It was silent. Far too silent. As if all movement had halted, a death sweeping through the wet trees. The rain stopping mid fall, listening, waiting. Someone, somewhere just on the edge of Velaris had winnowed.
Then it was as if the air had all of a sudden been ripped from in between the forest. A great snap sounded, a twist of movement wrapping around nothing, whips of shadows reaching out in ribbons until they were snuffed away in an instant leaving behind a heap of a body, her great leather wings folding oddly over her, bending wrong and broken as if the expanse of room was an unexpected welcome. She hadn't winnowed in decades and as her body fell through the rip in space, dumping her into the wet mud beneath, her body cracked, cuts slicing across her face and hands, the ends of her wings wrapping around her engulfing her as she landed catching in the fold between the forest, snapping in two. Winnowing for the first time in a long time was dangerous, but doing it after having never have done it before left her screaming into the ground, her fingers digging into the mud, her forehead pressed into the moss as pain wracked across her. Then as quickly as her wings fell around her, her shadows realized the space they'd all at once been blessed with after years in confinement and as she lay screaming with agony, they sang out and devoured the forest around her.
Thalia was home.
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A Court of Ink and Blood
FanfictionWhen a face Azriel wished he could forget ends up half dead on the edge of Velaris, questions arise about their dark past. Especially when she possesses a certain set of skills the High Lord of the Night Court needs to ensure they're on the winning...
