^^like this, but with scales and no purple. Art by antubis0 on DeviantArt
The next time I wake up, I'm screaming.
"Hold her down!" A voice yells as I writhe with pain. Hands clamp onto my limbs before white hot pain sears into my wing. There's a sharp snap as the broken bone is set, then the skin begins knitting itself back together even as I scream with the pain of my other wounds. A healer dumps something in my mouth and I gulp it down without a care to what it is as long as it helps.
"Get that rat out of here!" Someone yells and I loose a shadow to find the pup.
"Touch the dog...die." I swear as I realize whatever I drank was a sedative and unconsciousness blissfully takes me again.
Eventually, my eyes open and for a moment I think I'm dreaming. Azriel is sitting at my side with my hand held tight in his and pressed against his lips while his head is bowed. Then I see the bandages covering his back and his wing and know this is real. I would never imagine him injured. "Azriel." I whisper and his head snaps up.
"Kaira." He sighs and slides impossibly closer.
"You're injured. What happened?" My voice is raw from screaming and his is rough as well. His head shakes as he continues to hold my hand to his face.
"Another time—"
"Now." I demand and the corner of his lips lift at the demand, but he shows me what happened through the bond. My body goes stiff when that hound shreds into him and I feel my own wing tremor with pain.
"Your turn." He bids when the memory ends and I show him what happened. His hand squeezes mine when that male touches me and when those daggers slice into my wing. He answers the unuttered questions on my tongue before I can ask them. "Yes, I will fly again. So will you. Just maybe not for a while." He tells me and I sigh in relief, but I can see how much the fact weighs on him that he won't fly in battle. "The...dog is safe. Under your bed for the time being and guarded rather fiercely by a shadow. Even when you were unconscious." It's clear he doesn't quite know what to think about it, but I'm grateful for the report.
"What matters is that you're safe. That the others are safe." I whisper and tug him forward so our heads touch. For a few seconds, our worlds narrow to one another's eyes. "I love you." His eyes widen and I smile. "I have for a while and I've wanted to say so, but it never seemed right. Maybe there's never a right or wrong time. All I know is that I love you and I wanted you to know." Azriel seems to be in shock as he stares at me, but I give him time. I would give him all the time in the world if I could.
"I...I love you." He says and there are tears in his eyes. "Love almost seems like too small a word for how I feel for you." My other hand reaches up and cards through his hair as I push myself up just enough to press my lips to his. The kiss is light, gentle, languid; a promise of things to come and the hope for a future. If we get past this war. Azriel's tears slide onto my cheeks and I wipe them gently away as we part. We're silent as we allow each other to feel one another. The pain, the joy, the love, all of it. Of course, it can't last forever.
"Tonight we leave for the human lands. To winnow as many as possible to safety." He tells me while settling back into his place on the stool.
"Okay. Help me to sit up." His brows furrow, but his hands take mine as he pulls me into a sitting position. My head swims and my wing aches, but whatever they've given me for the pain makes it far duller than it would be.
"You need food and water." He observes with eyes roving over me. I glance to my wing and grimace when I find it heavily bandaged, but thankfully can still move. My hand tightens on his when he moves to get up.
YOU ARE READING
Shadowsinger
Fanfiction"Perhaps this is death and it's playing a game with me. Maybe that's all death is, reliving the moment it took those that you most loved." Kaira's life ends with her family in the cold snow on the edge of the wall dividing fae and human lands. She's...
