Rhysand


    Even from the kitchen, I could hear all of them. Thepping of what was surely the oldest bottle of liquor I owned, then the clink of those equally ancient crystal sses against each other.


    Then theughter. The deep rumble—that was Azriel. Laughing at whatever Mor had said that prompted her into a fit of it as well, the sound cackling and merry.


    And then anotherugh—silvery and bright. More beautiful than any music yed at one of Vris’s countless halls and theaters.


    I stood at the kitchen window, staring at the garden in full summer splendor, not quite seeing the blooms in Archeron had tended these weeks. Just staring—and listening to that beautifulugh. My mate’sugh.


    I rubbed a hand over my chest at that sound—the joy in it.


    Their conversation flitted past, falling back into old rhythms and yet … Close. We had alle so close to not seeing it again. This ce. Each other. And I knew that theughter … it was in part because of that, too. In defiance and gratitude.


    “Youing to drink, or are you just going to stare at the flowers all day?” Cassian’s voice cut through the melody of sounds.


    <span id="pg_695" title="695">I turned, finding him and Azriel in the kitchen doorway, each with a drink in hand. A secondy in Azriel’s other scarred hand—he floated it over to me on a blue-tinged breeze.


    I sped the cool, heavy crystal tumbler. “Sneaking up on your High Lord is ill-advised,” I told them, drinking deeply. The liquor burned its way down my throat, warming my stomach.


    “It’s good to keep you on edge in your old age,” Cassian said, drinking himself. He leaned against the doorway. “Why are you hiding in here?”


    Azriel shot him a look, but I snorted, taking another sip. “You really did open the fancy bottles.”


    They waited. But Feyre’sugh sounded again, followed by in’s and Mor’s. And when I dragged my gaze back to my brothers, I saw the understanding on their faces.


    “It’s real,” Azriel said softly.Têxt ? N?velDrama.Org.


    Neitherughed ormented on the burning in my eyes. I took another drink to wash away the tightness in my throat, and approached them. “Let’s not do this again for another five hundred years,” I said a bit hoarsely, and clinked my ss against theirs.


    Azriel cracked a smile as Cassian lifted a brow. “And what are we going to do until then?”


    Beyond brokering peace, beyond those queens who were sure to be a problem, beyond healing our fractured world …


    Mor called for us, demanding we bring them a spread of food. Animpressiveone, she added.With extra bread.


    I smiled. Smiled wider as Feyre’sugh sounded again—as Ifeltit down the bond, sparkling brighter than the entirety of Starfall.


    “Until then,” I said to my brothers, slinging my arms around their shoulders and leading them back to the sitting room. I looked ahead, toward thatugh, that light—and that vision of the future Feyre had shown me, more beautiful than anything I could have ever wished for—anything Ihadwished for, on those long-ago, solitary nights with only the stars forpany. A dream still unanswered—but not forever. “Until then, we enjoy every heartbeat of it.”


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