On Thin Ice: Azriel x OC

Chapter 2

He winnowed her to the townhouse, to which Mor, Rhys' cousin, who Nova had heard stories about, was sitting on the couch. Nova passed out from the winnowing but Rhys caught her and lowered her to the ground.

Mor stood up and said, "What the hell?"

"I don't know what happened, she told me to help her so I winnowed her here." Rhys continued, "Her name is Nova, she's the daughter of Kallias' cousin. I think her brother did this." He waved a hand over her body, before picking her up and laying her on the couch.

"I'll go find her some clothes," Mor said before rushing up the stairs.

Rhys mentally called for Cassian, who arrived shortly after. "Stay with her, I need to find a healer," Rhys said before winnowing away.

Cassian walked to the other side of the couch, revealing the unconscious, heavily bruised individual on the couch. "Who the hell did this to you?" Cassian whispered to himself looking over Nova's body.

A minute later, Mor walked down with an oversized t-shirt and some loose shorts, "For after the healer looks at her", she said to a confused Cassian.

Feyre walked in and said, "Rhys told me to make sure you weren't scaring the girl." She noted the look Cassian had on his face and walked over to the couch and her eyes got wide as she looked at Nova's body.

"Who is she?" Cassian asked, still stunned at the state of her body.

"All Rhys said was that her name is Nova and she's the daughter of Kallias' cousin. He thinks her brother has something to do with this." Mor said, right as Rhys winnowed into the townhouse with Majda, his preferred healer.

"I need all of you to go outside, I'll come to get you when I'm done," Majda said, observing all the bruises on her body.

"Of course, we'll be on the roof," Rhys said, leading the group to the stairs.

Once on the roof, Cassian asked, "Do we know what happened to her?"

Rhys replied, "No, I haven't seen her since before Under the Mountain, but I know her parents were killed about 6 years ago and her brother has always treated her like shit."

Azriel flew up, right as he finished and said, "Who?"

"Nova Alastair, I think she was being kept underground at the Winter Court palace, based on where I found her," Rhys said.

"Alastair", Cassian said quietly, "Isn't that the last name of the Commander of Winter Court armies?"

Rhys said, "Yeah, her brother Alex works directly under Kallias."

"I worked with Nova on a few missions, she used to be one of Kallias' top spies," Azriel added.

"And no one noticed when she just disappeared?" Cassian asked.

"I have no idea how long she was down there," Rhys said.

"By the state of her body, she was down there for a long time." Mor paused before saying, "She's High Fae right?"

Rhys nodded. Mor continued, "If her body looks like that, she had to be down there long enough for them to keep hitting her before her body could recover."

Silence.

"She's always been really quiet, she most likely won't open up much," Rhys said, just as Majda poked her head through the door.

"Her body was in really bad shape, she had to have been tortured for at least 2 years, but it could easily be more than that. She's gonna need to rest the next few days but she should be fully healed in a week or two." Majda said, turning to walk back down the stairs.

"2 YEARS?" Rhys said as soon Majda went inside.

"No wonder she looked so beat up," Mor added.

"We've gotta find out who did this," Cassian said.

"Don't worry, we will" Rhys responded, heading for the door, "and I'll let her kill them."

They all walked downstairs to find Nova still unconscious on the couch. As soon as Azriel saw what she looked like, he said, "Holy shit."

"This is mild compared to what she looked like when she first got here," Mor said.

Rhys and Cassian shuddered at the thought.

"It's almost midnight, I'll wait for her to wake up, you all go to bed," Rhys said, walking to sit on the chair across from the couch.

"I will stay with you," Feyre said, Rhys nodded.

"I'll be back in the morning," Cassian said before walking to the front door.

"Me too," Azriel said before following him out.

Mor waited for them to leave before saying, "Are you sure you don't want me to wait with you guys?"

"No, you go to sleep, she probably won't even wake up tonight anyway," Rhys stated.

"Okay, just call me if you need anything." Mor sent him a worried look.

"Go, we'll be fine," Rhys said, waving a hand to Mor.

She nodded and winnowed away, leaving Rhys and Feyre with the unconscious girl.

Rhys and Feyre talked about everything that Rhys knew about Nova's past before Feyre went upstairs to sleep, and Rhys spent the rest of the night going through her memories.