Dark Caress | Azriel

𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑

"Later, boy," My father glared, before stomping away. A scarred hand came into my vision, but I batted it away and stood up.

"Are you alright, Princess?"

"I didn't need your help," I shot him a glare, rubbing my arm. My best bet to dealing with Azriel was going to be to push him as far from me as possible and hope that it didn't backfire in my face. "I could have dealt with that myself. You shouldn't have got involved."

"I was trying to help. A thank you would be nice." Azriel's eyebrows furrowed, but I glared at him darkly. I knew that if I let him in even an inch, he would be stuck in my heart and I'd have the burden of a mate that didn't live up to my parent's expectations. They would banish me forever.

"Next time, just don't bother," I brushed past him, slamming against his shoulder, as I grabbed my sword from where it leant against the wall and headed for the library to pick up the strategies.

Footsteps sounded behind me, and I turned to glare at Azriel, who was following me with a determined look on his face.

"You've been avoiding me since we trained together," He pointed out, nodding his head as I rolled my eyes.

"You say that like there's anything between us. I've had work," I rolled my eyes, throwing out harsh words as I tried to get Azriel to back off and leave things unsaid between us. 

"Fine. You're busy, so I'll ask one question then," He towered over me, cocking one eyebrow.

"What?" I refused to back down, glaring up at him with cold eyes.

"When were you going to talk to me about the fact we're mates?"

"We're not,"

"We are,"

"You're delusional," I turned to walk off.

"I'm not," He grabbed my wrist, pulling me back to him as the electricity crackled across my skin and seemed to bring my cold, dead heart back to life, but I couldn't let it.

"We're not mates, Azriel. Stop trying to see things that aren't there," I yanked my wrist free. "You're just saying that to try and get into bed with the princess or to win a bet with Rhysand. Whatever signs you think you saw, you made up in your head to justify your actions. We're not mates. We're not even friend. We're barely acquaintances so don't test your luck with me."

His eyes grew cold and, maybe if I had feelings for him, I would have felt sad but self-preservation was my main goal. Maybe, one day, he'd see that I was doing all of this to protect both of us from my father's wrath. For now, I just needed Azriel to back off with the mates thing.

"You're trying to push me away by being as much like your father as possible, but I'll let you in on a little secret," Azriel crossed his arms across his chest. "It's not going to work. I know that we're mates, just as I think you do, even though you're trying your best to convince both of us that we're not. You might be a daemati and supposedly good at hiding your emotions, but you have the same ticks as your brother. Your left eye twitched, so I know that you're lying."

"I am nothing like my brother," I stepped closer, grabbing his collar to bring him down to my level, "and I'm not convincing myself we're not mates, Azriel, I know we're not, so why don't you do us both a favour and stop entertaining this delusional idea that we are."

"Fine, you want to pretend that we're not mates, I'll let you," Azriel shot me an infuriating smile that made me want to both kiss him and punch him simultaneously. "But I know the truth, Princess, and when you're ready to accept that, I'll be waiting."

"You'll be waiting an awful long time then," I shoved him back from my grip, turning and stalking away from him as his chuckle bounced along the corridor. Every instinct in me told me to turn around and run back to my mate, to wrap my arms around him and kiss him so that I could hear him laughter everyday for the rest of eternity, but my rational side said no. No good came of me and Azriel being mates.

No good at all.

"Fucking Illyrians," I cursed, grabbing the strategies and winnowing back to the Hewn City before I had the other misfortune of running into my mother. That would just make my day far worse.

Hiya,

So, Maiya's plan of action is either to avoid her problems or be as rude as possible so that her problems leave her alone. Let me know what you think of Maiya's treatment of Azriel. Was she in the right?

Let me know what you think,

Love Li xx