Sorry guys, this one is a little bit longer than normal! Next chapter is back to Aelin and Aidan! Thanks for reading! 

As the four of them rode through the woods, Cassian seethed with loathing. Not at his High Lord and High Lady but at the monsters that rode alongside him. The two of them, Lucien and Tamlin, only slowed down his and Azriel's progress. 

It took him a few moments  to realize that it was not the underwhelming speed of the High Lord of Spring and his trusty sidekick. It was the clear disrespect he had shown to Feyre. Even now, years later, Tamlin insulted her with his mere presence. It was custom during peacetime for High Lords to be met by their counterparts when they entered their territories. Clearly, Tamlin did not find the Night Court to be menacing enough to even warrant that act of chivalry.

The man couldn't even look at his High Lady when they were in the same room, let alone speak to her directly. Cassian noticed the reins were clenched so hard in his hand that they were biting into his skin. How Rhys had not managed to kill the insipid beast of Spring Cassian did not know. 

Tamlin rode at the head of the party on a large black stallion, followed closely behind by Azriel who was trying to push him to go faster. He too was annoyed by the slow pace. A couple lengths behind, Cassian followed; Lucien right behind. 

Cassian felt the tension in the air between the two parties. If he only reached out with a hand, he might be able to grab onto the razor sharp thickness of it. He hated Tamlin with every fiber of his being, and Lucien almost as much. Cowards. They were both cowards. 

Tamlin grunted incoherently from the head of the group and nodded toward the opening in the thick forest ahead of them. Within moments, they were at the very top of a cliff. Cassian grudgingly took in the beautiful sight of the ocean that lapped at the bottom of it and the warmth of the sun on his face. He missed Velaris and Nesta. 

Nesta had chosen to stay with him in Velaris rather than go with Elain to the Spring Court to be with Lucien. She would have came with Rhys and Feyre to see her, but apparently, Elain was off at some one or another of her friends in Summer, probably at Lucien's request. Cassian, for all the warrior was, sighed as he thought about his mate and sent a quiet thought down their mating bond. A heated retort was shot back almost instantly.

He turned his attention to the rocky descent they were about to make. The path down the side of the cliff was almost too steep for the horses, but Lucien insisted that they had the skill to maneuver down them. Cassian didn't really care. If something went wrong, he could fly off. The beasts of Spring would probably not be so lucky. 

To his disappointment, the party made it to the bottom of the cliff and dismounted. A small boat manned by some of the Lesser Fae awaited them. Cassian had thoroughly argued this part of the plan when it had been laid out before him. Tamlin and Lucien hadn't trusted them to carry them across the sea to Hybern and had insisted on a boat. And Cassian didn't know if he wouldn't have dropped Tamlin into the ocean. 

The Fae on the boat bowed in greeting and scurried about, getting read to take them to Hybern. There was only a slight breeze, but Cassian shook his wings out. He was surprised when a voice spoke up from behind him as he took his place on the starboard side and leaned his forearms against the wood. He turned his head slightly but gave no other indication that he was listening.

"How's Nesta? Is the Night Court treating her well?" 

"Hmm. I feel as though the freedom of the Night Court is treating her much better than the stifling suffocation that the Spring Court is surely exposing Elain to. Perhaps that's why she prefers to spend time in the Summer and Autumn Courts. Even the company of your mother and father is more agreeable than being locked away in a room and left to slowly go insane."

As he continued, Lucien let loose a snarl, and within a second, the two Fae were wrestling on the ground. Cassian's siphons lit up in the anticipation of the fight, and a wicked smile played across his face. 

"Do you think Elain would still love you if I poked out your other eye?" Cassian sneered. "Maybe I'll give it to Feyre. She deserves both of you and Tamlin's heads on a platter, but maybe she'll settle for the eye that failed to see her as she died bit by bit." 

Lucien stopped struggling then and went limp in Cassian's arms. Cassian watched as a light went out of Lucien's eye and realized that he had struck a deep nerve. He pushed the man off of him and onto the deck. Without a word, he took off into the sky.

Hours later, the four of them were again together, but this time, they were on the island of Hybern, making camp on the rocky shores. They worked to build a fire and sat around it when it was complete, but there was no talking. Everyone was alone with their thoughts. As the sky grew darker, Azriel watched as the stars began to appear, one by one. 

As a child, he had named them for those people he had lost, and as his family increased, he named them for those he couldn't bear to lose. One of the brightest one's he had named Rhys. It had been a long time since he had time to just look at the stars and listen to what they had to tell him. 

As he drifted off to sleep, a name came to his mind as if it was being whispered to him. He looked up at the brightest star and silently named it. 

Tamlin sat on the very outskirts of the fire and watched as first Lucien, and then Cassian, and then Azriel drifted off to sleep. Although he would never admit it, the island of Hybern was eerie at night. Inhuman noises sounded off in the distance and even though he himself had added a protective shield around them, he felt vulnerable. 

A twitch beside their fire captured his attention. Azriel rose silently, his hazel eyes black in the firelight. He didn't even spare a glance in Tamlin's direction, but he felt like there was something off about the way the warrior moved. The High Lord of Spring moved out of his watchful position and followed behind the Illyrian at a safe distance. Maybe he was going to relieve himself after all and didn't want to intrude. 

With near silent footsteps, Azriel led him for miles across the island without stopping until finally, the faint outline of a cave appeared in the darkness. The warrior took a small dagger from his belt and sliced his hand with it. With blood dripping from his fingers, he began to write something on the entrance of the cave. Almost inaudibly, he began to recite in a language that Tamlin had never heard before. 

Just as he stepped out from the foliage of the forest to confront the Illyrian, the low chanting stopped, and the male took a step forward into the cave and...

Disappeared. Azriel had vanished. Tamlin took off towards the cave's entrance, and when he got to the area where Azriel had vanished, his vision went blurry and then black before he lost all consciousness.

Azriel gritted his teeth and rubbed his temple as he came to. It felt like he had been knocked out cold in the middle of a brawl, but Azriel clearly remembered falling asleep beside the campfire, remembering how he had named a star just as he fell into oblivion. He looked up for it then, but it wasn't near the moon where he had last seen it. It was far to the North, shining brighter than he imagined. Confused, he realized that all of the stars he had known so well in Velaris were displaced. He was no longer on the island of Hybern or even Prythian. 

Before he could sit up, a sharp knee was pounded into his chest and a deep male voice growled, "What are you?"