The North Star

2

"We have got to get her out of here," Azriel says almost frantically, as the glass is removed.

"How?" Cassian says, "She may not even be alive."

Azriel glares at him, a look that could kill a weak soul. "She's alive. I can feel it, I can feel her."

Cassian sighs, "Brother—"

"Don't. Don't you dare." Azriel begins. "We'll find the sword, and we'll get her out safely."

As they both survey the room, they fail to find an answer. Azriel dares to touch me, gently shaking me, as if I was only asleep.

I envy the human story of Sleeping Beauty, I would love to be stuck in my dreams, waiting for a prince to save me.

Instead, I was stuck in the dark and cold, wondering if I would see another Fae in my lifetime.

Cassian flared his wings, causing a shelf to fall, and a glass jar to shatter. A mist rose, and fled back to its body.

The green skinned creature hissed at the Illyrians. It bore the antlers of a deer, though covered with moss and wooden branches. It belonged to the swamps, and in a flash of light, that's where it returned.

Azriel raises one of his eyebrows, silently communicating with Cassian. Cassian smiles, and they begin to wreck the room.

Glass is thrown into the ground, shattering once it makes contact. Every soul is given back to every creature, and they leave in a scurry. They're either gone in a flash of magic, or they run towards the door for escape.

Soon enough, I am all that's left.

Azriel looks around, and then his shoulders slowly sag, his wings begin to drag on the floor. "Why isn't she waking up like the others?" He asks Cassian.

The mirror.

The mirror.

Cassian, in a fit of rage, grabs a wooden stand and throws it towards the wall.

Straight towards me.

My shackled mirror realm is shattered, and I'm sucked out of the void.

I'm free.

It felt unnatural going from a spirit to a body, but I planned to never do it again. It was like my soul was folded into origami, and then untangled and stuffed into my chest.

I gasped, and it was painful, like I was reborn.

I grabbed at my chest, at my throat, because I was breathing. Azriel stepped forward to try and help me, but Cassian shook his head.

This was something I had to figure out of my own.

I forced myself to calm down, as my eyes frantically searched the room.

"Princess," Cassian said my childhood nickname that effortlessly flowed off his tongue. "You're safe. You're safe, we're here to take you home."

I shook my head alright, because I felt disoriented. All the light felt too bright, and the world seemed to close to me.

"Rina," Azriel softly whispers.

Pausing for a moment, I then opened my mouth, "Is this real?"

Azriel grabs my hand, "This is real."

I nodded, feeling tears coming up to my eyes. My mom was dead, and my family probably thought I was dead.

"Does Rhysand know? Or Father?" I ask them, while they exchange an odd look.

"We'll talk when we get back," Cassian says stiffly.

Alarms go off in my head, because something has happened. How long was I in the mirror?

I looked down at the black dress I was put into, in distaste. I tore off the puffy sleeves of the dress, leaving the top in tatters.

"I've been wanting to do that forever," I groaned, and tried to push myself up. All the blood rushes to my head, and I stumble, but Cassian catches me.

I immediately become mad at myself, I've never been so weak. And if I was weak, I was dead.

That was one lesson that my Father made sure I'd never forget.

"A mirror, Carina? How appropriate," Cassian jokes, a distraction from my current state.

I opened my mouth again, but this time, it sounded scratchy. "I don't know Cassian, I think you've spent more time in front of the mirror that I have, by the way your hair looks. You've always been such a vain creature."

Cassian laughs, and even Azriel gives me a chuckle.

"We need to go," Azriel says, as shouts are heard outside of the room.

My legs were useless, only a numb feeling responded to my limbs.

Cassian pulled me up, and I held onto him in a death grip. "I can't—I can't walk."

"I've got you," Azriel says, scooping me up in his arms, bridal style. He takes me away from Cassian, and head for the exit.

I don't know what I was expecting beyond the room, but the long, stone corridor fits exactly what I had imagined. We were probably two, or maybe three levels below ground.

Illyrians storm down the hallways, the leader from before carrying a sheath. "We found the sword!"

Cassian inspected takes the sword, out of its leather bindings. I see runes inscribed on the edges, and in its obsidian colored hilt. "We got it." Cassian confirms, putting it next to the sword on his belt. In his High General voice, he commands, "We evacuate, and return to base."

Azriel begins running, because its too confined of a space to fly. He rises multiple staircases, the small army following him.

We reach the ground level, which is covered in shattered glass, small fires, and dead guards.

Azriel takes to the air, flying into a hole where a grand window had been.

He shot into the sky, and I move in his arms to look over his shoulders.

I know the wind should be cold, biting at my uncovered skin, but I barely feel it.

I look down upon the poor excuse for a castle that I was trapped in. It was built on the side of a mountain, and behind laid the sea. We pass over red, orange, and yellow woods, heading north.

We were in the Autumn Court.

The woods began to look more bare, decorated with ice and snow instead of leaves. Azriel split off from the main group, not going back to the Illyrian War Camps. The Illyrians probably thought he was taking me to the Court of Nightmares, to torture me, because luckily, none of them recognized me.

How had they not?

I was the spare to the Heir of the Night Court, whether the people liked it not, they knew their leaders.

It was a blessing in disguise perhaps.

I just wanted to go home, to Velaris. Where I could fly on the winds and walk next to the Sidra. To go to Rita's to eat and dance and drink, and to visit the Rainbow for sweet treats.

I breathed harder, and subconsciously tried to move my back as Azriel glided through the air—

My wings.

They weren't there.

I knew I was returning home to the Night Court, finally safe, but at what cost?

"My wings," I sobbed, digging my face into Azriel's chest. "My wings."

Azriel holds me a little tighter. "I know."