A Court of Shadows and Thunder // AzrielxOC SlowBurn Romance, ACOTAR FanFiction

Chapter XXI - What Lurks Beneath

When they left the opera house, much time had passed - to Brianna's surprise, for she had been the one who had slept throughout - and Helion had winnowed them back to his palace.

But when they got there, Brianna wasn't yet done with surprises, for Helion had decided to throw them a gala in her honour.

"If Rhysand can do it, then I can too", was the only thing Helion had told her, before making sure she found her chamber for the night. For, according to the High Lord, she was to stay the night in the Day Court, and couldn't possibly leave so soon. Even if the nighttime was most beautiful back in the Night Court, Helion had insisted that Brianna should stay to witness the sun set, as well as its rise at first light in the morning. That was when his court was at its most breathtaking.

And so Brianna couldn't refuse, for she had absolutely no excuses as to why she couldn't stay any longer. She didn't get any more replies from the other High Lords for no one else had answered her letters as of yet, and she had nothing else to attend to. So now, Brianna was at Helion's full and undivided attention - much to his own pleasure.

As for Azriel, he didn't have much say in this either, for this new development left him with two choices. He could either go back to Velaris alone, with the knowledge that Brianna would be in the Day Court, with Helion, by herself. Or he could stay. It didn't take him long to make a decision.

While Brianna followed Helion to her chamber, Azriel was quick to winnow back to the Night Court, briefly telling the Inner Circle of the new change of plans. And when they had wanted to ask more, when Mor and Cassian had asked if they too could possibly attend the gala, Azriel had winnowed back so fast, waiting on no one at all, as though he was very much in a hurry to get back to wherever Brianna had gone to. Rhysand had only chuckled at the sight of the distraught shadowsinger, and Feyre had slapped her mate on his arm in response, as though that would stop him from making fun of Azriel.

When Azriel walked into the grand hall of Helion's palace, searching for the Syren amid the crowd of Day Court nobility, he was met with the High Lord himself, who only scowled at him.

"As much as I enjoy seeing you like this," Helion told him, his mouth twisting into a sly smile, "I won't have you dressed like some Illyrian warrior brute amid my court. You'll find your clothes in your chamber."

And before Azriel could protest, he was escorted by a servant, a lesser-faery that had somehow appeared by his side, and had no choice but to follow them to wherever his chamber was.

And just as he arrived in front of the door to his room, just as the servant bowed and slipped away back down the corridor, leaving Azriel to enter his chamber on his own, he realised that it wouldn't have been a great challenge to find Brianna amid the crowd, for she was right there, sitting atop his bed.

She merely looked up at him, putting down the garment she had held in her hands - no doubt what Helion had whipped up for the shadowsinger to wear. But Azriel barely noticed those few scraps of white cloth that could barely pass for clothes, for his eyes hadn't left Brianna's at all, though they had roved over what she was wearing instead.

Much to the Day Court's fashion, her dress was eerily similar to that spectacular gown she had worn at the gala Rhys had thrown in the Syren's honour. There were those intricate details of lighting streaks weaved into her dress in golden thread, but the cut of it, the feel of it, was absolutely Day Court. Much like what Helion typically wore, the dress was bunched over her shoulders in golden clasps, draping down her body in a very low v-line at the chest with another golden metallic belt. The Ivory fabric then flowed out down to her legs, and from the way she lazily sat on the bed, Azriel could see a very high slit in the dress, exposing much of one of her slender legs, adorned with golden sandals. While she wore various jewelry on her wrists and ears, Brianna still wore than pendant round her neck.