"You broke your promise."

My whole body lights up as I hear his voice again and quickly spin around just in time to see him melt out of the shadows and silently walk towards me.

He is wearing leather breeches that hug his body and a white linen shirt that highlights his muscular shoulders and arms. His long black hair is done in a braid, falling past his shoulders. The man before me takes my breath away.

Unconscious I step back as he approaches me, a look of hurt crosses his face before it's chased away by a cold one.

"W-what?"

"Your promise, the one you made me on you birthday" he spits out tensely, his eyes luminous pools of gold.

A blue flower

A feather like caress

"Happy birthday Neftary"

The memories assaults me with such force that I have difficulty keeping a neutral face. He mistakes it for confusion.

"You promised me to never hide yourself from me-"

"I know the promise I made!" I strike back with equal anger.

"But you broke yours first!"

His eyes soften with regret. He takes a step forward, I take one back.

Remembering what I brought for him, I yank his soul stone out of the pocket of my dress and hold It up to him, bathing his face in a blue glow.

"Take it " I bight out, suppressing a shout. Tears dance down my cheeks, blurring away Azraels pained expression.

He doesn't.

"I'm not afraid of the dark anymore. I don't need it" 

We both new that was a lie.

He finally reaches out, but instead of taking the stone he takes my hand into his. Warmth spreads from where our skin touches across my body and into my heart, calming me, reliving me of a pain I didn't know I had.

"The Neftary I knew-" His soft spoken words are like a spark of fire in a field of hay, lighting it up in raging flames, eating it away. I yank my hand from his and pull water as fast as I can from the plants and trees around me, crashing him with a wave of it.

He easily deflects my attack with a wave of his hand and a flare of shadows.

"That is not my name anymore, Azrael." I spit out his name like a curse. My lungs ache as I drag in rapid breaths of air and my body shakes with resentment that carries traces of envy for my old self.

He takes a step back. The forest has gone quiet now, the wind refusing to rustle the leaves as the shadows grow more prominent, almost seeping into the trees.

I hold the stone up to him again. Scattering away the shadows.

He finally takes it with hesitance and stores it in his pocket, hiding away its light, draping us in a blanket of darkness with only the stars and the moon peering down at us.

We stare at each other, silently observing our changes, our eyes thirsty for every detail after only relaying on distorting memories to remember each other.

I watch the droplets of water drip down and contour his face in a mesmerising way. The moon making them shine like diamonds.

The rustling of the leaves brings me back to the present, almost like a mirror chattering. I move to turn around but I'm met with a wall of shadows, stopping me.

"Lillian, you don't understand" He says my name with a strained voice, as if tasting something foreign and trying to understand it, to get used to it.

I turn around, exhausted.

He takes a step towards me.

"I don't want to understand!" I take a step back. The wet grass tickling my feet.

He takes another step forward.

"Just let me explai-" I throw more water, another deflect. The trees and plants around me start to droop as I suck more and more water out of them.

Another step back.

He finally reaches me and gently grips my shoulders, his musky sent engulfs me as Osoes training kicks in and I try to throw a punch at him.

He easily evades it.

I try hitting him again and again and again.

The leaves under us crunch and break as we spin in a deadly dance around each other, me attacking and him evading. Our bodies flowing as one in flashes of shadows and water.

"Why won't you listen to me god dammit!"

He finally shouts and cages me against a tree. The rough bark bights into my back, digging deeper as I struggle out of his grip.

Because you sold me, you abandoned me, you didn't say goodbye, you betrayed me....

Because I loved you.

"Because I hate you!" I hiss out through tears as I finally free myself from him. And with that I run away. The trees skip past me, the leaves scratch me, the branches grab at my dress until I reach the lake.

The rest of the night golden eyes linger in my mind and haunt my dreams.

                                                                            ________________________________