Nightfall {An Azriel (ACOTAR) FanFic}

Chapter 23

Azriel almost smiled at her rant. She looked ready to destroy William and he would be more than happy to help her.

She stopped walking and put her hands on her hips. "Plagiarism would get him thrown out of the academic world forever." An idea formed and she smiled. "Find me a pen and paper."

Azriel looked around and soon spotted an inkpot and a quill. He put that on the table in front of her and she tore a paper out of a notebook. She quickly scribbled something on the paper and folded it.

"What is that?" Azriel asked.

Heart stuffed it inside an envelope. "William wants a reputation in academia, I'm giving him one he deserves. My words hold some weight here, you know?" She smiled at him. Her eyes were slightly red but there were no tears left.

He put his hand on her waist, "Do you need this delivered somewhere?"

She nodded and he took the envelope out if her hand, "I will take it. You need to sit down and take a breath." He kissed her forehead and she sighed.  

"Okay." She stepped back. "The post office is far away." Azriel stretched his wings and she took the hint.

"Oh, right." She sat down on the couch in the middle of the room. "Come back quickly."

Azriel promised her that and flew away. The flying was to mostly blow off some steam and to find out where William lived. Years of being a spy had never been more useful. Growing up around men who thought they were the center of the universe, he knew that they thought they were untouchable. Nobody could ever get to them. The post office was easy to find and with some use of his dagger, William's address as well. He didn't live much farther away from Heart's house. He could see the roof of her house from where he descended near his house.

The door was open and the inside of the house was empty. Azriel inspected the place until he heard some shuffling from inside an adjacency room. He threw the door open and the woman standing inside jumped. William stared at him with eyes the size of saucers.

Azriel smiled, "Did I interrupt something?"

The woman, Azriel's assumed William's sister, took a step back, "Who are you and how did you get inside?"

"The door was open." He pointed outside and shrugged. "If you will excuse me, I have matters to discuss with him."

William, who had turned pale, ushered the woman out of the room and cleared his throat, "What did you want to say?"

Azriel looked around the room before addressing him, "You have an hour to return everything you stole from Heart." The books piled on the walls and stacks of paper stuffed into corners had Heart's handwriting all over them.

"She doesn't need them." It was surprising how confident William sounded, "Most of them are wrong or useless."

Azriel nodded, "Then you would have no problem giving them up." William opened his mouth again but the spymaster had had enough, "Remember how I promised to put you in a coffin? I'm a man of my words."

Willaim clenched his jaw, "You will kill me for some books?"

"I will kill you for looking at Heart. Don't test me."

"This research is worth so much more than anything you will everything understand. This is more important-"

Azriel moved faster than William could blink. His hand got hold of William's neck, "Nothing is more important that my mate." William thrashed about in his grasp and Azriel let him go. "An hour. If anything is missing, I will have your head for it." He gave a last warning but William hadn't taken him seriously.

"She has a child to raise on her own. Who is the father?" He spat. "Where is he?"

Something snapped inside Azriel at the mention of Pip and his dagger was inside William's stomach before he could think, "Don't you dare talk about my son." William doubled over in pain as blood pooled around his feet. A choking sound escaped his mouth when Azriel twisted the knife inside his guts. "If you don't die today from this wound, run. If I ever see you again, it will be the last time you breath."

Leaving William withering on the ground and clutching his stomach, Azriel stormed outside. He cleaned his blade before returning to Heart's house. She was still anxiously looking around the house when he returned. His shoulders slumped when he saw her crouched next to some books and flipping through them.

She saw him coming and smiled, "I found some books. They are not all gone."

He returned her smile just as brightly, "You will have the rest of them back soon enough."

She narrowed her eyes at him, "Did you go to the post office?" He nodded earnestly but she directed her suspicions at him. "And where did you go after that?"

He shrugged as he strolled inside the house, "I had some important work."

"Did you stab someone, Azriel?" Heart sighed.

He nodded but didn't look at her. She got up and smacked his head. "I would have taken care of it. You didn't need to do anything."

"I know." He said defensively. "He just has a very stab-able body."

"I'm sure you think that." Heart rolled her eyes and left him behind as she marched towards the kitchen. She was sure her books would arrive soon.