Chapter 3
Maya
“Mon lapin, wake up.”
I let out a soft hum as the accented voice tickled my ears, nuzzling into the rough, warm hand against my cheek, loving the texture and comfort it brought.
I knew who was trying to wake me up, especially because of the nickname—despite having only heard it once or twice now—but I couldn’t for the life of me conjure a name to the front of my mind.
Instead I simply enjoyed being wrapped up in his electric magic that ran against my skin in small bolts of energy.
“Wake up, Maya.”
“I can’t,” I sighed, squeezing my eyes shut further. “I’m too tired.”
I really was. In fact, my whole body felt sore and achy, like I’d run several miles, and I was seriously hoping that wasn’t the case.
I was finding that traditional exercise wasn’t something that appealed to me…
Well, unless Croy wanted to go on a run and he was shirtless—it was possible I would enjoy that.
Although he usually went in the morning…so never mind.
A soft worried noise left the man’s throat as I raised my hand to wrap around his, running my thumb against his wrist in soothing circles.
I could feel this odd bond running between us, nearly luminescent in nature and wrapping around my other bonds protectively.
It wasn’t a natural bond, but it felt natural to us, and it was as powerful as my mating bonds.
This was something special between us…between Azrael and me.
Azrael.
“I’m right here,” he promised, his voice sounding pained as my fingers slid up his forearm, only stopping as I felt smooth skin. Something was missing…something I had noticed before.
His scars. My eyes slowly opened and I met his gaze, eyes wide with so many emotions.
“They’re gone,” I whispered.
His throat worked nervously. “You noticed them.”
I blushed in embarrassment, wondering if I shouldn’t have said anything. “I did.”
“They are gone,” he murmured, brushing a piece of my hair away from my face. I let out a soft, pleased sound at him touching me—something that had him pausing, a confused expression filling his face. “Sorry, I shouldn’t be?—”
“Don’t be sorry.” My tongue darted out on my lips as I interrupted him, his eyes following the action. “I should be sorry—I got you killed.”
He blinked before chuckling, his tone tainted with tension and a bit of distress. “Yes, well, I’m not exactly positive that’s the case—I don’t know where we are.”
I knew, though. I knew exactly what was going on, and I remembered everything I had been told despite feeling more than slightly disoriented.
Turning my head from where I was laid out in the grass, I looked around and realized we were in a different landscape than before. Now we were in a forested region with massive trees that appeared to stretch towards the sky infinitely. “Are we near the barrier from before?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted, sounding thoroughly upset at the concept, his wings ruffling softly behind him. “When you disappeared, we waited for you, and when your magic blasted out”—it hadn’t been my magic, but I didn’t correct him—“we got separated, and the space around us changed.”
I looked around, confirming that my dragon mate was nowhere in sight. “We have to find Anani.”
“I don’t know when we got separated,” Azrael grunted. “Before you get up, let me make sure you’re okay first. You’ve been unconscious twice today already.”
I nodded, and he gently helped me sit up from where I was laying.
Instead of moving away from him, I leaned into him.
I probably should’ve been angry with Mr. I Put Kittens In Danger, but it was difficult to feel that way when he had literally sacrificed his life for us.
Even if we were both somehow still alive.
“How are you going to make sure I’m okay? With healing magic, like before?” I asked curiously, remembering the way he had sheltered me in his wings after being injured so badly. Was it too much to hope that he would wrap me up in them again?
He nodded, and I inhaled as I felt his magic run over me, loving the sensation against my skin.
I couldn’t hold his gaze, though, feeling flushed and a little awkward at this level of intimacy.
My fingers itched to reach out and touch his feathers.
I wish I could tell you I had the control to keep myself from doing it, but my fingers went forward and brushed against the feathers.
They seemed so delicate—at least the onyx ones.
The silver were slightly thicker and more dangerous with their sharp edges.
I found myself envious, wishing I could have my wings out constantly like he did. I bet that felt amazing. My back twitched as I wondered if that was even possible.
A feral growl came from Azrael’s throat, and I moved my gaze up to find him looking at me with so much intensity that it had my entire body freezing up.
A flash of heat ran over my skin as I swallowed nervously.
His eyes tracked the movement, and I almost leaned back, but I couldn’t find it in me to leave the aura of his energy—he had a gravitational force that was nearly impossible to ignore.
“Sorry,” I whispered. “They’re just so beautiful.”
His eyes flashed black as he moved forward, causing me to lean back until I was lying flat and he was over me, his eyes running over my face before moving to my shoulders. “I bet your feathers are equally as beautiful, mon lapin.”
There was something distinctly different about Azrael when he was like this—it almost reminded me of when my mates’ dragons took over. It was still him, but there was a predatory energy to him that lit up every inch of me with an intoxicating measure of sensations.
“Do you want to see me shift sometime?” I asked nervously, my teeth biting down on my bottom lip.
“Yes,” he immediately answered before exhaling, as if not having meant to respond so quickly. “Fuck, this is a mess.”
“What’s a mess?” I asked seriously, my fingers coming up again to brush across his jawline. Now that those shackles were off, Azrael seemed so much more alive. Everything about him radiated with energy and life. It was addicting to be around.
“This situation, the fact that you…you marked my soul.”
I froze. “What did I do?”
His eyes filled with a strong and dark emotion that I didn’t fully understand. “You didn’t do it on purpose?”
“Maybe? I don’t know what I did,” I whispered. The idea of marking Azrael was far from unappealing, but I wanted to understand what he was talking about.
“Fuck,” he hissed out. “That’s even worse. I didn’t understand why you would’ve marked me, hell, how you even marked me… But you didn’t mean to. You didn’t want this.”
That wasn’t true. I wanted this—whatever this was. I could see he was hurt at the concept of me not wanting this, and that had me panicking.
He went to sit back, and I immediately followed him, reaching out to touch his arm exactly as I had before when he went to destroy the stone in the prison.
Before I could ask him to explain, our magic collided in an electric burst and we were shown exactly what happened between us, our magic very obviously not wanting any misunderstandings.
In that mere second, it was extremely easy to understand how we had become connected.
I had reached out to touch him when he said he would break the stone because I’d felt something was wrong, and my phoenix recognized it—not only recognized it, but connected to his magic, circling it completely in a protective gold coating.
It wasn’t a bond that should’ve existed.
It was purely unique, but apparently my magic had taken the matter into its own hands, refusing to let Azrael die for us.
Recognizing that his sacrifice made him worthy of being saved.
I pulled back, breathing unevenly as he stared at me with shock as he exhaled. “Your magic… It marked me. It formed a immolatio bond—a sacrificial bond. You somehow knew what I was going to do and what it would result in. I don’t know how you knew, but you did.”
My eyes moved down to where I was holding him, and I realized there was a handprint there, one that wrapped around his wrist in gold. It began to fade as I released my hold on him, but a faint outline remained.
“A sacrificial bond? I've never heard of anything like that,” I said in soft surprise, feeling thrilled that we had formed some type of connection. It was selfish, but I wasn’t one to ignore how I felt about things, and Azrael made me feel something.
I was distracted enough by that thought that I didn’t realize how much he was freaking out. His face was pale, and he was tracking every expression that crossed my own.
“It’s a type of bond that is extremely rare,” he murmured, but I could tell he was holding something back from me.
“And one you don’t like.”
“I didn’t say that.” He let out a slow exhale, his eyes darting away from mine. “I don’t want you to feel forced into something, Maya—especially something this serious.”
“I know there’s a lot we don’t know about each other,” I murmured, drawing his attention back, “but I don’t mind being connected to you, Azrael.”
In a fast movement, he caught my jaw gently but firmly and spoke in a hard whisper. “Don’t say my name out loud, mon lapin.”
“Why?” I asked in surprise, feeling nervous. “Is it a secret?” I didn’t mind having a secret between the two of us. Instead of being intimidated by his movement, I melted into it.
“Names have a lot of power, more so with mine,” he bit out, though I could tell his anger wasn’t directed at me. He examined the area around us before refocusing on me.
“Can I call you something else then? What about Az?”
“Like a nickname?” he asked, tilting his head, a flash of soft vulnerability crossing his face. Also caution—there seemed like a lot of caution in his expression in relation to me.
“Exactly like that. It doesn’t have to be Az?—”
“I love Az,” he admitted. “I’ve never had a nickname before.”