A Court of Sunlight and Shadows

Do I wanna know?

Winning the traditional snowball fight this year had been easier than expected. His brothers were obviously drained from the night spent with their mates and had come down that morning happy and satisfied. Not like him, who needed that distraction to give vent to the energy and anger boiling in his veins, mixed with the desire for what little he had allowed himself to feel of her, not even the touch of her lips.

He was still angry at Rhys for the condescension with which he had treated him, for the way he had belittled the nature of his feelings for Elain. He knew his brother wanted to maintain the peace, but the way he had spoken to him, as if defending Lucien, made him furious. Rhys didn't understand: despite what his mother had been through, he still did not. He was blinded by his own happiness, and as happy as he was for him, he couldn't help being frustrated.

Last night he had almost hoped to be caught. Would Lucien be able to see them? Well, let him. He feared neither him, nor the blood duel. Nor even the consequences it might have for the precarious peace Rhys seemed to be clinging to. If the situation between courts ever came to a head, it would not be because of who he kissed - or more.

No, if there was a single reason that prevented him from provoking Lucien to the point of challenging him to a duel once and for all, it was Elain, and only the thought that it might somehow hurt her.

He had spent the night sleepless. After his meeting with Gwyn, and after leaving Elain's necklace with Clotho, he had flown around Velaris until the first light of dawn, letting the cold that caressed his wings clear his mind. He didn't trust himself to stay under her same roof.

Wasn't this need he felt, this instinct to be close to her, to have her, to taste her and hear her moan his name, comparable to what united his brothers to their mates? He had repeatedly heard them talk about their bonds, most often through his shadows, when they thought he was not listening.

There was something deeply wrong with everything that was going on. Three sisters. Three damn sisters. It couldn't have been a coincidence that no less than two of them were his brothers' mates while the third one....

"Calm those shadows, Az, or you'll suck the room into darkness."

Mor's sleepy voice brought him out of his thoughts. He looked around, retracting his shadows enough to be able to see her, standing before him with a cup of coffee in her hand.

"Good morning, by the way," she added.

"It's six o'clock in the evening."

"Whatever," she continued, sitting down at the kitchen table. "What's wrong?"

He didn't even try to hide his mood. "I have to meet up with Rhys."

"And you're in such a bad mood because?"

He did not reply, merely glancing at her. One of their many silent conversations. Mor, he realized, had begun to look him in the eye more often since his feelings for Elain had arisen. As if he didn't know, as if he hadn't always known...

He is here, whispered his shadows

Lucien came down the stairs into the main room. He met his gaze, that metallic eye scanning him from head to toe.

"Let's go," he said, walking towards Rhys's study without directing a further glance in his direction. Behind his back, he could hear Mor snorting.

Rhys was already waiting for them, his violet eyes as rigid and steady as they had been the night before, when he had ordered him to leave to a brothel. His siphons glowed at the memory. Rhys noticed it.

If you are unable to control yourself, I will hold the meeting with him alone

The light from his siphons went out. His brother nodded as Lucien took a seat at the desk opposite him. Azriel remained standing.