Shadows and Secrets

Chapter 10

The next day, I decided that I would show Lysabel the city. I knocked on her door an hour after breakfast and she opened it with a book in hand. "I'm guessing Nesta showed you the library last night." I say glancing down at the book in her hand.
"Yes, it's amazing." She responds with a smile on her face.
"I was wondering if you wanted to come out into the city with me. The weather is nice today and I would like to show you around your new home. And if you ever need to leave, just ask me or Cassian to fly you out."
"I would love to Azriel. Let me just put my book down." She quickly puts her book on her desk and returns to where I stood in the doorway. "I'm ready now, what is there in the city Azriel?"
"Please, call me Az. We are friends after all. There's lots in the city. I will show you as much as possible today." I say as we walk up to the roof.
"Since we're friends, can you call me Bel please. All my old friends use to, until Tamlin..."
"That's ok Bel, do you mind?" I ask as I lift her up to fly her down.
"Yes, Az." She responds as I take off.

We land in the city, and I take her around all the shops and remind her multiple times we have an unlimited spending budget. She was smiling the whole morning as we walked around the shops. We stopped to get sandwiches food for lunch and found a bench to sit on. "Are you having a good time, Bel?" I ask.
"It's wonderful. It's so nice to be out in the city with a friend. What are we going to do this afternoon?"
"I was thinking that we could return this stuff to the house and then we could go to the gallery." I respond.
"I would love that." She replies.

We finish off our sandwiches, then return her shopping to the House of Wind. I then flew us to the gallery. I didn't know whether she likes looking at art, but I could tell she had a good time walking around the gallery talking to me. We talked about our pasts. I told her about how I met Rhys and Cassian, about my times in the wars and told her the origins of the city. She told me how she had been sold to Tamlin by her parents who had lived in the Court of Nightmares, but had been killed by Rhys after he found out they sold their daughter. We left the gallery as the sun was setting.

"I've had a wonderful time today Az." She says as we are walking away from the gallery.
"How would you like going to Rita's tonight?" I ask her. I knew it was a risk, since the others could be there, but I didn't care, I just wanted to spend more time with her.
"Yes, I want to see all there is in this city. I need to know what I can spend my time doing." She responds.

When we walk into Rita's I'm greeted by Mor, who was obviously here. She looked between me and Bel, but didn't say anything. Whether or not she could tell that she was my mate, she just told me she'd stay out of our way and went off in the opposite direction to us. We sit with each other for a couple of hours before we leave to go back to the House of Wind. When we land back in the roof and walk back down to our floor, I walk her to room. "Have you had a good day Bel?" I ask her as we reach her bedroom door.
"Yes, it's been an excellent day. I loved spending it with you." She responds.
"Good night, Bel. I'll see you tomorrow." I say.
"Good night, Az. Thank you for the wonderful day." She responds before walking into her room.

I return to my room once she had left me in the hall. I climb into bed and lie awake thinking about the day. Bel has a way of making my heart beat faster, and a magnetic force which makes me want to spend all my time with her. It could just be the mating bond. But I know it's more than that. She made me trust my heart again. She made it beat faster. I sit up abruptly In that moment, I realised two things:
I had broken my secret vow never to fall in love again.
And...
I had fallen in love with my mate.