Azriel | Lux Ex Tenebris ✓

Chapter 75: A Special Kind of Support

✧Misma POV✧

Through the early morning mist and cold, I ran. I was running faster than I thought my legs could carry me. I was running faster than I had ever run in my life before. Images pierced my mind, flashing in front of my eyes. I knew where he hid. I felt him. Rhys had removed the wards from me. Koschei knew where I was as well. If I could feel him, he had to be able to feel me as well.

My foot getting caught in a loose root of a tree, I tripped and stumbled forward and braced my hands on a tree to stop myself from falling. Air wheezed in and out of my lungs. Throwing my head back, I inhaled sharply my hand dropping to the dagger strapped to my thigh. I once again saw myself in the Autumn Court, falling and hurting myself. My throat burned, but not because I had to fight the tears. Because I screamed. It did not matter. What had happened in the Autumn Court no longer mattered. I had seen Fillias on the battlefield. He had passed me one day in the healers tent and I had felt nothing. Absolutely nothing. I hadn't cared about him being there. I hadn't been afraid. As much as I was not afraid now. I knew what would come. And I had known for such a long time.

I was not afraid.

Pushing myself off the tree, I let my mind wander to Azriel. To how it all started. How he had held me that night in the inn where I had had the nightmare. How he had kissed me just minutes later. How he had held me the next day when I had thought I was hopeless and useless. How he always held me when I needed him. How we had accepted the bond. How he had shown and proved to me that I could trust males again. How he had shown me how much he cared and loved me. He had filled every sad and empty part of my heart. He made me complete and he was my mate. My one true love. And what Koschei had done to him was something that could I could never forget, something I would tear him apart for—piece by piece.

And then I was going to return to my family. To my home. To my mate. To my Azriel. I was not going to die out there. And most definitely not by the hands of Koschei. I was going to return. Home to Velaris. To my family. For Azriel. For us. And for our future.

When the sun fully appeared on the horizon, I left my hiding amongst the trees and stepped closer to the edge of the forest, glimpsing over the starting battle. I was so close and still so far away. I just needed to wait until it was done and then it would just be him left.

Him and I.

End and Beginning.

Death and Life. And I was ready to face him. Confident steps carried me to the very edge of the woods, the crown, the mask and then bones in place. My eyes fell shut and I inhaled, only opening them when cries begging for mercy and screams of pain reached my ears.

What would be unleashed over the warriors would be nothing fae nor human. I just had to wait a bit longer until the sign would come and it was my turn. And I was ready. Fury collided with adrenaline and once again I felt the power settle into every fiber of my body. I was powerful and for the first time in my life I also believed so. I had seen what I had been able to do. And it gave me confidence that was beyond me. But it had been what I had needed.

I was ready to face Death. I spoke the words with sinister promise: "Show me where you are. I am ready for you, Lord of Death."

✦Azriel POV✦

"Azriel. Calm down!" my brother's voice hollowed through the whole tent, the pure and lethal power of the High Lord ringing with it. His power rippled through the tent like a dark cloud, stretching out and reaching me. I did not care. I let him see everything. The betrayal. The pain. The fury.

He had known. He had known about Misma's plan, about her leaving. I let my cold rage reach the surface, knowing when push came to shove, Rhys could match it.