A court of Night and Fire

small bat will fight big bat

Rhysand POV

The three of us are in the Illyrian camps, waiting to see if any of the Illyrians make it to the monolith. Well, specifically two Illyrians and a fae female. We're all very tense. The years of training from ourselves do nothing to calm our nerves. I'm in the war tent with Devlon, listening to him drawl on about some feud or other when there's a bright flash and a shout from outside. Ignoring everyone else, I grab Az and Cass and winnow outside, not caring about the shouts of protest from the Illyrians.

There, stood in the centre of everyone is Nyx, Ash and Asterin, soaking wet. We rush over and it was then that I noticed Asterin, leaning heavily between the two males, blood pouring down her side and deathly white. Azriel rushes to her and Ash actually growls at him. Az growls right back and takes Asterin into his arms. Ash looks like he might punch him but Azriel gives him a look that quite clearly says go on, try before disappearing into the shadows with Asterin in his arms. I examine my son, who's looking anxiously to where Azriel had just been. The magic in the stone should've healed all their injuries, but it isn't powerful enough to heal anything too serious. 

I take one of his hands and take one of Cass's, who currently has a firm grip on Ash. I winnow us to the Velaris, not caring what the Illyrians we left behind think of the whole situation. They can go to hell for all I care. I winnow us straight into the dining room of the river house, releasing Cassian and Nyx. I examine my son carefully, he and Nyx are still soaked through, but I dry them with a flick of my wrist, removing their leathers so they're in the clothes they wore underneath "are you alright?" I ask "I'm absolutely fine. Where's Asterin?" I smile slightly and look over to Cass who's checked Ash. I sit down on the sofa and Cass sits next to me. I pull a bottle of whiskey from the pocket between worlds and a few glasses. I pour a large measure for each of us. Ash and Nyx look like they need it. 

They both accept it. "so what happened?" Cass asks, looking to his son who's just finished draining his glass "What do you want to know?" Nyx asks, draining his glass as well. "everything" my brother replies, a little eagerly. I've already sent a message to Feyre to see if she wants to hear it. She tells me that I should just fill her in and we don't want to overwhelm them. "Well, as predicted, they dumped us in different locations" Nyx begins "we'd already come up with a plan before hand so it was just a case of following it." "Obviously there was quite a major setback when Asterin got stabbed" Ash adds, still looking to the door every few seconds as if he expects her to walk through it 

"yes, but when we woke up, as planned, I travelled about a mile south from where I was left and waited for Ash who journeyed there as planned. From there we travelled for a day until we got to a rendezvous point. Asterin wasn't there so we waited. She eventually arrived with a dramatic entrance as usual" Nyx says and Ash takes over "a creature was about to attack us and she dropped onto it and shoved a bone through it's neck. Apparently, she got attacked by a group of males. We travelled for a couple of days, sleeping only in the afternoons, and on the third day, we were jumped by a group of males. They attacked us. There were four of them and we were engaged by one each. The fourth had a dilemma because he was one of the one's we'd trained with. He chose to protect Asterin, but the male attacking her threw a knife at him" Ash says "a knife?" Cassian questions "yes, apparently his father was one of the one's competing with my mother when the weapons were snuck in. He managed to hide them and told his son where to find them" Cass growled "the bastard. Who was he?" "we don't know" Nyx says, "but he's currently dead thanks to Asterin"

I gesture for them to continue and Nyx does "Well, Asterin pushed the male down but got hit by the knife. She bought the male time to run and he did. The Illyrian with the knife crouched over her, dug the blade in deeper and twisted it and pulled it out, the bastard. Asterin got hold of it and managed to stab him in the heart before collapsing. Ash caught her and we found a cave. The male with the knife also had a med kit, so we managed to stitch her up enough to keep her alive. We tried to stop her continuing on when she woke up, but she was insistent. So we climbed the mountain" I raised my eyebrows "it was Asterin's idea" Ash explains "instead of going up the side of the breaking, go around to the back and scale the vertical rock face." "we never thought of that" Cass whispers, looking to me. I smile. That girl really is something.

"so where is she?" Ash asks. I send this particular question down to Az who takes a moment to reply I took her to Magda. She'll be back in about an hour. "she'll be back in about an hour, Az took her to Magda" I relay to Ash and Nyx, neither of them look like they can make an hour. Cassian spends the time questioning the two of them about everything. They answer most of the questions. They tell us about how they slept in the afternoon and went around the edge of the forest, how they'd managed to get enough information to plot the routes so that there were streams nearby. They seemed a little regretful about taking food and supplies from the dead Illyrians, but it's what happens every year. 

A door opens and Ash jumps to his feet and runs out the room. Nyx stands up to go but I stop him "leave him to it, Nyx, you can see her in a minute, but he might actually slit your throat if you're not careful" Nyx reluctantly sits down.

Asterin POV

Azriel opens the door for me and I can hear Ash racing to come and greet me. Azriel gives me a knowing look and disappears. I turn to see Ash sprinting towards me. He runs up, flings his arms around my neck and pulls me tightly into a hug. It pulls somewhat on the injury in my side but I don't care. I wrap my arms around him and for a minute, we just hold each other. I can't help but wonder where Nyx is. Given Ash's reaction to Az when we got to the camp, it's probably a good idea he's not here right now. Ash pulls back, his hazel eyes meeting my own. Out of the corner of my eye, I see someone round the corner, but the world seems to fall away when Ash leans forward and kisses me.