Chapter 88: The Forgotten Emperor
Azriel
The room plunged into an immediate, heavy silence right after my threat, exactly as I intended.
How dare they threaten Seraphel right in front of me? How dare they talk as if he were merely doing them some kind of grand favor?
Perhaps weeks ago, I wouldn’t have cared about them speaking like this, but not now. Seraphel already meant far too much to me, and I would be damned before I let anything happen to him.
Whatever this feeling was, I didn’t care to analyze it anymore. I just wanted to keep him safe and ensure nothing like the nightmare in Odomos ever touched him again.
"It seems our dear brother has quite a soft spot for the vessel," Sariel pointed out, his voice dripping with a bitter, sharp jealousy that cut cleanly through the quiet room. He glared at me, his amber-gold eyes burning with a deep, ugly resentment that he couldn’t hide even if he tried.
"I suggest you don’t push Azriel too far, Luceriel," Sariel continued, shifting his glaring eyes to meet mine, though the venom in his voice was directed at my entire existence. "He is utterly obsessed with the human. The fucking must be exceptionally good for him to lose his mind like this."
A heavy frown pulled at my face, but as soon as the word left Sariel’s mouth, I glanced down at Seraphel.
His eyes were wide, filled with a mixture of shock and unease, and I felt a sudden, urgent desire to know exactly what was running through his head.m
If I had known my brothers would act like a pack of vultures toward him, I never would have brought him into this room or subjected him to their crude talk.
Since I could no longer read his thoughts directly, I sent my voice straight into his mind through our bond.
Look at me if you don’t want to sit through this meeting anymore. I will take you away from them right now. Are you starving? Do you just need to get out of here? Let me know.
Seraphel lifted his head and looked straight into my eyes.
A quiet wave of relief washed over me. I didn’t want him listening to a single word more, because I knew Luceriel wouldn’t stop with his condescending remarks, and the same went for Sariel.
Both of them were an insufferable pain in the ass, and I wanted them as far away from Seraphel as possible.
I moved to stand up and end this useless gathering myself, but Anomas spoke before I could make a move.
"We cannot use the human as a mere vessel," Anomas stated calmly.
"And why on earth not?" Luceriel muttered, turning toward Anomas before flicking his eyes back to me. He casually reached up, brushed his shoulder, and let out a dry, mocking chuckle. "We are all completely doomed if Elysium sends their elite armies and trained assassins to our realm. If we have a clear opportunity to wipe them out first, we take it, brother."
Luceriel straightened his posture, looking at me with a cold, superior smirk. "I do not care if you have developed some pathetic fondness for the human, but you need to calm down, Azriel. Violence solves nothing when everything we have built over centuries could be lost to Elysium in the blink of an eye. We use the limited resources we have, and that is the only logical way out of this mess."
"Violence?" I scoffed, crossing my arms over my chest. "I am hardly the violent one here." As I said it, I made a point to glare at Lumiel, who immediately raised both of his massive hands in defense, his eyes wide.
"Hey, do not look at me," Lumiel warned, his deep voice carrying a rough, dangerous edge.
I rolled my eyes at Lumiel and turned my focus back to Luceriel. "Seraphel is not just a vessel, and I would appreciate it if you stopped addressing him as one," I warned, my tone dropping into a hard, unyielding register.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Seraphel’s gaze fixed entirely on me. Good. I was the only one in this room he was allowed to look at anyway.
"Seraphel is my mate," I declared clearly, making sure every single Sin in the room heard each word. "And the Child of Prophecy was conceived from my seed. It is my child, not a weapon for any of you or for Elysium to throw into a war. Do not ever look at my child as a tool again."
Beside us, Raziel began clapping his hands together with theatrical delight. With a swift flick of his wrist, a glittering golden fan materialized out of thin air, and he began fanning himself briskly while chuckling under his breath.
"Oh, Azriel, my dear brother," Raziel cooed, pointing the tip of the golden fan toward me with a bright, dramatic smile. "It seems these past few days have changed you completely! Our sweet little human here has captured your heart entirely! You even sliced off a lock of Luceriel’s precious, beautiful hair in a fit of rage!"
Raziel gasped loudly, covering his mouth with the edge of the fan before letting out another light laugh. "That is love! True, magnificent love! I simply have to admire it!"
I rolled my eyes at his dramatic display. "I am not in love..."
The words caught in my throat.
I paused mid-sentence when I noticed Seraphel was still staring at me. Through the bond connecting our souls, a sudden, heavy wave of hurt and disappointment bled into my chest, radiating directly from him.
My heart gave an uncomfortable twist. I knew instantly that his mood had changed because of what I had just said.
"I don’t give a damn whether you are in love with the human or not," Luceriel snapped, completely ignoring my hesitation. "All I care about is how we survive this war—and Taizel, stop chewing like an absolute idiot directly into my ear!"
Taizel, who was leaning against the wall casually stuffing a hand into a pouch, merely shrugged. "I can’t help it. You weren’t in Odomos to see how intense that battle was. I am trying to restore my energy, and I actually spent time making some very interesting pills we could use for the upcoming fight."
Taizel reached into his robes and pulled out several small glass bottles filled with brightly colored tablets. "The red pill is for—"
"If we cannot use the human and the baby as a weapon, then what do you propose we do?" Sariel interrupted sharply, cutting Taizel off before he could drag us into an endless, boring explanation about his strange concoctions.
Sariel coming to our rescue was a rare miracle, as listening to Taizel ramble about his experiments would have wasted what little patience I had left.
Taizel let out a dramatic, disappointed groan, putting his bottles away. "Nobody ever listens to me! Except Uriel, who is sleeping again!"
At the sound of his name, Uriel slowly opened his eyes, let out a massive yawn, and stretched his arms above his head. "What were you all talking about?" he asked groggily.
A collective, exhausted sigh rippled through the room. Even Seraphel let out a quiet sigh beside me, but no one bothered to explain anything to Uriel.
Instead, Anomas stepped into the center of the chamber. He raised a single hand, and a bright, blinding beam of white light shot upward toward the ceiling before settling into a soft glow.
"If we cannot use the vessel directly in battle, then we must train him," Anomas announced calmly. "He possesses a hidden energy within him—a power I am certain Azriel is already aware of, considering how intimate they have been."
Taizel’s head snapped toward us, his eyes widening with intense curiosity as he stared at Seraphel. "Is that true?"
"Back off," I growled in a low, warning tone, pointing a finger directly at Taizel’s face.
"I was only curious about his power!" Taizel muttered defensively, holding up his hands. "A ordinary human shouldn’t possess any latent energy at all. It shouldn’t exist."
Seraphel shifted uncomfortably beside me, his small voice breaking through the heavy atmosphere. "Castiel told me that if I trained, the power would become useful."
The entire room went dead silent.
"Castiel?" every single Sin spoke at once, their voices echoing in unison.
My own eyes widened in shock. It had been centuries since I last heard that name spoken aloud.
Seraphel blinked, looking around at the stunned faces of the Seven Sins. "Do you all know Castiel? You are acting as if I just mentioned someone terrifying."
No one answered him immediately.
Anomas raised his hand again, directing a gentle stream of divine light toward Seraphel. It didn’t hurt him; it simply swept over his body to inspect his spiritual consciousness.
After a long moment of silence, Anomas let out a sharp gasp, his usual calm composure completely breaking.
"He is not lying," Anomas whispered, his voice trembling slightly. "He truly did meet Castiel."
My heart hammered against my ribs at the confirmation. Castiel was not someone terrifying—he was someone who had been forgotten by time itself. Someone we all believed had perished years ago.
"Who is Castiel?" Seraphel asked again, his tone filled with genuine confusion as he looked between us.
Luceriel cleared his throat, his arrogant demeanor briefly slipping as he stared at Seraphel with a strange, unreadable expression.
"Castiel," Luceriel said slowly, "used to be the Supreme Emperor of Elysium."