He lowered himself until he was level with her, his eyes like a branding iron against her skin. "What the fuck are you doing here?" He demanded.
Nymiria's blood ran cold. She glanced around nervously at her garden, at the visible indent on the earth where she had been sleeping, before looking at him again. "I'm sorry. I must have fallen asleep. I didn't mean to—"
"No." He snarled. "Why thefuckare you sleepingon my mother's grave?"
The moment the words left his mouth, Nymiria shot to her feet in horror. "Grave?"
"Yes, hergrave. Are you hard of hearing?" He brushed past her, sinking to the earthen floor and moving his hands around in the flowers. When he stopped his search, Nymiria trembled as she watched him rip her flowers from the soil and clear away the grass until a headstone was clearly visible underneath. She clapped her hand over her mouth, eyes wide with worry as Aziel stood and turned to her again. "Who gave you the right to be here?" He demanded. "Who gave you the fucking key to that gate?"
Once again, these Yaarboroughs had her at a loss for words. She hated it. How one harsh look could have her scrambling to find what she so desperately wanted to say. "Dorid. King Dorid." Her first initial thought was to tell him to fuck off, that she was innocent and had no idea what was buried underneath all of those flowers. But the king's name was all that she could muster.
Aziel hissed something under his breath before shoving his gloved hands into his hair, fisting the silver locks and tugging at them angrily. "That motherfucker—" He slammed his fist into the iron gate and Nymiria stumbled back when she saw the dent that the force of his fist left behind.
"I hardly see how causing yourself pain will fix this situation." She could have slapped herself. Now wasnotthe time for that betrayal of a tongue in her mouth to get her into even more trouble. And when Aziel whirled to her and shot her the most venomous stare she'd ever seen in her life, she flinched. "I'm sorry. Don't listen to me. Sometimes I say things before I can think it through. In fact, there have been multiple people in my life who've told me that I am quite impulsive. There was one time that I accidentally called one of your father's advisors a pompous asshole in front of a whole congregation of people. And! I also told the queen to shut—" His eyes turned to slits as she spoke. Her breaths quickened and she shot him an apologetic smile as she snapped her mouth shut, holding her hand up to her lips to signify that she was done talking.
"DidKing Doridtell you what this place was?" She shook her head in response. "How did you get in possession of that key?" He pointed to the chain around her neck, eyes homed in on the key that dangled in the space between her breasts.
"He gifted it to me. All he said was that I should make this place beautiful—that it hadn't been properly cared for in years."
Aziel shook his head. "Of course he didn't take care of it. She was always an afterthought… always a burden that he couldn't be bothered with." His eyes dropped to the flowers he'd ripped out of the ground and his face softened for a fraction of a second, but when their eyes met again, he was back to glaring at her as if all of this was her fault. "Give me that key." He extended his hand in her direction. Nymiria could only stare at it, her brow furrowed.
She shook her head. "No. This is my garden. I have worked too hard—" Her voice broke off into a gasp as he lunged for her, but Nymiria was quick to react. She dodged his hand by mere seconds and it was out of sheer instinct that her fist connected with the column of his neck, in that protruding place between his chin and chest. Aziel coughed and gagged, fingers going up to his throat as he tried to draw in even breaths. Nymiria felt fear surge through her veins as she slowly backed herself into the corner of the fence. "I am so,sosorry. You startled me."
She was going to be hanged. Or beheaded. Or both. There was absolutely no way she'd be able to escape the fate of this—she'd just punched him in the gods-damned throat.
"You—"Aziel extended a finger in her direction, his teeth bared as he charged towards her once again. "You are a vicious little creature. You should've been thrown into those camps with the rest of them."
"What's stopping you from taking me to them now?" Nymiria countered. "Go on and throw me into one of those prison wagons and cart me off, then!"
"You aren't worth the trouble."
She hissed as she lunged towards him, something wicked and hot burning through the center of her chest that made her forget who she was talking to. There was this rage deep inside of her, a hatred in her bones that she didn't recognize. Itfelt territorial…vicious. Nymiria didn't realize how close Aziel was to her in that moment, her vision blackened by the insatiable desire to protect. "I'm not worthanything." She growled.
Aziel watched her for a moment, assessing every inch of her face as if it were the first time he'd ever seen her. After a few torturous seconds of him being so close, of feeling the oily aura of death that radiated from him, he finally moved away from her. His hands were in fists at his sides, the muscle in his jaw working up and down as he ground his teeth. Nymiria felt the strong urge to strike him again, to dig her teeth into his throat and rip through his veins. A twinge of fear sparked inside of her at the thought and she curled her fingers around the iron bars of the fence as if it would keep her from acting out her desires.
"If there is any good left in you, Nymiria… take care of her grave. That is all I ask. And don't forget her name."
What she just did would have surely gotten her lashings, at the very least, but Aziel didn't even demand for her to follow him as he left. He merely brushed his hair out of his eyes and walked out of the open gate as if nothing happened. She couldn't understand it. She couldn't understandanythingthat'd just happened, other than the fact that Dorid had gifted her a grave for her birthday and not something that was her own.
She wasn't angry about this place being a grave, but she waslividat the fact that he hadn't told her. She'd have treated this place with much more love and care had she known that this was also someone else's final resting place. And while she understood Aziel's anger and that he was certainly entitled to his feelings, she knew that she did not deserve to be the recipient of his frustrations. Someone she loved was buried here, too.
But that anger she felt… that overwhelming, wild, and animalistic rage that'd flared through her, made her shudder with fear.
Nymiria tugged her robe around her body, ashamed that Aziel had seen her in nothing, but a flimsy cotton shift that was still damp with rain. With a frownat the crumpled and destroyed flowers, she drew in a deep breath and exited her garden and walked back towards the palace.
"You didwhat?!" Desiree exclaimed loudly, earning a couple of confused glances from the people passing them on the street.
Nymiria felt like crawling under one of the market stalls and hiding from the world. Instead, she lowered her head and drew in a shameful sigh. "I punched him in the throat."
The boisterous laugh that escaped her friend's mouth was something that Nymiria certainly did not expect. And though she should have felt ashamed for her actions, she couldn't help smiling at the memory of Aziel Haze clutching at his throat and gasping for air. "Oh, this isrich. This is absolutely delightful. I have never wanted to hug you so badly in the ten years that I've known you." Desiree clutched her stomach as another fit of laughter shook through her frame. When she was finally standing upright again, she clapped Nymiria on the shoulder and heaved a tired sigh. "I would pay good money to see you do it again."
"Not happening!" Nymiria gasped. "I got lucky this time. Next time, he'll probably string me up by my toes and flay my skin from my body."
"Always with such a vivid imagination." Desi shook her head, her tight black curls bouncing around her head. "I highly doubt he'd lay a finger on you."
Nymiria began to protest, but Desi was right. Even when she struck him, he hadn't harmed her. The only time he touched her was when he brushed past her to reach his mother's grave. Even then, it was accidental. "He's rude."
"He's a tormented soul. Anyone who experienced what he had to go through would surely have some behavioral problems, don't you think?"
