He took a single step toward me, to which I retreated back. “Will you just listen for a moment?—”
“Where is Azrael?!” I yelled at him, raising my hands again as flames moved in my veins, charged and ready.
His eyes flicked to a spot over my shoulder, followed by the sound of a door creaking open. Without lowering my hands, I peered behind me, but was unable to see inside of the room.
“He’s in there,”hesaid.
I gulped nervously and felt my hands trembling slightly.He could be lying, I told myself.This could be a trick.With my hands in front of me, I backed up slowly, but refused to take my eyes off of him. Though, I had the sinking feeling that the idea of me being able to overpower him was a moot one. The mist alone seemed to be made of death itself. But I would be an idiot to leave myself exposed.
He watched me with something akin to amusement in his eyes, but the rest of his face remained impassive. As I drew closer to the door, muffled voices slowly cleared into one of a familiar little boy speaking.
Azrael.
Risking it, I turned and ran into the room, but my feet almost slid from beneath me when I saw Azrael at the dining table. He was smiling, shoving his fingers into a plate filled with little sugar cookies. Crumbs spilled over the dark, almost black, wood, and he practically bounced in his seat with a large smile on his face.
I quickly noticed that his blindfold was nowhere to be seen.
When his head turned, he noticed me standing in the doorway, and his eyes lit up before he dropped from the chair and rushed toward me. “Princess!” he squealed, wrapping both arms around my hips in a tight embrace.
“Where is your blindfold, Azrael?” I whisper-yelled at him. “You can’t?—”
“He’s alright here.”
I bristled at the sound of his voice behind me.
“Things work differently in my world. His power of blight can’t hurt anyone in this castle.”
I kept my eyes on Azrael, trying to ignore the man towering nearby. But as my eyes drifted over Azrael’s shoulder, my entire body went rigid.Not again, please… I can’t do this again…
“Morrigan?” The second my name fell from her lips, my body crumbled to the ground, and Azrael stepped back in fear.
“What’s wrong?” He sounded confused, but I couldn’t answer him. I could barelyhearhis voice over the ringing in my ears.
“Not again,” I whispered, crawling backward until my back hit a nearby wall. Quickly, she stood from her chair and ran to me, but I threw my hands up to cover my eyes. “You’re not real!” I cried over and over again. “You’re not real! Please! I can’t do this again!”
“Morrigan,” she said again, but it was closer. And as a pair of arms wrapped around me, I felt the coldness of their touchbut… Ifeltit. My breath constricted the tighter she pulled me in, and I barely even heard the footsteps enter in behind me.
“Iamreal, flower. Iwasreal,” she whispered, her own words shaking with so much emotion. “I never left you, baby.”
Every wall in me crumbled, and horrible, heavy sobs left me as I fell into her shoulder. I couldn’t tell if I was crying or screaming—perhapsboth. But someone else moved Azrael away from us while we held each other.
“M-Mom?” I stuttered, barely able to speak through my tears.
“Shhh…” Her hand smoothed my hair back as she buried her face into the crook of my neck. “There’s time to talk later. Just let me hold you again. My brave, brave girl.”
“Iwasreal,”she had said. Could it really be true? I didn’t know how it was possible, but had she really been there the entire time? Watching me?
I dug my fingers into her gown, wanting to hold onto her as tightly as possible. I couldn’t let her slip away again. I needed her to stay.
“Confusedis one way to describe how I felt when I sensed your mother’s arrival,”hesaid from somewhere nearby. “But she begged me to send her back. She told me her daughter needed her.”
It took all of my strength to pull away just enough for me to see him standing beside us. “H-How?” I asked. “W-Why is she here?” I turned back to my mother. “Why aren’t you in Eden?”
She offered a soft shrug with a tight smile. “I don’t know, flower. But I’m so happy that I’m not.” Lifting her hand, she cupped my cheek and wiped away the tears with her thumb. “Because, then, I couldn’t be with you right now.”
“Obviously, I can’t just raise the dead,”hecontinued. “But I was able to offer something close enough. I used that little connection of ours to projectherinstead ofme.”
I turned to look up at him—at the soft gaze he returned, filled with shared sadness.
