[Rewritten] The Family Secret - Voices of Beasts (Book 1)

Chapter 10

It'd been two days since Dante had been brought to their home. Azaran had been keeping a close eye on both him and Fate, the two of them both still unconscious. Hel was there, out in the kitchen making Az and herself a late dinner. She and Mary had been reassuring him that the two were fine, and that they would both wake up before he knew it. But when he sat alone like this, the knot in his stomach tightened and his thoughts bore down on him, fearing the worst. What if they hadn't turned him in time? What if Fate was trapped where Dante was, and they never came out of it?

The sound of a light knock on the door caught his attention, but he couldn't bring himself to move. He heard Hel moving across the house to answer it, knowing she knew who it was. It unsettled Azaran, he knew who it had to be but he couldn't see them. Their path was a complete mystery to him, and with how close she was and would end up being to both of the people he was watching over,he couldn't just trust them as easy as Hel and Fate did.

"Hey, thanks for coming." Hel said quietly.

"Hey, they doing alright?"

"Yeah, just neither of them are up yet. Another day we think."

"Az still mad at me for doing it?" The other person whispered.

"Willow, he's not mad that you did it. Fate told you to go for it knowing that there's a chance it would come to this." Hel replied. He could hear the two of them cross into the kitchen, and Hel went back to cooking while they talked.

"Yes but you know he's always felt off about me, ever since I started working as Fate's assistant."

"He can't see your path and you're around one of the most important people in his life." Hel explained, the sound of something sizzling reaching his ears.

"Yeah well he should understand that I love Fate too, she's my best friend. I'd never do anything to hurt her." The two fell silent and all he could hear was the clanking of pots being cleaned and of Hel's cooking.

"I think, deep down, he knows that. He just hasn't seen Fate like this since the Luci incident, and he's honestly afraid. Seeing her like this is hard for us both. But she did this for a reason, she's been studying Dante's path and she knows he's going to mean so much to Az and she wanted to save him too. The decisions she made were rash, and she shouldn't have brought you into it, but there was no other choice. Personally, I'm glad she did it. He's a good kid, he deserves this chance." Hel said. Az teleported to her side, horns and tail out and exposed, and he cleared his throat. Both of them jumped and Hel dropped a burger on the floor.

"Willow, would you kindly head upstairs? I'll be there momentarily." He said calmly. She nodded, her blue curls bouncing and she took off like a shot. He tossed the burger, cleaned up the grease, and tossed another on wordlessly, kissed Hel's cheek, and smiled.

"Thank you." She smirked.

"No, Thank you." He replied before teleporting back to the room.

He reappeared in the doorway, watching Willow. She was sitting in the chair he had been in, one hand brushing away Fate's hair and the other holding onto Dante's hand for dear life.

"I miss you so much, you don't even know, bestie." She sighed touching the necklace his sister always wore. It was the matching half to the one around Willow's neck, which he saw swing as she turned to Dante. The hand of his that she held had a bracelet on it, that said Friends. Azaran knew his cousin Elise had been making a pair for him and her, Maxus had shown him the pictures when he came to pick up the letter with Jensen.

Seeing not only his sister but his soon to be protege like this hurt Azaran more than he could fathom, but when Willow started to speak, he realized he wasn't the only one hurt this deep by the situation.

"I'm so sorry, Dante. We weren't supposed to meet like this, we were supposed to meet during a party. I dreamed it would be at a masquerade ball Fate wanted to hold. We'd see one another across the room, our eyes would meet, and a waltz would begin. We'd dance our way to one another, at the very end, you would kiss me so sweetly, sparks would fly, and we'd end up falling in love. You'd probably think I'm silly for thinking of something so elaborate but I've been waiting almost a whole century to find you. I wanted to be there for you when you went for bottom surgery, I wanted to be there for you for that last leg of your transition, I wanted to see you enjoy your last few months of being human by your side.

"I didn't want to see you suffer. I didn't want to have to turn you last second to try and save your life. I didn't want to have to carry Fate out to the car, bawling my eyes out, worried I'm losing my best friend and the man I'm destined to fall in love with. I just want everything to be okay again. I love Fate, she's my best friend, and I think I'm already falling in love with you, Dante. All the stories Fate's told me about you, they give me butterflies and make me laugh. Please, please wake up. I can't lose you both..." Willow started sobbing quietly, and Azaran placed his hand on her shoulder.

"It's going to be alright, Willow." He said, trying to stifle back tears of his own.

"How do you know Azaran? No one can see either of their paths, we don't even know if they're gonna wake up..." He knelt down beside her and she fell into his arms. 

"The two of them have people who love them very, very much. And...you can call me Az."