Azriel | Lux Ex Tenebris ✓

Chapter 44: Visions

✧Misma POV✧

"Grandmother? Why do you have to leave?" I found myself asking my grandmother again. "Grandmother?" She turned towards me, her long white hair falling over her shoulders in loose waves.

"Some people cannot stay for ever in the same place. Some people have to leave. I am not welcome here," she told me, brushing her hand over my head. "But mother is a Nymph as well and she is accepted here," I whined, pulling on her flowy skirt.

"Misma sweetheart, being a Nymph is not the only reason why I am not welcome here. Please don't make this any harder than it already is. You are my absolute favourite. So much like me. But you have to let me go. We will meet again. Sometime."

Tears flowed down my cheeks while I clutched her tightly to me. She once again brushed over my head, after it everything vanished into a white mist and I found myself sitting in my room, no longer in the entrance hall of our house. It was years later. When my grandmother had left I was only twelve. A few years later Amarantha's reign would start.

"Lights off, Misma!" my father snarled through the door and I shot up, looking around in the fully dark room. My lights were off. "Lights off! Now!" But there was no light?

And white mist again.

Suddenly a cold breeze brushed my skin and I found myself lying in a bed. In a dark cold room. I heard snoring and when I shifted my gaze, my breathing stopped.

Koschei.

He was there sleeping next to me and I was naked, only a thin blanket draped over my pale body.

It changed again and I was standing on a cliff in front of a big castle. There were bodies. Millions of dead, bleeding bodies. I wanted to scream, shriek and run, but I could not. I was rooted to the ground, unable to move.

I am Koschei, the Deathless, the forever Immortal. Hello, Light Bringer.

I swirled around. Was this real? How did he get into my mind? Was this a dream?

"The war is won. You, the whole world will from now on bow to me and my....lovely wife."

The air got stuck in my throat when I saw who his wife was. Me. I was his wife. I walked up to him, holding two big hounds on leashes, smiling at him. He wrapped an arm around me, kissing my temple.

I wanted to get out of this vision now. Immediately.

And that was what I did.

I shrieked, my eyes shooting open and I coughed loudly. The light burned in my eyes, my stomach cramping.

I was so cold. So cold again. As cold as I had felt when I had broken down in the Winter Court. I felt goosebumps erupt on my skin, my stomach twisting and my throat going dry.

Noises and voices sounded muffled and faint. It was like I had entered some state of unconsciousness. When I finally snapped back to reality, faces became clearer in my vision and also the muffled sounds and noises became understandable. My throat burned with a scream, but the words all died down before being spoken.

Swallowing hard, I opened my eyes fully, looking at the ceiling and drawing in a deep breath. Then another one, my chest heaving and sharp pain piercing my lungs.

"Wh...what?...What happened?" I breathed after a moment, my head still aching. And still I felt so damn cold.

I blinked my eyes a few times, the light was harsh and burned in my pupils. My head was placed in...Azriel's lap, his scarred hand stroking over the top of my head. His thigh was warm against my head and I noticed his chest was heaving with deep inhales. The House of Wind was brightly lit. It had been fully dark before, for Starfall.