Here's the thing, the entire inner circle has taken note of Elriel.
Has seen Azriel carry Elain bridal style after rescuing her from Hybern.
Has seen Elain kiss Azriel on the cheek.
Has seen Azriel give Elain Truth-Teller.
Has seen Elain gift Azriel a headache medication after she notes him rubbing his temples so often. Watches him laugh.
Caught them just a half second before their lips met into a kiss.
Has heard "What if the cauldron was wrong?" straight from Azriel's mouth.
Knows that Azriel is 100% ready and willing to fight a death duel for her.
Has to order and threaten him to stay away from her.
Notes how good of a pair they make together.
Questions why they aren’t mated.
Watches firsthand how Azriel notices that Elain is missing from the war camp and risks certain death to bring her back.
Notes Azriel still cradles Elain to his chest once they are safe and returned to the war camp.
Witnesses Elain kiss Azriel on the cheek.
Watches Azriel arm Elain with Truth-Teller.
"I think Elain—Elain would like it, too. Though she’d probably cling to Azriel, just to have some peace and quiet.”
I smiled at the thought—at how handsome they would be together.
She's asks "Why not make them mates?" and "What if that is what she needs?" and "Is there no free will?"
Immediate set up for elriel by the main female character of the series.
Clocks Azriel's protectiveness and feelings for Elain.
Notes how riled up he gets and talks directly to him when mentioning Elain looking for the trove.
She smirks into her wine glass when Azriel physically stops Cassian from getting into those steamy potatoes before Elain is able to make it back to the dinner table.
Mor watches the space Azriel leaves from when he vanishes into the night after questioning what Elain Saw.
Azriel’s hazel eyes churned as he studied my sister, her too-thin body. And without a word, he winnowed away. Mor watched the space where he’d been standing long after he was gone.
Mor was in the vacinity when Madja said, "If anyone can sense if something is amiss, it’s a mate." HAD to have heard it. She then sits with Feyre when Lucien tries and fails to detect what's wrong with Elain.
Mor confirms the truth when Azriel determines what Elain is and why she's been acting so odd.
Elain turned to Mor, who was now gaping at my sister from her spot beside her on the couch. “Is that what this is?”
And the words, the tone … they were so normal-sounding that my chest tightened.
Mor’s gaze darted across my sister’s face, as if weighing the words, the question, the truth or lie within.
Mor at last blinked, mouth parting. Like that magic of hers had at last solved some puzzle.
Here is where I think Mor senses something between Az and Elain. Does she realize they are mates?
Mor reminds Feyre that Azriel willingly gave up Truth-Teller.
“You honestly think he’d ever give up Truth-Teller?”
“He gave it to Elain,” Mor said, admiring a moonstone necklace in the counter’s glass case.
“She gave it back,” I amended, failing to block out the image of the black blade piercing through the King of Hybern’s throat. But Elain had given it back—had pressed it into Azriel’s hands after the battle, just as he had pressed it into hers before. And then walked away without looking back.
Mor hummed to herself.
Mor tensed when Azriel approaches Elain.
But I strode to my seat—nestled between Amren and Mor—in time to see Elain say to Azriel, “Hello.”
Az said nothing.
No, he just moved toward her.
Mor tensed beside me.
But Azriel only took Elain’s heavy dish of potatoes from her hands, his voice soft as night as he said, “Sit. I’ll take care of it.”
Did Mor tense up because she was wary of how he would react? She has to suspect something.
Azriel set the potatoes in the center of the table, Cassian diving right in. Or he tried to.
One moment, his hand was spearing toward the serving spoon. The next, it was stopped, Azriel’s scarred fingers wrapped around his wrist. “Wait,” Azriel said, nothing but command in his voice.
Mor gaped wide enough that I was certain the half-chewed green beans in her mouth were going to tumble onto her plate. Amren just smirked over the rim of her wineglass.
Cassian gawked at him. “Wait for what? Gravy?”
Azriel didn’t let go. “Wait until everyone is seated before eating.”
Watches Azriel declare he will rescue Elain.
Witnessed Azriel gift Elain Truth-Teller.
Azriel, still limping, merely nudged aside Cassian and extended another option.
“This is Truth-Teller,” he told her softly. “I won’t be using it today—so I want you to.”
Elain’s eyes widened at the obsidian-hilted blade in Azriel’s scarred hand. The runes on the dark scabbard.
“It has never failed me once,” the shadowsinger said, the midday sun devoured by the dark blade. “Some people say it is magic and will always strike true.” He gently took her hand and pressed the hilt of the legendary blade into it. “It will serve you well.”
“I—I don’t know how to use it—”
“I’ll make sure you don’t have to,” I said, grass crunching as I stepped closer.
Elain weighed my words … and slowly closed her fingers around the blade.
Cassian gawked at Azriel, and I wondered how often Azriel had lent out that blade—
Never, Rhys said from where he finished buckling on his own weapons against the side of the wagon. I have never once seen Azriel let another person touch that knife.
Is there when Elain saves his ass from Hybern with Truth-Teller.
Notes Azriel's mood darkens when he mentions something happened to Elain.
Notes that Azriel would rather have Nesta find the trove than Elain. Witnesses his temper rise.
Amren said, “We do not have the time to wait for Nesta to decide. I say we approach Elain tomorrow. Better to have both of them working on it.”
Azriel stiffened, an outright sign of temper from him as he said quietly, “There is an innate darkness to the Dread Trove that Elain should not be exposed to.”
“But Nesta should?” Cassian growled. Everyone stared at him.
He swallowed, offering an apologetic glance to Az, who shrugged it off.
Amren drained her wine and said to Cassian, “Nesta has a week. One more week to find the Trove with her own methods. Then we seek out other routes.” She threw a nod toward Azriel. “Including Elain, who is more than capable of defending herself against the darkness of the Trove, if she chooses to. Don’t underestimate her.”
Watches Azriel walk away with Elain to the garden.
Has seen Azriel discover what was amiss with Elain.
Witnessed Azriel carrying Elain bridal style after the rescue.
Witnessed Elain kiss Azriel's cheek.
Witnessed Azriel gift Elain Truth-Teller.
Witnessed Elain use that dagger to stab the king of Hybern in the neck.
Notes Azriel's shadows seem ready to defend Elain when she hurls insults at her.
Notes how tormented he is by Lucien's bond to Elain.
Elain, the wretch, had taken the seat between Feyre and Varian, about as far from Lucien as she could get.
Azriel remained in the doorway.
“Why don’t you sit?” She leaned against the doorway beside the shadowsinger.
“My shadows don’t like the flames so much.” A pretty lie. She’d seen Azriel before the fire plenty. But she looked at who sat close to it and knew the answer.
“Why did you come if it torments you so much?”
“Because Rhys wants me here. It’d hurt him if I didn’t come.”
“Well, I think holidays are stupid.”
“I don’t.”
She arched a brow. He explained, “They pull people together. And bring them joy. They are a time to pause and reflect and gather, and those are never bad things.” Shadows darkened his eyes, full of enough pain that she couldn’t stop herself from touching his shoulder. Letting him see that she understood why he stood in the doorway, why he wouldn’t go near the fire.
His secret to tell, never hers.
Every member of this court has watched Elain and Azriel interact together.
Every member, except perhaps dear Cassian, likely suspects there could be or knows there IS something more between them.
Yet some people are still gonna tell me they are not the next couple of ACOTAR6?
Even after we have confirmed that Azriel, who's so damn unreadable 99% of the time, HAS feelings for her?
Even after Elain, who's mated to another and shows no interest in him, gives Azriel the green light to kiss her?
Even after we are given CONFIRMATION that the CAULDRON HAS BEEN WRONG TO ITS VERY CORE in Hofas? That it has not been working and weilded as it properly should be?
Here's the thing, when all 5 other main characters take note of what's between the remaining 2 it gets alittle more than suspicious.
It's alarm bells. It's foreshadowing. It's written between the lines.
I think its written in the stars and destined to become a fable so pivotal that it will be passed down for millennia.
