rhinestone cowboy

“Try sitting down with her.”

“Just talking—sensing.”

“See what you pick up.”

“But don’t push.”

And that the next book will be centered in Elain’s choice and that choice is Azriel.

to her, he is a traitor. he was the one that stood by tamlin as she was helplessly thrown in the cauldron. he is the person that imposes himself on her despite elain making her feelings apparent in all ways but verbal.

contrastingly, azriel is someone who repeatedly saves elain.

in large ways, such as getting her back from the hybern camp, pressing TT into her hand when she started doubting herself, and figuring out she was a seer, consequently freeing her from that murky realm.

but also in little ways too. he took the potatoes from her hands and made everyone wait until she was seated before eating. he jokes at amren's expense when he notices how sharp she is with elain.

like come the fuck on now. seriously? why are we even debating this.

the only thing lucien is to elain is an obstacle to overcome. she does not like him, not in a way that could mean something more. she flat out does not want to be around him. she feels discomfort around him where she opens up around azriel.

to say that all there is between elain and azriel is "just lust" is to intentionally read with bad faith and entirely ignore the author's intentions. it was lucien that expressed (unreciprocated) lust toward elain even as he compared her to jesminda. azriel waited for elain's consent and permission after a long time of them dancing around one another.

azriel and lucien are not comperable love interests. i would argue even that lucien isn't a love interest at all.

So, in Lover Awakened, we have a very interesting scene where Phury (Zsadist's twin brother who happens to be bonded with Bella which is the case for Zsadist as well) finds Bella and Zsadist in Zsadist's room after he left her in another room alone :

Like a total lunatic, he briefly considered going back in and fighting Zsadist for the right to lie next to her. He could see himself throwing the hand-to-hand around, having an old-fashioned cohntehst with his twin over who was allowed to have her.

But this was not the Old Country. And females had the right to choose who they sought out. Who they slept beside. Who they mated with.

And she had known where Phury stayed. He'd told her his room was right next door. If she had wanted to, she could have turned to him.

The "cohnteshst" reference makes me think of the Blood duel 👀 and yeah, the females do have a choice of who they mated with.

cohntehst (n.) Conflict between two males competing for the right to be a female's mate.

The same age as SJM? The author?