This Isn't About Reya

Chapter Twenty-Six

Reya was thrown to the ground in a puff of snow as Azrael's hands melded and sprung into long bone swords again. In her disorientation, all she could see was his muscled form leap into a defensive stance, facing the edge of the clearing. She could not tell what he saw.

"Azrael!" she called, brushing the snow from her eyes and pushing herself up onto her elbows.

His mane of hair hung down his back, his wide shoulders heaving in anticipation. His legs were flexed, his taloned feet digging deep into the earth. His arms were held out at his sides, ready to kill any further attackers.

Reya expected more spiders, or worse, a military detachment. 

But instead, a voice called out to her from the edge of the trees. Quietly, it said, "Reya?"

It was Svetlana.

Reya's eyes widened. She jumped to her feet and pushed past Azrael's massive body. He tensed, like he might try to stop her. But he did nothing.

There was Svet. Standing just inside the trees, her eyes wide in horror, one sleeve of her coat torn open, the insulation puffing through the seams. 

There was nothing but silence for a moment. Silence, except for the low sound of Azrael's adrenaline-fueled breathing, animalistic and bestial.

Then, Svetlana took a step backwards, into the shadow of the woods. Reya took a step forward, started to reach out a hand towards her - 

And Svetlana turn and ran.

"Svetlana!" Reya called. She turned back towards Azrael, saw him in all of his nightmarish image, and then turned and ran after Svet. 

Reya was afraid.

Not of Azrael, but of her best friend.

She ran, pushing past the boughs of the pine trees, feeling them smack and cut her face and refusing to care. "Svetlana!" she called again. She could not sense Azrael following her, but she knew his consciousness still permeated the entire woods.

Before she knew it, she had burst out of the woods and into the whiteness of the snow plain between the forest and the walls of Dragotsennost'. Svet stood there, looking at Reya with a mixture of fear and anger.

"What the hell was that?" she screamed at Reya.

"It's Azrael!" she yelled back. "It's what he looks like under the cloak!"

"He's a monster!" Svetlana's legs were shaking.

Reya reached for her, breathing heavily. Svet stepped backwards, away from her. "He's not a monster! The Union, they're the ones who made him - "

"Then they made a monster!" 

"You made a monster!" Reya spat back.

"I didn't make that thing!"

"He's not a thing, Svet!"

"Then what do you call that?"

Reya paused, heaving breaths from her run.

"Look at him, Reya! He looks like he came out of a nightmare!"

"He was protecting me!" Reya yelled. She felt hot tears begin to well in her eyes again. Her throat still felt raw, and now it stung from the fresh winds of the cold Nixan air.

"From what?" Svetlana screamed. "The only thing you need protection from is him!"

"I don't know!" Reya's eyebrows kneaded together as she heard herself say the words. The image of the mangled corpses of the pale spiders surged back into her mind's eye. Why hadn't she said that instead?

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Maybe I need protection from you!" No, that's not what she'd wanted to say.

"From me?!" Svetlana took half a step towards Reya, and Reya met her eyes again.

"Yes from you! You're the one he saved me from in the first place!"

Svetlana faltered.

"From you, from the Russians, from the whole Union! You're a bigger threat to me than Azrael ever was!"

"Reya, what are you - "

"My people have been ground into the dirt for centuries by yours!" Reya felt the anger rushing into her face. Svetlana's was merely confused. "The whole Union's corrupt, and you damn Russians have been at the forefront of it for a thousand years!" 

"Reya, don't turn this on me! Did you see him?" She pointed back into the woods. "He could kill you in half a second if he wanted to!"

"But he's never wanted to!" Reya cried out. "Not once, not ever! You're the only one who's ever wanted to kill me!"

Svetlana looked like she'd been slapped in the face. "Reya, I've never - "

"Don't fucking lie to me!" The tears streamed down her face. "You would've killed me in the woods that day if he hadn't stopped you!"

Svetlana was crying too, now. "Reya, listen to yourself! You need to stop this! He's gonna kill you!"

"No, he's not!" Reya's hands clenched into fists. Suddenly, she stepped forward and grabbed Svetlana by the front of her coat. Svetlana's eyes widened in fear again. 

"Reya - "

"But he might kill you." She said it coldly, her breath shooting into Svetlana's perfect Russian face.

There was a tense pause. "What?" Svet breathed.

"Just go." Reya's grip on the coat released. Svet stumbled backward. "Just leave. Turn around. Don't come back."

"Reya..." There was confusion and fear on her face. Mascara lines ran freshly down Svetlana's cheeks.

"Don't say anything," Reya said. Her voice was colder than the air. "Don't say anything to me ever again. Don't talk to me. Don't look at me. And don't come back here."

The two girls stood in the snow, breathing hard. Reya stared daggers; Svetlana grasped helplessly for a response.

Then, without another word, the Russian girl turned and began walking back towards the walled city. Her blonde hair wafted in the strengthening breeze. Eventually, she ran.

Reya watched her reach the gates, then she collapsed onto her knees in the high snow. Part of her wanted to cry more, but the other part of her would not give Svetlana the satisfaction.

She had just lost the only person she had ever considered a friend. 

"Reya," Azrael's voice called gently from the edge of the trees.

Besides him.

But she did not answer. Instead, she merely rose to her feet and began walking home.

Azrael did not follow her.

Though she never looked back, Reya knew he watched her the whole way. She knew he stood at the edge of the woods and watched her walk home. She knew that he had donned the cloak once more.

The Shadow in the Woods.