Chapter 7: Belong
AZRIEL
Azriel could not do it.
To kill Tamlin's sister felt monstrous.
When it had been hypothetical situation, when he had rationalized his intentions with hate and fury in his heart it was different, it had seemed like justice then, but then the little female had crumbled before him as if he was a thing of her nightmares.
It had tumbled him to stone the moment he knew how utterly bizarre it was to be the monster in someone else's eyes. No matter what he had come to do, the message her death would send to never harm Rhys, Mor, Cassian, even the people of Velaris seemed like too steep of a price. The little female before him was innocent. She was innocent of her father and brother's crimes. Just as innocent as Nyx and Selene had been when those monsters butchered them.
It upset him to know that all the prestige he had built as the fabled shadowsinger to the High Lord and one of the greatest Illyrian warriors of this age… meant nothing compared to the tears of a small child.
The Illyrians would have turned their noses at his weak excuse for a cute little face with big green eyes. But no matter what he thought, when he looked at the little female, something told him not betray her trust as she tucked her chin deeper into his chest as he flew to the tree-line where Rhys would surely be waiting for him.
To betray her trust would remind him too much of when Mor had trusted her father and family to protect her and not use her as livestock for the highest bidding price or spoiled goods when she slept with Cassian to spite them. Both thoughts didn't sit well with him, but that didn't mean he didn't respect Mor any less for fighting back for the simple right to live her own life. The shadows curled around his shoulders, pondering. Did the little female remind you of a child Morrigan? Did she remind you of what your child would look like?
Not in the slightest.
This little female was Fae, as Fae as one could be, but her hair was not gold like Mor's blonde, nor her tan skin as dark as his. Her curls, the ones that rippled against her scalp were more sunlight than the luster of stone that Mor's felt like. Hers seemed to ward off things like him that lived in in the dark. Her hands and feet were filthy green, possibly from her running in the fields, and her wild spirit would be so unlike the noble females of the Night Court, but perhaps not something so far from some of the wild Illyrian females that fought the clipping and the patriarchal traditions of their ancestors.
Nevertheless, what her spirit may say, her face had all the inclinations of a future heiress of the Spring Court, and yet her tears had all but brought him back to memory of finding Morrigan at the Autumn Court, stripped and… No.
You still let it get to you. The Morrigan's abuse is not your pain to bear shadowsinger, you saved her, she knows that you cared for her when others would not. The dark shadows lapped at his shoulders as he flew into the safety of the trees, trying to leach the tension away from him. Take the girl, make sure none can hurt her. None dare would hurt her like Morrigan. One day she will thank you, perhaps be more of a family to you than the Morrigan ever could…
He tucked his wings out, slowing his momentum. "No. She is not mine."
The girl sniffled when his arms tightened. To him he was only fighting against the power of the shadows. They tempted him to winnow back to Court with a new ward. They tempted him with his weakness for a complete family.
Kianna squirmed in his arms. "Your holding me too tight."
"I'm sorry." That was what brought him back to her as he released his death grip.
"It's fine." She sniffled and gave a little yelp when he finally landed on an enormous Oak tree, the same one that had once held Rhys, his father, and himself before he knew of what would happen in that Manor home.
The little female began to shake, clutching him tighter, and her large eyes getting bigger at the sight of the forest floor at least forty feet below them. "Are you afraid of heights?"
"Yes."
"I won't drop you." Azriel felt a weak smile spread over his face when she looked up at him. It looked as if she was thinking about the truth in those words. Something made him want to show her Truth-teller, only to validate the safety she could find with him. "I wouldn't be an Illyrian warrior if I dropped you from"-
"What happened to Willow?"
"Willow?"
Her little lip bobbed, tears leaking out her eyes, "everyone is dead… my parents, my brothers… the baby." She broke down once more, and Azriel did not have the heart to answer her. What could possibly give her the relief to know that he could have stopped this. That he should have listened to Mor and then Rhys about keeping her mother and her unborn child safe. Perhaps he was the monster in her mind.
Whatever monster he was, Azriel still held her body against his chest, comforting. "I'm sorry."
Kianna did not make a sound, refusing to withdraw from him, while his porcelain fingers latched onto the ends of her hair like he didn't know how to stop. Her little hand went to his neck, a gesture devoid of shame or fear and curled her own fingers in his dark tresses, testing them out as well. She seemed unafraid of him now, and far more at ease with the height of the tree. Curiosity suited her Azriel supposed. In the same way he had seen Illyrian children attempt their first flights way before they should.
Despite the comfort they found, his training reminded him to be wary of his surroundings. His experienced eyes roaming over the field of escaping human slaves, to the Manor in the distance being doused of the flames, and Rhys still had not returned… He fought with himself to leave her here and make sure the newly made High Lord had surely left, probably back in Velaris, turning the Court on its' head, and for some reason that brought the shadowsinger relief.
Rhysand was High Lord now. The High Lord of the Night Court.
Azriel smiled and wondered if his brother would accept Kianna into their Court.
"I might need to go check on the Manor, to make sure everyone got out"- Azriel spoke up, his tucked wings screaming at him to take off now while none expected he was still here. "To see if the damage is done."
"Don't leave me." Kianna spoke up, her eyes terrified. "Please you said it wasn't safe"-
"None of them can get you up here." Azriel reminded her, and she looked down only to grow paler at the possible fall to the forest floor below. "This is the safest place for you. You just need to make sure you don't lean over, hold onto the tree-"
"They could hurt you." Her words turned hysterical, "then I would have no one, they would hurt you like my brothers did the…" she broke down then, and Azriel did not have the sense to say that her eldest brother (once he regained himself) would be the protector if she stayed here. He wanted her to come with him. Azriel wanted her to stay far away from a Court that would not blink at the acts committed against out-spoken females like Mor or sniff at the likes of Cassian and him if they were ever given the chance.
"Azriel?" He looked down at Kianna that had been expecting an answer, she said softly and slowly, "can you take me, I mean would you get me away from here"-
"Az." The shadowsinger felt a mind reach out to him. Rhys' Daemati powers were unquestionable in their percision.
"Azriel." It was Rhys that spoke in his mind, weary, body and soul, and yet Azriel was more worried for the little body pressed against his. Compared to their power and strength she needed him more. "Where were you? You were supposed to follow me back to Velaris. We thought you had-"
"I know." Azriel spoke back through the temporary bond. "I got held up."
He could feel the question forming in Rhys mind, and the hint of worry as he found his place back at the old Oak.
"It's time Kianna," Azriel leaned up on their perch. Scouting the lay of the land for… "Rhysand."
Rhys winnowed to them in the blink of an eye, his once curious eyes were furious at the sight of Kianna clutching the shadowsinger.
"By the Cauldron." His voice was severe. "What have you done Az?"
"I want to take her back with us, where she could be safe"-
Rhys gave him a look as if he gone bat-shit crazy, well not that much severity, but close enough. "What would Tamlin say? When you stole his little sister after he just lost his whole family to our Court? Do you want to start a war Azriel? After a night like this," it was like Rhys was cursing the night itself, and he could feel the disappointment of his brother and High Lord. He had lost a father, and now… all he had was his friends. Azriel was supposed to be here for him, be comforting him, and making sure his rule over the nobles and war-camps was secure and unquestionable.
That was what made this so difficult, "I'm sorry Rhys, but I can't let her go back there."
"And I can't let you put my people and our friends in danger Azriel. Our people Az," as if he could forget it, "you would but our home in danger?" Of course, he wouldn't mention Velaris in front of anyone outside of their Court. Even a defenseless child that could find happiness there, and that rubbed the shadowsinger wrong. Still Rhys went on, "she will be safer here, he is her family, this is where she belongs"-
"To be abused just like all the females of this Court." There he said it, there was no going back now, and then Kianna began to cry in his chest once more, and Azriel held back from comforting her to give Rhys one hell of an argument. "If this was Morrigan, if you had a chance to save her before all the evils they put in her life, would you do it Rhys? Would you save her? Because I would, I would do anything for the people I love."
"Az." He barked a pissed off laugh, "Not only is this the most I ever heard you talk." At least he was right there, "but you have no idea what type of man Tamlin is, and the fact that this little child is not Mor, and she never will be." Why did he have to say it like that? "So maybe tearing her away from the only family she has left is not the best idea, brother."
"My brother, Tamlin made it?" Kianna wiped her eyes, speaking against the Illyrian leather of his arm, and the lightness in her voice made him rethink his motives. "He's a good brother," now that was not something Azriel had expected. "He won't hurt me. He was kind to me."
"See, she agrees with me." Rhysand said as if the hope of a child was reason enough to let her be here.
"What if he does hurt her one day?" Azriel made it stick, "would you protect her then? Would you take her in as we did for Mor?"
"What is your deal Az?" Rhys made it sound as if this was impossible for a powerful High Lord like him. "She is not under my Court." So, he had been listening to his thoughts, "only getting the gist of what made you want to abduct a small child. She belongs to the Spring Court."
Those words broke him. "She belongs to no one!"
Rhysand's eyes grew wide with shock.
The silence was long and uneasy. Suddenly he was aware of the forest, of the beasts, of the Manor, and that this was the worst place and time he should be arguing with Rhys.
Azriel breathed a deep breath, releasing the anger from himself, that was the first and last time he would yell at Rhysand that looked as if he had lost the shadowsinger for good.
"Let me go Az," Kianna saying his shortened name brought him to regard her for once. "I'll be fine, I'll be safe." I'll be fine, I'll be safe, she said so easily. Did she mean those words? Azriel did not need his shadows to tell him otherwise. She showed no hate or fear while looking over his arm and to the Manor that was no longer on fire.
She no longer looked so despondent, stealing glances at the Manor as if she wanted to see for herself if her traitorous brother would be there. The same brother that had let Nyx and Selene be mutilated and done nothing to the murders. Who was to say that Tamlin would not do the same to her one day? That he would find it in his interests to sell off her virginity and make her a pawn in his games? Could Azriel sleep at night knowing that another innocent would be used by this Hybern-loving family.
"They are her family too Az." Rhys said softly and slowly, as if he was afraid of frightening him. "If it ever came to that… we could still protect her."
It took everything in Azriel to nod to his exceptionally understanding High Lord.
He should be dead for speaking to a High Lord like this. Azriel knew that if Rhysand was not his brother and friend first… then he would have been casted out or worse.
"I'll take her." Rhys reached out for her, and Azriel felt Kianna stiffen against his chest, her little arm tucked around his waist briefly touched the base of his wing. It sent a ripple through him that made him stand and scout the dark path of grassland that led back to the Manor.
"I'll do it."
So was this what you expected?
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Love you guys,
Odeveca
