Shadows Whisper | | Azriel

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Astryn woke with a gasp, shooting up in bed.

Rhys and Azriel both were on their feet and at her side within less than a second.

"Are you okay?" Azriel asked, searching frantically for any injury.

"I'm fine," Astryn assured him, "I just...I was in that place again. With Death."

"He took you?" Azriel demanded, his voice hardly more than a growl.

"No! No, that's not what happened," she rushes out the words, hoping to ease his worries. She could taste his fear. "He was surprised I was there. He said he made a mistake when he brought me back, did it wrong somehow. He hadn't ever done it before."

"Death's interest in you is concerning," Rhys muttered, trying to hide his own fear. "If you're already somehow tethered to his realm, even by mistake...he could take you any time he chooses."

"He wouldn't," she dismissed easily, "he's very kind."

"He's Death," Azriel reminded her, as if she had somehow forgotten, "he is the end of all things. Don't trust his kindness."

"He tried to find a way to free me from the cave," she blurted out, "he tried to find a way to take on mortal form to free me. He is good. I won't hear otherwise."

"Astryn..." Azriel trailed off, exchanging a short look with Rhys. "Just be careful. When you're in his world, he has all the power. Don't let him misguide you."

"He wants me to have a life with you," she reminded him, "he sent me back to you. He is kind and good. He is not that thing that all mortals fear so much."

Azriel and Rhys didn't dare acknowledge that vague sense of otherness that lingered in her, that seemed to flare up as she defended Death. They didn't want to consider what it might mean that she now had this link to Death, that she could travel and visit him in her sleep. There was something inside of her now that was not wholly her, like Death had somehow left a piece of his realm in her and kept a piece of her in return.

That had been the price of returning her to life, not that even Death had come to realize it yet. Some small bit of her stayed in his realm, and some small bit of it left with her. And now they were tethered, endless until she truly died. But with a bit of Death residing in her...she would not die easily.

Or maybe, she would not die at all.

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the end<3 sequel coming soon<3