i n t h e s h a d o w s - a z r i e l (slow updates)

Chapter 1

It's been several months since the war and the day Eileánóir had disappeared. Azriel had looked everywhere in Prythian, had turned every rock in the lands looking for his mate in vain. They had even looked if the Cauldron had sent her to the prison under the mountain close to the Night Court but she wasn't there either. The spymaster was going crazy. That fucking bathtub wasn't talking either and wouldn't tell him where his mate was, where it had sent her.

He knew she wasn't dead, he could feel the bond still even if it was dormant like she was far away.
"Any news on your research?" The voice of Eris brought him back from his thoughts. He had spent most of his days with him lately, trying to find Eileánóir as the High Lord was close to her before she disappeared.

"I'm guessing the Cauldron sent her on the continents," Azriel sighed knowing how big the world where she was before coming here was. 

"Do you know where?" 

"No," Azriel looked at the horizon as if he was watching her world, far away from here. "Her world is big and I've never been there so I have no idea where to begin." 

The sound of footsteps made Azriel's head turn away from the horizon. A young woman had arrived in Eris' office. He had never seen her before in the hundreds of years he had spied on this court. 

"Why did you make me come here Eris?" Azriel raised a brow as the woman called his High Lord by his name. How could they be close if he had never seen her before? 

"Saoirse, I was waiting for you," Eris said, taking a chair so the woman could sit on it. "We'll explain everything to you." The girl sat and looked at Azriel. He felt uncomfortable, as she could see everything through him. 

"You're the one who lost his mate to the Cauldron," she stated without any emotions which sent a chill down his spine. 

"How do you know?" Azriel's shadows were agitated, clearly not at ease with the woman in the room. 

"She knows everything," it was Eris who spoke, feeling the tension in the air. "I present to you Saoirse, the only remaining witch on our lands."

The shadowsinger looked at Eris, eyes wide to what his friend had just said. The witches had all been hunted and killed a long time ago, she couldn't be one and if she was, they were all in danger. 

"Have no fear, my friend, she's won't hurt us," Eris said, seeing the fear in Azriel's eyes. It was a rare thing, fear in the shadowsinger's eyes, and it showed how powerful and dangerous witches were. 

"I have no interest in killing you, child," Saoirse spoke with her emotionless voice. Child. How old was she if she was calling Azriel a child? 

"She's here because I think she can help us with Eileánóir," Eris stood up, taking a book that was sitting on his desk. "Saoirse," he turned to the witch. "Could you tell me what you told me yesterday?" 

Saoirse sighed, shifting in her seat and turning to Azriel. "It happened once," she began. "A long time ago." She smirked as she saw the shadowsinger's confused face. She liked playing with faes. "A boy, just like you lost his mate to the Cauldron." She looked to her left, remembering the time when it happened. "Like your mate," she looked back at him. "that woman was so powerful, the Cauldron got scared and sent her far away from Prythian." 

"Where?" Azriel stood up from his chair. He was finally having some kind of information about where he could find his mate and that witch was taking her sweet time telling him. 

"Slow down fae or I'm going home." Azriel sat down again, not risking upsetting a witch. He had to be alive to find his mate. 

"That man, like you, had searched the whole world to find his mate and," she smiled remembering the girl. "He actually found her," she looked at Azriel who had his eyes full of hope. She somewhat felt sorry for him. "But he lost her again as soon as he found her," she said, seeing all the hope leaving the shadowsinger's eyes. 

"He had tried to bring her back here as soon as he found her, telling her everything that had happened, and she slipped out of his fingers as soon as he did it," she sighed. 

"Look child, you cannot make the same mistakes as him," she looked directly into his eyes and ignored his past she was seeing by doing that and continued talking. "If you actually find her, she's not going to remember you."

"Actually, she's not going to remember anything from this world and you cannot tell her about it or she's going to disappear again." It was Eris' turn to say something. He had been shocked when he heard about the story. It was way before he and Azriel were born. 

"That man that I told you about, he didn't understand why she was disappearing every time he tried to tell her about this world and searched for her until he died," Saoirse said with a little bit of sadness in her voice. She had liked that girl, she had been the last witch with her and she felt lonely now, without her. 

She looked back at the shadowsinger. "The Cauldron sent her to the only place he could see in her mind out of Prythian so search there," she said. "Don't make the same mistakes and you won't lose her." 

Azriel stood up, determined to find his mate today. 

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Hi everyone! 

Hope you liked this chapter! This is the beginning of book two and I wanted to know if you'd prefer that I separated the two books on the website or that I leave them in the same story