Chapter 6: Elysium
637 Words
[Azrael POV]
We ran until my lungs burned.
Which is impressive, considering I’m literally made of hellfire.
Aurelius didn’t let go of my hand.
Not once.
When we finally stopped, we were somewhere else.
Not Heaven. Not Hell.
The air was... quiet. No choirs. No screaming. Just wind and old stone.
Elysium.
I’d heard stories. The lost realm. Where angels and demons used to live together before the split.
It was supposed to be a myth.
It wasn’t.
White columns, cracked. Black statues, broken. Gardens overgrown with silver and red flowers growing from the same vine.
It was beautiful. And dead.
“What is this place?” Aurelius whispered. He finally let go of my hand.
I immediately missed the warmth.
“Home,” I said before I could stop myself. “Or what it used to be.”
He looked at me. “You’ve been here before?”
“Once. When I was a kid. Dad brought me to show me what happens to traitors.”
I kicked a rock. “Guess I’m one now.”
Aurelius flinched. “We’re not traitors.”
“We disobeyed direct orders and ran off together.” I raised a brow. “What would you call it?”
He didn’t answer.
We walked. The silence was loud.
Every step echoed.
I could hear his breathing. Careful. Like he was afraid I’d disappear.
“Are you hurt?” he asked suddenly.
“No.”
“Liar.”
I stopped. “What?”
“You’re limping.” He pointed at my leg. There was a cut I hadn’t noticed. From running. “Sit.”
“Bossy.”
“Sit, Azrael.”
I sat. On the steps of what used to be a temple.
He knelt in front of me. Again.
Just like at the border.
But this time he didn’t have holy cloth.
He tore a strip from his sleeve instead.
It hissed when it touched me. But he didn’t stop.
“Does it burn?” I asked.
“A little.”
“Then why—”
“Because you’re bleeding.”
Simple. Like it explained everything.
And maybe it did.
When he finished, his fingers lingered on my ankle for half a second too long.
I didn’t pull away.
“You dropped your weapon for me,” I said. Quiet.
“You dropped yours for me,” he said back.
“Stupid.”
“Yeah.”
We looked at each other.
The ruins around us felt like they were holding their breath.
“Azrael,” he said.
“What.”
“If they find us—”
“They won’t.”
“But if they do.”
“Then we fight. Together.”
His eyes widened a little. “Together.”
“Together,” I repeated.
The word felt dangerous.
It felt like a promise.
I don’t know who moved first.
Maybe it was the way the light hit his hair.
Maybe it was how tired he looked.
Maybe it was 300 years of being told I wasn’t allowed to want something.
I leaned in.
He didn’t pull back.
Our lips brushed.
Chaste. Hesitant. Like we were both waiting for lightning to strike us down.
It didn’t.
When we pulled apart, he was staring at me like I’d just spoken in tongues.
“I—”
“Don’t,” I said. “Don’t apologize.”
“I wasn’t going to.”
Good.
Because I wasn’t sorry either.
From somewhere far away, we heard it.
A horn. Then another.
They were searching.
Aurelius stood immediately. Held out his hand.
“Come on.”
I took it.
“Where to now?”
“Anywhere,” he said. “As long as it’s with you.”
And we disappeared deeper into Elysium.
Two fugitives. One kiss.
And a whole world that wanted us dead.
- Writer
