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“I can’t believe I agreed to this,” Eris complained quietly for what Azriel swore to be the hundredth time, as they disembarked from the ship that carried them across to the continent.
After all Beron had begun doing to get into Koschei’s favor. The old Autumn High Lord had been taking even further strides after Briallyn’s death to finally secure the lands he’d been itching to claim for himself for centuries. The only thing that finally pushed him to reach towards that want was the deaths of the final High Lords who’d risen to power around the same times he had, believing the new generation wouldn’t do anything to stop him.
How wrong he would be.
Eris had arrived at the latest hour of the night, with hordes of information relating to his father’s plans coming in the next months. Azriel was the only person awake at that hour, so the two spent the next hours until Rhysand got up to care for Nyx formulating a plan to prevent Beron from striking a deal with the sorcerer.
Eventually it was decided that Azriel and Eris would be stationed on the continent to stop Beron when he made a move. However, until then, they needed to lay low and not draw the attention of Koschei while they waited.
Thus leading to their current situation. Rhys had pulled out an old glamour stone and cast a spell on it to make it appear as if Azriel had pointed ears and no wings so that he wouldn’t stand out too much. Eris had left behind practically all of his usual jewelry save for the small gold chains and hoops he wore on his ears. Now they looked just like two standard fae living on the continent.
And for their cover to be believable, Rhysand had had the brilliant idea to have the two of them fake a marriage for their cover story.
Freakin’ brilliant.
At least on the boat travel here, they could avoid one another as much as possible, but now arriving at what would be their ‘home’ for the duration of this expedition, that would be much harder than before.
The cabin they were set up in was small, so avoiding each other would be practically impossible. They had a small living space with an attached kitchen, a bathing room, and bedroom. Nothing more.
Eris had considered reboarding the boat to Prythian the moment he saw the bedroom. Living with Azriel for a couple months he could do, but sharing a bed was further than he ever wanted to go. He was bound to go mad here. Maybe this would finally be the thing that would break him. Not any of Beron’s torture tactics, but having to sleep in the same space as a very attractive male whom he was supposed to hate.
Azriel and Eris didn’t speak to each other as they unpacked the items they’d brought with them, hanging clothing in the small closet, and generally doing everything they could to not speak to each other.
And it was all working perfectly until there was a knock at the door. Azriel quickly replaced the glamour stone around his neck, making him appear as a regular High Fae male before Eris opened the door.
On the other side of the door were two older females. One with deep brown skin and light hair streaked with gray, appearing almost as if she could have relatives from the Summer Court. The female was much paler with dark hair also sporting some gray and deer-like horn sprouting from her head.
“Hello,” the female with deer horns spoke first, “We couldn’t help but notice you two moving in today.”
“We thought it best to introduce ourselves,” the other female said. “My name’s Cari and this is my wife Ofra. We own the estate just down the road.”
Azriel had joined him by the door at this point, placing one of his hands on Eris’ shoulder, probably to keep up the appearance that they were indeed married. The females didn’t seem suspicious, but when dealing with Beron’s tricks one could never be too careful.
Throwing on the best fake smile Eris could muster, he introduced them under the false names they’d decided on as part of the cover story. “It’s a pleasure to meet the two of you. I’m Aervin. My husband, Sideon, and I just moved here from Hybern.” Hybern was the best excuse they could come up with to keep everyone away from them. No one wanted to talk about what happened with Hybern. And it seemed these females weren’t any different.
“Well whatever it may be, it’s nice to finally see this home filled again. The male who had lived here before you folk passed away quite some time ago and it’s been empty ever since,” Ofra said. “Anyways, we just wanted to welcome the both of you to the area.”
Cari shoved a tin into Eris hands and before he could say anything, they’d turned to walk back down the coast to their own home.
That had undoubtedly been the most unexpected encounter Eris could have even thought would happen. Azriel seemed just as bewildered as he removed his hand from Eris’ shoulder and used his shadows to pull the door shut.
“Well at least we didn’t get invited around for dinner any time soon,” Azriel remarked as tin on the small kitchen counter.
It took Eris a minute to realize that Azriel was making a joke. He didn’t think that the Shadowsinger even knew how to make a joke.
“Thank the Cauldron for that,” Eris muttered. He’d done plenty of dinners with his father’s advisors over the years so he could fake his way through any conversation he wanted to. But these females were different. They reminded him of his late aunts that had been lost during the first war protecting his mother. Dinner with them would have been an entirely new domain that he didn’t dare venture into.
“I’m headed to the market,” Eris eventually decided. They’d need something at least for the night in this cabin other than just a few of the dried items they’d brought. Plus it also gave Eris what he was sure would become a rare chance to get away from Azriel for who knows how long. And at least so far things hadn’t been too odd.
And it stayed that way until night finally rolled around.
Eris had managed to push the fact that there had only been one bed to the deepest corner of his mind to be dealt with at another time. He’d forgotten that it would indeed be that night that he would need to deal with the fact that he was sharing a bed with Azriel that night or finding a different place to sleep that night. However, if they wanted to keep their cover that wouldn’t work out the greatest.
This was ridiculous . They were both grown adults. There didn’t need to be any of this stupid beating around the bush.
Eris finally decided that it would be easiest if he just went to bed and waited for Azriel to make the final decision about the whole thing. After he didn’t think the Illyrian would be sleeping any time soon since he’d set himself up in the living room reading over everything that they’d compiled over the past couple days.
Eris took as much time as he wanted taking care to wash every bit of excess product from his hair. Taking the extra minutes he applied what his mother had recommended as a heat protectant so that she he straightened out his curls come morning it would do less damage to his hair.
When he was finally choosing his night clothing for this trip, he didn’t think that it would actually be cold on the coast. He’d dressed in knit pants and a matching top figuring that he’d be able to get warm once he was actually in bed.
It ended up being quite ironic that despite being a master of flames, Eris was always cold. Mother had said it had something to do with some of the complications during his birth. That ever since he’d always had trouble keeping warm despite his considerable gifts.
His plan didn’t work out all that well. Eris waited for nearly an hour before getting out of the bed again to add another knit top over the one he already had on. By that time Azriel had showered and come to join him in the bedroom.
He’d kept the faelights off as he’d entered. As always he moved near silently and for a moment Eris wondered if he’d left the room to sleep on the couch, that was until he felt the other side of the bed dip down and Azriel settled under the covers, his wings hinging over the far edge of the bed to avoid any accidental touching.
After another hour of not being able to sleep, Eris got up again to add a cardigan to his evening attire as well as a second pair of socks. When he turned back, even in the dark he could feel Azriel watching him.
“What?” He asked quietly into the darkness of the room.
“Why do you keep getting up?”
“How about because it’s freakin’ cold in here? Not all of us got to grow up in a place where it’s constantly a frozen wasteland.” He answered as he climbed back under the covers, hoping that now he might actually be able to sleep.
The moment he was settled however, he felt an arm wrap around his waist. It took more effort than he would have liked to admit to stop from yelping.
“Well you see, the best thing about growing up in that ‘frozen wasteland’ is that us Illyrian generate quite a bit of heat. If you were so cold all you had to do was ask.”
Eris had never been more thankful for the darkness in this room until now. Fighting the flush threatening to take over his face was a feat in its own. Before Azriel would have dared even touch him and was now voluntarily cuddling him. It was all too much for one night.
“Just shut up and let me sleep.” Eris shuffled himself deeper into the pillow. He would allow this for tonight. And only tonight.
Nothing more. Couldn’t let anything more happen.
Eris was out in under ten minutes, unbelievably warm for the first time in more years than he could easily remember.
When he woke with the sun, Azriel hadn’t moved. Rather he’d pulled Eris closer, tucking his face into the back of Eris’ neck. At some point in the night, he’d pulled one of his wings up over the two of them, creating a warm bubble around them.
Maybe this wouldn’t all be so horrible , was the last thought to cross Eris’ mind as he drifted off back to sleep.