Eternal: Azriel

Chapter Thirty-two

After I felt her soft breathes, I lifted myself from the bed. She was exhausted and in need of a nap. Taking one last look at her, I exit the room, making my way downstairs.

I was met with the others, their gaze passing me by. I scan each person, not sure what I was looking for.

"How's Athy?" Feyre is the first to speak.

"Sleeping. It was too much for her to handle in such a short time." I respond with an emotionless tone.

Feyre nods, but the worry still lingers. A conversation sparked in the room, the incident was too dramatic to keep quiet about.

Mor sags against the couch cushions. "A war where we have no allies beyond Keir, either in Prythian or beyond it."

Rhys gives her a sharp look. But Elain says quietly, "The queen might come." Silence.

My eyes focused on Elain as she was staring at the unlit fireplace, eyes lost. "What queen," Nesta says. "The one who was cursed."

"Cursed by the Cauldron," Feyre clarifies, pushing off the archway on the other side of where Rhys stood. "When it threw its tantrum after you ... left."

"No." Elain studies her sisters, my eyes not drifting from her. "Not that one. The other."

I then spoke softly, taking a single step over the threshold and into the sitting room, "What other?" Elain knew about the attack that happened today. If I'm right about this then Elain knows more than we think she does.

Elain's brows twitch toward each other. "The queen—with the feathers of flame."

Lucien murmurs to Feyre behind me, "Should we—does she need ...?"

"She doesn't need anything," I answer without turning around to look at him. Elain didn't blink as she looked at me.

"We're the ones who need ..." I trail off. "A seer," I mutter to what felt like I was telling myself. "The Cauldron made you a seer." I say more confidently. There was no other reason she would know all of this unless she's seen it before, in a vision.

Elain turns to Mor, who was now gaping at Elain from the side of her. "Is that what this is?"

Mor stays silent, still calculating.

I ignore all the other reactions around me, asking, "There is another queen?"

Elain squints, looking for the right answer. "Yes."

"The sixth queen," Mor breathes. "The queen who the golden one said wasn't ill ..."

"She said not to trust the other queens because of it," Feyre adds. Then pauses before her eyes widen at Nesta, "You stole from the Cauldron. And Athy. What if something was revealed?" I turn over my shoulder to look at Feyre who continues. "She already had abilities before, they were only strengthened after. But what if the Cauldron gave something to Elain? Each having something different happen to them."

Nesta's face drains of color. "What?"

It made sense. Athy already had the gift of light, but after she was Made she earned the ability to heal from her light. What if all this time it was really just sealed away. But why? And was Athy really a faerie before? How was she made mortal?