i n t h e s h a d o w s - a z r i e l (slow updates)

Chapter I

Water was dripping on the floor as Eileánóir was waking up. Like every morning, the red-headed girl was checking her injuries. Bruises were already getting purple and yellow. She had new cuts on her arms and legs and she was sitting in her own blood. These mornings were now her daily. It's been a month that she'd been taken at the Autumn Court. Every day, she had been tortured and abused by the people here, people she doesn't know. 

She had lost every bit of hope of someone saving her. Who would know she had been kidnapped? She hadn't heard from Feyre since she first went in Prythian with the High Lord of Spring. Her sisters had told her everything about their sister's adventure in the Fae lands but then, they disappeared as well.  It was two days after Feyre's sisters disappeared that she'd been kidnapped. That day she had woken up in a cell and in front of her was a man with red hair. That day, she hadn't known who he was but she had heard conversations between the people who guard her talking about the High Lord of the Autumn Court also known as Beron.  She also knows that the High Lord of the Night Court is not as bad as everyone thought, whatever that means. 

She was drowning in her thoughts when she heard a scream coming from the hallway where the guards were.  The smell of blood was already filling the air as someone was obviously slashing his way through the guards. Fear was rushing in Eileánóir's veins as the noises of people dying was getting near her. When the door of the cell opened, shadows filled the room. 

"Eileánóir ?" She blinked at the man standing in front of her. He was tall with tan skin, his eyes were burning gold in the shadows and he had short black hair but it was not his beauty that let her out of her breath. In his back were giant bat wings. He folded them behind him before kneeling beside her. "Can you stand ?" He asked her after freeing her from the chains. 

"Who are you ?" Eileánóir's voice was broken after hours of screaming. When he tried to approach her, she curled up on herself, scared of what he could do to her. 

"I won't hurt you, I promise. I'm a friend of Feyre." He offered her a scarred hand and a little smile. He could see her eyes staring at his hands then at him but he didn't care. He had to get her out of here. 

She finally took his hand and tried to stand but in vain. Her legs were too weak to support her even if she was not more than bones and flesh. So he took her in his arms and when another male voice told him to get out quickly they became shadows. One second she was in that cell, and the other she was shadows flying over the lands quicker than an airplane. When they touched the ground they became them again and she was in front of a house but she didn't see the people getting out of the house because she was staring at the wings in the back of the man who finally put her down carefully. Immediately, she had arms around her but when she looked up, it was not a man but a girl that she had not seen since she had been taken in Prythian. Feyre. Feyre was in front of her, hugging her. It seemed impossible for Eileánóir to finally have her best friend hugging her like when they were in the woods, together. She had dreamed of this moment every night. Her best friend, the only person she had and that she thought she'd lost.

 She finally hugged Feyre back when she understood that everything was real. Tears ran down her face as she realized that she was safe and far from all the torture that she'd endured for a month. The other unknown faces around her were looking at her wide-eyed. Actually, they weren't looking at her but at her injuries. She realized that she must not be at her best right now. She took a step backward as she looked at her best friend. "How ?" Eileánóir asked with her broken voice. 

"We will explain later," she said as she took her hand and brought her inside. "Now you need to heal and to rest." 

Eileánóir stopped and looked at Feyre. "I need to thank him," she said while walking to the door that leads outside where everyone was. 

"You can thank Azriel later, now you need me to heal you." As she said that, the man with golden eyes, Azriel , got inside. Now that they were not in the cell anymore, she realized his eyes were hazel in the light. His shadows, however, were still around him and she kept this in mind to ask Feyre about later. She took a moment to look at him. His hair was messy from the wind outside and his cheeks were red from the cold. She looked at his scarred hands. She could tell that these were burns and that they were on his hands and wrists. She wondered how he'd gotten these. That's another thing to keep in mind to ask Feyre. When she finally looked at him in the eyes she realized that she'd been staring for a long time. His eyes widened when he looked back at her and he vanished seconds after. She blinked and looked at Feyre who was as confused as her. 

"What the hell ?" Eileánóir asked, still confused about what had just happened. She looked at the other in the rooms that she didn't know and a winged man with shoulder-length hair grinned. 

"Don't worry he's always like that around beautiful girls," he said still smiling at her.

"Shut up Cass'." The young human looked at the blonde girl who just said that. She was a beautiful tall girl with long golden hair and brown eyes. When she saw that she was looking at her she smiled and came in front of her."I'm Mor, don't listen to Cassian, he's just an Illyrian dumbass."

"A what ?" She laughed at her confused face. 

"An Illyrian. A warrior race of faeries," the third man told her. "I'm half Illyrian. Here Cassian is an Illyrian and Azriel as well and I'm Rhysand by the way." He gave her a little smile then looked at Feyre. "Heal her, we're gonna see what's the problem with Azriel," he said before going outside with Cassian. 

Feyre took her best friend in a room with a bathroom connected to it. "Let me heal you and then you'll take a bath," she said. Eileánóir sat on the bed and watched her heal her. The young girl was shocked when she saw new flesh where they were little cuts, big cuts becoming scars. "I'm sorry but I can't make the scars disappear." She offered her a little smile and she remembered what she had to ask. 

"What are the shadows around the hot one ?" Eileánóir asked, still looking at her scars. 

"Az ? He's a shadowsinger. To make it simple, he controls shadows which report to him everything that it hears and before you ask me, yes it was his shadows which told him you were in the Autumn Court."  Eileánóir flinched when she mentioned the court. 

"And... How had he gotten his... scars ?" She wasn't sure if she wanted to know at last. She looked at her for a long time before taking clothes from the wardrobe. 

"He'll tell you if he wants but I'm not the one who has to tell you," she said before giving her the clothes. "Here, put that after your bath and meet me in the living room," she said before she left the room. The red-headed girl looked at the clothes in her hands. Black pants with a dark shirt, she stills knows that her best friend doesn't like colors. 

She let herself drown in her thoughts as she headed to the bathroom. A thought made her smile, she was safe. 

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Hello ! First, English is not my native language so if you find mistakes in the text, please tell me so I can correct it :) 

I thought about a fanfic with Az for a long time so here it is... I have more inspiration with this than my own book... If you have any advice, I'll take it :)

So that's the first chapter, I won't promise the other will be this big, my inspiration comes and goes so... 

For the picture, that's how I pictured Eileánóir but you can picture her like you want :)