The wind carrying their balloon south morphed fast from helpful to dangerous as they approached the coast.
Despite his great skill, all that Rigel could do to coax the balloon into changing direction was to lower the flame that was still burning, by some miracle, under the air-filled pouch. But Astrid knew that it was useless, it was too late, they would be carried into the sea and die...
Her despairing thoughts came to an abrupt standstill when she spotted the two dark-clad figures waiting for them close to the tip of the rocky promontory. She stood still, staring at them, hands gripping the edge of the basket as surprise and fear filled her mind in equal measures, submerging all other thoughts, while Rigel and Orion kept moving behind her in a panic, unable to decide whether they should throw their luggage overboard, and gain altitude again.
They didn't notice anything out of ordinary until the balloon apparently stopped obeying the wind and started acting on its own will, steering itself towards dry land, touching ground without the slightest bump.
Without paying any attention to her companions, or Stella's words about not trusting demons which her mind whispered as she kept looking at the two fallen angels, deciding that after having spent her entire life by listening to other people it was high time to start thinking for herself now, she lifted the skirt of her dress up to her knees and clambered out of the basket, then walked towards the two strangers as if she couldn't resist the pull of the familiar scent of burning incense, the cloud of smoky, amorphous darkness that seemed to hover around them, or their magic, like the balloon before.
She stood in front of them before either of her companions, still shaken by the flight that could have cost all of their lives, noticed that she was gone.
"Are you Michael? I need to find Michael," Astrid whispered urgently, not wanting Orion to hear.
Her eyes flickered between the two men, one of whom, as she had hoped, wasn't a complete stranger. Her breath caught, and her heart started to race when he looked into her eyes, his irises the same colour as the sea foam floating on the water behind him, penetrating deep into her mind.
She doesn't even know your name, Ramiel thought, and that thought, accompanied by certainty that he would laugh out loud if he could, made Azrael want to destroy something. Or at least make his friend fly into the cold water for a very long swim... He sent that image into Ramiel's mind before he took a deep breath and focused on Astrid, who was still eyeing them expectantly.
"No, Lady. This is Ramiel, and my name is Azrael. But if you are here because of the new treaty, then we will have to take you to Michael."
"Azrael..." Astrid breathed.
She could not concentrate on anything that he said after he had introduced himself, her eyes were glued to his, asking, searching, guessing, until Ramiel, unable to help himself, chuckled, making Astrid blush furiously and drop her eyes.
"Astrid! Come back here, what are you doing over there?!"
Orion's alarmed voice pierced through her confusion, making her realise that... "He can't see you... and neither can Rigel..."
Only now did she notice that the two fallen angels didn't look entirely substantial-- they were there, in front of her and yet there were not, as if they would vanish like a dream should she touch them.
"No, Lady. Not unless we allow them," Azrael said, and as on cue, the angels seemed to flicker into real existence then, the tendrils of moving black fog which enveloped them vanishing.
Astrid heard the men gasp somewhere close behind her and turned around in time to see Orion taking a step back.
"Azrael, Ramiel, this is Orion, my fiancé, and my friend Rigel. And I'm Astrid," she said, remembering her manners.
"Azrael and Ramiel will take us to someone to talk to about the treaty," she muttered, not quite sure that that was what Azrael had told her, when Orion finally stood at her side, his arm snaking around her shoulders proprietarily.
When she lifted her eyes to meet Azrael's for confirmation, he nodded, a small smile playing on his lips, making her know that she was right, and he was reading her mind again. Astrid frowned at him, making his smile widen.
"Before we start on our journey, let us present you with a welcome gift, my lord," Azrael said, his eyes piercing through Orion. "Ramiel?"
Ramiel nodded, vanishing in a blur of black cloak towards the tip of the promontory, where a large crack, which Astrid had glimpsed from the balloon, opened in the rocky ground.
Astrid looked at Orion, whose arm was still crushing her to his side, but he wasn't looking at her, his eyes followed Ramiel to the entrance of the pit.
"Izar! What on earth..." his exclamation startled her, and she followed his look.
Ramiel was returning, Izar, and two of his guards walking in front of him.
"I'm sorry, my lord, but your fourth man died," Ramiel said as he led the guards, unbound but unresisting, towards them.
"You killed him," Astrid muttered, staring at Azrael, unable to accept the notion. She couldn't believe that he was a murderer; taking someone's life was the greatest crime in her book.
"It was an accident," Azrael said, frowning at the thoughts chasing each other in her mind. "An act of self-defence. He attacked Ramiel."
"How did you find them, how could you know...?" Orion stammered, attracting Astrid's attention.
The guards shouldn't be here; she saw him sending them back to Starling from Vesper, she mused.
Azrael's sigh made her turn back to him. You know nothing, Lady. His lips didn't move, but she could hear his voice clearly in her mind before he replied to Orion.
"Never mind that now, you can talk to them on the way. We'll take them with us to a place where we can leave them safely, guarded by people who won't let them run back to Arcturus. Oh, before I forget... here, my lord." Azrael pulled a letter with a broken wax seal from his pocket. "No one will be coming. It's just you and us."
He bowed, mockingly, to Orion even as Astrid saw her fiancé's face blanch.
"What letter is that?" she asked him, voice trembling with suspicion.
"It's nothing you need to worry about," Orion snapped.
"Orion, tell me," Astrid insisted, shrugging his arm off her shoulders, taking a step away from him. She was sick of having been manipulated and lied to for so long, she deserved being told the truth, she could handle it, she wasn't a child anymore.
However, Orion's mouth clamped into a stubborn line; he wasn't going to tell her anything.
"May I?" she asked Azrael, who was still holding the letter.
Orion tried to snatch it from him, but Azrael dropped it into Astrid's hand simultaneously, pushing Orion back, making him stumble into Rigel, who observed them all silently.
"You didn't... How could you?" Astrid asked, looking at him accusingly once she read the short letter. "Why, Orion? Why would you ask my uncle for an army when we're here to improve the treaty to avoid war?"
"Such was our deal, I promised to let Arcturus know where the angels are hiding and bring you back home if I could. It would be better for everyone to deal with them once and forever," Orion spat.
Watching the couple quarrel stirred all sorts of emotions in Azrael. Showing the girl her demon's true face was exactly what he wanted, and yet he was unhappy as he felt the sadness and disappointment settle in her mind, because it was he who told her the truth, and made her suffer.
Before their argument could escalate, he proposed, distracting them, "Shall we go?"
"Can we get our bags and hide the balloon somewhere? We might need it later," Rigel spoke from behind Astrid and Orion, his practical mind apparently immune to all the surprises and turmoil they had just gone through.
Azrael nodded, and Astrid noticed how his eyes expressed much more appreciation for Rigel than for Orion.
"There is a small cave close to the entrance of the pit, you may use it to hide the balloon and everything else you decide not to take with you from here. The descent will be long and difficult, and the fewer things you carry, the better."
Rigel nodded and walked back to the balloon, folding the colourful envelope into its wicker basket expertly in no time. The moment he was ready, the guards helped him carry it, and all their luggage, towards the entrance of the pit.
As if it was the most natural thing, Astrid followed the group walking at Azrael's side, leaving Ramiel and Orion behind.
It was... so strange walking next to a man whom she considered a part of her dreams, feeling him so... real and so close, and, apparently, resolved not to run away this time.
It took them mere minutes to reach the pit, but Astrid didn't realise they arrived at their destination until the blond angel's soft laughter pulled her from her reverie.
"Do not read my thoughts, it's unfair!" she called, feeling a blush flooding her cheeks.
"Stop me, Lady," Azrael whispered in her ear, leaning in so unnecessarily close that his breath landing on the bare skin of her neck made her shiver.
She took a step away from him, her arms fluttering around her body as her foot sank in the air, but Azrael wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close to his body, preventing her fall, making her feel dizzy as his scent suddenly filled the world around her, erasing everything else but the two of them.
She looked up at him, her eyes expressing her gratitude, then, without trying to free herself from his embrace, turned to look over her shoulder even as he pulled her a little farther away from the edge of the bottomless pit.