"I could kill you," he whispered."Right now."His eyes roamed her face, drinking in her defiance."And I would finally be free of your charms, vixen."
Something in his face crumpled at his words.His grip on her throat loosened.His hand released her hair.He stumbled back as if burnt, his chest heaving, his eyes wide with horror.
"What am I doing?"He wasn't asking her.He was asking himself.He looked at his hands as if they belonged to a stranger.He turned and wrenched the door open, shouting for guards.Two men appeared, their faces hidden by shadows.
"Lock her in," Somadina commanded, his voice hoarse."No one enters.No one leaves.She is not to be touched—" He shot a warning glare at the guards."Do you understand?She is not to be touched by anyone but me.If a single hair on her head is harmed by another hand, I will have your families fed to dogs."
The guards nodded.
Somadina looked back at Azul, blood trickled down the corner of her lips, and though she seemed to heave, her eyes held no fear.He opened his mouth, but no words came.
He left.
The door slammed behind him.
Azul knelt where he had left her, the room spinning slowly, the walls pressing in.
She looked down at her hands.
They were shaking.
Her left hand was still bandaged, and for a sickening moment, one solitary emotion erupted within her.
Rage.
How dare you.She screamed in her mind as her eyes stung.How dare you be afraid of such a man!You're dead!She snarled at the spirit in her blood.You're dead, and I’m alive, and I will not—I will not—
But her hands kept shaking.
She loathed to see her own weakness.
In truth, the original Azul had no power over her body; after all, she had been dead long enough for whatever remnants of her soul to dissipate.The fear manifesting in Azul was hers and hers alone.
Are you safe?A voice sparked in her mind.
“I’m sorry,” her reply came tumbling out in fragments.“I will adapt; I didn’t mean to be afraid.”
There is no need to apologise.Something like this, you should not need to adapt to, Host.
Azul calmed her heart.Did you grow some more?
Host, this time the woman wasn't as you said.She wasn't a Divine King.
The little snake awaited a reply, but received none.Host?
Azul went silent, but her expression was foul.
Chinedu's knees ached from kneeling on the wet stone, but he did not move.He had been here for hours, each minute that passed heavier than the next.The pillar before him bore no name.
This is wrong, he thought.
His mother had a name.Nnenna.
She had existed; she laughed; she held him when he was frightened and sung to him when he couldn't sleep.
And now she was gone, her name was on no pillar, and no one would remember her.Except him.
His shoulders shook.He tried to stop them, to be strong, to be the man everyone expected him to become.But the tears came anyway, hot and humiliating, and he pressed his forehead to the cold stone and let them fall.
