Into the Shadows - ACOTAR / ACOMAF - Azriel x OC

Chapter VIII - Night III

— Azriel —

I wasn't sure how much time had passed, my thoughts were not my own. My scarred hands tingled and I was sure that in my mind's eye, which seemed so distant from me, the memory of my burns was playing on repeat.

Burns. Burning. Hot. Flames. I used the vacant memory to try focus, to try strangle the numbing in my chest, I needed to feel something - anything. I needed to survive. The fires in my mind turned to the sun.

Warm me I begged. Don't shy away from my darkness, let me feel your heat and melt the ice in my soul. The numbing intensified as a response.

I thought of Mor, of her lavish lips and bouncy blonde curls as she donned a red dress that moved like liquid fire on the dance floor of Rita's. I thought of how her smile warmed my heart and pressed into my essence.

The numbing grew further. It was going to kill me, slowly and as painfully as it knew how.

Lexa

It was hard to know if that was my shadows who whispered to me or if it was my own doing. Her green eyes seemed to appear before me, piercing into my soul as they had done the night before. She looked into my eyes and I swore I saw tears spilling out of them before they vanished again.

Where was she? I had left her standing in the forest and now I could feel her presence slipping away from me. I didn't know how, but I could feel her hurting. Lexa. I repeated to myself as I conjured her image in my mind. Her flowing black hair, now a tangled unruly mess, made her appear wild and youthful. Her green eyes were like glittering emeralds in sparkling white snow. Her glowing skin as she basked in the moonlight. And freckles. Soft pale pink freckles dusted her cheeks and nose.

When had I noticed her freckles?

I kept her image firmly in my mind, as I felt my body return to me. Cold liquid seeped through my cloak and leathers and I realised I was lying on my back in the snow. Frosty winds above ruffled the branches and dead leaves, the sound was like a symphony. Woodland scents wafted through me as the mulch of leaves released their damp smells.

Before I could think more, think about what had happened to me, what had caused it or where it went, I scrambled to my feet and started running to Lexa.

Village

The shadow whispered to me, though it didn't seem like it was my own. But I didn't care. I used the heat of my running to burn through the last of the cold dread and I sprinted to her, sending my re-established shadows in front and to the side of me, willing them to find exactly where in the village she may be.

I slowed my run to a light jog and then took cover before reaching the broken iron gates. Lexa's was the only beating heart in this poverty-stricken village. The inn I had planned for us to stay in, if we could stomach the starved bodies around us, was a void of death. I decided then and there that I would choose any cave over sleeping in that inn.

She hadn't known what was lying in this village. What had happened, I assumed now she knew who was responsible. I scolded myself. I should've taken her the long way, but I didn't expect her to react so... emotionally. And who knows what else may lurk in the woods after the Naga? And what of Vallahan and Hybern's soldiers? They were surely looking for their missing Princess.

The sun was now low enough in the sky that I could travel within the shadows. Still unable to winnow, I entered into the darkness and sensed her presence in the cemetery. I walked into the shadow of a fallen tree and watched as Lexa dried her eyes on the back of her white sleeve. She stroked the tombstone she had cried on and slowly unclasped her cloak. She shedded it off her shoulders and then carefully placed it on top of the grave.