chapter four

─── confrontations

          𝔄s strange as it sounded, my only escape from my mother and father, and the eyes that seemed to watch me in the obsidian palace, and now my mate, was the Hewn City. Many would think that I hated the place that I had often been shipped off to, forced to train in but that wasn't the case. In a weird sort of way, the Hewn City was more of a home than the palace I was born in ever was.

So, when things became far too stressful in the palace, I disappeared down to Hewn for weeks at a time to get away from it all. Some might call this running from my problems, but it was necessary to keep the peace and prevent an argument. 

If my parents were to continue to pry into things that weren't true, or my father's paranoid state coincidentally discovered the truth of my relationship with Azriel, though there wasn't one, then I didn't know what would happen. I feared that if he hurt Azriel, then I would not be able to control my own anger which was a terrifying thought to have. How could one man hold that much power over me?.

"I was starting to wonder when you were going to be back," I paused at the sound of the cold voice, looking over my shoulder as my father joined my side. I was in one of the larger halls of the palace, leaning against the railings and admiring the stars. "You've been in the Hewn City for a while."

"We had final assessments for new recruits coming into the Dark Bringers." I explained, looking up at him from the corner of my eyes. "I had a lot of work to do, had to manage my own legion as well."

"Your mother wants you back here more often."

"And?" I cocked an eyebrow. My father hummed, before looking out across the kingdom below us with a disinterested expression. "I was going to head back to the Hewn City tonight, is there any messages you need me to take?"

"No. I have Mendax for that," My father spat to the side and I sighed, but kept my head high. He didn't truly trust me, not least with any political messages, for he was worried that I would have too much power. He didn't need to know that in Hewn, I did have the most power and it was only a matter of time before I took control of the government there. "I need you to look through some strategies. Your brother is playing at soldier to the north, which means I need you to do more work on potential battle plans."

"Can he not do that? There's a lot of work in the Hewn cities, and you already have me on Dark Bringer strategies and contingency plans, I don't exactly have time,"

"And you want me to waste your brother's time on this?"

"Rhysand is a soldier, not a leader like I am, he has more time. I don't," I growled in response, not wanting this to be dumped on me when I was already swamped with work and trying to plan how to deal with Azriel. My mate and the mating bond was taking up so much of my mind that it was starting to impact on other elements of my life, which I despised. "Get him to do it."

"What did you say to me?"

"Get him to do it. I don't have time," I spat out, before hissing in pain as my father grabbed onto my arm tightly, pushing me down so that my knees buckled and I was kneeling behind him. My anger flared, darkness wreathing my heart as I tried to push against him, but it was of little use. My powers were far weaker than his was. 

He made sure that mine would be at birth, clipping my wings and putting a dampener onto my magic.

"You will go through those strategies and you will make decisions on them. That's an order,"

"My Lord," A voice broke my father's glare on me and he released my arm to turn and look behind me. I knew who it was before he came into vision, my soul already calling for his. Azriel was here and I hated that he saw me in this position, kneeling beside my father. "I needed to report a matter from the Illyrians to you. Would you rather I do it now or later?"

"Later, boy," My father glared, before stomping away. A scarred hand came into my vision, but I batted it away and stood up on my own. My shoulder was dislocated, and I was quick to relocate it, something I'd learnt to do after years training in Hewn. They weren't big on comfort or medical care, so if you wanted to be healed during a training exercise, you did it yourself.

"Are you alright, Princess?"

"I didn't need your help," I shot him a glare, rubbing my arm. I tried to take a deep breath, to calm down the anger rearing up inside me. My father always drew out the worst in me. Pushing myself further away from Azriel, I groaned and ran a hand through my hair. "I could have dealt with that myself. You shouldn't have got involved."

"I was trying to help. A thank you would be nice." Azriel's eyebrows furrowed, but I glared at him darkly. I didn't know whether my father would read into Azriel interrupting as a sign that he and I were sleeping together, but it seemed like something he would do. Then what would happen? 

"Next time, just don't bother," I brushed past him, slamming against his shoulder, as I grabbed my sword from where it leant against the wall and headed for the library to pick up the strategies. This extra work was not appealing to me in the slightest. I might be a strategist, but Illyrian and general army strategy bored me, I much preferred my own legion and army.

Footsteps sounded behind me, and I turned to glare at Azriel, who was following me with a determined look on his face, his shadows curling around his fingers and attempting to drift back into the dark, as if telling him that this was a bad idea.

"You've been avoiding me since we trained together," He pointed out quietly, nodding his head as I rolled my eyes. He was observant too, it seemed, lucky me.

"You say that like there's anything between us. I've had work, things to do," I rolled my eyes, throwing out harsh words as I tried to get Azriel to back off and leave things unsaid between us. It was much better that way.

"Fine. You're busy, I can see that, so I'll ask one question." He towered over me, cocking one eyebrow as he stepped half in front of me so I had to stop and listen. 

"What?" I refused to back down, glaring up at him with cold eyes, resisting the urge to let my gaze wonder and admire him.

"When were you going to talk to me about the fact we're mates?"

Well shit.

"We're not." I denied quickly. I had been hoping that he wouldn't notice the mating bond.

"We are."

"You're delusional." I tried to push past him, to disappear where I hoped he couldn't follow me.

"I'm not," He grabbed my wrist, pulling me back to him as the electricity crackled across my skin and seemed to bring my cold, dead heart back to life, but I couldn't let it. A shadow curled up towards me, as I beat my sentimental side back.

"We're not mates, Azriel. Stop trying to see things that aren't there," I yanked my wrist free. "You're just saying that to try and get into bed with the princess or to win a bet with Rhysand. Whatever signs you think you saw, you made up in your head to justify your actions. We're not mates. We're not even friend. We're barely acquaintances so don't test your luck with me."

His eyes grew cold and I wasn't blind to the flash of hurt that ran through him at my words but self-preservation was my main goal. Maybe, one day, he'd see that I was doing all of this to protect both of us from my father's wrath. For now, I just needed Azriel to back off with us being mates at least whilst my father was alive.

"You're trying to push me away by being as much like your father as possible, but I'll let you in on a little secret," Azriel crossed his arms across his chest as he leant down towards me, causing me to lean backwards. Why did he smell so good and why was I finding this out now? "It's not going to work. I know that we're mates, just as I think you do, even though you're trying your best to convince both of us that we're not. You might be a daemati and supposedly good at hiding your emotions, but you have the same ticks as your brother. Your left eye twitched, so I know that you're lying."

"I am nothing like my brother," I stepped closer, grabbing his collar to bring him down to my level, leaving a hair's breath between us. His eyes drifted to my lips and I tried not to gulp. There was a different kind of tension brewing around us, and I wasn't sure whether I liked it, "and I'm not convincing myself we're not mates, Azriel, I know we're not, so why don't you do us both a favour and stop entertaining this delusional idea that we are."

"Fine, you want to pretend that we're not mates, I'll let you," Azriel shot me an infuriating smirk that made me want to both kiss him and punch him simultaneously. A shadow twisted around my leg as my scowl deepened. "But I know the truth, Princess, and when you're ready to accept that, I'll be waiting."

"You'll be waiting an awful long time then," I shoved him back from my grip, turning and stalking away from him as his chuckle bounced along the corridor. Every instinct in me told me to turn around and run back to my mate, to wrap my arms around him and kiss him so that I could hear him laughter everyday for the rest of eternity, but my rational side said no. No good came of me and Azriel being mates.

No good at all.

"Fucking Illyrians," I cursed, grabbing the strategies and winnowing back to the Hewn City before I had the other misfortune of running into my mother. That would just make my day far worse.

∘☽༓☾∘

Hiya,

So, Maiya's plan of action is either to avoid her problems or be as rude as possible so that her problems leave her alone. Let me know what you think of Maiya's treatment of Azriel. Was she in the right?

Let me know what you think,

Love Li xx