❝ Pain was my fuel, until the fire began bleeding from my veins. ❞
The girl without a name.
The black-haired fiend devoid of fear.
The sharp-tongued scoundrel always ready with a trick up her sleeve.
Thief and street rat Azura knows how to hustle a...
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◢✥◣ PREVIOUSLY... ◥✥◤
Ari opened up to Azura about his escape from the Tacree Kingdom and his mother's sacrifice. He also revealed that the Order was there to take him from Tacree. Azura and he grew closer and kissed. Suri offered to carve sygils into each of them—Lilja, Suri, Azura, and Ari— to link them together. If one of them were to perish, the respective sygils would lose its light. Ari already had one, but didn't reveal who it was linked to or whether it was still alight. Azura realised she cares deeply for these three people.
༛༛ ༛ ༛༺༻༛ ༛ ༛༛
The quiet of the library is soothing, but it doesn't make the task before me any easier. I sit with my head in my hands and my eyes feel like they're about to start bleeding. The book splayed before me is nonsensical. I can't even read the title of it.
I slump, my face thudding against the thick pages, and let out a muffled groan.
"Good book?"
I recognise the voice instantly but I don't bother lifting my head as Ari slips into the seat opposite me, papers rustling. Instead I answer him with a frustrated grunt.
Ari shifts the hair from the side of my face so he can meet my eye, his touch soft and his fingers warm. Amusement flickers in his gaze. "Do you need me to recommend you a different book?"
I let out a sigh and sit up, my fingers fiddling with the edge of the pages, nerves suddenly swimming in my stomach. "That won't help," I grumble.
Ari tilts his head, a question in his eyes.
I gnaw on my lower lip as I contemplate telling him. It's pathetic really. I've killed men twice my size, near starved to death, had my throat cut, but I still can't read. I still can't make sense of the words, no matter how hard I try or how long I stare at them.
Will he think less of me if I tell him?
I meet his eye and let out a breath. There's only one way to find out. "I can't read." The words are fast and clipped, tumbling from my lips before I get the chance to swallow them.
Ari's lips part and he looks down at the book before meeting my eye again. "Oh," is all he says before he presses his lips together.
My shoulders slump and I regret telling him. It'll be just another thing he can use against me, another weakness to exploit.
Then he says, "I can teach you."
My breath catches in my throat and all I can manage to do is stare at him.
"I mean, only if you'd like me to."
"Yes," I blurt, sitting straighter. "I'd like that very much."
