Avernus || Book 1 ✔️

||Taken||

Incessant buzzing sounded in my ears, and I shook my head, rolling over on the grassy surface to rid myself of the nuisance.

When the sound remained, I whined, and I swatted the area around my ear to shoo away what I assumed to be a fly.

A light pounding behind my temples met my skull in a deep rhythmic thrum and I groaned, squeezing my eyes shut as if it would ease the ache.

With a deep inhale I tried to relax my cramped muscles that were awfully sore for some reason. But my eyes flashed open in surprise when the sweet smell of soil and earth met my nose but not the scent of my mate.

It was dark.

I blinked up at the obsidian sheet that overshadowed me and everything below it. Its darling eyes winked at me while I merely stared, stunned that I had slept for so long.

"Oh, no..." I whimpered as I sat up straight. I rubbed at my eye with the back of my fist to try and rid myself of the remaining drowsiness.

Slowly, I stood, ignoring the slight wobble to my knees as I did. My steady heartbeat graduated to a thready, messy rhythm as I started to maneuver my way through the greenery and head towards the castle.

As my mind escaped the fatigued fog, I was starting to become more aware of the anxiousness, worry and distress that pulled tight at the cords of my mate bond.

I bit the inside of my cheek, knowing that Azrael must be so upset with me. Why did I have to fall asleep? I must've been out for almost half the day, who knows what he was probably thinking.

But a sound of surprise passed my lips as my upper arm was suddenly grabbed in a firm grip just as I was about to exit the treeline; I turned in alarm to face the culprit.

It was a man.

He had short, brown hair and was dressed in all black, donned in a fitted shirt and slacks with combat boots. He didn't say a word to me but instead pulled me along with him as we started walking in a different direction.

"H-hey! What are you doing?" I stammered as I struggled against his hold on me. My neck craned backwards as I caught a glimpse of bodies several meters away that seemed to be surveilling the area; all of them were dressed in Avernus' royal colours. They all had flashlights and seemed to be searching for something, some more frantically than others.

"...no, I don't see her over there either, let's check the other side."

My mouth went dry as I caught the end of someone's sentence, suddenly realizing that they weren't just looking for something, they were looking for me.

But just as I went to scream for help, I was pulled into the stranger's chest where his hand roughly covered my mouth.

"Don't you fucking dare." He whispered into my ear.

Tears pricked my eyes as I started to process the situation that I was in, but I was determined to not let this man take me away.

I fought against his hold and made as much noise as I could, but it all escaped as quiet muffles; certainly not enough to cut through the night's wind and the voices of the guards.

Suddenly, a wet cloth replaced the hand, and it was firmly pressed against my face.

I gasped in surprise, but the large inhale proved to be the wrong move in that moment as my senses were overwhelmed with whatever chemical saturated the fabric.

I heard what I thought was my name being called in the distance, but I wasn't able to respond. To my horror, it seemed like I wasn't able to do anything at all.