“Sometimes pain is necessary,” he told me. “In order to claim what’s yours.”
“Now it’s your turn,” Bishop said, pulling my attention over. The bracelet he offered me was made of black leather, the little glass heart filled with blood inset into it.
My eyes widened and I turned to Azrael. I couldn’t do what he just did. I would burn him too much. I would hurt him too much.
“Don’t worry, it’s only a clasp.”
My shoulders fell in relief. I carefully took the bracelet from Bishop, grateful I wouldn’t have to use that flame. I inspected his bracelet, finding the clasps, my own bracelet falling down my wrist a little. Once I located them, I carefully wrapped it aroundhis wrist and clasped it closed before sliding it over and placing the heart right in the center of the top of his wrist, watching the blood settle within it.
I gestured to it, finding his eyes. “Yours,” he told me.
Which meant I had his blood in mine. His lifeblood. Around my wrist for all eternity. The weight of the chain around my wrist seemed so much less now, and it held so much more power. My Hatter’s blood.
Azrael stepped forward then, sliding his antlers around my jaw, forcing my head up as he closed the small distance between us.
My stomach flooded with those electric butterflies as he stopped so close that I had to angle my chin up, his sea scent flooding over me in waves, his eyes as black as my house with all my lights off.
He searched my eyes, warring in his own. If I had to put a name to that war, I would have called it‘Consequences of the Sacrifice’.
This was for the mission, I reminded myself. However, staring into the depths of everything he was, I saw things I didn’t think I was ever meant to see, and it terrified me as much as it nurtured that burning in the pit of my stomach.
He angled his chin ever so slightly, a decision being finalized. “I claim you, Scarlett Harris, until the sun burns my world to ash. From this day forward you listen and obey only me, and I protect and own all of you. Our promise is bound in blood, do you understand that?”
I swallowed, feeling those antlers hugging my jaw, feeling the eyes of everyone in the room on me. He was looking directly into my eyes, so I knew he wouldn’t see me sign. Instead, I nodded, my insides blazing.
“Good.” He searched my eyes for a moment longer before he stepped back, releasing me completely, leaving me breathless, dizzy, and swaying slightly on my feet.
Bishop’s eyes fell on me. “Welcome to our world, Scarlett.”
40
Scarlett
March 26th, 2023
Ididn’t really register anything until after we got into his car. I remembered people talking, commenting on the ceremony, congratulating Azrael only to whisper behind our backs, questioning why I thought I was allowed to look up or sign my words. About how much of a whore I was for wearing something like this outside of the Back Hall.
But now we were finally in the car, driving down the road, three bikes around us, revving their engines every now and again as if to tell us that they were still present.
I watched the motorcycle in my side mirror keep close behind us, not allowing anyone to cut between him and the car as we drove. The mirror said that he was closer than he appeared, but I wasn’t sure how that worked. He looked kind of far to me, and wouldn’t he have to be to keep the cars away from us?
When the buildings and houses turned into thick forests, that’s when I finally looked over. I waved my hand until Azrael looked over.“What are they doing?”
Azrael turned back to the road. “Making sure someone from the church doesn’t do something stupid.”
I leaned back in my chair. Would they? Perhaps they would. They really didn’t like what Azrael had done. Taking me awayfrom them and then the ceremony. Would they really try to follow us to figure out where I now lived though? They had lost that control, they had to have been angry. They would never see me again outside of church—
My eyes widened and I looked over, getting his attention again.“Someone said that the other churches want to see me,”I told him.“The…E.L.D.E.R.S. also want to see me.”
Azrael studied me for a moment, his brows lifting a bit before he turned back to the road. “Now that you’re married off, they want to see what all the talk was about,” he replied. “That could work in our favor, little sinner.”
We slipped into silence then, my eyes trained on the forest outside the window. I had never seen much of the outside world, more so since Azrael helped me break out of the church’s habits, but this?
The trees were sogreen. This dark, haunted kind of green. It was stormy today, the sky grey and black. The smell of rain filled the world as we continued to drive down this winding two lane road, the only people on it being us and the brothers.
“Why are we so deep in the woods?”I asked without looking over.
Azrael must have been looking at me because he answered a second later. “It’s easier to hide and the best place for me to conduct business is a place where if the soundproofing ever fails, the screams still won’t find any ears.”
