#ikora.

It was shaping up to be one hell of a night already. Sure, he wasn’t supposed to be here in the first place, he’d been put on the same goddamned list as Raymond fucking Holloway due to his ... prior relationship with the feminine half of the newlywed couple in question, but there’d never been much that was capable of stopping Yadriel Demir from doing exactly what he wanted. Was he faithful to the Resistance? Of course. Did he trust Noa and Santiago to make decisions that were the best for their ragtag bunch? Sure. But was he going to sit his ass back at the encampment while the only woman that’d ever gotten under his fucking skin married a bloodsucking leech from the Night Court? There wasn’t a snowball’s chance. Raymond, perhaps, might have been content to remain in the woods with Alexander and Lilianna as they babysat his mangy ass, but Yadriel had no intention of keeping them company. Instead, he’d waited until the rest of the Rebellion was well on their way to the wedding, clad in their various disguises, it was only once the sky had been sheathed fully in darkness that Yadriel began a trek all of his own. 

For all the power the Fair Folk supposedly held, it was almost shockingly easy to weasel his way into the infamous Beaumont Castle, he donned an everyday ‘workman’ ensemble and all it had taken was a shamelessly dishonest claim that he’d been hired on as a stableman for the evening to be granted access to the event. Fucking carriage rides---was this the sort of entertainment that interested the Fae when they weren’t too busy gouging out the eyes of human children?

He wouldn’t be focusing on that tonight though. Instead, the head interrogator was briskly removing the saddle from one of the horses he was alternating back to the stables for the rest of the night, he’d missed the wedding ceremony in full but planned on sneaking into the reception as soon as he was able to. He needed to see her. It’d been nearly a year since Sophia had escaped from the Resistance and now here she was, about to spearhead the most powerful alliance that Astralis had ever seen. It ate away at him, gnawing at the muscle of his already torn-up heart, and it would have taken as much self-control as he possessed not to rip the head off of Gabriel Beaumont himself if given the chance. 

For now he tended to the dark-haired mare, animals were so much fucking easier for him to understand than any being---mortal or otherwise---had ever been. With the sleeves of his shirt pushed up onto his strong, toned muscles, and his thick hair pulled back with a bit of leather cord, he appeared every bit of the stableman he was pretending to be, so it was no surprise really, when he felt a presence approach him from behind. “This one’s done for the night,” he grunted without turning around, with a light swat to the horse’s flank as he finally undid the last of its trussing. “Carriage rides are still being offered near the castle courtyard. Go find someone over there to bother, aye?”