"Amara... you need to tell me who did this."

"And you need to promise me that you won't try and kill them."

"You know that I can't promise you that. Don't make me tell you a lie."

Amara sighed and looked over at him and the rage that was so obvious in his eyes even though he tried to keep it off his face. While he had uncontrollable, icy rage roaring in his eyes, she had only a deep, dark sadness. She knew that Az had a rage that no one had been able to tame, he barely had been able to, so she also knew full well that even his loyalty to the male who had done this to her wouldn't stop him from enacting the revenge that he deemed necessary.

"I don't know if I can sit here and tell you the full story so can you please ask questions instead? Start with the easy ones," Amara quietly asked him, her eyes not moving his. She needed to be able to see if that rage softened or got worse. Things wouldn't end well if she didn't keep an eye on it.

"How long were you Under the Mountain before it started?" He asked her, noting that some of them looked a lot more recent than the others.

"It started the day that Feyre arrived Under the Mountain. I was blamed for her finding the place. Amarantha said that I must have done it because of how close Feyre and I had been back in the Spring Court," Amara answered calmly.

Az just nodded. "Which is why you avoid her now?"

"Yes."

"Who did it?"

"I asked for you to start with the easy questions, Az."

"Why isn't that an easy question?"

"It just isn't. What's your next one?"

He was silent for a few moments, contemplating whether it was worth it to try and get her to tell him. Instead he decided against it, noticing that steel determination behind the sadness in her eyes. He could practically read her like a book and yet he had been so blind to all of her feelings up until that day. He had never noticed how much his distance was hurting her and breaking her apart. He'd never seen just how much she was struggling with everything that had happened to her. He had never seen that protective side of her that came out whenever Feyre was involved in everything, even after everything that the two had gone through.

Azriel could read her, but only when she allowed it, and right now, she was allowing him to see the deepest and darkest parts of her while he sat there in silence mulling over his next question.

"Why haven't they healed?" He decided on. It seemed like a pretty easy question.

"They did bring healers in but there wasn't exactly much that they could do," Amara answered quietly. "Because your... because the person that did this to me put splinters in to the cuts so that they wouldn't heal. Said he was doing it to impress her."

"Why haven't the healers gotten them out then?" He asked with a frown, not really understanding how bad it actually was. He could see that they hadn't healed, that only one of the many many scars (he counted about eight-seven of them) had healed so he was assuming that the splinter had made its way out of that one.

"Because he was very thorough. He dug them in deep. I have to let them work their way to the surface or have the healers dig in to my body for hours on end to try and find them."

Azriel's gaze flickered to the dagger on his bedside table so Amara took his hand in to hers. He turned his gaze back to her and sighed, noting the pleading look on her face as he traced his thumb along the cut that had scarred.

"Is that what you keep dreaming about? Him... cutting you and everything else that he did?" Azriel asked her quietly.

She shook her head. "It's more that I dream about the smell of the blood. And the feeling of the splinters moving under my skin... which I still feel every single day. And the glint on the knife... and him apologising before every single cut in to my skin."

"Amara, I need you to tell me who did it."

"I can't."

"Why not? Why is it so important for you to keep this person's identity a secret? Is it because you don't know who it was."

"Of course I know who it was. I'm not an idiot. I knew the voice."

"Was it Tamlin?"

The look on Amara's face was almost like he had slapped her. The hurt and the pain in her eyes that was nearly always there whenever her brother was mentioned was obvious, but there was also a slight protective glint in her eyes as well. Something that he had only ever seen over Cassian or Feyre or Lucien. Mainly over Lucien whenever someone had badmouthed him or lied about him. She was always quick to defend Lucien, but never Tamlin.

"How about instead of looking at my brother you look at one of your own?" She snapped before she left the room, pulling the robe back around her body.

Azriel was too in shock to go after her.

Rhys...

It had been Rhys...

And Az knew exactly how he was going to go about this.

~~~~~~

Really quickly, there's a couple of things I want to bring up.

So I am going to be putting a fun fact at the end of each chapter. Something that would have made it in to the fanfic or something that I decided to change. I am also going to be writing a novella about Amara's time Under the Mountain so expect that at some point.

This fanfic will go up until the end of ACOMAF until I start it's sequel which will include ACOWAR, ACOFAS and possible ACOSF. Obviously this won't be for a while, just letting you know.

I also have a playlist for this book that really adds to the understanding of Amara and Azriel's relationship. There are a few songs that you can actually link to their story already from what you've read so I highly suggest checking it out.

Finally, the Fun Fact for this chapter:

Amara was originally supposed to date Lucien and not Azriel.