Pregnant by the Prince of Lust(BL)

Azriel

I knotted him three times until we were both panting in each other’s arms, and for a few moments we simply lay there, cooling off from our exhaustion, before I turned toward him again, tilting his chin up to face me.

"Are you all right?" I asked softly.

Seraphel nodded, stretching lazily and yawning. "I feel better," he said, yawning again. "It’s so nice to see you again," he told me, placing his hand over my chest and leaning in even closer, as though afraid I might vanish if he let go.

Silence settled between us again.

Then he lifted his head and met my eyes. "Is everything all right?"

I let out a long breath, dragging a hand slowly down my face before shaking my head.

"Luceriel informed me that you have been struggling to open your first stage."

"Oh." The disappointment in his voice was plain, and I couldn’t help but wonder if he was blaming himself for what had happened to him.

"Are you steady enough to sit up?" I asked.

He nodded.

I rose from the bed first, settling myself cross-legged on the sheets, then drew him up gently until he sat facing me, his legs crossed to mirror mine.

"I do not know whether the trouble lies in your gates remaining closed," I said, "but I have to try this regardless, and find a way into your sea of consciousness. Is that agreeable?"

He nodded in response, and I leaned closer, cupping the back of his head gently and drawing him toward me until our foreheads touched.

The moment our skin met, the world around me dissolved into a vast, dark blue ocean, endless in every direction, its surface strange enough to stand upon.

Before me floated the same white lotus I had glimpsed the very first time I entered his sea of consciousness, only now it had grown far larger than I remembered.

Yet where its petals had once burned with steady, brilliant light, they now glowed faintly, dimly, as though something had reached in and smothered it deliberately.

Unease coiled tight in my chest as I stared at it, and a moment later I gasped and pulled sharply back from his forehead.

"Is everything all right?" Seraphel demanded, pulling back to stare at me with curiosity.

I shook my head and placed my hands on his shoulders. "Did anything happen during your training while I was away? Did something—"

He shook his head. "Did you see something?"

"The white lotus in your sea of consciousness is glowing faintly, as if its power has been limited."

"But I Can still use the light of Castiel," he answered, lifting his fingers gently as a soft light appeared in his palm.

I stared at it, noticing at once how much more powerful it had grown since I’d last seen it. That insufferable, arrogant Luceriel had sworn to provide him with the finest masters in Verolona to guide his cultivation, and yet somehow the light had only grown stronger while steadily draining him instead.

I reached out, took Seraphel’s hand, and pressed my palm flat against the light cradled in his.

Seraphel screamed the instant blood began welling from my palm, dripping steadily down my wrist, the light burning fierce enough to reduce nearly anything to ash.

"What the hell are you doing!" Seraphel demanded, frowning, yanking his hand back from mine at once. "You shouldn’t be doing this to yourself. Castiel’s light is not—"

"I know," I told him, staring down at my palm. Even that brief touch had been enough to turn my flesh nearly to dust, and yet within seconds it was already healing. "That’s strange," I murmured, examining the wound.

Seraphel gave me a questioning look, and I held out my palm for him to see. "I should not be healing this quickly, not with how powerful Castiel’s light has become. And yet I am, which can only mean the power is growing accustomed to me."

"Growing accustomed to you? Explain that in a way I can actually understand."

"Do you remember the curse Mirevale placed on me?"

He nodded.

"For no reason at all, it simply vanished after you left, and I assumed it was because you were no longer near me. But every night since, when I came to your room..."

"Every night? You’ve been coming to Verolona?"

I nodded, scratching the back of my head as I let slip the one secret I should have kept to myself.

"So for the past two months I’ve been missing you, you’ve been coming to watch me sleep?"

"I could not bear to stay away from you for so long," I answered, reaching out to touch his face, bracing myself for him to be furious, to demand why I hadn’t told him. But he said nothing. He only leaned into my palm.

I reached instinctively through the bond, searching for the hurt I expected to find there, some flicker of betrayal or resentment, but there was nothing at all. The bond simply sat quiet between us, undisturbed, as though I had done nothing wrong. "So you are not angry with me about this?"

Seraphel reached up and cupped my face. "Why the hell would I be angry about it? I’m not. I’m just surprised I never felt your presence, and didn’t realize you were always by my side."

"Had you passed through the first stage already, you would have sensed it yourself."

Seraphel lowered his head, and through the bond I felt the sadness settle heavy in his chest, quiet and aching.

I leaned in and pulled him into my arms.

"It is all right. I have you now, and I will help you through the first stage."

"How?" he demanded, pulling away from my chest to look me in the eye. "What do I have to do to get through the first stage?"

I cleared my throat, shifting on the bed, and held up my palm, now fully healed. "I know I heal faster than most because I am a sin, but with Castiel’s light, I should have been hurt far worse than I was. It didn’t harm me the way I expected.

And when I mentioned Mirevale’s curse, I began to wonder if that was connected, either to why it vanished so suddenly, or to why I’ve suddenly been able to draw on a little more of my demon power."