Page 119 of Lady of Ashes

“You need to convince her that I am not an enemy here,” Scarlett added.

“She already believes you to be an enemy,” Azrael retorted. “And now, thanks to you, she will think the same of me, despite my loyalty to her since she assumed the throne.”

“I will be your best chance at defeating them, at keeping these Courts from falling into their hands. You know this,” Scarlett countered.

“And had you kept your godsdamn mouth shut, I could have helped her see that,” Azrael snarled. “Now you could have very well just fucked us all over.”

And Talwyn didn’t know what to think at this point. Because she knew, she justknew, deep down, that what Scarlett was saying was true. Tarek was alive. Tarek had been in the mortal kingdoms this entire time. An entire fucking decade and had never contacted her. Never tried to reach her. Let her believe he was dead. Let her grieve. Let her feel abandoned and alone. Again.

And now Azrael had been lying to her. For years. Had never told her that he had Avonleyan blood. Had never informed her that his family had taken the Royal seat from Tarek’s family. Neither of them had ever said a godsdamn word about it.

Lightning skittered from her hands, her feet, bouncing along the stone ?oor of the room and had Azrael spinning to face her.

“Talwyn, get it under control,” he ordered.

He had moved in front of her, gripping her shoulders as wind tore through the space. She could see Ashtine in her periphery, working to control the gusts, and Prince Briar had moved to her side.

“Talwyn!” Azrael barked.

“Get her out of here, Luan,” Sorin barked, and then Azrael was shoving her roughly through the earth portal, and she found herself in Xylon Forest.

“Talwyn,” Azrael sighed, running a hand down his face.

“Say it,” she hissed, her ?sts clenching and unclenching at her sides. She could feel energy crackling along her knuckles, and the earth was shaking beneath their feet.

“When you calm down, we will talk about this,” Azrael countered, his hand falling to his side. He’d planted his feet, clearly ready for a ?ght.

“Say it!” she all but screamed at him. Her breathing was ragged, her chest heaving. Her entire body was trembling, her spine almost aching from the intensity of it. “Are you like her?”

“No,” he answered. “I am not full-blooded Avonleyan, Talwyn. My grandfather on my father’s side was a quarter Avonleyan. I am far more Fae than I am Avonleyan.”

“You never thought to say anything?” she demanded. “It is a long and complicated history, Talwyn—”

“Did you ever plan on actually helping me get into Avonleya?” she asked, cutting him off before he could try to give her some pathetic excuse for keeping this from her.

“Yes,” he answered tightly.

She barked a laugh of disbelief. “Let me rephrase that: Did you ever plan on actually helping me getrevengeagainst Avonleya?”

Azrael didn’t say anything, glancing away from her for a split second, but that was all the con?rmation she needed. She took a step back from him, the branches on the surrounding trees bowing under her wind gusts. When Azrael’s eyes came back to her, they widened in shock before he said, “Fuck.”

And then Talwyn was somehow looking up at him, and a howl in the distance had her ears perking up.

Wait. Her ears perking up?

She dipped her chin to ?nd black, clawed paws on the ground, and when she brought her eyes back to Azrael, a message was disappearing amongst a swirl of sand and leaves. “Stay calm, Talwyn,” he said, trying to sound soothing, but Azrael did soothing about as well as a wolf would soothe a deer. An earth portal opened to his right. “Go through. We need to go to Stellan.”

She opened her mouth to tell him she wasn’t going anywhere with him right now, but all that came from her was a snarl. And not a Fae snarl, but a canine snarl of fury. The snapping of twigs had her swinging her head to the side, where she found Maliq stepping from the trees. She was almost eye-level with him.

“Talwyn,” Azrael ground out, “I do not know how to help you with this. I cannot walk you through shifting back. We need to go to Stellan. I sent him a message that we were coming.”

Maliq nuzzled into her side, and Talwyn found herself taking another step back from Azrael.

“Do not do this, Talwyn,” Azrael said, and she could swear that there was actual panic entering his eyes. “You need to learn to control this, especially with the things we are currently facing.”

If she could, she would have laughed at him. Instead, a huff of some sort came from her. She wasn’t going anywhere with him. These last few weeks had been pure hell. She’d fought with Ashtine, certainly lost her friendship somehow. Her relationship with the Shifters was already strained, and he wanted to take her thereto ask for help? That could hardly go over well. She’d faced these weeks alone, without Azrael, only to learn that not only is Tarek likely alive and had chosen to abandon her, but the only person she had con?ded everything in had betrayed her. And she honestly couldn’t decide whose betrayal was worse: Tarek’s or Azrael’s.

Both shredded her.

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