Page 195 of Venom Sweeter than Honey
“I’d spent too much time there, and needed to go back to my realm—when I’m away from my domains for too long, my power and the vitality of my realms becomes jeopardized…”
He pauses for a moment, gaze growing distant, before he manages a sad smile.
“When I returned, only just under a year had passed in my realms, but on earth, fourty-four years had passed since she’d committed suicide to avoid becoming Octavian’s captive.”
This man has spent his entire lifelivingmy actual nightmare in perpetuity.
The urge to hold Azrael in my arms is borderline painful.
“Was Octavian still alive when you arrived?”
Setting down the pomegranate, fingers drenched in a bloody hue from its juices, his gaze darkens.
“Akashlent me the small mercy that he was. I ensured that his death was not swift, nor merciful. Though history will tell you it was from natural causes or that his wife poisoned him.”
The silence that settles between us is heavy, and he gradually returns his attention to the pomegranate.
My heart sinks as I speak the words, somehow intuitively knowing the answer.
“Are you able to visit her in one of your realms?”
He shakes his head as the stiff flesh of the fruit cracks beneath his fingers.
“She isn’t in either of my realms. She’s in Mors’ realm.”
Fuck.
I close the distance even as I hold back from asking anymore questions. He answers them anyway.
“A neighboring death god that, in many ways, is like an estranged brother to me. The dead of this world find their karma in Avernus–whether it be good or bad.”
He tosses the quartered pomegranate peels into the garbage before looking up at me again. The expression on his face suddenly grim with determination.
“While we’re on the topic of death... I would like to offer my blood to you as well. When the time comes.”
Emotion clogs my throat.
He cares what happens to me?
“Why?”
His throat dips again. Expression softening.
“I am an eternal, primordial god. At the very least, my blood would make you... less vulnerable. I might even selfishly hope that it might persuade some essential part of you to find me when, many millenia from now, you go to Mors’ afterrealm and are ready to reincarnate.”
Again, I feel this weight, drawing us together. Like gravity bending, shortening the distance between us.
His eyes dip to my lips, now only a foot or so away from his.
I feel like my heart is being gripped inhishand. I barely manage to draw breath as I hover in the space between fear and fuck it.
My brows tense as I draw in a steadying breath. “Az…”
Insecurity causes his gaze to falter, and he quickly passes me the knife handle-first.
“Here, wanna finish cutting up the fruit while I check on the quiche?”
If my heart wasn’t squeezing in pain, I’d laugh at the revelation that the God of Death makesquiche.
