Azriel x OC

Chapter 24: Home

Levain
The place looked like the estate. Everyone standing before me looked like themselves but I had been fooled before. They had all come down to hurt me at least once while I was rotting in that cell. Earlier I had been let out into the forest. My chains gone. And I saw them. I wouldn't let them take me again. But they had. Then I had fallen asleep as soon as we touched down in that house. This Azriel did look different though. His eyes changed as I held that dagger to his throat. But I couldn't shake that feeling.

I awoke in a large four poster bed. The sun burning the backs of my eyelids. I hadn't seen sun since I went into that hole. Since I had wished everything would cover me in darkness so no one could find me. I opened my eyes and saw shadows running around my skin. At first I thought it must be Azriel. I sat up quickly but there was no one in the room. Were the shadows coming from me. The bed felt real underneath me. This has to be real.

"We think your powers developed into shadows of your own." A deep male voice called from across the room. I pulled the sheets up around me and curled into a ball against the bed frame. Azriel stepped out of his own shadows in the corner. He wasn't wearing his leathers though. Not once had he come to visit me in that cell and be wearing anything but his leathers.

"Shadows of my own?" I questioned. Was this the gift Koschei was talking about giving me. After he broke me down to nothing. I could feel the anger start to roll around my body.

"Yes. How are you feeling?" Azriel didn't move from his spot in the corner. It must be real if he wasn't going to hurt me. The Azriel that appeared in the cell wasted no time in touching me. Claiming me. I shivered at the thought and fought the urge to throw up.

"I'm feeling..." How was I feeling? Better that I knew I was safe. Scared forever. "Confused." I thought would be the best way to describe it.

"We cleaned you up and gave you a bath while you were sleeping." Oh no. A bath. That means. I reached to place hands on my thighs and my back. The wounds had healed but the scars would be there forever. Due to getting lashes when my skin was still open. Azriel started to move towards me then. Slowly as not to spook me while I traced my scars.

"They aren't as bad as they look." I said shaking me head trying to get the pain from my memories. The screams that made my throat dry for days. Azriel sat next to me on the bed. I couldnt help leaning away from him. It had become instinct at this point. But he was real. This was real.

"Levain I am so sorry we weren't there to stop that. To stop everything." I looked up at his pained expression. I knew that he would have taken my place. If he could he would have taken these scars for me. But the scars weren't the worst part. The worst part was watching him do those things to me. I moved away even further now sitting on the opposite side of the bed to him.

"I just don't know if I trust myself that your real." I explained. Honesty was always best. And I knew I was broken. But I didn't want Koschei to win. If I broke apart and tried to kill them again. He would win. That is what he wanted.

"How can I show you that I am?" Azriel asked laying his hands on the bed. I took a breath as I tried to think. Knowing things about me wouldn't work. The other Azriel had known those things too. Even his eyes when devoid of emotion still looked like Azriel sometimes. The pained expression he wore now. So similar. But the way he kissed me. Never gentle. Never loving. Never caring.

I moved back across the bed slowly. Trying to calm my beating heart. I let the sheet fall back down to my waist. Not wanting to see the scars that would be underneath them. I sat right next to Azriel now. My knee resting against his leg. That's when I noticed the first difference. He was warm. Not cold and harsh. But warm. I bit my lip. He was real. I could do this.