Chapter 246

Amren was actually giggling when Elain walked into the sitting room with her sisters. Feyre cracked a smile immediately and Nesta looked curiously at their small friend. "What has happened?" the High Lady of the Night Court asked, and Mor leaned back in her chair, grinning widely.

"Nothing." The blonde said.

"There has to be something." Nesta remarked, "Amren does not giggle lightly…"

Elain sank down onto the plush armchair, running her fingers over the material and smiling at the obvious awkward air in the room. Nesta sank down on the chair to her left, while her younger sister sat beside Mor. Elain continued to stroke the armchair, enjoying the velvety feel of it beneath her fingers as her eyes moved between Amren, Mor and Azriel. Amren was still giggling a little, Mor was still grinning and Azriel was rubbing his temples looking entirely put out by the entire situation.

"We've just been talking." Mor elaborated, her grin still firmly in place across her beautiful face.

"They've been speculating about what everyone did last night…" Azriel put in, sounding exasperated and kind of uncomfortable.

"After the performance?" Nesta asked, raising one fine eyebrow.

"About who stayed at the club." Amren said, grinning as her eyes swept the room, looking at each of them in turn.

"Well…" Mor said, "We thought it was interesting to consider who had stayed and who left…"

"And why would that be something to discuss…" Nesta asked, sitting with her usual immaculate posture. "Wasn't that rather the point of wearing the cloaks? So that identity remained secret…?"

"From everyone else." Amren said.

"But we're family." Mor added. "It makes sense for the High Lord and Lady to keep their activities secret when visiting places like that… but only from others who may see them. Not us."

"Are you asking if Rhys and I stayed or came home?" Feyre asked, crossing one of her ankles over her knees.

"We were speculating." Mor agreed.

"Why speculate?" Feyre asked, "We came home."

"Oh…" Mor made a face, "That's anticlimactic."

Elain watched Mor pout for a second before glancing at Amren who gave a wicked smirk. "Of course, you two were not the only people we were speculating about." Her eyes went to Nesta who somehow managed to sit even more straight in her seat. Nesta's hands smoothed her dress over her knees, pretending that she didn't know that Amren was looking at her, or that they had been speaking about her. Elain could tell that her elder sister's breath had caught in her throat, however, and that she was very uncomfortable with that discussion.

"Ahh yes…" Mor cut in, and Elain was certain that she saw the blonde's eyes flick to Nesta and then quickly away a heartbeat later. "The big question was whether or not Azriel stayed."

Azriel went rigid just as Nesta visibly relaxed, and Elain was sure that Mor had changed the focus of the group deliberately.

"We don't need to wonder about what I did." Azriel said, his voice sounding strange to Elain. "I came back here…"

"Did you?" Feyre chuckled, "I don't remember seeing you…"

"Not being seen is what I do." Azriel's voice was now matter-of-fact, and Elain suddenly remembered walking into the dark library one night to find him in the shadows with Cerridwen. She stared at Azriel, wondering herself now if he had stayed at the club to see a little more, or if he had indeed come back to the house as he claimed. If he and Cerridwen were still… whatever they had been, would he have come back to her?

"Ahh… but you could have been not being seen at the club…" Amren snickered, "I can imagine you slinking from room to room, avoiding eyes…"

"I slunk back here." Azriel reiterated. "If you want details about what went on there last night, perhaps you should have stayed yourself. Or, ask someone who did."

Elain started a little when all eyes in the room turned on her. She remembered how everyone around she and Lucien had gotten to their feet and walked away after the performance, and that they had been alone when they had gone downstairs to head through one of the doors. If they had noticed, it would have been an easy conclusion to come to, to assume that she and Lucien had stayed and, judging by the look on Mor's face, she had come to that exact conclusion.

"Elain?" The blonde's voice was sweet, and her smile anything but.

Elain blinked. She didn't know how to respond. There probably wasn't much point in denying it, they wouldn't believe her. They had to have known that she and Lucien stayed, so she had to decide how to handle that. Remembering the way that Lucien had once told her about his approach to things being "balls and sass", she fixed a smile onto her own face, meeting Mor's eyes. "Yes. Lucien and I stayed."

Amren laughed, and Elain didn't miss the way that Nesta looked at her. Her sister looked marginally shocked, but also intrigued. "Did you really?"

"Yes." Elain lifted her chin. "We won't be in the Night Court for too much longer, and it was very interesting to see what the Court offered by way of entertainment…"

"And what did you discover?" Mor asked, her voice a purr now.

"Oh… Many things."