Shadows like mine

9

Death doesn't share.
    The sentence kept lingering in Azriel's mind. Rhys became so pale that it looked like he was about to puke. Nesta didn't move, but her eyes were full of an emotion that Azriel couldn't place.
    The rest was so shocked that they weren't able to say a word.
    Aurora kept looking down, her shadows so tensed and thick around her that it made him feel sorry... and angry.
    He had been mistreated in his life.
    But she didn't deserve that.
    "So that's how you survived the ice water," said Nesta. Aurora looked at the woman.
    "Death doesn't let me die," answered Aurora. "Even if I tried he... He wouldn't let me in. Through me he can experience the world of the living."
    Cassian looked at her with horror.
    "Do you mean that... that Death is looking through your eyes right now?" Azriel saw that his brother wanted to cover Nesta up with his body.
    Aurora shook her head. "What happened with Nesta and Azriel... Death doesn't like it when someone touches me. So he comes out."
    "Death spoke," Amren said, thinking. "He takes over your body when someone touches you? Then why didn't that happen with Feyre?"
    Feyre and Rhys looked at each other, talking through the bond that bonded them together.
    "Because Feyre died before," Aurora answered.
    "Excuse me?" Rhys said with a dangerous voice. Night swirled around his fingertips when the words "Feyre" and "die" were in her sentence. Aurora looked at the starry night that was dancing around his his figure, but didn't move.
    "Under the Mountain. Everyone knows the story. I knew she could touch me, because Feyre has held Death's hand before."
    "That means I can touch you as well," mumbled Amren. "And so can Rhys."
    Aurora nodded. "But you," she said and looked at Azriel. Everyone did now.
    "What?"
    She moved a bit closer towards him in her chair and Azriel felt Elain's eyes switch between them.
    "Your shadow touched mine..." Slowly a shadow of hers crawled towards him. Towards his shadows. "And it felt... normal. Like it was possible." She started whispering and her intense eyes looked at him.
    Azriel felt his heart skip a beat when those heated eyes, looking like melted gold, locked with his.
    "What do you mean?"
    Slowly, very slowly, he let one shadow also linger to her reaching blackness.
    "Death reacted on Nesta's touch." She seemed to think. "Not yours."
    "What does that mean?" asked Mor with raised brows. "Azriel never died and came back."
    Cassian shrugged. "Maybe it's because of the shadows?"
    Aurora didn't break eye contact as her shadows touched his own. "I don't know."
    Azriel took a sharp breath in. Elain was already standing, ready to protect him. Feyre pushed her down on the couch again.
    Fully concentrated Azriel stared into Aurora's eyes.
    He wasn't in the office. He was in her mind. And she was in his. Together, surrounded by the darkest shadows, without stars, a moon or fireflies, they stood in the total blackness. He stared at her in this dark room, not understanding what was happening.
    The darkness around them seemed to move. A little late Azriel understood that it were their shadows, intertwined, dancing.
    "Aurora," he whispered.
    She turned her head towards him, her eyes looked like two suns...
    "You can touch me," she whispered back, in awe. She stepped closer to him and the shadows around then became thicker. Aurora was standing so close that he could smell the scent of her hair, see every detail of her face.
    Softly she touched his hand. "You never died, why can you touch me?"
    As soon as Azriel let his fingers dance over the palm of her hand, he was sucked back to the real world.
    Their shadow-world was gone and Azriel fell back in a chair, Aurora did the same thing. Both of their shadows were so thick and heavy around them that they were nothing more than a black spot in the office.
    "What the hell happened?!" yelled Cassian and he shook Azriel's shoulder. "Hey, brother, are you okay?"
    Blinking fast with his eyes, he looked at Cassian's concerned face. "Yes," he said hoarse.
    "You two were staring at each other with such intensity that I felt like I was cockblocking. What happened?"
    Aurora was breathing so fast that Mor looked her concerned. Then, as fast as the wind, she got up and walked towards Azriel. Cassian immediately jumped back when she reached out to Azriel.
    Her soft fingertips touched his jawline. Her eyes grew big, her breathing stopped and then...
    She fainted.