Azriel relied on the light of the day to save him from the darkness. To keep him from the shadows and scars that haunted his nightmares.
Tahlia relied on the darkness to save her from the light. By keeping to the shadows, she can protect her future...
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Whatever begins in anger
Ends in shame
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The smell of the food, so warm and delicious, was not enough to help Azriel find an appetite. When he had arrived, everyone else was already sitting around the table preparing for lunch. Cassian was grabbing at a roll of bread and launching it at Rhys who caught it with ease, tearing a bite from it and winking before handing it over to Feyre.
"Azriel!" Elain jeered, midway through feeding a grape to her mate.
Cassian, too, was busy stuffing his face, which looked to be an adequate technique to distract himself from the Archeron sister sitting across from him. Her arms firmly crossed against her chest and features sour and eyes set on the grooves in the table even as Cassian began to speak. "You're back soon. Did he not turn up?"
"Tamlin was..." Struggling.
But from the way Feyre and Rhys' shoulders were almost set in stone, that perhaps that wasn't the answer they were looking for. At least not in front of everyone else, not now. Tensions were high enough without reason to start another argument about what was deserved and not in regards to Spring. Spring and Tamlin.
In all honesty, Tamlin had been worse. Had ripped people and creatures alike for less than what Tahlia had said and asked. Azriel had to wonder for a moment how she'd done it. Kept toeing on the line of firm and understanding.
"Tamlin was fine." And thankfully a bowl of hot broth appeared in front of him before he had to say any more. Delve any deeper into the specifics.
Anyway, his mind was far too busy wondering over the female that had disappeared into the afternoon light without so much as a goodbye. Azriel mulled it over once, then twice, then again, looking for any possible way to find an excuse to go to day. If only to apologise.
"He was fine?" Cassian laughed, food from his full mouth flying across the table. Nesta's eyes flashed with warning as her dainty, all too thin hand, swiped away the spec of food from her cheek. "Tamlin?"
"As good as could've been expected. Patient, almost." Which was odd in itself. Azriel didn't bother checking his family's reactions. Those of disbelief or maybe amusement, it didn't matter, he decided, pushing a piece of bread around his bowl. "It's odd seeing him converse with someone he doesn't despise."
"Yet." It wasn't a threat, Azriel reassured his shadows as they bit at his skin as Nesta carried on. "You aren't foolish enough to believe he won't tear her apart when he finds out that someone from your court went with her." The emphasis on 'your' was clear.
Nesta carried the same wall she always did, pushing herself away from who she was now, yearning for who she had been. Honestly, he couldn't for the life of him think of why. Each to their own, who was he to judge? She had her own story, her own pain that nobody else could comprehend. Just as Elain, and Feyre, and Rhysand, and the rest of them. Even Azriel himself.
