A Court of Shadows and Thunder // AzrielxOC SlowBurn Romance, ACOTAR FanFiction

Chapter 58 - Undeniable Truth

"What happened to you?"

His words had come out in a single breath and Azriel felt his heart tighten in his chest.

He was still holding her, his palms cradling her face as gently as he possibly could, while his eyes roved over every inch of her.

The more he looked at Brianna, the more injuries he saw, the more blood on her skin, in her hair, coating her wings. And not only that - she had turned. Her horns had grown from her head, her eyes were black as coal, claws replaced her hands and talons her feet.

Without a second thought, he let his power loose, a blue glow reaching out from his jewels to wrap around Brianna. But she was shaking his head at him, and he began to feel panic rise.

And then he felt one of her hands close onto his.

"Faebane," Brianna said to him, the single word leaving her lips in a whisper, breathless and strained.

But immediately, Azriel understood what it meant. How it slowed her healing, how it poisoned her veins. How she was barely keeping herself together, how she too had panic riddled in her own eyes. And Azriel's attention turned to Tamlin, and his worry turned to rage.

All too quickly, Brianna watched how his shadows flew from his body, how they stretched out and grew larger than she had ever seen them before. It was as if their demeanour had changed entirely, as though the fury and turmoil burning inside of the shadowsinger manifested into the beings he wielded.

Azriel didn't say a word, but his shadows lunged at the High Lord just as he did, his hand closing onto Tamlin's throat as his shadows coiled and swerved round his body. But Tamlin didn't resist, he didn't so much as move, and all he could do was look into the shadowsinger's eyes, look at the rage and all the fire burning in them.

"Stop it," Brianna said, but her voice came out too weak, and Azriel's fist was clenching on Tamlin's, and he began to grow paler and paler as blood leaked from his mouth.

She could feel his fury in him, she could feel his confusion and worry and pain. All the guilt from not being there with her, all the rage from not stopping this from happening to her. For a moment she couldn't bring herself to move, and her eyes were transfixed on Azriel, wide and fearful of what he might do. She had heard of his rage before, she had heard the stories of war told to her in the Illyrian camp.

But she had never witnessed it before, she had never seen a shadowsinger unleash what powers he had, had never seen a powerful Illyrian warrior wield his siphons like he did, the blue glow shining and swirling round them in tune to his dark shadows. It was almost beautiful, if it weren't completely frightening, and Brianna felt herself hold a breath when Tamlin began to choke.

He was going to kill him. But killing the High Lord would do nothing, and in fact, it was exactly what Brianna was preventing from happening. And so she pushed herself up, she reached her hand out, and she clung onto Azriel's arm.

"Stop it," she said again, as loud as she could muster, and Azriel turned his head to her.

"He did this to you," he said, his voice almost foreign, slipping through gritted teeth in a snarl.

But his grip on Tamlin's didn't waver, and Brianna tightened hers.

"No he did not," she countered, keeping her eyes locked onto his in an attempt to make him see the truth, "Look at him, and look at me. He didn't do this to me."

For a moment, Azriel didn't move. He stared at her, face hardened and moulded into something Brianna couldn't decipher. She had never seen this expression on him before, never seen such anger.