A Court of Fate and Failure | Azriel

19: Fire and Fealty

Naoise stood at Cassian's side, overlooking the screaming and what her divine torture looked like to the naked eye. 

The horror of it. 

The very way it could spread, for it relied on fear, as she knew. And to fear the sight was a death sentence to any who found themselves her enemy. For in a split second of seeing what it could do to others could very well bring it upon oneself. 

And Naoise would pounce on any opening.

She could feel it in Cassian. The dreadful realization that the female beside him was the one to cause such a thing with mere thought. The fear that it was she who had that power. 

And yet, she did not pounce. 

She would not. Not on him, and not on any member of the inner circle. No matter how a strange bond to the earth tugged at her and whispered, didn't scream which would have been somehow preferred, but whispered, "More more more more more."

She'd never Decayed on this scale before. But it seemed to have opened a door. One with its fair share of horrors on the other side. Endless fear burning through the masses with the force of a brushfire in high, violent winds. A vision of a plague of rot and screams. 

One Naoise longed for. One Naoise feared. One she didn't know whether to stop or to let play out when the day came.

Cassian, after a moment, whistled lowly. "Mother above. Really fucking glad Rhys let you go through with this."

Naoise nodded to herself, lacing her fingers tightly behind her back. "Don't see this everyday."

"Sure fucking don't." Cassian suddenly pointed at a male among the throngs. His voice twisted with anger, "See that male? Once looked me right in the eyes as he clipped a youngling's wings. And he dared to fucking laugh at the outrage it caused. Figures he got away with it."

Cassian scoffed sharply, turning away, and despite herself, Naoise took another step into that very male's river. She let him feel her anger and her joy right as she increased that terror to something maddening. Cassian whirled around at the scream that pierced the skies like a beacon above the rest. They both watched his pants darken, and his eyes roll back in his head as he convulsed. 

By the sound of it, his vocal cords were shredding too.

Naoise chuckled, dark and vengeful. "Did he, though?"

Again, that spark of fear in his heart. The fear that acted like bait to some hungry god, some entity that begged for more more more more more.

The shadows of his wings shifted closer, tighter to his back. "Guess not."

A different bond tugged to her right, seconds before a cloud of darkness materialized, Azriel left standing there as it dissipated. Naoise glanced at him when she felt a jolt of shock and a hint of that baiting fear. But his expression gave none of that away when he met her eyes and nodded in acknowledgement. A tendril of shadow curled so very familiarly around her ankle.

Cassian peered around her to smirk at his brother. "You really missed the fun, Az. Naoise here is really tearing the house down."

If that was what he wanted to call ripping people apart with their own emotions, then she would let him.

But— "You better not actually do that."

Both stared at her, puzzled. Cassian asked, "Um, do what?"

She met his stare with a glare of threat. "Tear this house down."

Both turned to look at the cabin bathed in blood behind them, as if they were unsure she was really talking about this house in particular.

"This old shack?"