Page 65 of Above (Darkness Reigns #1)

Azazel

“It’s strange how easy it is to take a life. How little it matters after if no one around you cares.”

M y fingers gripped the letter, so many emotions filling my chest that I feared it might explode. The words began to blur, my eyes watering as I attempted to reread them.

Dear Az,

I’m so very glad to hear from you! I promise, it was my pleasure to host you. There’s no need for apologies.

While on the topic, there are many solutions for sore joints that don’t require magic and can even bring more relief. I’ve had your little shadow beast bring some along for you to try. By the way, this is a very scary creature.

On another note, I want to ask you for a rather big favor. Please protect Nova. I know she seems strong and smart and brave, but that’s because she’s suffered a lifetime worth of fear and loneliness. In her mind, she has to pretend to be steady, even if she feels moments away from falling.

While I don’t know you personally, I do consider myself to be a great judge of character, and I can’t help but believe in yours. So, please, keep my daughter safe.

Love,

Octavia Tershetta

P.S. If you’re ever wanting to impress her, my Nova loves books. The older the better. She prefers to read by candlelight with a good view of the sky.

Not only had Mrs. Tershetta sent me a tincture for the achy joints I complained about like a child, she also said something truly nice. Something that I felt would stick with me for a long time. She believed in my strength of character. Has anyone ever said anything like that?

No, never.

She was wrong to do so. I had tried to kill her daughter just yesterday. Everything she believed about me from our short encounter was false. I wasn’t a savior—not a protector for her daughter—I was a wicked, evil monster.

Stars, what was wrong with me? Why was I suddenly feeling guilty?

I wanted to pretend like it was because I watched her receive the stars. There was nothing like such a sight. The light and magic had burst free of Tershetta, reminding me so much of Talon’s nickname for her. Supernova. A star exploding.

Despite that, I knew it wasn’t the case. Something had slowly begun to change. I had felt it for awhile, but on that battlefield, with my dagger against her throat, I was undoubtedly sure that I didn’t want to kill Nova Tershetta.

Groaning, I tugged on my hair, letting my body fall back into my pillows. Above me, I had cast the same stars I watched her use before, the sight of them making my heart physically ache. Just as the glass ball upon my desk now did.

Even more concerning was my rapidly growing relief.

Not only had she saved me from killing her and feeling even worse, but she had given me a sort of gift.

The race was over. I would never receive the stars.

I could stop fighting every day for them now.

And it wasn’t my fault either. They had told Father to his face that he was the problem.

That his likeness in me was the only reason I hadn’t been chosen.

While not getting them meant a much more difficult fight ahead, it also freed me.

Now all twenty core families were in the same position—bowing down to an akhata, which went directly against our plans. In fact, I was quite sure the twenty heads of the families were meeting now to discuss the path forward.

Perhaps there was something different we could do with the of eadi. Maybe we had been wrong before, and the stars were trying to tell us something with Tershetta.

Obviously they weren’t as pure as us, therefore less likely to be useful, talented, or powerful. That didn’t mean they had to be…mistakes.

Just thinking it made my skin crawl. It was wrong to suggest they were anything but akhatas.

The mere consideration that they could be more was enough to make my stomach twist. All my life I had been reminded that they were worse than eadi.

Thieves of our birthright. Poisoners of our dynasty. How could I dare think differently now?

I wasn’t like Cal, who had been so neglected that he hadn’t been properly taught. Nor was I like Talon, who was apparently suffering from traumatic brain damage. Even he didn’t suggest that all of eadi were worthy. Only her.

How strange that he seemed to know before anyone else that she was meant for greatness. I hated that he saw it when I didn’t. That he had somehow beaten me in this way.

Sitting up, I gasped at the revelation. The Zade’s would have an upper hand, even if it was a nontraditional one.

Talon had spent the last couple of months gaining her trust and affection.

He had steadily become her ally and friend and—albeit, creepy and obsessive—lover.

Now, he was fully primed to bring her into his orbit.

She’d lose her family eventually, which meant he’d likely have her marrying him within a few years.

“Fuck,” I groaned, rubbing my eyes and then letting my head fall fully into my open hands. This was such a mess.

Suddenly, I could hear shouting from across the hall. Screaming, even. My head flicked up.

Talon only had power for as long as he could keep her. From what I saw during academy, she seemed reluctant to commit. I could capitalize on that.

Priya was going to hate this. Cal would love it though.

Throwing myself off the bed, I darted to the bathroom, summoning the light and then looking at myself in the mirror.

When Tershetta stared at me, where did her eyes go? Usually mine. But she seemed to regularly look at my hair, too.

Not knowing how much time I had, I chose to make the messy style of my hands running through it look more intentional, parting strands and flattening others. Then I splashed my face with water I summoned up the pipes and dried it with a towel.

My lips were dark from worrying them, my cheeks sporting a rare pink hue. I already wore my training uniform, rings on and cloak ready on the hook near the door.

“Okay, Az, time to get to work,” I told my reflection.

Making my way to the door, I adjusted and straightened my clothes, making sure every piece was in place. Then I grabbed my cloak and secured it, smiling at the sound of Talon’s furious shouts.

He’d make it so easy.

Opening the door, I readied to win over my Little Void.

Father was livid.

Our tea room was in shambles, three servants dead on the ground where he had ripped them to shreds. Blood and innards were staining mother’s silver rug, so she had left crying.

Now, with no one else to turn on, he faced me.

“You will fix this, Azazel,” he ordered. I stood there, my mask in hand, still riding the high of graduation and the conversation with Tershetta, unsure what to say.

His pale face was splattered with gore, his right hand holding a dagger with a hilt shaped like a snake and his left hand gripping his thick glass of bourbon.

His thin lips and pointed nose were made even more menacing by the shadows of the singular light above us.

As he began approaching me, I wondered if he’d finally give in to his incessant urge to kill me.

“From here on out, it will be your job to make this right. You’ve failed our family, and now you’ll be the one to save it.” Why had I expected him to take accountability before? Of course he’d still blame me. How could he not when the only other option was to accept that he was at fault?

Did I tell him my plan? Explain that bringing Tershetta into our family was our only hope of maintaining control and rewriting the narrative?

Now or never, I supposed.

“What if I married the akhata?” I asked. He froze, his eyes looking distant as they blinked. When he appeared to register my suggestion, his anger seemed to double. He took the glass and threw it at me. I didn’t dare dodge it, letting the glass smash into my forehead.

The pain was instant and excruciating, my vision blurring and my head immediately aching. Blood poured down my face, burning my eyes and leaving a metallic taste in my mouth. I allowed myself only a moment to feel the pain as I bent in half, then I stood up, wiped my eyes, and looked forward.

“You idiot! Sullying yourself won’t solve any of our problems!” he screamed, getting so close that his spit sprayed across my bloody face.

“Talon is with her, and I fear the Zade’s plan to use her to gain influence and power,” I dared to argue. Father took the hilt of his blade and shoved it into my stomach, making me keel over.

“Stars, I bore a moron. An insolent child. A failure.” Pot meet kettle. Father walked away, beginning to pace. “We must kill her, Azazel.”

“The stars won’t—“

“The stars do not see how this can affect our future!” he shouted, not so drunk that he didn’t realize his words and flinch as he looked up at the ceiling.

“I just mean that sometimes it is up to us to help the stars see reason. They mentioned you and that thing, so clearly they see how the future is contingent on the two of you. Maybe they were hinting at something. Or perhaps they are only doing this with the hopes we will kill her and finally begin our initiative.”

That had him pausing, his smile stretching his face into something eerie and inhuman.

“Yes, that must be what they’re doing.” After that, he was gone, his mumbled plotting not relevant to me. So I risked shadow walking, knowing that the injuries meant flimsy will and inconsistent magic, and took my first deep breath of the night within the safety of my barracks room.

Moving to my bathroom, I began the tedious process of cleaning and healing myself, knowing I’d need professional help soon. I stripped bare, willing the tub to fill with warm water and then submerging myself within it.

A firm knock at my door had me stilling as I scrubbed my hair, the ache in my head nearly making me vomit from the sound.

Why was someone at my door?

Could it be Tershetta? If so, would I need to kill her? Or was it possible to win her over and show Father how my plan might suit us?

Leaping up, I nearly fell from the dizziness and slippery white tile, but I grabbed a towel and dashed to the door.

“Please don’t look too out of sorts,” I whispered to myself.

When I opened the door, I was met with the horrifying sight of Benadell Zade, her hair loose and her round lips painted red. She wore a thin black dress and no shoes. My mind strayed to the note she had placed in my tactical belt.

Save some time for me after your graduation.

Fuck. Not today. Any day but today.

“Hello, handsome,” she cooed, not waiting for a response before she stepped forward and pressed her lips into mine.

I had learned on the first day of academy that Captain Zade wanted me. It was such an odd thing, because she had watched me grow up. She had been a sort of second mother, if any of the core women could be labeled such a thing when I now knew people like Octavia Tersehtta existed.

So when she had told me she needed to speak with me and then pulled me into a closet, I hadn’t really understood. But then she began kissing me, and the picture became clear.

Resisting had been futile back then, but I officially graduated. She no longer held any sway.

“Get off of me,” I hissed, shoving her.

She only laughed, grabbing my towel and tearing it off of me. I backed away, covering my exposed cock with my hands, but she seemed to like that. With her foot she kicked the door closed, stalking forward after like a beast readying for the kill.

“You can’t do this to me anymore,” I said, wishing I wasn’t running like a coward.

“Oh I think I can,” she quipped, her hands moving to the hem of her dress and pulling it over her head.

She, like Dove, was taller than many other women, her body fierce and curved.

She was far too beautiful and powerful to need manipulation for sex, but I had a feeling this had been for something else.

The same two things we all seemed to fight tooth and nail for.

Power and control.

“I’ve graduated. You have no power over me now.”

“I find it hilarious that you think that,” she said, her voice trailing off into a laugh.

It was a biting one. Forced and short. My thighs hit my desk.

She approached, her smile widening as she realized that she had me trapped.

“Since that thing has the stars, you Altairs have lost all your influence. You are no more than any of the twenty families. In fact, with Talon fucking her, I’d say you’re even less than us now. ”

A deep growl stalked up my chest and throat, crawling out of my mouth. Captain Zade stopped in front of me, her naked breasts against my stomach. A moan slipped out of her mouth in response to my heavy breaths, and I watched in disgust as she rubbed her peaked nipples against my skin.

I couldn’t do this anymore.

“If you don’t get off of me and leave me the fuck alone, then I’ll kill you and your entire worthless family!” I shouted, moving my hands up to shove her back a few feet.

A screech echoed off my ceiling as she ran back to me, clawing at my chest and shoving magic into my body.

I was thrown back, my back slamming into the wall and my ass landing on top of my desk.

She capitalized on my hesitation from the pain, using her shadows to wrap around me and then lifting me with her magic, dropping my tied body onto the bed.

I watched in horror as she crawled onto the mattress, making her way toward me as I struggled and fought against her magic. But stars, everything hurt . My mind couldn’t focus.

“You have officially pissed me off, Azazel. I feel as if I’ve been quite kind to you.

Always letting you cum, never forcing you to drop the Otarn girl, even letting you fight my son.

” She straddled my head, dropping onto my face and rubbing her wet cunt on me.

Furious, I tried to bite her, but she lifted at the feel of my teeth, her giggles making me want to rip off my skin.

“Naughty boy. You were like that after you first got magic too. Always getting into trouble. My favorite of Talon’s friends. ”

Every word made me nauseous, her supposed affection a curse. The first time I had fought back, she had threatened to prevent me from completing Elite Academy. Now, I somehow felt as if she had even more influence than before.

Please, stars, help me. Do something. Save me. Just this once.

“Now get hard, or I’ll make sure your daddy knows exactly what you’ve been doing with the akhata in your free time.”

While I hadn’t been doing anything with her, the mention of Tershetta had shame rolling through me in waves.

All hope and plans drained out of me, evading my heart that seemed to beat ferociously with the hopes of catching what was lost. But it was too late. The absence of that light left room for the darkness to seep in, and I decided then that I was done letting this bitch breathe.