Chapter 11 #2
“Draven. Kira. King and Queen of Storm Court,” he replies. “Unexpected.”
King and Queen. Not lord and weapon. Not ruler and bound asset. Equals.
The woman tilts her head. “Is it? Your dimensional breach is affecting all courts. The Storm Court has a vested interest in seeing it sealed.”
“Then you are welcome to assist in collecting the pieces.”
“We are assisting,” Draven says.
He steps forward, gaze sliding past Azrael and landing on me.
It sharpens.
“Interesting,” he says. “You have bound a human.”
“Temporarily,” Azrael answers.
The word lands in my chest like a blade sliding between ribs.
Temporarily.
Draven’s eyebrow lifts. “That’s not what it looks like from here.”
“Appearances can be misleading.”
“Can they?” Kira steps closer, her attention now fully on me. “What’s your name?”
“Morgana.”
She repeats it slowly, as if she is testing how it fits in the air. “You are the one who broke the seal.”
Not a question.
“Yes,” I say.
“And now you are helping fix it. By choice?”
I glance at Azrael. He is watching me, expression unreadable, as if the answer is something he is waiting to measure rather than hear.
“By choice,” I say firmly.
A brief silence follows.
Then Kira looks at Draven.
Something passes between them, quiet and precise, like a thought shared without words. For a second, I understand exactly why their power feels different. Whatever they are, they chose it together.
“She’s not your prisoner anymore,” Kira says.
The words move through me strangely. Not comforting. Not exactly. More like someone has named a door I had not realized was already open.
“She is bound—” Azrael begins.
The words do not finish cleanly.
“Bindings can be willing,” Draven interrupts, his eyes never leaving me. “I can see her power from here. Shadow magic, human life force, something else underneath. She is transitioning. Becoming something new.”
“She is temporary,” Azrael repeats, harder this time.
“Is she?” Draven’s attention shifts to Azrael. “Or is that what you are telling yourself because you’re terrified of what happens if she stays?”
I stop breathing.
Because he has just said the thing I’ve been too afraid to let myself think.
The silence stretches, thick enough to choke on.
“We do not have time for psychoanalysis,” Azrael says at last. “Are you here to help or to hinder?”
“Help.” Kira gestures to the case. “That piece is important to all of us. Take it. Seal the rifts. Save both worlds.” She pauses, her gaze sliding to me. “But Azrael, she isn’t your prisoner anymore. Though I wonder if you have realized that yet.”
The words land like a strike to the ribs. I see it immediately in Azrael’s posture: the way his shoulders lock, the way his shadows pulse once like a flinch before he forces them still again.
“Noted,” he says coldly. “Now, if you will excuse us.”
“One more thing.” Draven pulls something from his pocket, a small crystal that glows with an inner, steady light. “Communication device. If you need Storm Court assistance, use it. We’re invested in your success.”
He tosses it to Kieran, who catches it easily.
Then they are gone. The Storm Court rulers vanish as the portal snaps shut behind them with a crack of thunder that shakes the air.
“Well,” Chella says into the silence. “That was interesting.”
“Retrieve the piece,” Azrael orders without looking at either of us. “We are leaving.”
His tone does not allow for argument.
The extraction is smooth. No more guardians. No additional wards. Just silence and the hum of residual magic. Within minutes, we’re back on London’s rain-soaked streets, another portal opening long enough to take us to the hotel.
The hotel is expensive. Anonymous. The kind of place where no one asks questions, and no one remembers faces.
One bedroom.
One bed.
The distance between Azrael and me feels like something vast enough to drown in.
Rain ticks hard against the window, steady and relentless. The bed sits untouched behind us, enormous and accusing, as if the room itself knows exactly what happened the last time we were alone.
He stands at the window, staring out at London through the rain-streaked glass. City lights blur into smeared gold and white. Shadows coil around him like living armor, protective and isolating at once.
I can’t take it anymore.
“Why are you pulling away from me?” My voice comes out steadier than I feel, as if it belongs to someone braver.
He does not turn. “I am not.”
“Bullshit.” I step forward. “You have been treating me like a stranger since Brooklyn. What changed?”
“Nothing changed.”
“Azrael.”
“We had sex. It was good. It does not change the fundamental facts.” His voice is ice, controlled down to the last syllable. “In four years and ten months, the binding ends. You go back to Earth. Back to your life. This has an expiration date.”
The words hit harder than anything I have faced in the field. Harder than the sphinx. Harder than falling.
“So you’re protecting yourself,” I say, understanding crashing through me all at once. “Kira was right.”
His jaw tightens. “What do you mean?”
“That you’re remembering I will leave. That you’re pulling away so you don’t have to feel it when I do.” I move around him until I am in his line of sight. “Is that it?”
His expression does not shift, but something in him goes very still. “You deserve to return to your world without guilt. Without feeling obligated to stay because of this.”
He gestures between us as if it is something temporary, something he can erase with enough restraint.
“I will not make you feel guilty for wanting your freedom.”
“And if I don’t want that anymore?” My heart is beating so hard it feels like it might split my ribs open. “If I want to stay?”
Something flashes in his eyes. Not just emotion. Something sharper. Hope, immediate and dangerous.
Then he crushes it.
“You do not know what you are saying.”
“I know exactly what I’m saying.” I grab his shirt. Pull him closer. “I’m saying I’m falling in love with you, you idiot.”
There it is. The thing I have been carrying since New York, since the shower, since he looked at me like I was both salvation and ruin.
And now it’s out. There’s no taking it back.
As soon as the words leave my mouth, Azrael’s control shatters.