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The snow had dusted over Velaris like a fresh layer of powdered sugar over one of Elain’s confections for the new year. Two years. It had been two years since the war with Hybern. This New Year’s seemed like a completely new holiday for Azriel albeit with some firmly entrenched traditions that have carried over from years previous. Like Mor and Cassian already drunk from their raid on the wine cellar, even though this year’s wine cellar is quite a bit larger than the old one at the town house, so obviously there is more loot for them to plunder. And Nuala and Cerridwan were hiding out in the kitchen away from Amren, although I don’t expect that tradition to change anytime over the next thousand years. No, there was one reason, and one reason only that this New Year’s would be different from all the ones before.
Elain.
Azriel still isn’t sure how it happened. They went from allies in the inner circle to confidants to this. This quiet, hidden, whirlwind of a romance that was so intense that it sometimes took his breath away. He missed being near her. Had become addicted to the torture of keeping his hands to himself while they were in a room with the others. Like right now, while he sat with the others she was finishing up the last of the baking in the kitchen. He counted the minutes until he could go back there to steal another cookie, and hopefully this time a kiss.
“Well it’s official, Az is just going to have to be the tie breaker.” Mor says, drawing his attention back to the family room. Feyre had really outdone herself with the design of the manor house. The place was just so quintessentially them, not just her and Rhys, but a style that fit the entire inner circle. From the chestnut armchair that was currently accommodating his wings, to the custom hand knotted rug that the Weaver of Velaris had made special for Feyre, to the copper sconces bathing the cream walls in warm light. It was lavish but not stuffy, large but still welcoming. It was a home.
“I’m not sure what we’re debating but I am sure I do not want to be the decision maker.” He took a sip of the wine Rhys had poured him.
“The over under on Calais making Vivian a high lady.” Feyre tells him, lying across the couch with a gentle hand on her rounding stomach while Rhys massaged her feet that were cradled in his lap. That was another change, a Feyre who was not trying to drink Mor and Cassian under the table.
Azriel let his shadows fill in the remainder of the debate. “Well based on Mor’s report-“
“That’s the problem right there, it’s her report.” Cassian gestures with his wine.
“She was just there for Solstice.” Rhys sighs.
“But she’s a biased opinion.” Cassian leans forward while Mor smirks in the corner like a kitten who just got killed the canary. She catches Azriel’s gaze and gives him a look that would have sent him melting last year. He frowns. Now it’s just confusing. She’d been gone for eight months and besides for a quick dinner at the beginning of the month before she left to the winter court, he hadn’t seen her. But since she’d gotten back a couple days ago she had been…familiar. He pulled his gaze away from her. Confusing. Her actions had been very confusing. Azriel still couldn’t decide if she had always touched him as much as she did. The pats on the arm and hand, the hugs, looping her arm with his, was it new? Or was he only noticing it now that Elain had captured his heart?
“I’m going to help in the kitchen.” He stood up quickly and Feyre caught his gaze. A small smile played on her lips. A suspicious smile. Feyre had been shooting him those looks ever since Elain told Lucien that they were not going to be mates last month. But she hasn’t come right out and asked, although Azriel did get a good laugh as Elain reported being cornered in the garden one morning and having to spend twenty minutes letting Feyre talk while Elain just smiled.
“Azriel, you’re seriously not even going to toast with us?” Mor says, the pouting in her voice causing the shadows to swell around him, asking to stay, to listen to her. Even though his heart understood the five hundred years of unrequited love had come to an end, his shadows were slower to fall in line.
“Maybe save at least one bottle until midnight?” Rhys drawls from the sofa, his hands now working his way up Feyre’s legs. A nearly invisible flush has spread over her cheeks but Azriel didn’t comment.
“That’s what the champagne is for.” Cassian says as Azriel leaves them all to continue their discussion.
He finds her in the kitchen, with her hair pulled back in an intricate braid, a velvet rose colored gown being protected by a muslin apron with a ruffled edge tied around her waist. Her back was to him, bent over as she pulled cookies out of the oven. Azriel stopped in the doorway just watching her for a moment. He remembered what she was like when she was first brought to Velaris after she shifted. He remembered her pale and gaunt body, her lifeless eyes, and watched how she slowly recovered over the past two years. How her fae body bloomed the more autonomy she took over herself and her actions. But the biggest change of all had been over these past six months. Getting her own little cottage off one of the mountain streams that flowed gently into the Sidra, teaching needlepoint and crochet at Feyre’s school, and getting involved with the gardening guild had all helped but it was deciding that Lucien would never be her mate and that their compatibility would never come to be somehow gave her the independence she needed to truly blossom in her fae body. And Azriel was mesmerized.
Nuala saw him first and a knowing smile spread across the wraith’s face. Keeping their relationship a secret from the others was a challenge, keeping it a secret from the two wraith sisters was impossible. He hadn’t wanted to hide his relationship with Elain but she requested to keep their courting quiet, just in case something didn’t work out between them. She didn’t want to hurt the inner circle. Make it awkward. Azriel had been fine respecting her wishes but now his agreement to go along with her feels like it’s backfiring, especially with Mor’s return, and he somehow feels it’s his fault.
Azriel watched as she opened the cabinet and strained on the balls of her feet to reach for a platter on the highest shelf.
“Allow me.” One moment he was standing in the door way, the next he was behind her with one hand on her waist and her back pressed against his chest as he pulled down the platter she was looking for.
Elain turned slowly in the cradle of his arms and accepted the platter. “Thank you.”
Their eyes met and held and Azriel wondered how much longer he would forget to breath each time she looked directly at him.
“Is there anything I can help you with?”
“Oh thank you, no, that’s the last of them. I just need to let them cool.”
“Are you okay? You haven’t been in the family room much tonight.”
“Yes, I’m fine.” Her smile didn’t reach her eyes.
Azriel reached for her hand entwining their fingers together. The fact that she let him touch her, had welcomed it, still floored him. She moved into the circle of his embrace, her head resting on his chest.
“Just wanted to bake?”
She let out a low tone that sounded like an agreement but he wasn’t buying it.
“Please tell me what’s wrong.”
“It’s strange having Mor home. I guess you have some decisions you need to make.”
Azriel frowned. He knew Mor’s return had bothered her.
“What decisions?”
“Well if you’re going to be with her again.”
“Mor and I have never been together.”
“But she wants to.”
“If she does it doesn’t matter. I’m not interested anymore.”
“I’m not- “ She exhales. “I’m not used to feeling jealous.”
He shouldn’t smile. He knew this wasn’t something he should feel happy about, her jealousy. But he did. His other hand the one that was not entwined with her fingers cupped her cheek, adjusting it so she was looking directly at him.
“Jealous of Mor?”
She nodded and he could feel her trying to pull her face away.
His fingers caressed her cheek, her ear, her neck. “Whatever I might have once felt for her is in the past as far as I’m concerned. Lately there’s someone else I can’t bear to stay away from.”
His lips travelled across her hair to her forehead where he let them rest.
“Someone kind and gentle, but strong and brave too. Someone I….love.” He pulled away to look down at her. Smiling.
“I love you, Azriel.”
His eyes closed briefly. He would never get sick of hearing those words. The weight of who she was to him, what they were to each other felt staggering.
“And I love you.” His wings fluttered as he repositioned his body so their lips could meet. He could hear Cassian shouting down from ten in the background. He wasn’t going to wait that long. He captured her mouth in a kiss. The searing heat of her, of them body to body shot bolts of electric sensation down his back. He deepened the kiss. Soon he’d have to pull away, go back to the other room like nothing had changed. As if he didn’t love Elain Archeron and Elain Archeron didn’t love him. Soon. But not yet. He heard the shout of Happy New Year coming from the main room. The laughter. They needed to join the group.
Elain let out a little moan of regret as he pulled away.
“Well that’s new.” Came a voice from the doorway.
Elain and Azriel turned to see Mor and Feyre standing, staring. The former had eyes bigger than the stars gleaming off the Sidra, and Feyre, her smile was as big as the moon.
Azriel looked to Elain, to see how she felt about the secret being out and Elain, she was smiling too.
“Surprise.” His shoulders lift.
“Talk about changes for the New Year.” Feyre smiles and just turns around pulling a staring, and now grinning, Mor behind her.
“Where were we?” Azriel tips Elain’s chin back toward his face. And their lips meet again.
The End