─── · 。ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
"And all I loved, I loved alone."
─── · 。ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
Astrid
ASTRID MITCHELS COULD not fathom why Danika had allowed him to come on this journey.
Him. He who haunted her like a ghost walking through her mind. He who she could not seem to escape at every turn she took within the maze of her life.
He who she hated.
Astrid was not ashamed to say she loathed Lucien. Loathed all he represented within her new life. All that he meant: the finality of her change from mortal to immortal.
A mate meant ties. Emotion and longing, such insufferable things at the moment. Things she was not ready for. Not now when her wounds from the Cauldron were so very fresh. So open and bloodied. Her grief was still so potent.
She had been human. Had felt alive and raging and powerful even within the confines of mortality.
And now she was immortal. And Astrid had never felt more dead.
Truthfully, Lucien scared her. He scared her more than any terrors she had seen or felt in the past. He was a blade, poised at her neck and ready to strike.
She could not be his mate. Astrid could not be his anything.
Her life was no more than a tornado, and until she sorted herself and decided what this new dreadful existence meant, she would avoid him like the plague.
It was her choice. The only one she was given. Astrid wouldn't let nature force this on her as it did so many others. This was her life. And she was the one in control.
He was staring. She could feel him staring at her back—had been for a while now.
It was not a leering stare—no, those she knew very well. Those felt like pokers sticking into her lightly tanned skin. This stare was...inquisitive. As though he could figure her out staring at her back.
Males.
Such fools.
Astrid had spent her entire life as a living secret. They all had. Scarcely revealing much of herself even to those she was closest to, those she loved and cherished.
Even Danika, whom she was the nearest to in the entire world, did not know all that Astrid had spent years hiding away. Burying within a deep and lonely grave.
He would not find much by staring at the way she walked. Aside from the fact she had her back to him and would not give him the time of day. In that, he could be certain.
Though, maybe he might gauge how truly exhausted she was.
Her, Eira, and Lucien and used the last of their winnowing magics only minutes ago. Danika's power had been gone by the time they'd left the clearing, disappeared and hadn't returned.
None of their magic would until the Faebane had left their systems. Or obsidian in her friend's case.
They were all panting from the strain, apparently life was much harder without magic. She had forgotten that fact from her humanity.
She missed it.
Astrid's white-haired friend stopped, and as did all those behind her as she led the group. She tipped her head back, peering at the sun from where it sat now a hand's width above the horizon, shadows already thick and heavy between the hills.
Danika took a step northward, and before her foot could even hit the ground in another, Lucien's voice stopped her. "You're taking a door?"
She slid her calculating eyes toward him, "Yes." The caves—doors, Danika had called them within the many planning sessions in the passages—in those hollows led to other pockets of Prythian. They would take one to get to the Night Court. Or as close as they could get. There was no door to the Court. Not here or anywhere. Danika's new home was quite the...spectacle.
She wouldn't lie and say she hadn't heard the rumors and what went on within that court, and she also wouldn't lie and say she didn't think her friend fit in there. The Night Court was the most feared and respected of all Prythian's land, and that nearly summed up the white-haired female to a T.
It was odd for Astrid. Danika was so...different from the last time she had seen her more than a year ago now. She had an air about her. An air of commanding power even Astrid, hot tempered as she was, could not help but follow.
Danika had always been the most impulsive of the four of them within the Flame. The one willing to jump into danger without so much as a second thought. And now...every decision she made seemed to be weighed and calculated.
If Astrid didn't know any better she'd say her friend acted like Queen. Or—well, a High Lord granted Prythian didn't have Queens and Kings.
"The Autumn Court portal is that way." Lucien said, warning and reproach dripping from his tone.
Danika said monotonously, "I can't go into Summer. They'll kill me on sight."
Silence.
And then there was a low whistle, and everyone turned to Flynn. "Well, you've been busy." Danika merely rolled her eyes in response.
Lucien countered again, "The only other door here leads Under the Mountain. We sealed off all the other entrances. If we go, we could wind up trapped—or have to return."
"That's why we're going through Autumn." Danika said with no room for argument. Yes, a Queen seemed to sum Astrid's friend up right about now. "And from there..." everyone assembled knew what came at the end of her sentence.
Home. She didn't need to look behind her to know that Lucien was gleaning a lot from those singular words. That was what Night Court was to her friend: Home.
"The Autumn Court will be just as dangerous as Summer." The red-haired male warned hesitantly.
Danika nodded in agreement, "We'll need somewhere to hide. Lie low until at least some of our magic returns. We can't be left defenseless walking through enemy territory."
"I know a place." Lucien offered, and he came into Astrid's peripheral vision as he began heading toward the door that would take them to his old home.
None of them dared exchange another word as they hurried through the rolling foothills, swift and silent as shadows. That is what most of them had been trained to be, after all.
Danika and Lucien powered ahead at the forefront of their little cadre, the two knowing the land best compared to Astrid, Flynn, and Eira.
The cave to the Autumn Court had been left unguarded. And Astrid watched as Lucien looked to the white-haired woman who watched sauntered at his side. He spared the woman a look, and she dipped her chin in confirmation.
It took only a moment for Astrid to realize that Danika was the reason there were no guards. That there was nothing stopping them from leaving this court without so much as a trace.
She wondered if that was what she had done when she'd disappeared in that last hour within the manor.
Lucien paused before he swirling gloom of the cave mouth, the blackness like wyrm poised to devour them all. A muscle feathered in his jaw.
Danika's voice was strong and yet comforting when she spoke, "Stay if you want. What's done is done."
"You were right." Lucien said to her, "The girl I knew did die Under the Mountain."
A muscle feathered in the white-haired female's jaw, and Astrid wondered if she was recalling the events that occurred after that. "I think that may be the first thing we've ever agreed on."
"Alright, I get that you two are having a 'It's two of us against the world!' moment." Flynn interrupted, using his best childish voice. "But my hair is already beginning to flop, and I'd prefer we get on the move so that I can fix it wherever Lucien's taking us."
Danika scoffed, looking at him amusedly. "Your vanity is truly astounding, my friend. Tell me, how many hours a day do you spend staring at yourself in the mirror?"
Flynn lifted a shoulder, "As many as I can, baby. Who wouldn't want to stare at perfection?"
She snorted, and turned toward the cage. Somehow the familiar interaction between the two had made Astrid feel a little lighter. A little less nervous.
Danika stepped into the darkness without so much as an inch of trepidation. Lucien stepped into the Darkness behind her, and then Eira—who looked more at home in the cold and shadows than she had within the forest—Flynn stepped in with a sauntering step, and Astrid followed ensuite.
She trusted them. More than she did anyone else on the planet.
The five of the strode beneath the archway of carved, crude stone, each of them holding a blade in their hand as they left behind the warmth and green of eternal spring.
And in the distance, so faint Astrid might have imagined it, a beast's roar cleaved through the land.
A/N: Here's a short chapter simply because the next chapter is going to be in Dani's POV and I missed my baby. I MISS YOU ALL MORE THAN ANYTHING
Gah! I'm so bad at posting. But I just got out on summer break in the last two weeks and I've already written over a hundred pages of other books. I love you guys
ALSO, IF YOURE ON TIKTOK YOU KNOW THAT FOURTH WING IS EVERYTHING AND I STARTED A FOURTH WING FANFIC
But anyway, since I'm terribly terrible at posting, here's a little treat (aka a teaser from a future chapter):
"But he did not let her go. Did not let her mind wander too far or too fast. "Eira, love, please." he practically begged, "Tell me how to help you." it could have been the hallucinations talking, but she could have sworn there was concern—panic in his voice."