A breathless breath and a sudden chill down her spine. Azrael was terrified to turn her head and look over her shoulder.
A cold hand suddenly appeared on her shoulder, giving her panic.
"Oh, Azrael. Did you forget what happened last time you protected someone? You are born to be evil, not a saint. Stop defying your fate, my child." The voice appeared again beside her ear and on shattered pieces of mirror, Azrael could see the same woman lingering over her shoulder.
"Don't protect him. He is not worth it." She warned before disappearing like nothing.
Once seeing her reflection all alone, Azrael heaved out in relief gulping her fear down. She took a moment to calm herself, before standing up and going out like nothing ever happened.
August was waiting for her at the same place, still unaware of everything. The same cold face that intimidates death.
"Let's go," Azrael ordered, walking past him like nothing.
"Where are we going if you don't mind me asking?" August carefully tried to ask, risking his life on the line.
Azrael stopped in her tracks and sighed in annoyance and spares a glare at him, pinching the bridge of her nose. "What do you do before a sacrifice?"
August was left speechless beyond words. Why had to spend solving these riddles, can't she talk like a normal being? He didn't even use this much manpower even in school. Right, She was everything but normal.
"What?"
"Animals are fed to the fullest before sacrificing to those stone figures you call god in your world," Azrael explained, trying to be as patient as possible.
August nodded even though that sounds scary. The image of being a goat then butchered by her with a knife flashed right in front of his eyes. And it was scarier than those murder documentaries Ailynn made him watch with her.
With a shiver, he looked up at her, and freaked up, "Who is the sacrifice here for the record?" August asked, his legs ready to sprint out of there instantly.
Azrael looked really annoyed now, her patience running out. With a rested face, her gaze fixated on him, "Who do you think?"
At this point, August was ready to run for his life like nothing.
"Of course, me." Azrael completed her sentence, with a shake of the head.
August blinked a few times, his tense muscles calming down. However, his brain couldn't process her words. How is she a sacrifice and not him?
"What?"
Azrael sighed he is really dumb, "See. Valerie told you about marriage, right and who I am?"
"....Grim reaper?"
" Yes and most beautiful women of the Netherworld. So marrying me is a blessing for you but me, it's a sacrifice and even though I am being sacrificed, I want to look gorgeous and for that I need shopping. So stop wasting my time and let's go." Azrael explained and hurried off, ignoring his existence.
"..." August was speechless. He heaved out a sigh at his own misery. Death sounds sweeter than this hell. Five years more of living but at the cost of what? Being a husband of a grim reaper who was a narcissist, a sadist and who knows what else.
"Hurry up!" Azrael's voice echoed through the hall as she was nowhere in sight.
August sighed murmuring to himself as he followed her steps," Congrats August for being an idiot and f**king up again!"
***
Azrael was waiting for him at the steps of the entrance. August came up to her, "Get the car." Azrael ordered handing the keys over to him.
August agreed and walked towards the car park outside. While Azrael remained standing, her gaze focused on his back.
"Still you think he doesn't remind you of him?" The same woman's voice from her bedroom whispered in her ears again.
And this time Azrael can't unsee the uncanny resemblance between them. The years of pain and misery flooded her memory. What a coincidence that he resembles the one she hates the most.
"Do you think it's a coincidence that you got betrothed to him?" She murmured softly.
Azrael didn't answer it, unconsciously her fingers tighten up into fists. Every inch of pain she felt came rushing like it never healed. The wounds that she thought had healed long ago were like fresh cuts.
"Oh, Azrael you are better than this. Don't let them fool you once again." Her shadow disappeared into the air after warning Azrael.
Azrael kept quiet, she heard every word of hers. She also had her own thoughts about it but she was not ready to share the feeling of the past. Looks like she had to meet the three brothers again.
Three brothers of junction— past, present and future. They control the time flow. Sometimes they flow differently in different realms like rivers of their own.
Centuries ago she made a deal with one of them in exchange for something very precious. Something they need the most but looks like someone broke their part of the deal.
And as for Augustus. His fate was already the worst nightmare possible for any human. Born as a human and then his life subscription degraded to him being nothing but a lowly animal of the Netherworld.
"Sorry, little guy. I have to do nothing for the misery your future holds." Azrael quoted to herself with a smile and serene voice.
Just at that moment, August started the car and turned his head to look at her, Azrael put on a sweet smile and walked over to him like nothing ever happened.
She walked up to him, head straight. Her facade was impeccable after centuries of trials. Yet, still a horrified expression the closer she walked up to him was on his face as if he had seen her real face.
Azrael could hold back her curiosity and turn her head to look around to see something she was scared about more than anyone. She looked at her palm then at him with anxiousness as if time stopped then and there.