Since the Elriels are allll over the place here lately, it's Elucien's turn methinks. 🥰🥰🥰
Lucien asks about Elain's wants and likes. He says her name. Azriel does not. Lucien asking Feyre "Tell me about her. About Elain" is romantic. He shows an interest in Elain on a deeper level and will say her name out loud. Feyre goes on about Graysen and how she likes gardening. Lucien gets upset that she is engaged but NEVER tried to hurt Graysen or sabotage it because he cares what Elain wants. Lucien even stands up for Elain against Feyre alluding that shes a near corspse.
◇◇“Tell me about her—about Elain,” Lucien said quietly. As if the death that squatted in the dark beside us had drawn his thoughts to his own mate as well. I debated not saying anything, shaking too hard to dredge up speech, but … “She loves her garden. Always loved growing things. Even when we were destitute, she managed to tend a little garden in the warmer months. And when—when our fortune returned, she took to tending and planting the most beautiful gardens you’ve ever seen. Even in Prythian. It drove the servants mad, because they were supposed to do the work and ladies were only meant to clip a rose here and there, but Elain would put on a hat and gloves and kneel in the dirt, weeding. She acted like a purebred lady in every regard but that.” Lucien was silent for a long moment. “Acted,” he murmured. “You talk about her as if she’s dead.” “I don’t know what changes the Cauldron wrought on her. I don’t think going home is an option. No matter how she might yearn to.” “Surely Prythian is a better alternative, war or no.”◇◇
Lucien even apologizes to her when she sounds broken over her engagement and when Elain assumes he betrayed them (not knowing he acrually tried to save her...which was weird to me but I digress). He says he would rather throw himself out the window than hear her hurt like that.
◇◇"“Lucien,” she said at last, and he clenched his teacup to keep from shuddering at the sound of his name on her mouth. “From my sister’s stories. Her friend.” “Yes.” But Elain blinked slowly. “You were in Hybern.” “Yes.” It was all he could say. “You betrayed us.” He wished she’d shoved him out the window behind her. “It—it was a mistake.” Her eyes went frank and cold. “I was to be married in a few days.” He fought against the bristling rage, the irrational urge to find the male who’d claimed her and shred him apart. The words were a rasp as he instead said, “I know. I’m sorry.”◇◇
Sorry but calling someone "her" and "she", and "the third sister" isn't romantic whatsoever. Thinking of someone simply to masturbate to their likeness in your head in the dead of night and admittedly not thinking of her any further than that isn't romantic.
◇◇"The Cauldron chose three sisters. Tell me how it's possible that my two brothers are with two of those sisters, yet the third was given to another." He had never before dared speak the words aloud.
Rhys's face drained of color. "You believe you deserve to be her mate?"
Azriel scowled. "I think Lucien will never be good enough for her, and she has no interest in him, anyway."
"So you'll what?" Rhys's voice was pure ice. "Seduce her away from him?”
Azriel said nothing. He hadn't gotten that far with his planning, certainly not beyond the fantasies he pleasured himself to."◇◇
Later on, Feyre even says how impressed she is that Lucien had been able to control himself in front of Graysen enough to keep him alive...because it's what Elain would have wanted. AZRIEL wants Graysen dead regardless of elain's feelings. Lucien wouldn't do that bc she wouldnt want that.
◇◇"Azriel only said coldly, “If Lucien kills Graysen, then good riddance.”◇◇
When Az is in the garden with "her", he is looking over spy reports and barely paying attention to her. And you know whose idea it was for her to get air and sunshine in the garden? Not Azriel's. Lucien's. And Elain was so AT ODDS with Azriel's vicious armor. They didn't even speak lmao.
◇◇Elain sat silently at one of the wrought-iron tables, a cup of tea before her. Azriel was sprawled on the chaise longue across the gray stones, sunning his wings and reading what looked to be a stack of reports—likely information on the Autumn Court that he planned to present to Rhys once he’d sorted through it all. Already dressed for the Hewn City—the brutal, beautiful armor so at odds with the lovely garden. And my sister sitting within it.◇◇
Rhys knew Feyre needed freedom and air. Tamlin didn't. But Rhys "let" her go back to Tamlin twice. Lucien knew Elain needed sunshine and air. Azriel didn't. But Lucien allowed Az to escort her to it based on Rhysands own assessment that Az "isnt the ravishing type." A clear Feysand/Elucien mirror.
◇◇"Lucien didn’t head for the stacks. He just went to the open doors. He paused right between them and said to me, to Nesta, “She needs fresh air.” “We’ll judge what she needs.” I could have sworn his ruby hair gleamed like molten metal as his temper rose. But it faded, his russet eye fixing on me. “Take her to the sea. Take her to some garden. But get her out of this house for an hour or two.”◇◇
Rhys saw how skinny Feyre was getting when Tamlin was blind to it. Lucien saw how skinny Elain was getting when Azriel is blind to it. Lucien even holds back his instincts as to not scare her. This is another clear Feysand/Elucien mirror.
◇◇And then I was in his body, his head. Too thin. "She must not be eating at all. How can she even stand?" The thoughts flowed through his head, one after another. His heart was a raging, thunderous beat, and he didn’t dare move from his position a mere five feet away. She hadn’t yet turned toward him, but the ravages of her fasting were evident enough. Touch her, smell her, taste her— The instincts were a running river. He fisted his hands at his sides."◇◇
Feyre said Rhys was the most beautiful male she'd ever seen in their first official meeting. Lucien says the same with their first official meeting. Another Feysand/Elucien mirror.
◇◇"But he couldn’t breathe as she faced him fully. She was the most beautiful female he’d ever seen."◇◇
Elain was intrigued by the bond. Not put off. She was pulled into a vision which ruined it.
◇◇The dining table rattled. The sound seemed to startle Elain, who swiftly set down her teacup. She rose to her feet, and Lucien shot to his. “I’m sorry,” he blurted. “What—what was that?” Mor put a hand on my knee to keep me from rising, too. “It—it was a tug. On the bond.” Amren snapped, “Don’t you—wicked girl.” Then Nesta was standing in the threshold. “What did you do.” The words were as sharp as a blade. Lucien looked to her, then over to me. A muscle feathered in his jaw. “Nothing,” he said, and again faced his mate. “I’m sorry—if that unsettled you.”
“It felt … strange,” Elain breathed. “Like you pulled on a thread tied to a rib.” Lucien exposed his palms to her. “I’m sorry.” Elain only stared at him for a long moment. And any lucidity faded away as she shook her head, blinking twice, and said to Nesta, “Twin ravens are coming, one white and one black.”◇◇
♡NOTE: SJM studied theology, and the thread tied to a rib comes from Adam and Eve and often symbolizes a perfect partnership and true love in literature.♡
And then, of course, we have these gems:
◇◇"I asked Lucien to escort me, and he’d been more than happy to do so, given that his own status as a mated male made him uninterested in any sort of female company these days."◇◇
◇◇"“I’m a mated male now.”◇◇
◇◇"“I’m going with you,” he said again, face splattered with blood as bright as his hair. “I’m getting my mate back.”◇◇
There are these subtle tells along with the big ones. Elucien is endgame.
