A Court of Light and Fire (ACOTAR)

Chapter Fourteen

Celeste awoke to the smell of mist and cedar flooding her senses, the warm rays of the morning sun streaming in to heat up the room through the window. The bed she laid in was much larger than that belonging to her own chambers, but when she had found herself at Azriel's door after a particularly vivid nightmare, he had already been halfway down the hall to meet her.

They had flown for hours the day prior, long enough that she swore her wings would have at least doubled in size with the way her muscles must have grown. Azriel - well, technically Rhysand's tab - had treated her to dinner at the male's favourite restaurant he had been promising to take her to when her palate could handle more exotic flavour. Then, they read by the hearth until dusk swept into dawn and they finally succumbed to the lull of sleep and said their goodnights.

Her small feet slipped out of the comfort of the mattress, and she went to her room to brush her teeth and throw a hoodie on before slipping down into the dining room for breakfast. But instead of the usual greeting the girl received when she entered-

The room went silent.

Not even Cassian's cutlery scraped against his plate as she entered the room, moving to sit in her usual spot to the High Lord's right, across from Feyre on his left.

Yet, for some reason, the half-faerie had not bestowed her with a delectable breakfast that morning. Instead, his nose twitched, eyes flicking to Azriel for a moment, before his throat bobbed and his gaping mouth.

'Good... morning?' She turned to scan Rhysand's furrowed eyebrows, pointed glances around the table. 'Why do you look like a fish?

Celeste shifted her eyes to look where Rhys had previously watched. Mor and Cassian's mouths were hanging wide open, eyes flicking rapidly between Azriel and Celeste. Feyre looked about ready to take the family breakfast to the sparring ring upstairs, and Rhysand only sat uncomfortably at the head of the table, like a father who was expected to know just what to say in these moments of pure... whatever this was. 'What's going on?' She finally asked into the room.

'AZRIEL, YOU BETTER NOT HAVE-' Cassian was the first to break the silence, but the rumble of the table and a grit of Mor's teeth signalled the Illyrian had received a kick to his shins under the timber.

Rhysand cleared his throat, and Feyre kicked him under the table not-so-subtly, following suit. A plate of eggs and bacon materialised in front of Celeste, but she did not move to take a bite. 'What Cassian was trying to say, is...'

'You two have your scents all over each other.'

Celeste was the one left gaping at the table now. Her cheeks grew warm, what she assumed was the mirror image to how Azriel's appeared diagonal from her.

The girl burst into laughter.

'Don't tell me-' she doubled over right there in her seat.

Azriel tried to maintain his stoic exterior, but the twitching of his brow and tightness of his lips betrayed every hint of emotion the shadow singer usually hid so well. 

'She had a nightmare and stayed in my room. Stop with all of this.'

Cassian looked like he was about to burst with the amount of air filling his cheeks.

'By the Mother, guys,' Celeste dropped her face into her palms, hoping for the chill of her fingertips to wash away the blush from her cheeks. 'I don't even want to know what you were thinking.'

Cassian finally let a grin take over his features. She supposed that was preferred to the alternative of his previous unspoken threats. 'Well, personally,' he stabbed a poor egg on his plate and waved it around in the air towards Azriel as he spoke, 'I  thought that maybe Azzie here had finally built up the courage to tell you that-'

'That you can always come to me if you need anything, no matter the hour of day or night,' Azriel finished for Cassian, and his shadows looked just about ready to strangle the male to his left, even as he forced a comforting smile onto his lips for the girl.

Celeste did not let her mind wander to what that might have meant - she didn't even know what she wanted it to imply. So, she instead chose to tuck that piece of information away for later, and pasted on the innocent smile she had perfected to match Azriel's own.

'Thank you, Azriel,' Celeste said, overwhelming relief flooding her chest as the conversation came to a close. She lifted her marmalade toast to her lips, and took a bite of the freshly steaming bread. 'Now that that's out of the way, on a more serious note, when do we need to be ready?'

The air in the room shifted entirely at the reminder of what the day ahead held for the family. 'We leave in two hours, but Keir is expecting us in three.' A wicked smile bloomed beneath Rhysand's violet eyes.

'Never let them know your next move,' Celeste finished, smiling at the High Lord who had become so much like a brother to her. 'So I'll be down in one hour and waiting.'

'That's my girl,' Rhysand lifted his hand for a high five, and Celeste fulfilled the gesture, giggling as they proceeded with the small handshake they had made one dinner alone many nights ago.

The rest of the breakfast was consumed by heavy glances between the three Illyrian males that were meant to be subtle but were the furthest thing from it, and discussions of the plans for the day ahead.

By the end of the meal, Celeste was unsure of many things, but she knew she was certain of one:

The Court of Nightmares wouldn't know what was coming for them until it hit them square in the face (or boxers, as was Cassian's preferred analogy, but that was a story for another time).

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A/N:

I hope you enjoyed! Thank you for reading this chapter, Dreamers! See you in the next one🤍