𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳 24

                                    

                                          

The two mates barely have their feet on the ground on the top of the mountain, before Azriel is storming off towards the kitchen. Esmeralda is unsure as to his plan, considering Rhysand doesn't live in the House of Wind anymore. However, she is surprised to hear his voice emerge from the room she approaches.
"You're the reason she was living in The Middle!" Azriel launches for Rhysand. 
"Az, you need to calm down," He warns his brother. 
Esmeralda just stands at the entrance, frozen in shock. Where has this come from? She can't lie, it stirs something in her to see Azriel fight for her like this. But he shouldn't be this mad. 
"How could you?!"
"This is not the time nor place, and certainly not the person I need to explain myself to." Rhysand shakes his head. 
"You trusted Tamlin?"
 "He wasn't like that as a kid"
"Well clearly he was," Azriel growls, Rhysand slowly losing his patience with his brother. Sensing Rhysand's growing anger, she tried to intervene.
"I said calm down!" Rhysand commands the Shadowsinger, who baulks at his High Lord. Esmeralda observes Azriel as he stops yelling, looking to the ground in submission. At first it looks like he is standing down as instructed, but then his gaze moves back up. The pure rage in his eyes sends shivers down her back. 
Esmeralda takes a step forward in attempt to move between the two males. Rhysand himself clenches his fist, readying for a fight.
"Esmeralda, stay out of this" Rhysand warns her, not realising his mistake.
Esmeralda freezes at the same time as Azriel. His anger disappears as he turns to her. She ignores the look as she sends her own one of despair to Rhysand. Her real name means a lot to her; it's something she didn't trust many with. Rhysand, Feyre and her mother are the only ones who know it. Agatha Arcana always said to know a name is to control it, and the last thing an Arcana wanted was to be controlled. So Esmeralda hid it from everyone like her mother instructed. She thought Azriel would be the first person she would tell, but after the way he treated her, she considered revealing it to Lucien. But the time her death date came, the didn't want to leave the world without someone alive knowing. So she told Rhysand, and thereby also Feyre. She couldn't bare the thought having no one know the true her after she passed. But now that she lived, the Seer hoped the two mates would keep her secret to themselves. It's her choice if and when she reveals her name to the others. But now... Now Rhysand has told Azriel. The person she wanted to save it for. 
"Esmeralda?" 
Esmeralda looks back to Azriel, ignoring the pang in her chest at his betrayed expression.
"I-"
The Seer can't find the words. She has already revealed so much about herself to him today. Starting with her hands, and then her mother. Now her name? Her name. It was hers, no on else's. So Esmeralda does the only thing she can. Run. Or at least she tries to, but something stops her. A shadow.
"You're not going anywhere," Azriel walks towards her.
"So what, you're angry at me now? What happened to hating Rhysand?" Esmeralda twists in the surprisingly firm grip of the shadows. She gets more agitated the closer Azriel comes.
"Esmeralda?" He repeats again, having already put the pieces together. 
"Azriel, please" Esmeralda tries to stop him from coming any closer. As a reflex, she flares her hands out trying to procure some smoke from her hands. But nothing. Of course there is nothing, she isn't a witch anymore. 
"You didn't tell me your real name?" His tone heartbroken rather than angry, at least that is a relief.
"I didn't tell anyone!"
"You told Rhys," He is in front of her now, their breaths mingling in the shares air. It's certainly not the right time for her brain to be thinking about how close they are. How they have never been this close before. What they could do instead of arguing. 
"I told him because I thought I was going to die. I did die! And you weren't there" 
Rhysand and Esmeralda hold their breath, waiting to see Azriel's reaction. But they are interrupted because getting the chance. Loud flaps signal a fourth joining their company. Cassian. 
"Alright, let's get this shit show over with," Cassian yells to who he thinks is just Azriel inside. Entering the kitchen, he finds himself to be wrong; freezing as it dawns on him that he has interrupted something serious. 
"Uhh hey guys, what's going on," He tries to hide his smirk when he sees how close Azriel and Esmeralda are standing.
"Nothing. Cassian, take Azriel to join you at training today"
"I'm not done here," Azriel looks back to Esmeralda who is avoiding his stare.
"Yes you are."
Those are Rhysand's last words as he winnows out of the House of Wind. Azriel finally releases Esmeralda from his shadow's hold, and she takes a few steps back to create some distance.
"I never thought I would say this, but I would rather face Nesta than be a part of whatever this is," Cassian waves over the two and struts away. Once he is out of the room, Azriel starts questioning her again.
"So after everything you told me today, you weren't going to tell me this?"
His accusatory tone rubs her the wrong way, and she thinks back to their first meeting when she decided to hide her name from him. He has no right saying this to her now when he was an asshole to her from the beginning.
"Firstly, you don't get to dictate when I tell you things; I felt like I could trust you now which I why I told you those things. But they aren't secrets, they are things about my life that you never asked. You never cared to ask"
Once Esmeralda starts ranting to him, she can't stop. Words flow from her in waves. 
"My name is a very important thing. I was told to never tell anyone about it. But I wanted to tell you, of course I did, you are-. But then the way you treated me when we first met, and after that for weeks, I decided I never wanted to tell you ever. Because you are the only one with power to control me... because I would've let you."
"So you don't get to be angry at me for keeping it from you. Because It's your fault."
Now Esmeralda storms away. It's funny really, how Azriel entered to room angry and now she is the one who leaves it the same way.