A Court of Gold and Shadows

Something good and right and real: Chapter 6

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Chapter 6: this love is worth the fight

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We like the mountain, his shadows decided to tell him that morning as Azriel got ready for training with the Valkyries and Cassian. Mistress likes it there too...

Maybe it shouldn't even surprise him.

Don't spy on her, he admonished them with a sigh. She didn't deserve that.

It's not spying if they know we are there, the shadows disagreed and he held back another sigh. And Mistress told us to tell you that she arrived safely. And she is wearing her knives. That surprised him.

She is? He asked and they hummed in agreement.

She is, Master, the shadows promised. She is safe, Master.

He knew he could trust them. His shadows had never lied to him. And still, he worried.

Are you certain? he asked them and the shadows were quiet for a moment, like they were listening.

They respect her, they said finally. And the ones that don't respect her, fear her. The ones that do neither, they fear her family.

Maybe that shouldn't surprise him. She had been put into an arranged marriage as soon as they could. Which family would do that, but one that had the power to throw around?

Still, he wondered.

Why should they fear her family? Azriel asked.

She is the Third Daughter of the First Daughter. Oriana Fireborn, they call her, the shadows answered. Her grandmother is the Custodian of the Mountain.

Mother help him. He was mated to a bloody princess.

The fact that they called her Fireborn, wasn't even the most interesting thing of it.

"Are you alright?" Cassian asked him at that moment and for a moment he wanted to start laughing hysterically.

What exactly was he supposed to say to that?

Yes, I found my mate, I really like her and in her free time, she could probably put the whole of Velaris on fire with her power...But she prefers to act like she's nothing but a simple shopkeeper, even when she is one of the best goldsmiths that Tartera have to offer and also trained a ridiculously competent enchantress.

She also has a major sweet tooth and buys me caramel candy and keeps feeding me everything that she cooks just because and she likes it when I come to see her in her forge or her apartment. Generally, she treats me not as the terror of the nightcourt but like I am just...normal.

And now I found out that she never even thought to mention that she was the nearest thing to nobility that Tartera had, probably because she doesn't care in the slightest.

I want nothing more than to kiss her silly and tell her all the ways that I want to make her mine, even when I think that I don't even deserve to lick the ground that she walks on. I am going to ruin her, regardless of what I do.

"Yes," he finally settled on.

Everything was alright. Wasn't it?

Granted he would miss Oriana for three days, but it wasn't like he hadn't been apart from her longer, and...well.