Sun rays hit Azrael's eyelids making her squint in annoyance. She slowly opened her eyes only to be blinded so she turned her head only to find a sleeping Raden. Azrael thought she had dreamt of him holding her all night, but clearly, it wasn't. She turned the rest of her body slowly to not wake him so she wasn't craning her neck. He still had one arm grasped around her waist but the other rested on his chest as he was laying on his back.

Azrael took this time to carefully study the details in Raden's face that she otherwise wouldn't be able to do. His eyebrows seemed to stay knitted together even at rest as if he wasn't fully allowing himself to let his guard down. The faintly visible lines that were etched into his forehead seemed to tell their own stories of his life, but from a distance, they kept their secrets. His olive skin was a contrast to the inky black hair that messily fell on the pillow. Azrael's eyes traveled from his hair to his long eyelashes that twitched as Raden was dreaming. About what, she would never know. His slightly cracked lips sat parted letting soft breaths escape. His bare chest rose and fell with each slow breath along with an odd pendant.

She placed her hand over his and laid her head on the crook of his arm. Unconsciously, Raden pulled her a bit closer and she closed her eyes taking in the comfort she felt. The time here was going to come to an end and Azrael knew this, but for now, she wanted it to last for as long as possible.

Soon enough though Raden began to awaken. His eyes felt heavy as they protested. As he began to move around, he felt a weight on his left side and saw a hand grasping his. He turned and saw Azrael nuzzled into his side. Raden stopped moving around in fear of waking her but soon saw her open her eyes. Those gorgeous hazel eyes stared back at him. For once in his life, Raden wished he could stay in this one place with this one person for an infinity.

"You sleep all right," Raden asked. Azrael nodded but didn't move other than that. Raden sat up leaving the warmth of Azrael and being blanketed with the chill in the air. He rubbed his face tiredly and turned back to her. "You hungry?"

"I could eat."

"Alright then." Raden stood and stretched. His wings felt very stiff as he was laying on them. How he hated doing that. "I'll go find some food and bring it back." Azrael didn't protest and Raden left after quickly dressing.

~~~*~~~

After some time, Raden came back with gifts of food. Azrael had gotten ready for the day and was sitting on the floor leaning on the foot of the bed reading. She looked up and softly smiled as Raden entered back in. Raden sat opposite her and they began to eat the small meal.

Raden looked up at Azrael and knew this was going to be a long and difficult conversation, but it needed to be said. "Azrael, we need to discuss something."

"What exactly?" Azrael knew exactly what it was. A cold tingle ran down her spine.

He gave her a sympathetic glance. "We both know."

Azrael sighed and nodded. "Okay." She sat down her food and looked straight into Raden's eyes seemingly trying to find his soul. "Have you ever heard of chaos magic or wild magic?"

"No."

"It's a form of magic that's quite unpredictable. Um... It's also rare to find concentrated in beings, but there are those who have been cursed with it." She sounded careful with how she answered. Seemingly every piece of information is perfectly placed as if it came from a book. Azrael continued after a short pause, "Those with this kind of magic are shunned from the magic community. No schooling to control the power or support. Most live alone in solitude away from civilizations in fear of an outburst."

"Outburst?"

Azrael nodded. "An explosion of concentrated magic. It has caused some of the worse damage in known history."

Raden watched her carefully slowly putting the pieces together. "What can cause these types of explosions?"

"Anything really. Stress, fear, the use of magic, and the outburst aren’t tied to a specific reason. This is why..."

"Why you don't use magic." Raden could see the weight of this being lifted from Azrael. "The event that happened in Líadain." She nodded. "So it's not that you can't use magic at all, but you're scared of what it could cause."

Azrael shrugged. "It's easier to tell people I'm just a disgraced witch who never received her powers. Fewer questions that way."

Raden felt empathy for her. Better to live in solitude than put innocent lives in danger. The only difference was she never asked for this burden and he was created for destruction. "That's why you lived..."

"Yeah, and why a traveled to mostly nonmagical towns to do business. I know it was dangerous given the decree that the king had placed over the north of magic being banned, but I thought it would be safe. That nothing would happen." Azrael gazed at her food. Her appetite was long gone now. "I guess even taking all those precautions... You can't run from what you are."

"How long have you lived on your own like this?"

"Since I was thirteen. That was when the first accident happened and it killed my brother..." She trailed off and became lost in memory.

"We don't have to discuss it." Raden saw the hurt in her eyes as she thought back. "Azrael." She seemed to snap out of her thought as she heard her name. "Would you know why Serkan, the man who tried taking you in Asra, wanted you?"

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Azrael hesitated. She knew of the stories of others like her but didn't know if they were true. "Um... I have an idea maybe." She paused trying to gain her thoughts together before continuing, "Well there are stories. Stories of those who have chaos magic being taken I don't know by who and used as a weapon."

Raden remembered the old war logs kept in the archives. These archives were only ever accessed by the Gods and angels. Books that held detailed stories of wars in past centuries and powerful magic that was used by many high-ranking followers of a God long forgotten by this realm, but his name still could be whispered by a very small group of believers. Raden couldn't be for certain but knew this could be a chance to find missing pieces.

Raden stood and walked over kneeling in front of Azrael. She stared at him with curiosity. "Thank you."

"For what?"

"For telling me your secret." Raden's gaze softened and the stress kept between his knitted brows was released. "I know I'm not the most trustworthy looking being in the universe and I know damn well I come across harsh."

"Well you can be quite harsh sometimes," Azrael pointed out.

Raden nodded in agreement and chuckled a bit. "Fair point." He looked at Azrael wondering what thoughts were racing through her mind.

"Where do we go from here?" Azrael asked quietly. It was a good question because even Raden had no clue.

"Truthfully?" Azrael gave a short nod. "I don't know. There isn't really any hiding in this case. We could run but that would only last as long as they allowed." Raden saw the defeat cast a shadow over Azrael's face. He felt hopeless at this moment. "I'm sorry there isn't more I can do."

Azrael reach over and cupped her hands around Raden's face. "Even though you were quite an asshole when I met you, you've done more for me in the past few weeks than I have had in a lifetime." Raden gave a rare smile and Azrael returned with her own. Azrael sat back letting Raden go and finished up her meal.

Raden slowly stood and stretched before heading to the door. "I'll be back in a little bit. I'm going to go check on the horse." Azrael nodded and he left her in the quiet room.

~~~*~~~

Raden headed down the street towards the small stables. The stables would soon be full as the festival was ending and the crowds would go back to their respective towns and cities, but for now, it was only two horses calling it home for now. Raden was greeted by a prickly muzzle as he stood in front of the black beauty.

"Hey girl," he whispered as he rubbed her nose in greetings.

"Quite a lovely creature you have there." A voice that Raden knew all too well spoke. He turned to see his master leaning on the entrance frame. "Say, I don't remember you being much of a horse rider."

Raden stepped away from the horse and crossed his arms as he faces Merikh. "What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same Raden. I vividly remember telling you to go back to your post." Merikh's demeanor was not the friendly and kind man he had shown at the festival. He spoke low and each word seemed like a dagger.

"Serkan showed himself in Asra. He had Azrael…"

"Ah, the sweet girl from the festival." Merikh's tone was laced with a hint of sarcasm. "You've seen quite distracted by her. Abandoning your post and causing casualties in Líadain."

Raden felt the anger start to rise and his blood boil. "I was doing those people a favor getting rid of those demons and for the mages… this world is better off without them."

"Raden those were Erebus's mages. We're dealing with a war that has lasted far too long and you seemingly want to create more turmoil with a God of darkness?" Merikh rarely showed his anger through yelling and rage. He spoke lowly and calmly which could be considered more frightening as he was a ticking bomb. "You had no right to leave those soldiers."

Raden narrowed his eyes digging his nails into the palms of his hands trying to keep himself at bay. The last thing this town needed was to end up in the papers because of a fight of biblical proportions. "I wasn't welcomed by them. The only reason I ever left was that I was attacked by an arc angel. Azrael was the one that found me and fixed me up because you and I both know I was dead laying in that field."

Merikh stood in silence. He knew it was true but didn't want to admit that he had almost lost one of his treasured creations. "So you decided to stay with the witch."

"I stayed with her until the events of Líadain. I left right after and headed back to the camps," Raden frustratedly explained, "I returned to my post like a good and obedient soldier. That's more than can be said about some of the others." The last sentence he spoke was laced with as much contempt as he could muster.

"You clearly didn't stay long. There for the night then gone in an instance." Merikh pointed out. Raden looked at him as if he had been told a dark secret. "I know what happened that night you went back."

Raden shook his head in disbelief. "So you knew about Serkan and chose not to do anything about it?"

Merikh took in a deep breath and calmly answered, "We are working on strategies to hold back any attacks they may have."

Raden let out a laugh. It was a laugh of disbelief and tiredness and anger. "Do you realize what kind of magic Azrael is holding? Or are you too blinded in your self-righteousness of being an all-powerful Ancient God that things like this don't matter to you?" Merikh was going to speak, but Raden wasn't about to let him make weak excuses as he always did. "Chaos magic. She is a holder of chaos magic and Serkan is after her because of Oulixeus."

"You've brought it on yourself to protect this random girl from this demon worshipper because she's a vessel for a rare type of magic?" Merikh seemingly stared down in disapproval of Raden as he clicked his tongue in disappointment. "I created you for one purpose Raden, and it wasn't to go protect a random bitch from being the next sacrifice for their pathetic rituals."

"Raden began to see red. "You have no right to speak of her like that." Raden being both stupid and ballsy was now face to face with his master. One of the most powerful beings in the universe and beyond. "You've seemingly shoved your head so far up your self-righteous ass that you can't see what the fuck is going on here."

Merikh shoved Raden away lightly. Raden could see the storm churning in Merikh's eyes and knew if he kept pushing that storm would be explosive. "All I'm seeing is my soldier being blinded by a mere mortal and the potential of love when he should be fighting…"

"In a war that will never end because you all sit on your thrones drinking wine and wasting precious time for the mortal realm. All while the Gods that roam the earth seemingly go about their pathetic lives being praised and loved by the humans. Humans that sadly put their faith in selfish assholes that will never come to save them." Raden shook his head in disgust at his master and pushed past him only to have Merikh grab his arm roughly.

"You were created for my bidding and right now that means fighting. You are incapable of love and that's what makes you perfect."

Raden pulled his arm away and looked him dead in the eyes. "Faith and love are the two strongest emotions the human race has. They've moved mountains and oceans because of them. Love may just be the answer here." Then without another word, Raden walked away.