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“How do I know you won’t just fly away once I tell you what I know?” I asked. “If you want me to trust you, then tell me something I want to know first.”
He came into my view once more and shrugged. “Fair enough. What would you like to know, Chosen?”
“How do you know my name?”
His pacing faltered to a stop, and he stretched his wings out to sit among the tall grass in the clearing. “Come, sit. You look like you’re about to pass out.” He patted the spot next to him in a gentle command.
My shoulders fell slightly in reprieve and followed his demand with little objection. I plopped my weight next to him in the spot he indicated, much less graceful than I’d intended to be. My face pinched as the tightness in my joints stretched in an aching reminder of the lack of sleep and food the citadel provided. The pain tugged at my bones, and I bit my lip to keep from crying out—partially because of vampyres, mostly because of Azriel. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught his expression grow sympathetic—either that, or I must have smelled really offensive.
“You need to rest, Arya. You’re going to kill yourself if you keep running at this rate.”
I sighed and leaned back on my hands, closing my eyes as he spoke so I didn’t have to see the pitiful look he was giving me. “I didn’t ask for your opinion, and I don’t need your advice. Just tell me how you know my name.”
He cleared his throat and shifted in the grass. “Okay, but do you really promise not to freak out this time?”
“Mmmhm.” I moaned without opening my eyes.
He sighed, unconvinced at my lack of assurance and my terrible reputation for keeping promises. “A few weeks ago, we rescued another runner who had fallen victim to the waste. He was torn apart by a vamp, but he was somehow still alive when we found him. We were able to bring him back to our headquarters and save him, and he has spoken about you relentlessly these past few weeks.”
My eyes shot open.
It couldn’t be.
I snapped my head around at Azriel, who was leaning on his side in the grass with his head propped in his hand. My eyes widened, indicating for him to continue his explanation, but he only shrugged. “It’s been quite annoying, actually.”
My hands met his shoulders, and I tackled the infuriating man to his back. His face betrayed a brief stunned expression at my surprise attack. My fingers dug firmly into his bronze skin, their nails piercing the formed muscle tensing beneath my grip. “Enough with the jokes, Azriel. Who are you talking about? Who is the runner you saved?” I shook his shoulders with every burning question, needing to hear the name from his lips before my hope sparked. But he only smirked at my desperation, as if it were his goal to create it in me all along.
“This is the second time you’ve climbed on top of me, darling. You’re starting to give me a complex.”
My nails dug deeper into his skin as my frustration bloomed. “Listen to me you irritating, arrogant, vulture of a man. If you don’t tell me the name of that runner, I will tie you up in your sleep and listen to you scream as I pluck every feather from your hideous excuse for wings.”
He winced at my threat. “You know just what to say to wound me, darling. Fine.” He sat up to close the distance between us, leaning against his hands to support us both. “But Loren will not be happy when he hears how you’ve treated me.”
My hands slipped from his shoulders to cover my mouth, which had fallen slack at the mention Loren’s name. “Loren’s alive?”
Azriel nodded, his sarcasm finally dissolving at the sight of my obvious shock and surge of emotions the news created. “Aye. I told him I met you, and he reacted similarly—minus the straddling,” he added with a wink.
There was a part of my soul I had tucked away since Loren was taken from me, the part that belonged to him. My grief had bound it tightly beneath my heart, not letting me feel anything for some time. Every thought, every feeling I had suppressed since his absence came flooding through as my walls crumbled, and my hard exterior was overcome at last.
But happiness was a heavy emotion, especially when I was wearied from carrying my grief for so long. I collapsed pathetically from the weight of it all, crashing my face into this stranger’s chest so he wouldn’t see the tears spilling relentlessly from my eyes. But I was no match for the sobs fighting hard in my chest for escape, and they shook my core as I cried.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered into the cloth of his shirt, feeling ashamed of my break down. “I just missed him so much. He was all I had, and I thought I’d lost him forever.” His hand pressed low on my back as his thumb traced small circles against my spine. The touch was soothing, and I arched instinctively into its comfort and the burning smell singed in his skin.
“It’s fine. I understand.” His other hand lifted my chin from the hollow center of his chest to give him a clear view of my face. He wiped away the dampness from my cheeks, not looking the least bit uncomfortable with a sobbing woman crumpled against his frame. I wondered if he’d had much practice with that.
“Can you take me to him?” I asked, unashamed at the anguish in my voice. Before he could object, I pleaded further. “Please, I have to see him again. I’ll tell you anything you want, just don’t make me go back to the mountain.”
The silver in his eyes glistened with interest as the chiseled muscles in his stomach pressed against me as he took a deep breath. “You’d give up everything just to see him?”
“Yes,” I breathed. To be honest, there wasn’t much to give up in the first place. A life promised to be limited in years under the careful control of a queen who’s done nothing but make me feel unworthy. My bitterness for Eivor ran deeper than my admiration.
“Once you come with me, there is no going back, Arya. Vampyres are not the only creature you will have to fear if you join us.”
“And if the queen gets her hands on the leystones, it won’t matter whose side we’re on.”
Azriel’s breath stalled underneath me at the mention of the stones. His expression grew cold, returning to the primal, foreboding male who’d circled me minutes prior. “Leystones? They found the leystones?”
I rolled off his body, sitting next to him once more in the flattened grass. “Aye, the Dark Army is on their way to retrieve them as we speak. I’m assuming that makes more sense to you than it did to me.”
