| BOOK TWO - A COURT OF ASH AND SMOKE | Lovers separated, powers that won't be controlled, a doomed wedding. With the threat of war looming over Prythian, Lucien, You, Tamlin, and Rhysand's Inner Circle must scramble to find allies and prepare thems...
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It was an odd thing, Fae scenting. From the second that Azriel winnowed you back to the Night Court you could scent Feyre's presence there. She was there somewhere, and that was a small consolation.
"Where are we?" You asked, voice coming out croaked and strangled, trying to keep those tears.
"Rhys' Moonstone Palace," Azriel explained quietly. "In Hewn City."
You turned to look at him, and the second your eyes met his hazel ones that ache wretched its way through your chest and you slumped down on the end of the bed and sobbed.
Azriel remained stoic as he hovered at the foot of the bed, simply watching you, like so many other times when he had sat with you whilst you cried. Only this time something felt different with him - his presence didn't feel as comforting. "You took me away," you whispered between sobs. "You took me away from him."
"You knew we couldn't stay there," he said quietly, and although you didn't see it, his jaw ticked beneath that tanned skin. "If Tamlin had seen another person from the Night Court there, after Rhys had just taken Feyre, what do you think would have happened?"
"He would've killed you," you answered with a sniffle.
"He would have tried," Azriel corrected, and when you looked up at him there was a slight glint in his eye at that. You clenched your fists in your lap, ghosting over the material of your legging.
"He was just...so close," you whispered, glancing away from him as you felt a fresh wave of tears begin marking your cheeks. Azriel cocked his head, taking a small step toward you. "He was just a few steps away, and I couldn't make it in time."
Azriel opened his mouth to speak - perhaps to comfort you, or even scold you for having been so thoughtless - but just as he did, a knock sounded at the door, and it opened to reveal Cassian. His burly frame seemed to take up the entire doorway as he glanced between you, to you first and then to Azriel. But to your surprise there was no anger there, not even a lick of fear, despite what you had done to him, even if he had said all was forgiven. Despite the fact that you had almost let your anger kill him.
"Rhys wants to speak with you in his office," Cassian said in a low and serious tone. His eyes flicked from Azriel to you, and he lowered his head. "Both of you."
You cleared your throat, brushing down your leggings and raising your chin as you rose to your feet. You wiped the tears from your cheeks. "Not a problem. I would like to speak with him, too."
***
When you found Rhys in his study he was leaning back in his desk chair, tapping his pen between his fingers against the pad of parchment on his desk in a way that made him seem almost agitated. You had never seen him so perturbed before; he usually had that mask of cool, serene calmness, and even in the few times that you had seen that mask crack, he had hardly seemed out-of-sorts, not like now. Now he looked like there was something playing on his mind, more than just his mate being in this palace somewhere, more than just that bond pulling at him. You watched quietly, taking your first few steps into the room as he reached a hand up and rubbed it at the back of his head, wincing ever-so-slightly.
