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"I just need to know why," he said, shaking his head. They had been sitting in silence for some time now, and with Khayme now gone, Vienna had not moved from her place on the floor, with Azrael sitting a few feet away.
Everyone had left them alone for a while, knowing that they needed time, especially Vienna, with both of her daughters in danger now.
"If you are really doubting me, after all these years, I wonder if you even know me at all, even a little bit," she replied, shaking her head slowly as she got to stand up.
Azrael also stood up, walking close to her.
"What am I supposed to do, huh? You let him get away with our daughter. You and I both know I- hell you could have stopped them easily. And why did you leave Lee alone with him in the first place? You knew she was weak right now, and she was not in the right mental space after everything that happened with Khayme," he said, then stopping and amusement dancing in his eyes, "Oh, I get it. So you save your already dead daughter from dying, but let your other daughter get captured when I could easily have saved her," he laughs, then being interrupted by Vienna.
"Just stop Azrael. Please just stop for a second!" she spat at him, now looking up into his eyes, hurt and anger evident in the tears that burned behind her eyelids.
"Then why can't you just explain yourself, goddammit!" he shouted back, losing patience.
Vienna fell back a step, shaking her head again.
"I expected so much more from you. After all these years, these centuries, you still don't know one thing about me. I thought that you would trust me, even when no one else did. I am disappointed in you, Azrael, I thought- hoped you would know me enough to know I would never do something like-," Vienna lashed out, but she never finished talking as Azrael's lips collided into hers, his arms supporting her as she fell back, shocked.
But it didn't take her long to respond back, kissing him back hungrily. They had tried so hard not to give in all these years, give in to their love, to their needs, just because it was forbidden. But that just made it more appealing, didn't it.
Vienna finally gave in, forgetting everything that she needed to remember. Forgetting that she could never have Azrael, she kissed him back, melting into his embrace.
They broke away a few seconds later, both gasping for air, and looked at each other with wide eyes, out of breath.
"Why did you do that?" she whispered.
"Because I needed you to stop talking," he simply replies with a shrug.
"Oh, so now we kiss people when we need to shut them up?" she asks, lifting an eyebrow.
"No. I kiss you when I need you to shut up," he replied with a small smile dancing at the edge of his lips.
"Right," she replied, giving a small laugh, the tension in the room dissipating.
She took his hand, leading him to the chairs that were sitting by the fire, and sat him down, taking a seat by his side.
"Look, I get it. I get why you were doubting me, but let me just explain, you will understand once I am done."
Azrael nodded, waiting.
"My powers, you know them. One of them is that I can see exactly where a being is, at any given time. I can locate them if they are here in the living dimension, or in yours, or in any dimension in the universe."
"I-"
"No, just let me finish once. I won't be able to explain otherwise," she said and Azrael nodded.
"But I have been trying for months, and I can never locate where Interitus travels once he disappears, turning into dust like he always does. That was what made me sure that somebody was betraying us. Because the only way I can't find him is if some other god is hiding him in their own territory. And that's exactly why I couldn't tell you. I needed to make a hundred percent sure that you weren't the one betraying, though I had my trust in you.
But that wasn't the first sign that I had of someone's betrayal. I don't know how nobody put this together yet. But everyone knows about the protective dome around Aredhel. That dome, is one that can only be entered by someone, if they are invited inside. And it was someone inside, someone right here, who invited him in."
Azrael took in a sharp breath. How had he never put this all together.
When Vienna had finally finished speaking, he shook his head.
"That's why you let him take Lee, so that you could locate her. Now we can locate him, and attack him ourselves," he said, looking at her with an impressed look in his eyes.
"That's right," she said with a small smile.
"Then we need to get moving," he said, quickly getting up.
"No, no Azrael. We can't do that. A lot of our people are injured right now. We need to let them recover."
"But, Lee-"
"I know, I am worried too. But we won't be able to save her at all if we aren't strong enough."
"I saw the look in his eyes, Vienna. Who knows what he is going to do..." Azrael whispered, still taking in everything that Vienna had said.
He was going to find this traitor, and he was going to make them burn for hurting him and his family like that.
***
"As you all know, Lee had been taken by Interitus, last night," Vienna said, standing at the podium in front of everyone with Azrael by her side.
"As she should have. She is a traitor. And now is with her leader," a male voice shouted from the crowds, Vienna not able to figure out who was the one who said that.
She paused for a second, and then taking a deep breath, she continued. "You are right. There is a traitor. But it's not Eleanor. And I have known that there is a traitor for some time now, but in order to find out who, I needed some proof. And tonight, tonight we will get the proof we need. Tonight we are going to march into the traitor's territory and we are going to finish Interitus once and for all.
So, gear up, everybody. We are going into battle."
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