment he left. His presence was like a cool breeze, even with a wall separating them. As soon as he winnowed away, the cooling feeling was replaced with her thighs sticking together from sweat.
Just to make sure, she tiptoed to the bedroom next door and poked her head in. It was empty.
Now all she had to do was slip through the ward that kept her from leaving the house. She pressed her palm against the front door. The ward was thick and filled with a searing magic that matched a hot stove. It doesn't burn, she lied to herself as her own magic slithered down her fingers and swallowed the magic of the ward. Instead of being like a glass dome around the house, she saw it as the ocean. She parted it like she was a boat and once she was past, opening the door was simple.
The city was alive despite being so late. Their little walk hadn't satisfied her enough, especially when she couldn't sleep. She let herself take in the view of the street for five seconds before winnowing back to the woods where she had been meeting with Bryaxis.
She wasn't stupid enough to actually go see Bryaxis. That would be leading the shadowsinger back to him -if the beast was even still in the cave. She doubted it.
She had a different reason for being in the woods that night.
Her father had told her once hundreds of years ago that to every plan, there needs to be five more behind it. She hated the idea of having multiple plans because one was hard enough but with matters like this, there had to be a backup.
She had thought about this backup plan as her veins roared with venom. The pain was one of the worst things she had ever encountered. The pain was as bad as the heartbreak of her miscarriage and it was worse than anything her husband had ever done to her.
She had dreamed of Caius screaming from that pain. He would toss and turn in his silk sheets lining the bed they never shared until his voice turned to nothing. Healers would run to and from his room trying to figure out what kind of venom was killing their king only to panic when nothing was working.
And Raisa would sit at his bedside, clenching her handkerchief and sobbing fake tears like the good Queen she was known to be.
"I want who is responsible to be caught and hung!" She would scream and maybe blame it on Thadion, the Lord of Coin, just because he was her least favorite.
This scene ran through her imagination as she stopped at the base of a familiar tree and looked up.
"There you are," she smiled up at a great venomous monster with two heads.
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To the Shadowsinger | Azriel
Fantasy[COMPLETED] A hundred years had passed since the war against Hybern. Life was back to normal until a fae child fell from the sky and claimed to be from another world. No one in the Night Court understood how the gate between worlds could have opened...
