shadows don't lie

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Inei woke up to the bed dipping down, and at first she thought that Azriel was just getting up for the bathroom, but when the first cry escaped his lips she sprang awake.

He laid flat on his back with his wings splayed out beside him, and all the muscles in his body were tensed like he was preparing for some invisible blow.

He gritted his teeth and groaned and Inei reached over, shaking his shoulder.

“Az? Wake up, It’s a dream.” His hands clenched hard enough to draw blood and he made a strangled cry.

“Azriel!” She half-yelled, grabbing his left hand and pulling his fingers up from where four crescents now welled with blood.

She pushed herself up until she almost straddled him, and she gripped his face with both hands.

He still didn’t wake up though, and so she wrenched on the bond hoping that would get his attention.

Some of his tension lessened, but he still looked to be in pain.

“Az, look at me.” She said softly, still cupping his cheeks, and she pulled on the bond again.

It felt like forever, but his eyes finally fluttered open.

She sighed in relief, but quickly yelped as Azriel twisted her around, pinning her to the bed with a shadowy talon at her throat.

She grabbed at his hand again, making contact with the scarred flesh.

“It was just a dream.” She whispered, drawing her thumb over his wrist soothingly, and Azriel blinked once, then twice before quickly letting go of her.

His face fell into shadow and Inei knew that he felt guilty despite having the nightmare, and so she reached and ran a finger down his jaw.

“Had I known that you were into these kind of things I would have prepared myself better,” She muttered quietly, and Azriel’s eyes flashed.

“I didn’t mean to hurt you.” He replied.

He knelt on the bed facing her, his breathing labored as he whispered. “Do you know about my childhood?”

Inei’s brows pinched and she shook her head silently.

She had always just thought that he had grown up in the camps like every other Illyrian. Azriel only seemed more recluctant at her answer.

“I should have told you sooner.” He said softly and he stared down at his palms that still had beads of blood dotting them.

She frowned and began climbing out of their bed, heading for the small first aid kit she knew was in the bathroom.

When she came back out of the bathroom, Azriel sat on the edge of the bed, the jacket of his leathers stripped of revealing his tanned chest to the night air.

Inei sucked in a small breath and averted her eyes, trying her best to not think about his body.

She crouched in front of him, taking his hands in hers as she reached for the bandages, and she began to wrap his palms.

Azriel didn’t even flinch when she accidentally brushed against one of the small wounds, which only made her more concerned.

When she finished, she sat back on her heels and looked up at him. He met her gaze for a moment before looking away ashamedly.

“For the first eleven years of my life I was raised in a dark cell, with minimal to no contact save for the one hour a day I was allowed to see my mother.”

Inei opened her mouth in shock, and Azriel continued speaking.

“I was the illegitimate heir to an Illyrian Lord, and in those eleven years, I learned how to understand the darkness. It told me secrets and stories, and revealed the world to me in a way that I had never been able to experience before.”