A Court of Scars and Shadows

Blazing Hands and Untamed Emotions

"Hello Gwyn," Lennan responded lightly. She nodded to Azriel before giving her full attention to Gwyn. "What did you want to talk about?"

Gwyn looked at Azriel who gave her a reassuring smile. She turned back to Lennan, "Do you want to walk around the garden first?" And Lennan responded with soft smile.

They walked an arms length away from each other, Azriel stayed at the bench, quietly observing. The silence between the pair was awkward. They kept walking until Gwyn realized they were much father from Azriel than she wanted to be.

"I'd first want to say thank you for waiting here in the Night Court and for looking into things for Tamlin," she started. "I know we never really established a relationship or whatever it was that we had, but I'm not in the right mind space to do anything like that, any time soon." She was now facing Lennan, who had a caring face on.

"Do not feel like you are entitled to me," Lennan said with a smile. "We had a few kisses and I would have been shocked if you had jumped right back into where we left off."

"Maybe in the future?" Gwyn shrugged nervously, she didn't want to lose Lennan as a friend though. Their friendship was something that made her forget about her past.

"I'll be here waiting whenever you want," she said and Gwyn's heart swelled. She smiled at Lennan and the pair of them continued on in their conversation. She briefly looked back to the Shadowsinger and felt a pang of guilt ran through from what she saw. His shadows were consuming his whole body, but they were different than normal. Darker. His face made something crack inside her, something that she didn't believe was there from the last six months in the Spring Court. He looked broken and in despair. She had the strange urge to comfort him.

Her feelings were consuming her and she quickly turned back to where Lennan was walking slightly ahead of her. When she dared another look back, he was no longer there. Gone in the shadows.

AZRIEL'S POV

He couldn't take it. The way Lennan was staring at Gwyn. The way she said that she would be waiting for Gwyn. He felt guilty for leaving when she had asked him to be there, but he had to leave.

He winnowed away to his apartment and as soon as he set foot into his kitchen, he threw up. He heaved and heaved until there was nothing else to come out. He breathed loudly for a few seconds before cleaning up the mess he caused. His shadows swirled around him, whispering how that should be him with Gwyn.

In anger, he threw the chair nearest to him against the wall, but it wasn't enough. He grabbed another chair and repeated the action. Both chairs now lied shattered around the wooden floor. He threw everything that was on the kitchen island to the floor. He ripped his bedsheets to shreds. He destroyed everything in his apartment until it looked like it was a rage room.

The next emotion that hit Azriel was sadness. It came at him harder than the anger and he felt as if he was having a panic attack. He couldn't control his breathing but he couldn't. He fell onto his knees.

Next thing he knows, Rhysand is standing in-front of him, swearing.

"Breathe Az, breathe," Rhysand pulls on the dominance he knows Azriel will follow. Azriel's breathing slows down and Rhys nods in count with his breathing.

After Azriel stopped heaving, Azriel asked, "How did you know where I was?"

"I was in a meeting when I felt a wave of emotions hit me from your connection. I followed it and it let me here," Rhysand said and Azriel felt slightly embarrassed that his emotions where so out of wack that he accidentally sent them to Rhys. "Now, do you want to tell me what caused all of this," Rhysand gestured to destroyed furniture.

Azriel briefly filled him in at what happened with Gwyn and Lennan. Once he finished recalling what happened, Rhys was looking at Azriel with sadness but with understanding too.

"I know how you feel," Rhys said.

"How did you do it?" Azriel asked desperately. If Gwyn was staying in the Night Court until she found something to help out Tamlin, Azriel needed to know how to control himself.

"At first I thought that Feyre was better off without me. But when I saw her wasting away month after month, I knew that I had to intervene somehow. The rest you know," Rhys shrugged as he put his hands in the pockets of his jacket. Azriel stayed silent as Rhysand decided that he could look around Azriel's apartment. Once he finished snooping at what as left, he asked, "When did you get this apartment?"

"Shortly after Nesta moved into the House of Wind. I knew them two wouldn't be able to ignore the sexual tension." Rhys huffed out a laugh at that.

"Do you want me to clean this up," Rhysand offered.

Azriel shook his head, "No, I'm going up to the House of Wind tonight. I'll deal with this mess tomorrow."

Rhysand nodded and clapped Azriel's shoulder before leaving.

——————

Gwyn had been brought back by Cassian, who asked where he had gone. Azriel didn't answer though as he went up to the room he had been using for the last few days.

As he had walked by a worried looking Gwyn, he had to chaste his shadows to stay by his side.

He was lying down on the bed before he drifted off into what he thought was going to be a dreamless sleep.

He was tied up in a too familiar darkness. Too horrifying. The door to the basement opened letting out a bead of light. Two figures appeared in the doorway sand as they neared, Azriel was able to tell that they were his stepbrothers.

"We want to try something today," mused Calvin. He was the oldest of them all, already completed the Blood Rite.

"We want to see what happens when you mix oil and fire on skin," finished Dolion, who was too cocky for his own good.

Azriel pulled on the chains that were keeping him bound. They laughed at his squirming.

"We will be nice," Dolion smirked. "We will let you choose what place we get to test out."

Azriel didn't say anything, instead he tried fighting against the bonds on his arms.

"Hands, you say," Calvin said, mocking his struggle. Azriel stilled. "Yes, I do think that is a good place to test out our little experiment."

Dolion left the dark room before returning with what Azriel scented as oil and what looked like matches. Calvin tightened the bonds around his hands, making his arms stick out weirdly from the rest of Azriel's body.

"Try not to move. We wouldn't want to light the fire somewhere else," Dolion said as he poured the watery substance around Azriel's hands. Azriel grimaced at the smell of the oil.

"Ready to test?" One sick brother said to the other.

"Ready," the other responded and the both lit a match at the same time and placed them on Azriel's hands. Immediately his hands where engulfed in flames. Pain seared all over Azriel's body as he tried to rip the bonds. He screamed and screamed in pain, but he knew that no one would hear him in time. Calvin and Dolion were both smiling in success of the panic and pain they were causing.

Azriel stopped moving in his restraints as he he realized there was no hope. He stilled, staring at his hands that were still ablaze.

A/N: Very short chapter than normal, but I plan on making the next one a long one. Also give me like 1-2 chapters to get to the good shit 😃.