Chapter 48
Chapter Forty-Eight
Azrael
I stare intently out at the pitch-black sky, not a star in fucking sight.
Not one.
Not one light to guide me. Not one glimmer of hope.
Just blackness.
Even my nonna didn’t show up for me tonight and left me in hell with the monster that bore me.
“Where are you now?!” I bellow into the night.
“Huh? Where the fuck are you now?” I shout at the top of my lungs, causing my chest to heave in quick succession.
“Is this your punishment?” I feel like I’m crumbling, breaking apart every wall I ever built, the security of my emotions obliterated.
Something has been stolen from me, something precious.
I take another drink from the bottle of Scotch.
“You sent her to me and now you’re taking her back!
” I sob into the night sky and take another swig of the alcohol.
They took them both from me, the woman I love and a baby I would have adored.
I might not have known what to do with a baby, but I would have tried. Fuck, would I have tried for them both.
This is punishment for her loving me.
Punishment for me pulling that trigger as a boy and stealing the light that was never mine to begin with.
“I told you I didn’t have it!” I shout into the night. “Are you fucking happy now? Is this what you wanted?” I hold up the bottle toward the sky, and with a mocking smile, my reckless words and thoughts race away with me. “Congratulations! You got your fucking wish,” I bellow.
“Azrael?” My head snaps to the side, and annoyance rumbles inside me when Czar marches toward me.
“Pull yourself together!” he snipes out.
I scoff in his direction. “For what? Hmm, for the family?”
His face softens. “For her.”
“He’s coming for you too. You understand that, right?” I mock.
He flinches.
“He’s fucking coming for you, Czar, and when he destroys the only thing you love, what will you do?”
His dark eyes glow, and he glares at me, the coldness in them multiplying with each second that ticks by. “I’ll become worthy of my name,” he states, and a spark of electricity ignites my veins.
My attention is piqued, and my thirst for vengeance has been rejuvenated.
The cloud partially covering the moon slips away, creating space for a small light to shine down on us.
It’s as though the stars have aligned, this moment defined.
What happens next will become our destiny.
That, I will make sure of.