Chapter 5 Scarlett
Scarlett
I walked into the cafeteria without stopping by the room.
It was hardly used, even by the staff here, but I liked coming down here to visit Chef while he cooked.
It was about dinner anyway, and I was hoping that I would run into Azrael if I just kept running through the halls, but I was starving now, and I needed something to eat.
After our game this morning, Alaric took me through a few training techniques to improve my skills.
He even let me hold the knife while he taught me.
I needed to get more comfortable with holding a weapon, and I wanted to be as comfortable as I could be before Azrael officially started my training with that.
I wanted to impress him.
After lunch, Alaric and I trained some more before he left me to run, and I ran for a while before coming here. I would run more after I ate. Perhaps outside today.
I had gone outside a few times with Azrael. I had never been around the woods before, but walking out there with him? The air was so fresh. The feeling of the bark under my fingers, the chill of the air. It was beautiful.
A couple of those times had been with the hope that I would learn how to navigate the world when I had no idea where I was.
He walked me deep into the woods, talking to me about what our Hysteric Wonderland could look like, distracting me, until he finally decided we were far enough into the woods to leave me.
Twice he had done that.
The first time, it had taken me a long time to get back to the house. I hadn’t recognized anything. The trees had all looked the same, the ground, the paths. It wasn’t until I looked up that I realized how bright the stars were.
Part of my training had been studying constellations. Azrael never told me why, but in that moment, I understood. The constellation Lynx was clear as day through the trees. By the time I realized this, I had already nearly made it back to the house. Lynx pointed directly to it.
So, when he left me in the woods again, I knew exactly how to find my way back home. I just followed Lynx.
There were still a few hours until sunset, and I wasn’t planning on going deep into the woods, but it would be fun to run out there for a little bit tonight. A change of scenery, Azrael had said the first time he had taken me out there.
That’s what I wanted: a change of scenery.
And perhaps, if I was lucky enough, Azrael would come home while I was out there. Maybe he would feel inclined to follow me into the woods.
Just at the thought, my heart skipped a beat. Outside it was.
Chef Dez made salmon and a fresh salad for dinner, and I practically licked the plate clean before finally heading for the elevator, only stopping at our room to put on my favorite pair of black boots.
My heart was beating a little harder. I had never gone outside on my own, but I knew that I had access to the lobby, which told me that Azrael had given me the freedom to leave the house if I so wanted. He never held me back, not unless I wanted him to.
I watched the number count down from 2 to the lobby before the doors dinged, sliding open.
I pranced out and immediately stopped, my heart stuttering in my chest.
Poppy turned from the front doors to me, and just before her entire body went slack, I saw everything I needed to see.
Tense shoulders, folded arms, hardened eyes, furrowed brows, lips pulled down in a frown. She had come here ready for a fight.
Now? Her shoulders fell, her arms fell to her sides, her expression softened, her blue-green eyes widening ever so slightly, lips parting. It was clear she had never expected to see me.
“Hey,” she breathed out, her eyes scouring over me. “Oh my God, how are your hands?”
I cocked my head to one side, my bangs catching on my eyelashes. Azrael had called them ‘wispy’, and I had been practicing with mascara, so my eyelashes were longer today than I think they should have been, although I liked it. It made me look like a doll.
My hands? They were almost completely healed. I didn’t have to wear bandages anymore, although the skin was still sore. The scars were bright pink and puffy, and Doctor Manson said that if I wasn’t careful, the skin could still tear, but they were a lot better than they had been.
My back, however, was still healing. I suspected maybe another week or two before I could finally take the bandages off of it.
When I didn’t reply, she took a slow step forward, which I didn’t mind. It wasn’t like she could hurt me. I had been trained by Azrael himself, even if I couldn’t win in a fight just yet, I knew for a fact that I could out maneuver her.
She was supposed to be my family though, that’s what Azrael said.
One of my sisters, but I just couldn’t stop thinking about her comments about Azrael the day I got these scars.
She had called him sick. She had suggested that Grey would have been better for this job, a statement I hadn’t understood until after I read the files.
Greyson Navarro never would have been able to do what Azrael had done, and Poppy was wrong to think he could.
“What’s your name?” she asked, walking towards me as if I were a feral kitten on the verge of running.
That made me smile. Azrael hadn’t told her my name yet? I was still his little secret. Someone he coveted so much that he was still trying to hide me from his own family.
Poppy slowed, her eyes flicking to my lips, her brows furrowing as I straightened. “Why are you smiling?”
“Because she just realized Azrael hasn’t told you a thing.”
Poppy’s head whipped around just as Havoc walked in through the front doors, his caramel eyes shadowed as they found mine. “I remember you. You were at Everett’s build.”
Havoc walked around her, heading right for me. “I had to check his progress.” He gave me the slightest of nods before joining my side, albeit one step behind.
Poppy looked between us. “Blackheart,” she said as if she had just remembered their name. “Azrael’s friends. Why have I never met you?”
“Your gaze was far too focused on catching up to him, you never cared to look at who surrounded him. Why are you here?”
She straightened, steeling her spine. “I wanted to speak to Az. She just came down. I haven’t been able to speak to her yet, I wanted to know more about her.”
“I doubt she’ll tell you anything,” he hummed.
Her eyes hardened. “Because she’s a prisoner.”
He chuckled, the sound unsettling. “Because she likes having her own secrets. A lifetime of being watched and ordered around gives you a warped sense of reality when you finally get a taste of freedom.”
Her eyes flicked to mine, softening once again. “She looks just like he does.”
I straightened. Just like he does? Like Azrael? No, I was a girl. My hair was black and white, I was far shorter—
“She’s talking about your eyes, doll,” Havoc explained. “You have the same darkness burning in your eyes.”
My smile widened again, and I adjusted myself proudly. I was taught by the best.
“Doll?” Poppy pointed out, giving me a strange look as she did. “You all…share her?”
Havoc chuckled again. “She is our doll, but Azrael is clear of the boundaries, and we abide by them.”
“So, what is she to you then?”
“She’s our baby sister,” he explained.
I glanced back, finding his eyes, my skin buzzing in delight. They had never said such a thing before. Then again, I suppose there had been no need before now.
“We make sure the way is clear when she is finally unleashed.”
I turned back to Poppy, finding her face twisted in slight confusion. “You protect her?”
“She doesn’t need protecting. Azrael hasn’t returned yet, so whatever questions you had for him need to wait. Maybe try calling him.”
She frowned. “He got rid of his phones, even the family one. Malachi has been trying to get in touch with him for weeks, and until today, I haven’t been able to make the trip out here.”
I wondered why. As far as I knew, Poppy was assigned to be Azrael’s keeper. She’s been in the city all this time. Church only took up one day a week, she had plenty of time to come visit if she truly wanted to.
“I’ll relay whatever message the crime lord has.”
She frowned, straightening, and I was taken back to the day I got my brands.
Behind the tasteless comments she had made about Azrael, I could see the fierceness he silently admired.
The fire, the sharpness. Her eyes may have been colder than his, but she held no tar in her soul.
“I don’t even know who you people are. Malachi doesn’t either. ”
“There’s a reason for that,” Havoc replied, sounding almost bored. “But don’t worry, dear Red, we’ll be around a lot more now.”
She rolled her eyes before they found me again. “You don’t have to stay here,” she told me. “The others have been eager to meet you.”
But her words faded as warmth fell across my skin.
My eyes shot up to the door, still wide open from when Poppy had arrived, and found Azrael making his way up the steps.
A smile broke out across my face, my heart skipping a beat. He was back from his job. I had hoped it would only take him the day, but it was never a guarantee. There were branches and daycares everywhere, and there was always a need for a transporter.
I danced forward a few steps as he reached the doorway, Poppy glancing back at him then back to me.
I spun around in a circle, showing him the dress I had chosen for the day.
“You look ravishing,” he told me, a soft smile across his lips.
He always complimented me. Every day, the first thing I did when I saw him was show him what I had picked to wear.
He never got tired of it, and he always gave me a beautiful word to cling to for the remainder of the day.
Ravishing, divine, heavenly. I received a compliment for my teasing efforts, and he received an image of me in his head that would haunt him until the moment he finally decided to chain me up again.
It was our fun little game.