[ SHE STILL LOVES ME ]

Azura's question strike Abesselom like a knife was stabbed in his head, and he stopped himself from hearing her hurtful thoughts instantly. He knew he had been unfair with Azura. How was he to show his face to her, when he was literally the reason behind her pain. He might not be the one causing her pain, but he blamed himself for her pain because, he failed to protect her when it was needed.

"How long have you known me? He heard her asking, which brought him out of his many thoughts.

"Can you have a seat first?" He said as he wears his robe properly, trying to hide his pain from Azura.

"Were you the one training me on my fire attribute?" Azura asked strictly.

"Please sit first." Abesselom said calmly, patting on the space beside him on the bed for her to sit.

"Were you at the forbidden bridge on the day I went unconscious, and then into the year long comma?" Azura asked, not waiting for him to answer her earlier questions.

"Yes... I was there." Abesselom answered after a while of hesitation.

"Did you attacked the king when he came after us?" She asked strictly again.

"Yes I did, because...." Abesselom tried to explain, but Azura continued with her strict questions.

"Did you caused the fire that sent me into comma?" She asked and Abesselom stood up to get close to her.

" Azura, that was my fault, am sorry but..." Azura lifted her hand to his face, stopping him from getting close to her and explaining what actually happened on that day.

"What I know is enough for me to make my decision." Azura said angrily.

She looked so angry that, Abesselom wondered why the room wasn't hot yet. He could feel her heart beat was calm and her body looked normal. "Has she been training?" He thought as he gaze at her. She was never this good in controlling her temper and the fire in her, not even when he was training her.

" Henceforth, I don't want you to come looking for me again, don't even think of saving me. I promise never to come looking for you. I don't think I can ever trust you again." Azura said and turn to leave. She picked her footwear from the bedside where she had placed it earlier, and headed for the door.

"Azura, please don't go." Abesselom pleaded as he grabbed her from behind by the waist.

He held her family as tears rolled down her germ-like green eyes, but his pleading was meaningless and empty for Azura, who swear not to trust nor see him ever again. Her gaze were soft, but determine as she turned to face Abesselom. She then pulled his hands away from her waist slowly.

Taking steps backwards she turned to live, but Abesselom was quick to hold her by the hand. Her gaze turned from soft to cold and massive, as she faced him again and pulled her hands away from his grip. "Don't you ever dare me again, and if you care to know, you are not the man that I loved, you can never be Enoch." She said furiously.

Abesselom bit on his lower lips as the pain from her words and the wound both reached his heart, and he mumbled helplessly. "So will you live without listening to the whole truth? Are you saying you believe that lying soul more than me?" He knew he shouldn't be angry with Azura, but he was bringing to.

"That lying soul, didn't hide himself from me." Azura retaliated.

Abesselom got irritated by her words, and the wound on his chest was giving him unbearable pain as his heart clinged tightly. He needed to vent his anger and pain on something, if not he feared what he might do to the one who causes it. He fist his right hand and punched it to the floor of the room in anger, and the ground around him collapsed.

Knowing there might be other people down the building, Azura stretched her hand forward and the collapsed ground became still. Slowly she lifted her hands and the ground lifted along with her hand. The floor came back to its original form, as if it had never collapsed.

Abesselom watched as she moved the broken pieces of the ground together, and realized Azura's power worked perfectly even though she was angry. He stood and walked to her slowly, as the pain in his chest begin to intensified with every step he took closer to her.

"Azura, you leaving me is just like torturing me. Why don't you kill me instead." Abesselom said, handing her a dagger he removed from his waist. The wound Azura caused on his chest was giving him unbearable pain, but Azura wasn't making it any easier for him.

"No I wont, because I want you to suffer, just like I did." Azura answered coldly and look at him in the eyes, making him questions himself if it was right that, he stopped himself from hearing her angry thought earlier.

His angelic face was close to hers, closer than she expected. Her heartbeat quicken as its ached in sharp pain. She felt like explaining to him why she was behaving that way. She wanted to tell him she needed to find her destined husband, if she was indeed the real Azura, but feared he wouldn't let her.

Before she could even think of saying anything, Abesselom captured her soft lips in his warm lips. He kissed her forcefully, hungrily and aggressively, with much sweetness and loving gesture, leaving her breathless. Azura wanted to push him off her, but his strong arms held on to her waist family and drag her closer to himself even more.

His soft tongue intertwine with hers intensely, forcing her to respond to his kiss and think about him only. His dust-like sent failed her senses and engulfed her as his demanding lips were controlling hers, devouring the softness and sweetness of her lips, leaving her glowing skin with wants.

Azura could do nothing but to close her teary eyes. She had never tasted such breathless kiss, not even with him as Enoch. She wanted to break free of him, to stop him from getting her mind and emotions messed up. She reached to push him away again, but instead, she found herself wrapping her arms around Abesselom's neck.

Abesselom notice the change in her emotions as she kissed him back, with the same hungry and loving gesture, and he broke from the kiss after a while. Azura gasped for air as their lips parted, and their eyes met. Even after the heat of the kiss, Abesselom's looks were still the same. Beautifully handsome, but cold and expressionless.

"Why... Why are you..." Azura mumbled in a breathy tone, trying to find out why he treated her like that, but before she could finish her statement, Abesselom stopped her with his.

" That was just a punishment, for believing that man over me. I know you won't ever forget this kiss." He said to her teasingly, but all she did was to stare at him in a daze.

" You know how and where to find me." He said and sat back in the nearest sofa, looking at Azura's flushed face.

Azura was fuming with anger, and this time, she was not faking it. She felt her temperature rising and knew it was time for her to go. She stormed out of the room before she could hurt him again, promising never to set foot in the inn again, to even think of seeing him.

Abesselom placed his hand on the wound Azura caused on his chest, trying to ease the pain a bit. Surprisingly, the wound started healing on it own. It was slow, but he could feel it healing. The pain had stopped, and he was sure something might be the reason he was not healing faster, or should he say someone was the reason.

All this while, he was caging his pain trying his best for Azura not to see him in pain. But now that she was gone and he could endure the pain in his room alone, the pain had disappeared like it was never there, leaving the wound to take it time in healing.

It was as though his pain and Azura were connected, and the closer he got to Azura, the more painful his wound became. He moved his robe off his shoulders and moved his fingers along the silk clothe rapped around his arm and shoulder. "She still loves me this much." He whispered to himself and stood up from the sofa.

Just then, he spotted the hair pin Azura used to stab him, still on the floor. He went close to it and pick it up from the floor and gave his eyes a clear view of it. "I know you didn't mean any of your words to me earlier." He said to himself and in the next second, he vanished from the room.

Angrily and impatiently, Azura rushed to descended from the stairs. She looked like a mess from head to toe. Her hanny gold hair was left loose on her shoulder and back, with both dried and fresh tears rolling down her face.

Her gorgeous dress was ripped in various places from the knee downwards, and part of her dress hard red spots like blood. She looked like she had been crying for a while, and her pouffy eyes and face was evidence.

Lora stood up from the sofa immediately she saw Azura coming down the stairs in a messy state. She was thankful the care taker had just left his desk to show a gust his room, and their was no one out there to see Azura in the state she was.

Before Lora could get close to Azura and ask her what happened or why she was in such a state, she disappeared from her sight. Azura was so angry that, she vanished from the inn , leaving Lora behind and thinking.

Lora rushed out of the inn to follow her queen, but there was no way she's could do that on foot. Thankfully, she spotted a man on a horse coming her way, and she waved to get help from him.

Surprisingly the man approached and it was non other than Africh, the son of Azura's stepmother, lady Douglacia from the city of Ambaf. "What are you doing here? You look scared, and pale." Africh asked as he got down from his horse.

"Can you please help me? I need to get to the palace now." Lora asked at the verge of tears.

" Hay, you don't even have to ask, am on my way there anyway. Am visiting my sister eerrm.... The queen. I just wanted to get a room here." Africh said as he held Lora on the shoulder to calm her.

"A room... here? I don't think the queen will won't her brother to stay here on his visit to her, there are many rooms at the palace. Lora said, trying to calm herself.

"I didn't send a message of my arrival, and I don't think it appropriate for me to just go to the palace without letting her know am coming. I came because I heard what happened to her on her return." Africh said.