A Court of Shadows and Stars (Azriel Fanfiction)

Fifty One- Monsters in the dark

Fifty One- Monsters in the dark

I sat in the tub, my knees pulled against my chest and my head resting on them. My body ached, the fatigue now catching up on me- the burst of energy and adrenalin that had kept me up had now depleted leaving me sore and exhausted. I wiped a stray tear from the corner of my eye and bit the inside of my cheek, there was no point overthinking the entire situation. Azriel may be my mate but we weren't right for each other. I wasn't right for him.

I was Vlag.

The thought was like a slap to the face and I buried my face in my hands, shame burning through me as hot as the flames of hell. I wasn't a good person, everyone knew that. I reveled in inflicting pain and misery, I enjoyed hurting people. It was of second nature to me.

And now it made sense. My true parents were Vlag, they were the definition of evil.

The Vlag Queen's porcelain white face with her dark and cruel eyes flashed in my head. I shuddered at the thought that she carried me in her womb for sometime. I was the product of evil. The product of Orcus and his equally villainous Queen.

I was Vlag through and through.

And to think that I actually thought I was the child of perfectly normal mortal parents. My father wasn't even my real father and my mother was Fae. She gave up everything for me. Her powers and then her life.

Something told me that Orcus was behind their deaths.

The thought jarred me from my misery and replaced it with burning determination. I will make him pay. Even if he was my true father or not, he would pay for what he had done to my family. To the people who didn't give me up just for their own selfish needs.

I stared down at my palms and willed a small trace of my powers to surface. It didn't require much concentration and thin black tendrils snaked upwards. I wasn't sure what my limitations were or where exactly I could test them to find out.

I watched as the black tendrils of smoke and flame curled around my fingers and then moved to my wrists. I tried manipulating them to do something out of the ordinary but they didn't budge. With a silent scream of frustration I dissipated the flames and dunked my hands back into the water with a grunt of irritation.

Deciding to forgo dinner and the awkwardness that would definitely be present, I plopped down on the bed and decided to take an early night in. Maybe tomorrow I could test out my powers once I had my energy fully recharged.

I didn't realize how tired I was until I fell into a deep slumber.

I was in a chasm of some sort. Looking around myself all I saw was dark granite rocks. I tried moving forwards but found myself in chains, held in place to the unyielding ground beneath me.

"Hello?" My voice had reached a new level of shrillness, my heartbeat speeding with the unrequited sense of fear that I was trapped in a place I had no escape from. Panic built up in me and I scrambled to my knees, pulling at the chains in desperation to get them loose.

"Use it," a voice whispered in my ear and I whipped my head up looking for its source but found no one. Use what? Was there a key lying around somewhere? I clawed through the dirt looking for anything that resembled a key but found nothing. The voice was back, "Dig deeper into the well," it slurred into my ear and I batted the air as if I was warding off a fly.

What well?

I squinted into the darkness but couldn't make out anything. Getting back to my feet, I tried walking forward as much as I could but only managed to get a few paces ahead before the chains yanked at my ankles, pinning me in place. There was no well in sight.

A shout of pain rang through the chasm and I stilled at its familiarity. The smell of burning flesh wafted through the air along with his scent.

Oh Gods.

Another cry of pain followed. Pure animalistic pain that saw no escape from the horrors being inflicted on him. I called out to him. To Azriel, hoping he could hear me but it was as if I was in a sound proofed box and he was miles away.

"Use it to save him," the voice was back and I blindly scrambled around looking for anything to free myself with. Another scream pierced the air and I groaned in frustration. I had to get to him. I had to save him.

Silence followed along with the sickening thought that I was already too late. A pained sob left my lips but I didn't let myself falter as I tried physically yanking at my chains again. I needed to get to him. I needed to protect him. No one gets to hurt him.

No one hurts my mate.

My palms began to warm up and with a jolt I realized that the voice meant my powers. I didn't let myself think about anything else but getting to Azriel.

The chains seemed to crack under the unyielding force of power I was throwing at it. The tendrils of hell's flame spread out from my palms and burned through the ground. I gritted my teeth as a wave of dark energy erupted from me and seemed to shake the chasm I was in. I didn't falter, didn't stop to think about the consequences of my full force of power.

The chains snapped and I pushed myself to my feet. My powers were a whirlwind around me and they seemed to ignite me from within. The strength in my bones doubled and I found myself sprinting down the tunnel to where I could hear his laboured breaths.

They were there. His bastard brothers, circling him like a pack of vultures ready to devour him. I didn't hesitate to fire a full force of power at the one closest to me and watched with muted satisfaction as he crumbled to nothing but dust.

The second one wasn't as lucky. With a scream of anger I flicked a rope of onyx flame at him and let it wrap around his body before hoisting him up into the air. I let my Vlag powers infiltrate him and consume him whole as his eyes went from cobalt blue to pitch black. The Vlag demon I conjured within him eating him whole.

Kill him.

It was a command that the demon readily jumped into. The male disintegrated before my very eyes in a flash of lightning.

He was tied to a stone block, his skin pale and the smell of burned flesh stinging through the air. I ran towards him, my powers tearing through the wards that kept him in place. I place a hand over the pulse at his throat to find it weak and fleeting. With a burst of energy I channeled a full wave of my powers into him, healing him from the inside as my energy poured into him.

He gasped as if awoken from the dead and his eyes fluttered open. The hazel almost golden as he turned his gaze to me.

And then he stared at me as if I was a monster.

I woke up with a start. The faint smell of burning flesh in the air as I turned to my side and heaved. Nothing came up but it seemed to settle the nausea in me as I almost half crawled into the bathroom to drink some water. What in God's name was that?

I looked down at my hands to find them clean from any trace of soot but something in me was bubbling with energy. It was as if I mentally explored my powers. All in a dream.

And that voice. It was Orcus.

Orcus had guided me.

The thought was sickening enough that I slid against the wall and nursed my throbbing head. I could feel the shift in me and when I conjured up my powers I felt it ignite brightly within me.

Somehow, Orcus managed to train me.

He knew that I ached the comfort of my roots.