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53. A Losing Battle (Pt. 1)

Disclaimer: This chapter is LONG. I didn't even get to the Solstice yet, so — fuck me I guess. But enjoy the angst!

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You knew you were dreaming because you were standing in South Station, an underground subway station in Boston, Massachusetts, and it was empty.

You knew you were dreaming. You did.

Except you were still bothered.

Except this place still bothered you, even in your dreams, worlds away.

When you heard movement behind you to your left, you froze.

"Where are we?" Azur asked, glowering at the tunnel. He was wearing black leathers again. "It's hideous."

If you hadn't forgotten how to breathe, you would've laughed.

"Hello?"

You forced yourself to inhale and exhale, staring across the tunnel.

"(Y/n)?"

You clenched and unclenched your black nightgown. Your blood throbbed behind your eyes, making them hurt, echoing in your ears.

"(Y/n)."

You had a feeling that if you blinked for too long, you'd see your best friend, Britney, across the tunnel, wearing her fake white fur coat and little black dress, laughing. Dead drunk.

"(Y/n)."

You'd been dead sober that night.

When you felt and then heard a subway train nearing, you pulled yourself together.

"I can hear you." And then, remembering that your last dream with Azur had been cut short, you turned to him and said, "The Many-Faced is going to betray Koschei."

You didn't think you'd ever become accustomed to Azur's eyes. The whites were pure black, like the inside of the Cauldron or Anima, and the irises were pure silver.

His features pinched together, and then his throat bobbed. "I had a feeling." And as the train clanged by, he repeated his first question.

"My world," you answered, looking at the train again. The cars blurred together. "Our world. I don't think you recognize it, though."

You weren't sure what, but something was wrong. You felt like you were standing in the middle of a field before a thunderstorm. Like you were about to be struck by lightning.

"This isn't my world," Azur said scornfully. "It never was."

You tilted your head and narrowed your eyes as the train left. "What do you mean it never was? You came here in the first place."

"Do you think I came here freely? By choice?"

Your skin broke out in gooseflesh. "What?"

Azur's brow creased, probably skeptical as to if he believed your obliviousness. But he must've eventually seen the sincerity in your eyes because he started to explain what'd happened.

"I'd just Made the first Cesarea with The Burning One," he said nonchalantly. As if he hadn't just confessed to working with a higher power. The higher power. "And when you Make a Trove of that magnitude . . . It doesn't go unnoticed. So when the Mother discovered what Koschei and I were up to, she sent someone to confine him to that godsforsaken lake, and then once I was distracted with trying to free him, she stole the Harp and got rid of me." He cleared his throat. "Koschei and I thought we'd have more time together. We didn't."