A Court of Shadows and Lies / ACOTAR FF

Chapter 70

It was an understatement to say that the large car we were in was cramped. I was sat in the passenger seat at the front, Azriel, Cassian and Mor sat in the middle while Crystal and the twins were occupying the back. Wings fucking galore.

Cherry had gone alone to the Parliamentary building, and had left strict instructions to Windsor, the driver, to wait for us to leave The Pits.

I didn't have the heart to tell Cherry that we probably wouldn't need the car or a driver. In fact, if I got my sights set on Ahri, The Pits was no longer going to have a leader.

"What is that, Jez?" Cassian asked, shifting forward and pointing at the tablet in my hand. I looked away from the electronic, which Cherry had kindly loaded up with the information she had on Ahri in the last few months, and to the Illyrian who was now peering at the large screen. "It's like one of those vones."

"Vones?"

"That small thing Cherry puts up to her ear," Cassian elaborated. I blinked.

"Do you mean phones?"

"Yes!" Cassian exclaimed, a grin plastered to his face.

"This is a tablet," I smiled, waving the relatively heavy tablet in the air. "It's an on-the-go computer."

"Computer?" Mor asked.

"Uh. Yeah, it's like a phone," I amended. I stole a look at Azriel who had the window open, gazing at the outside world. He was holding onto the grip, lost in his thoughts.

"When does Prythian get these?" Cassian asked, peering at the screen. "Can we bring this back with us?"

"No," I said, sitting back in my seat and facing forward.

The roads were quiet tonight, not a single hint of traffic, like someone had told them to stay indoors. There was the occasional group of students who were drunk and stoned out of their minds, as well as celebrity crazed Beings whose eyes would widen at the sheer glimpse of me and my friends in the car. Other than that, it was empty.

"Why not?" Cassian pushed.

"It's not your time, Illyrian," Crystal echoed from the back. "Bringing technology to you too early can destroy your entire plane."

"How would you know?"

"Jez and her sisters obliterated one," Khaler answered.

"We helped," Maiky added, a tad bit too cheerfully.

I sighed, pressing the button at the top of the tablet to make it sleep, and propped my arm up on the door. Chin resting on my now closed fist, I stared out the window, watching the world drive by.

"How can you just...destroy a world?" Mor asked.

"I didn't do it," I muttered, pressing on the window button with my free hand. It was getting stuffy in the car, perhaps it was the many Beings in the car, perhaps it was reliving watching Mother unleash her magic and decimate an entire world. Whatever it was, I was feeling too warm for my own good and the cool air hitting my face was welcomed. "I only went there to try and appease the Beings in the world."

"You should've seen Jez in Thule!" Maiky cooed, as if she were swooning over the fact I had killed the dwellers. "Went straight up to their King, who had teleported to Avalon and brought back its technology, and assassinated him."

"He threatened to unleash some atomic bomb," Khaler amended, her answer to the point.

"Atomic...bomb?" Cassian asked, the words foreign on his lips.

"Yeah, it's really deadly," Crystal amended, and I could hear her swatting at the twins. "Just to clarify, Jez didn't destroy it. Mother did."

"What?" Mor and Cassian answered in unison. Azriel had kept silent.