A Court of Shifting Realities

Chapter Ten

The low hum of a song stirs me from my slumber as the blinding light from what I assume is a window hits the back of my eyelids.

I pry my eyes open, feeling as if someone took a baseball bat to my head. What I find when my eyes adjust to the room makes my heart swell.

Azriel sits beside me in a bed, his back leaned against the head board with his hand on my head, stroking my hair soothingly. His leg presses against my arm and I zero in on the contact, basking in the feel of his warmth.

He hums to himself as he looks down at me, the book in his lap forgotten, and his fingers pause as he notices my eyes flutter open.

To my disappointment, so does his humming. I have the sudden urge to ask him to keep singing, but my throat feels dry and achy so I keep my thoughts to myself.

"Hey." I say softly, my voice coming out scratchy. Azriel sits up completely, bringing both this hands to my cheeks.

"How do you feel? Does anything hurt?" His eyes roam over my body as I try to sit up. His hands move to my shoulders and push me back down.

"No, don't get up," Azriel grabs a glass of water from the side table and hands it to me, "here's some water."

I look around the room, just now noticing it wasn't the one I've been staying in. This one was much darker, the walls painted black. It was pretty barren aside from the desk with a chair and the bookshelf in the corner of the room.

"Who's room is this?" I ask, downing the entire cup of water. I was thirstier then I thought.

"It's my room." Azriel replies, taking the empty cup from my hands and sitting it back onto the side table.

My heart falls to my feet at his words. Me. Me, right now. Am laying in Azriel's bed, in his room, with him laying beside me.

Holy hell I've died and went to heaven.

I sit up and he lets me this time, my eyes roaming around the room.

"Do you often take unconscious girls to your room and sing to them?" I ask, my eyes meeting his playful ones. I wanted to lighten the mood when I could still feel his worry plastered against my skin. I needed him to know I was okay.

"Only ones that fall from the sky." He replies. His eyes sparkle with mischief and I would be lying if I said it didn't have an affect on me.

"Girls falling from the sky probably doesn't happen everyday." I say, bring my knees up to my chest and huffing them. I realize what I'm wearing now. It looks to be a black t-shirt that goes down to my knees.

"You'd be surprised." Azriel mumbles before noticing where my train of thought has wondered, "Mor changed your clothes after you were stable."

My cheeks heat and I look at the ceiling to avoid eye contact with him.

"What happened?" I ask. I didn't remember much of that morning, but I do remember the entire roof of the House being blown up.

"An attack." Azriel says, causing me to look at him, "we don't know from who yet, or why they did it. We don't even know how they got into the city." Azriel looks down at his lap, his nose scrunched in frustration.

I can see how this would be frustrating to him. His job being to know everything, to see everything.

"This isn't your fault, you know." I say, laying my hand on top of his. He flinches at my touch, but keeps his hand under mine, "You didn't know." I tilt his chin up, meeting his eyes. I could tell he was disappointed in himself and didn't know how to make him believe me.