Daddy Azriel

Chapter 5: Skylah

"Well then, 'Bastard Born Half-Breed,'" the one they called Cassian drawled, "Allow me to introduce myself. I'm 'Bastard Born Nobody.'" He gestured toward Azriel. "This is my brother, 'Bastard.' He likes to keep things more simple." He jerked his chin in the High Lord's direction. "This is my other brother, 'Bastard by Choice, Half-Breed by Chance.'" He put an arm around each of their shoulders. "And together, we're the 'Band of Bastards.'"
   The High Lord and Lady's Inner Circle was made up of bastards? How was that possible? Illyrian bastards, like myself, are the lowest of society. Most are thrown out onto their asses as children to see if they could survive on their own. The most that bastards accomplished was a job that worked you to death, or a low foot soldier in the armies.
   And if you weren't taken from your family and thrown out onto your ass...I would've preferred being thrown out.
   Unable to think of anything else to say, I turned my head toward the High Lady and said, "Interesting company you keep."
   "Very," she said with a chuckle.
   "You haven't even met Amren, yet," added the High Fae female with golden hair. "I'm Mor, by the way. I've been helping take care of Lovia."
   "She wasn't difficult to take care of for any of you," I asked, looking around the room at each of them, "Was she?"
   "Oh Gods no!" answered Mor. "I shouldn't say that I was "helping" take care of her, because Feyre and Rhys could have handled it themselves. I just wanted to hold her. She is very easy to love. She's been in our lives for a week and already has everyone wrapped around her tiny finger." She smiled down at my daughter. "I must say though, whenever she began to fuss, she would calm down as soon as she was placed in Azriel's arms. She falls asleep after only two minutes in his arms."
   The thought of another male rocking my daughter to sleep brought back the deep ache in my heart. Lovia's father was so happy when I told him that I was with child. He would've loved to rock her to sleep...
   I pushed the painful thought away.
   "I am thankful beyond words for your dedication towards my daughter." Mor waved a hand, dismissing the thanks.
   "You were saying something earlier about your father?" I heard my mate's deep voice rumble.
   I met his golden eyes. "He's dead. What else is there to know?"
   "Why did you kill him?"
   "I didn't kill him for what he did to me, if that's what you're asking. I killed him for my daughter, and for her father." I took a deep breath and looked down at Lovia. "He killed her father two months into my pregnancy." The room went so silent that I wasn't sure if any of them were breathing.
   "When Kyron, my father, discovered that I had become pregnant, and that he was not able to sell my virginity to the highest bidder, he went mad. Madder than I had ever seen him before. Mad enough to kill.
   "Kyron tied me up and held a dagger to my stomach, threatening to kill me and the baby. That's when my lover barged into the house and offered his life for mine and Lovia's." I swallowed the lump in my throat. "My father accepted his offer and murdered him in front of me.
   "But I didn't try to kill him until the day after Lovia's birth. The day I found you guys." I looked up at them. "Kyron was planning to do what is done with bastards. What he didn't do to me because he wanted to keep me for crueler reasons."
    "He was going to take Lovia away from you," said Cassian with a murderous look in his eyes. "Your father was going to make her survive on her own."
   I nodded slowly. "I couldn't allow my daughter to be left in a war camp with no one caring if she lived or died. It's not right."
    "No," Rhysand said. "It's not right, at all."
   "I was already weak from giving birth, and the...other injuries that I acquired the previous day," shadows began seeping from Azriel, as if my words caused him to lose his last bit of control over them. Shadowsinger. Lovia's father had told me of a shadowsinger that worked directly for the High Lord. He must be the shadowsinger that I was told about. "But I managed to attack Kyron when he was least expecting it. I slit his throat and then escaped. You all know the rest."
   "The male deserved to die," my mate stated. The rest of the group nodded their agreement.
   I felt exposed and tired after telling such a nightmarish story, otherwise known as my life. "Yes, he did," I breathed.
   The High Lady must've noticed my exhaustion because she said, "Why don't we leave you and Lovia to rest together. We can discuss this later, when you have more strength."
   They all filed out of the room, saying their goodbyes as they went. Except one.
   "Nothing and no one will ever hurt you or your daughter like that again. I swear it on my life," Azriel stated.
   He walked out of the room and closed the door without another word.