2_-_court_of_mist_and_fury_a_-_sarah_j._maas

Cassian flexed his fingers, admiring the clear red stones adorning the backs of his own
broad hands. “Doesn’t hurt that they also look damn good.”
Amren muttered, “Illyrians.”
Cassian bared his teeth in feral amusement, and took a drink of his wine.
Get to know them, try to envision how I might work with them, rely on them, if this
conflict with Hybern exploded … I scrambled for something to ask and said to Azriel,
those shadows gone again, “How did you—I mean, how do you and Lord Cassian—”
Cassian spewed his wine across the table, causing Mor to leap up, swearing at him as
she used a napkin to mop her dress.
But Cassian was howling, and Azriel had a faint, wary smile on his face as Mor waved
a hand at her dress and the spots of wine appeared on Cassian’s fighting—or perhaps
flying, I realized—leathers. My cheeks heated. Some court protocol that I’d unknowingly
broken and—
“Cassian,” Rhys drawled, “is not a lord. Though I’m sure he appreciates you thinking
he is.” He surveyed his Inner Circle. “While we’re on the subject, neither is Azriel. Nor
Amren. Mor, believe it or not, is the only pure-blooded, titled person in this room.” Not
him? Rhys must have seen the question on my face because he said, “I’m half-Illyrian. As
good as a bastard where the thoroughbred High Fae are concerned.”
“So you—you three aren’t High Fae?” I said to him and the two males.
Cassian finished his laughing. “Illyrians are certainly not High Fae. And glad of it.” He
hooked his black hair behind an ear—rounded; as mine had once been. “And we’re not
lesser faeries, though some try to call us that. We’re just—Illyrians. Considered
expendible aerial cavalry for the Night Court at the best of times, mindless soldier grunts
at the worst.”
“Which is most of the time,” Azriel clarified. I didn’t dare ask if those shadows were a
part of being Illyrian, too.
“I didn’t see you Under the Mountain,” I said instead. I had to know without a doubt—
if they were there, if they’d seen me, if it’d impact how I interacted while working with—
Silence fell. None of them, even Amren, looked at Rhysand.
It was Mor who said, “Because none of us were.”
Rhys’s face was a mask of cold. “Amarantha didn’t know they existed. And when
someone tried to tell her, they usually found themselves without the mind to do so.”
A shudder went down my spine. Not at the cold killer, but—but … “You truly kept this
city, and all these people, hidden from her for fifty years?”
Cassian was staring hard at his plate, as if he might burst out of his skin.
Amren said, “We will continue to keep this city and these people hidden from our
enemies for a great many more.”