A Court Of Shadow and Blood

☆ Beginning of the End ☆

It was a promise and an offer. For them to follow.

The majority remained still, eyes on their General for direction. One female, however, rose to Zephyr's side, her crushing blue gaze wild and untamed as it found his. Her and the General shared a few words, which Azriel struggled to not let his shadows hear, and then the male nodded.

The female joined his side. "I am Areina. I'll be joining you." Azriel nodded and merely turned to the army drifting away and flew hard to catch up to them. Anyone who joined would be another person to follow him to Hybern after, and to save Eblis.

***

She kissed the shadows, floating amongst them as she traveled unseen and unheard. Her blades were in hand instinctively, the hilts warm and uneven for better grip. Every guard who marched through the hall was followed by darkness for but a few seconds before her blades found the slip of skin between helmet and chest plate, their bodies thus dragged into any nearby rooms that were empty and decadent. Her mind was swarmed with the tang of blood and the stain of red.

Eblis hadn't realized the anger that had begun to swirl in her chest, tightening it until she was hardly thinking and just moving. Though she hid the bodies, she knew the Queen's Royal Daemati Guard sensed the dwindling numbers within the castle. She hoped they feared the lack of alarm as she swept through like a quiet, poisonous breeze, leaving nothing in her wake but servants and maids who were quick to escape anyway. She was hunting, but in a way that provoked the prey to come to her, rather than the other way around.

Her hands were bathed in crimson. Her dark cloak and the pale General's armor beneath it matched the fervor that was her bloodlust; her spies were undercover, but only for the two hours she'd given them. The two hours she'd given herself, so that she could kill Reneau and her daemati would have easier access to the army.

And then the Queen.

It sent a thrill to her stomach, despite herself.

Madalyn would be avenged. She did not know what she would do after, but she knew that for sure.

It was not long however, that she felt a silence envelope her like a wide cocoon, which slowly, slowly, slowly, drew taut, and her core drained of feeling. The Queen had taken her magic, again. Eblis's violet eyes lit with a fire, and her careful stalking burst into a run as her shadows dissipated and she was left bare. Her steps echoed through the halls, armor clanking loudly though it was muffled by her dark cloak, and any fae she ran into after that was well-prepared for her attack. She traded her General's attire for another female's whose body had yet to cool. The faebane on her skin held little to no affect given that her magic was already snuffed out like a candle; it was lighter and thinner, easier to run in. And, she realized after a moment, would protect her from any magic-wielding fae within the castle.

She grinned fiercely, as if Amerilda and Imillion and Patrasche were at her shoulder making the same face she mirrored in that moment. "I know you're following me, Reneau. I can feel you laundering in my mind." She wanted this over, fast. Just as fast as they'd killed Madalyn.

A low rasp rumbled against her skull. Her body shivered with the feel of it, as if a noose were drawing tight against her throat. She growled, audibly, and sliced a shallow cut along her cheek with one of her own blades. She felt it throb, and blood welled. The physical pain centered her just as much as the anger and hatred in the center of her chest, where she had been curling it into a tight ball since Madalyn's death. That same, barreling grief that had made her scream into Azriel's shoulder came forth.

It was a burning pillar in her soul.

Madalyn. Madalyn. Madalyn.

My hope, my future, and my heart, she'd once said. And she was gone.