AZRIEL

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

ADELINE

Beneath the thick leather of my fighting suit, even with the freezing temperatures my skin was slick with sweat. We had
been practicing different stab techniques with the dagger for almost half an hour, and my arms trembled so badly that every time I wrapped my hands around the handle of the dagger my pinkie would shake uncontrollably.

Azriel closed the gap between us, gripped my hand and said, "This is because you're holding onto the handle too hard. You're wasting all your strength here." He tapped my knuckles with his index and middle fingers, "hence why your fingers are shaking."

I may have been skilled at hunting, at archery and quick-thinking, but this session had made me realise how I really lacked at using my left side. Moving fast with my left leg and slicing with the dagger in my left hand at the same time I found so difficult. The right side, however - that was easy.

"So," Azriel had murmured from behind me as I practiced slashing the dagger into the areas of a sheet which he had pinned against the wall and marked targets on, "In this human... world of yours, you were the breadwinner of your family?"

My grip around the dagger handle grew tighter, my focus remaining on the targets in front of me, "Mhm. My father was getting old and sick."

"What would you do, to be specific?"

"I hunted," I wiped the slicken sweat from my forehead with the back of my hand, "Sometimes deer, sometimes fox and sometimes rabbit - depending how lucky I was. If the animal was large enough, we'd cut a portion to last us a couple days and the rest would go with my father into the city to be sold in exchange for some coins."

Azriel fell silent behind me for a couple moments while I continued my slashes into the white cloth sheet, majority of the time either digging the blade right into the centre of the target or being off by just centimetres.

"And your father," He began from behind me again suddenly, "Was he the only male figure in your life?"

I froze, the dagger in my grip mid-air doing the same. My back remained facing towards him but I could still feel his persistent, aflame stare burning into me from behind.

"That's none of your business." I managed to quickly choke out, blinking myself out of the suffocating memories beginning to arise in my mind again.

Pull yourself together Adeline. For goodness sake, stop.

The rest of the session continued in silence. Azriel must have realised the consequences of asking his question, because I didn't make even a comment towards him for the remaining twenty minutes and he did the same. Occasionally he would step forward to correct my form - but that was it.

As I gulped down some water at the end of our session and watched him as he clicked his fingers to make the torn sheet disappear from the wall, a kernel of emotion - either regret or sympathy - coursed through my veins.

I gnawed on my bottom lip, weighing whether to do so or not, before reluctantly speaking up. "I've never heard your name before. What does it mean?"

He turned to face me slowly, an eyebrow raised in definite confusion over my sudden will to talk. Thankfully he didn't question it and slid his hands into his pockets, his shoulders noticeably relaxing. "It means God is my helper - in the Hebrew language."

"Oh," was all I replied.

"What about yours?"

"It means nobility, in French I think."

"You're anything but noble."

I rolled my eyes, but was inwardly somewhat grateful his cockiness had returned and the awkward silence between us had diminished.

"And you definitely don't look like you need God's help - your ego is way too big."

He flicked his eyebrows up in agreement and said, "Fair enough," before huffing a laugh, both a graceful motion and sound. "Another thing - your name is too long and I simply do not have the energy. I need something shorter."

"I have no nickname."

He rubbed his chin with his slender fingers which were adorned in silver rings as if in thought, and a mischievous smile appeared upon his lips. "What about Addy?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"No way."

"I like it."

"I don't care what you like!"

"The feeling is mutual, so I'm still going to call you Addy."

"Addy is revolting," I gripped the handle of the dagger that was still in my hands tighter, "Stop calling me that, dickhead."

His smirk widened and that same amused glint returned in his auburn eyes. "What's wrong with that nickname, Addy?"

"I'm going to kill you!" I swiped the dagger at him in frustration, but within a blink he disappeared and left me stumbling. Dark smoke spiralled around where he was under a second ago. I frowned.

"Told you that you can't kill me." His voice, thick with a regal accent mused. I spun around to find him now standing behind me, arms crossed over his chest and the same sheepish smirk playing on his lips. "You're more than welcome to try though, Addy."

I took another lunge towards him with the dagger, and once again the blade sliced straight through thin air and the dark smoke which lingered about after him. Again, he had vanished.

Remaining still, my hand holding the dagger remained ready and my free hand curled into a fist. The only sound in the room in that minute was my jagged breathing, but I waited for him. Waited until I felt the warmth of his chest pressed against my back, the unique coldness of his breath teasing my neck, and the soft tips of his fingers tracing my waist. Waited until I heard his enticing, sweet voice whisper into my ear, "Try again, Addy."

And then I seized the hand he had on my waist tightly, locking him into my grip. Using all my strength I had remaining I pulled him in front of me, before shoving him roughly against the wall. I raised the dagger in my hand to his neck, pinning him there with my face just mere inches away from his. His eyes were wide - clearly taken aback in surprise as his body tensed.

"I said," My teeth grit as I spoke, the blade just only hovering over the skin on his neck, "don't call me that."

And then his body relaxed, the small amused smirk slowly returning as he held my sapphire stare with his own auburn orbs. I didn't back down from my position, continuing to hold the sharp blade in a horizontal position along his neck without applying any pressure.

My breathing was heavy, my heart racing as I watched how he broke the stare we held; his eyes lazily flickering down to my lips for a couple moments before returning back up. It was as though he set aflame every place his gaze roamed on my face, my cheeks growing warm with heat and my lips running dry.

Azriel's voice was a raspy, sweet mess when he murmured, "I need to go, Adeline," and I almost didn't hear him - entranced in the brown flecks which spiralled in the gold iris of his eyes.

It was when his shoulders moved slightly against me that I snapped back into reality and pulled away the blade from his neck, taking a good few steps back from him as he stepped away from the wall.

He scanned my flushed face before his gaze dropped to the dagger I still held in my right hand, and with a swipe of his tongue against the inside of his cheek to hide the smirk aching to appear he said, "Keep the dagger. I think it'll be of more use to you than to me."

I instantly looked away - whether that was from embarrassment, regret or intimidation - I wasn't sure.

"I'll see you at dinner tonight, Addy. Perhaps you can feed it to me off of the dagger, too."

Before I could hurl an insult at him in response, he had already disappeared into thin air; leaving behind the dark spiralling shadows and smoke which lingered in his wake.

And as I replayed back what he had said to me in my mind while I walked back to my bedroom, I couldn't help the chuckle which rasped out of me.