A Song of Faithless Shadows

57. Anything?

Azriel

"Please take it easy on me today," she murmurs as I set her down. "I'm spent."

"Can't," I reply shortly. "Don't you remember what you promised me last night?"

She squints, certainly groggy. Surely, she remembers how I asked if she'd sing me today? Surely, she remembers saying she'd try. "Az, you can't very well hold me to things I said when your lips were on mine," she whines, sitting down across from me in the grass.

"How else am I supposed to get what I want? What other bargaining chips do I have?" I ask, and despite herself, she laughs. "You have my full and expressive permission to have me do anything you wish. I just wanna hear you try."

She tilts her head, cheeks still flushed from training. "Anything?"

I like the tone in her voice more than I probably should. "Anything." I mean it. Fuck, I mean it. Bad.

She considers a moment, eyes unfocusing on one of my syphons, clearly an internal debate. She sighs then, and I know she has conceded. "Tell me that I'm Briar's favorite," she says, and I blink. Really? That's what she wants?

"I will not," I say to her, and she blinks back, surprised.

"I don't understand. Why didn't that work?" She asks, baffled.

"Because I'm shielding you. It's easy enough to sing to someone who is letting you in," I tell her. "But not everyone is going to be as receptive to you as I am. You gotta dig deeper."

She groans. "How?"

"I can't tell you how," I say to her. "It's personal. You have to find it."

She huffs again, unhappy with my unhelpful notes, but what else is new. "Tell me I'm his favorite," she says, her voice in a different melody, slow and tempting. I push it away, imagining I have a harder time with it than most would given my feelings for her.

"No," I say in response. "But that was better."

She straightens herself, eyes half-lidded. "Tell me," she says firmly, voice curling around me sweetly.

"Deeper," I tell her, gritting my teeth.

"Tell me," she demands, losing patience.

"You can do better than that."

"Azriel," she grunts, raising on her knees with unrest. I'm pissing her off again. "Tell me."

"Make it personal."

Leaning forward, she plants her hands atop the ground on either side of my hips, my legs extended towards her as she carefully crawls forward between them. I know then I don't have the defenses to keep her out, certainly not as she leans against my ear, lips grazing skin. "Tell me," she breathes quietly, voice like a harmony to every breath I've ever held.

"You're Briar's favorite," I tell her almost immediately, hating the tremble in my voice. It's downright ridiculous. "And it's not even close."

Really? Did I have to add that last bit?

She grins victoriously as she retreats, throwing her ponytail over her shoulder. "I thought so too," she says plainly, light settling beside her.

"You cheated," I tell her.

"How could I possibly cheat?" She laughs incredulously.

"By using my affections towards you to lower my shields," I say in answer, though I'm not uncertain the trick wouldn't work on others just the same. She is magnificent, alluring. Anyone would lose the reigns if she were that close. "You can't sustain that method." I say this, namely, because if she crawled on another man I think I might kill him.