Azriel relied on the light of the day to save him from the darkness. To keep him from the shadows and scars that haunted his nightmares.
Tahlia relied on the darkness to save her from the light. By keeping to the shadows, she can protect her future...
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She was shining brightly too.
Beautifully, actually.
Brighter than any star ever could.
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They'd sat around the table for hours, arguing and debating over what tactics to use moving forward and when the sun had started to set, they'd called the meeting to a close with nothing much to gain from it at all.
"I don't understand why anyone thought we'd get anywhere with Tamlin sitting in the room." Cassian huffed, and Azriel couldn't help but grunt in general agreement. He hadn't brought an awful lot to the table other than snide comments here and there and a general understanding that if he was in sight, he wasn't off gallivanting with Hybern. "What an arrogant-"
"Twat." Mor finished, stretching out the knots in her back. "He just struts in here and expect all to be forgiven just because-"
"He saved Elain and Feyre's life." Cassian grunted.
Azriel couldn't help but add. "And Rhys'." He hated Tamlin, he did. There was still this niggling thought that he had done good deeds. He wasn't always horrible and intolerable- like when he thought he was alone with Tahlia or when he was saving someone's life- just most of the time.
"And yours." So maybe he owed him something. Owed to him not killing him on site that was for sure, it didn't mean he'd let his guard down as much as he was sure nobody else would either.
Mor, it seemed, was struggling with her own judgments. "Yeah... We're still allowed to hate him though, right?"
"I do. Azriel?"
He tried to listen, he did. But there was that feeling again, that hyper-awareness that had him loosen. Like every single nerve was buzzed with electricity, sending shivers racking through every inch of skin.
Azriel spared a glance around his surroundings, there was nothing but the open sky and swaying trees and sweet smell of spring air. "Hmm? Oh yeah. Sure whatever you say."
Cassian skidded to a stop in his tracks, shoving Azriel's body forward and waving an offended hand towards him. "He keeps doing that. Not listening to me. Keeps zoning out like this isn't importa-"
"Maybe it's because you talk too much, Cassian." Azriel didn't try to stop his shadows as they peered over his shoulders; neither did he ignore the way his chest felt like it was tightening and loosening of their own accord. Heart palpitations, and he didn't like what that alluded to, so instead he imagined that this is what it might've been like to have a heart attack.
Perhaps he was dying. Even just a little bit.
"There's no maybe about it." Mor said, though Azriel could feel her attention was on him and not on the female she was talking to. He hated that she was watching him so closely, it made his skin crawl, made him feel like he was hiding something that she was trying to get out of him. That wasn't the case. Not at all. "He definitely talks too much." Azriel could only smile at Tahlia, and in return she beamed back, looking like she was about to take a step forward when she came up short.
