Queen of Shadows - Azriel

Chapter 6: Shadows

It had been 48 years of being in this hell hole. I'm still doing weekly fights but Amaratha's through in a twist a couple of years after people stopped wanting to fight me. I have to fight monsters. It is truly like the gladiator stories Bellamy told me. I prefer the monsters. Though they are harder to kill and I get more injured, I felt a lot less guilty. But eventually, the monsters stopped and I was the only monster left in the arena. She started sending in innocents. Anyone who upset her at the wrong time.

I had become her executioner. I could barely stomach it. I don't know how much longer I can do this. I'm in the arena fighting for my life but is my life really worth it?

I start unclipping my weapons from their various holsters as I approach my room and push open the heavy-set doors. I glance over to the small settee in the room and sure enough, Rhysand is lying on his back, one leg crossed over the other, tossing a ball of starlight above his head and catching it repeatedly.

I just continue in with a slight smile starting to form on the edges of my lips. I am happy he is here. Not for his charming presence as he would insist but because I know where he'd be if he wasn't. And honestly, he was the only thing holding me together these days. He doesn't look over as he asks "Did I win my bet?"

I scoff, "You always win your bet and you better be setting some aside for me asshole." Rhysand just chuckles and keeps tossing. I walk past him to the wardrobe and start to unbuckle the Illyrian leathers Rhysand had secured for me.

"Of course darling, we can't have you living off me forever" he drawls. I just roll my eyes at him glancing down at a deep cut I received that lay across the burn scar from decades ago. Rhysand's eyes follow my own and he winces before asking "How bad?"

"I've had worse" I grumble. "This is right overtop of where I had an old scar. Oddly enough I kind of hate how I lost my scars and tattoos when my body changed into...this." I gesture to the wings at my back. That has been the oddest adjustment thus far. I thought after A.I. trying to kill me and meeting whatever the hell the judges were that nothing could surprise me anymore. But fae, magic, it was incomprehensible at first.

"Scars can tell a story" Rhysand mused. "What story did yours tell?" The question took me for a pause. It feels like a lifetime ago now.

I chuckle under my breath as I continue to change. "That would be the first time I went swimming." It's Rhysand's turn to laugh.

"How did you pull that off?" he questions his voice a smooth purr. I walk back over to the bed now. Where do I even begin?

"Well, it was my first day on the ground. A couple of hours after our pod crash-landed and it was the first time I wasn't a prisoner of some form." I remember it so clearly the wind in my face as I was the first to step off the pod. The first taste of freedom I ever had.

"I wanted to do something reckless just anything that I chose for myself solely because I wanted to. So when a group was going to look for supplies I took the chance. We came across this river and I jumped in before anyone even realized what I was doing. Luckily it was shallow enough for me to stand considering I'd never been in water before I doubt I would have been able to swim." Rhysand nods along patiently as I tell the story.

"It was wonderful for a minute or so and then my friend Jasper shouted for me to get out. I turned and something was swimming for me before I knew it I had been dragged under. Jasper jumped in after me. I had known him less than a day at this point and he risked his life with no hesitation just to save me." I shake my head still disbelieving over that but that's who Jasper was. Grief fills me thinking about him but I push myself to continue. "He saved my life that day." I lower my eyes to the wine-red duvet with a sad smile on my face just thinking about him.