Seraphina's POV
Azrael crouched beside me, studying my face like I was a puzzle he couldn't wait to unravel. His scent was intoxicating spiced wine and death. Everything about him was wrong, but compelling. I hated that part of me stirred under his gaze. Hated it more because he knew.
You feel it,he whispered. The call You're not like them. Kael's turned you, but not completely. That hunger inside you it's not his. It's ours.
"I'm nothing like you," I spat on his face with anger.
Lilith knelt beside him, her smile soft and cruel. Not yet. But you will be. And when Kael comes for you, you'll see the truth. He's not your salvation, Seraphina. He's the reason this all began.
My pulse raced. "Why are you doing this?"
Azrael leaned in until his breath ghosted over my lips. His voice was silk laced with venom. "Because vengeance is the only language Kael understands. He stole everything from me so I'll take everything from him so he can know how pain felt like, specially to someone he treasure most.
He said smiling, but what is see in his face what not smile but pain, a deep one.
His thumb brushed my lower lip. I turned my head, bile rising in my throat.
He chuckled. "You'll beg for my touch soon enough. The blood will call for it. And when you surrender that's when he'll break."
"No," I growled, even as fear coiled in my stomach. "He'll kill you both before that ever happens."
Lilith laughed. "Kill us? Darling, I taught Kael everything he knows. And Azrael? He's more than Kael's match. He's the storm that Kael was too afraid to become.
The cathedral pulsed with ancient magic. The floor beneath me vibrated as blood runes glowed faintly beneath the surface. Candles hissed. Shadows whispering in voices I couldn't understand.
I wasn't just a prisoner.
I was the center of something.
Something dark.
And then I heard it.
Faint. Barely more than a whisper.
Kael.
My head snapped up. Azrael noticed and smiled.
He's here, he said, standing slowly like a god preparing for war.
"I never knew kael love you this much, the women kael have love and married since over the centuries. You are the one he love this much. That is ready to risk his own life." which will make it easier for me to get him.
"He said laughing."
Lilith's eyes glinted with malice and jealousy. "Then let's make him bleed."
Kael's POV
The moment I felt her bond flare with fear, everything else vanished.
I tore through the city like a shadow born of fury nothing could stand in my way. Not the crowd. Not the sirens. Not the goddamn walls of mortal architecture. I felt her absence like a hole in my chest, every beat of her heart echoing too far away.
Seraphina was gone.
I crashed through the iron gates of the abandoned cathedral with enough force to shatter the stone. Dust and blood filled my senses. The magic here reeked of Lilith twisted, seductive, deadly.
A snarl tore from my throat as I stepped into the dark sanctuary.
Then I saw him.
Azrael.
The bastard stood at the altar like a dark priest, Seraphina at his feet, her wrists bound in blood-forged cuffs, her skin too pale.
"Welcome again kael".
"You shouldn't have come here," Azrael said, voice like thunder. "But I hoped you would."
"You took what's mine." I stepped closer. The runes beneath my feet flared, trying to bite at my power. Now I'll take your fucking head.
"Still possessive," he sneered. "You always were. Even when you slaughtered my family."
"I didn't.
"Shut the fuck up you Liar!" he roared, shadows writhing behind him. "You burned their house to the ground. I buried my sister with my own hands!"
The rage in his voice cracked the stained glass windows. But I didn't flinch. I looked at Seraphina her trembling body, her wide eyes locked onto me like I was her last breath of hope.
My voice softened. "I'm here, love. I've got you."
Azrael's shadows launched toward me.
I met them head-on.
Seraphina's POV
My wrists ached from the cursed cuffs, burning cold against my skin. I couldn't move, couldn't scream. Only watch.
Kael stood like a fallen angel, fury dripping from him in waves as he stared down Azrael. The man who had taken me. The man whose eyes screamed vengeance and madness.
"You took what's mine," Kael said, his voice low, trembling with rage. "You won't leave this place alive."
Azrael laughed, cruel and hollow. "Still clinging to your toy? I wonder if she'll stay so loyal after she learns what you really did."
Kael didn't respond. His gaze was locked on me his beautiful, terrifying red eyes glowing in the moonlight that spilled through the broken stained glass.
I mouthed his name. Kael please.
And then the world ignited.
Azrael struck first shadows lashing from his hands like whips of darkness. Kael countered with a burst of red-hot energy, forcing Azrael back. The room shook. Stone cracked. Fire licked the edges of the altar as power surged between them.
I couldn't breathe.
The fight was violent, brutal. A clash of two ancient powers, both feral in their hatred. I watched Kael bleed. A deep gash across his ribs opened under Azrael's blade, blood soaking his black shirt.
"No!" I screamed, the sound raw, torn from my throat.
Kael faltered.
Azrael took advantage, hurling him across the sanctuary. Kael hit the wall with a sickening crack, slumping for just a heartbeat too long.
Too long.
"KAEL!" I cried, straining against the cuffs until blood welled from my wrists. My heart pounded. Panic blurred my vision. I needed to move. To help.
But everything spun.
The smell of blood, the magic, the adrenaline it was too much. My knees buckled. I collapsed against the cold floor as dizziness overtook me. The world tilted.
"Stay with me, little flame," Kael's voice echoed faintly.
I barely registered him rising again, rage giving him new strength.
But I saw it his expression when he looked at me, saw me crumpled, bleeding, breathless.
It changed him.
He unleashed hell.
Seraphina's POV
Everything was red.
Fire. Blood. Shadows.
Kael's eyes glowed like twin suns, but colder and dangerous this time. He wasn't human anymore. He was wrath incarnate.
Azrael staggered back, coughing blood, yet still grinning. "You think this ends here?"
Kael's shadows twisted and surged around him, summoned by fury and something ancient.
"You touched what's mine," Kael growled.
From the corner of my blurry vision, I saw her Lilith, watching silently from the shadows of the high arches. Her lips curled into a smile, fingers tracing symbols in the air. Feeding Azrael. Feeding all of this making things complicated.
I wanted to scream to warn Kael but my voice caught in my throat.
He didn't see her. Not yet.
Kael's hand rose, swirling with crimson light. The attack struck Azrael with brutal precision, slamming him against the stone and pinning him there with writhing shadows. The room trembled.
Azrael's scream shook the walls. But it wasn't a death cry.
Lilith's eyes gleamed as she whispered something. A glyph beneath Azrael pulsed. Suddenly, he vanished in a burst of smoke not dead, just gone.
Kael collapsed to his knees beside me. "Seraphina. Look at me. Please."
"I I saw her," I whispered, dazed. "Lilith. She was here."
Kael stiffened. "No
"She helped him," I said. "He didn't die. He escaped."
Kael's jaw clenched. " I know he didn't it's not over yet."
He lifted me into his arms, and behind us, the shadows stirred once more. Lilith stood at the ruins of the altar, watching.
"This is just the beginning," she whispered into the silence. "Enjoy your illusion of peace while it lasts."
She said smiling dangerous