A roar tore down the shadow walls. Fire goes out by itself, and tears gather in the corners of her eyes. Azrael was directly in front of her, with Sahir pinned to the ground, but Azrael’s head nocturne looked at her.
Natasha was covered in her own blood, the cuts on her arms and legs flowing, her knees quivering, and black-blue bruises developed on her neck and forehead. She was having trouble breathing. Azrael rose to his full height, his terror in front of him. The blood stained the snow, the fire went out the minute it touched her blood, and the shadows retreated.
She notices the noise emanating from her. She couldn’t explain it, but she felt seething wrath inside her, like fire in her veins, and the pain was excruciating. Sahir used Azrael’s preoccupation to throw him off balance and charge at him.
The wrath within her ignited her heart, and she felt the earthquake. She felt it as if it were inside her.
“I said, Stop!” the earth under us shook.
“Right Now!” She growled. The roots broke through the ground, the snow fell, and the thick root-like serpent coiled around Sahir at the twist of her hand. If it was possible, Sahir’s face shifted to smug.
“Natasha,” Azrael approaches her.
“Why are you doing this?” she asked, her gaze fixed on Sahir.
“This isn’t going as planned….” He tightens his jaw as She tightens her grip, the roots nearly crushing him. She could feel it as if those roots had joined her muscles. With boiling wrath, power pours through her. She had a bloody cough.
Azrael touches Natasha and says, “You have to stop.”
“No,” she snarled.
“You will now perish in pain; your power was not meant to be employed in a mortal body,” Sahir concluded.
“You have to let him go, Natasha,” Azrael says, touching her shoulder. Her body began to relax.
“Why?” Her tears mixed with her blood, her muscles loosened, and her grip weakened. Azrael’s eyes softened, yet his pain was palpable.
“You’re in pain. I can’t watch you like this,” his voice cracked as he felt what her body was going through. Natasha looks into Azrael’s eyes, the blue color in his eyes blocking the red.
“He tries to kill you,”
“No, he attempts to stop me from going into the shadows; he is my brother,” Natasha’s enraged gaze met Sahir’s blank one. She noticed the root that was tying him and her hand together.
“I can feel the roots…” she says, her voice shaky. How can I feel the roots?
“Let him go,” Azrael said, touching her bloodied hand in his. Natasha’s breath was trembling.
“I’m going to die,” She let go of the trees, and the roots returned to the ground.
Azrael caught her as she fell. He takes her hand in his.
“Now…” She coughed, her feet becoming numb. “You may do whatever you want,” Natasha says as he pulls her closer to his chest.
“Are you going to…send me away?” she asked quietly.
“I can’t bind you to me,” he says. He caressed Natasha’s cheeks, and she shuddered and closed her eyes. Tears gather in the corners of her eyes.
“I always felt so…grounded when you touched me, like if…the earth….”
“If the earth slipped from under my feet, your hold on me would never slip,” she said, taking a small breath.
“You can go wherever you wish, Realm of Light or earth….” He cupped his palm around her face. She could feel his breath on her.
“I wanted to stay with you; please let me….” It was her last chance; if he let go of her, she had no idea what would come next. All of this would be for naught.
“Don’t be afraid,”
“Please,” she cringes, her hand slipping from his shoulder.
Azrael’s eyes well up with tears as he rubs his fingers through her bloodied cheeks and lips. When she saw the paleness of his skin against hers, she grabbed his hand. She’s chilly now, halfway there, and he won’t, he won’t…he doesn’t.
“You don’t feel the same way, do you?” She shivered.
“No, Natasha…” his breath trembled.
“You and I are real, but we…we are not real.”
“You don’t understand what I……” tears stream from her eyes. The lingering heat and the vitality she felt on the point of death was the gut-wrenching emotion of love she felt for him, but it meant nothing. All of this was for nothing.
She raises her gaze to meet his, unsure what he must be feeling, but is there any more point? Would she even have a choice now?
“I love you, Azrael,” she says as her hands slip away from him, and her eyelids close.
Azrael strokes her cheeks with his. “I love you too,” He touches her lips, and she feels the whisper of the touch, her lips curving upwards on the corner, and her body becomes limp.
But She didn’t hear him.