#emrys au

[xwildheart]

@intheirabsence​​ !

one week after that event, hazel’s engagement to julian was announced everywhere. and now, just a week after that, the day of the wedding had arrived. two weeks, the princess had two weeks of sneaking out every night to meet grant, to learn to be able to defend herself. they had almost been caught twice, and each night her feelings for him grew more and more. she was able to learn a few things, but she knew neither of them were happy with how little time they got. not long before the start of the ceremony, emrys made his way up to his sisters room, wanting to make sure she was fairing well enough. he felt like he had barely seen her in the last two weeks, since she was constantly being dragged around for this and that. 

he was able to speak to her, try and give her some words of encouragement, that she would be okay, that if he could stop it for her he would. that last one was whispered in her ear as he hugged her, out of ear shot from their mother. emrys had tried to find eden after that but couldn’t find her, assuming she would have been setting up in the ball room for the reception. they had spent nearly every night since the ball sneaking to see each other, mostly to talk but also sharing a few more stolen kisses.

hazel was not fairing well. she had been fine up until today, had been able to push the thoughts from her mind. pretend it wasn’t really happening. but now it was unavoidable. she was about to marry a man she despised. tomorrow she would be leaving the only home she had ever known, leaving behind the man she truly loved and couldn’t even tell him that she did. she tried to let emrys’s words sink in, let them calm her down but didn’t work as well as they both had hoped. 

the next hour flew by even faster and before she knew it, the king was walking her down the aisle straight to julian. he looked handsome enough, but she knew better than to believe the pretty lie he painted for everyone else in the room. the prince had a temper, one he hadn’t been afraid to show her one night during the week of their engagement. she had never told grant about it or her mother for that matter, because her mother wouldn’t care. and she didn’t want to worry grant with it. she would be okay, she could handle herself now. at least she hoped.

the ceremony droned on, and the princess could feel her panic rising more and more, hands clasped together before her to try and keep them from shaking. every moment she could steal she was scanning the crowd for her knight. for grant. for him to come and save her from this. ‘your highness?’ came the voice of the priest, and hazel blinked, looking over to him. they were staring at her and it was clear she had been asked a question. ‘do you take prince julian as your lawfully wedded husband?’ the priest asked again. she was about to open her mouth to respond but the words got caught in her throat.

[xwildheart]

:ONE YEAR LATER :

@intheirabsence​

one year. one very long year later, which was saying something considering they were immortal​. hazel never stayed too far away though, far enough to be undetected, but closer enough that she could still keep an eye on the home. over time her wounds had healed, her magic able to close them, bring some of her strength back. she never once regretted not taking the power eden had offered her. she would have killed the poor girl if she had, and too much dark had already befallen all four of them that she couldn’t have bared anymore.

 she could walk normally, with the occasional stiffness. the scars on her shoulder had dulled to white, though sometimes she had phantom pain. stay among humans long enough and you started to feel like you were one of them. she had a home, a garden she tended to, she kept to herself, all the while trying to find a way to get back to that home, to get back to him.

the only kind thing emrys did in that year was pull grant out of the hellhound form not long after hazel had disappeared into the woods, after eden had shifted and ran off to hell knows where. he may have been a monster, but he was aware of the mental strain that the hunter would go through if he stayed a hound, and well, he still needed the hunter to do his bidding. grant was still confined to the house when he wasn’t needed.

 what he wasn’t expecting was to feel as hollow as he did. the god always felt hollow, but this was different, a deeper, wider hole in his black soul. he had grown fond of the girl’s company. of having his sister home and by his side. 

but the god of death was still just that. everything he touched, everything he came to know, to like, to love, was burned to ashes at his feet. over the millennia he had tried to change, tried to be different, but he always fell back into his dark ways. emrys spoke only when he needed to now, voice almost foreign to him every time.  today was no different. one of his men was talking to him when outside there was howling. cerberus perked up from his corner in the office, growling lowly. emrys stood, walking to the window, the howling and barking growing louder. ‘wolves?’ the other man in the room asked. emrys turned away from the window, moving as quick as he could to the front doors.

[xwildheart]

just a little chat between siblings for my love @intheirabsence

closing the door behind her, hazel looked to her brother for a long moment before she spoke. ‘I should hate you. I should tear you apart for what you did to him. to me. me hades. heaven’s above after everything i’ve done for you? you sent the man i love after me as a hellhound. he’s scared to touch me, hades. i have fang marks in my shoulder because you couldn’t handle the possibility that someone else may come before you in my eyes. you’re lucky you didn’t drive him mad, or that his lack of sleep over the last year didn’t do that for you.’ 

she took a few deep breaths, trying to calm down. it wasn’t going to be worth it for them to get in a screaming match. “it was cruel-” she started. “it was cruel. perhaps the cruelest thing i have ever done to a soul that has a contract with me.’ emrys said quietly. hazel’s face contorted into anger.

‘remove the hound emrys.. give him his soul back, give him his life back. make him forget that it ever happened, please. let him live on in peace.’ hazel demanded angrily, because damnit she was furious at him right now.

“you love him that much do you?” emrys nearly interrupted her, and it made her pause, features softening just a little. ‘more than anything.’ she said softly, and emrys knew she meant it. he’d never heard her say it before.  he had known the goddess to have felt a fondness for one or two over the centuries, but never love.

 ‘are you going to make him immortal?’ he asked her and hazel gave him an all knowing look. ‘that’s his choice. if he truly want’s it, i’ll give it to him and if not, i’ll stay with him until his life is over, and i’ll guide him where he needs to go.’ hazel didn’t even want to think about that. if grant wasn’t immortal, his life would pass her by so quickly. years were like minutes to a god. she could blink and he could be gone, but she would never force grant to do anything. it was selfish of her to think that what he’d told her at their very first meeting would be something he’d still want a year later, after everything he had been through.

‘hazel you don’t ever need to forgive me. i know what i did was unredeemable. i took advantage of you.’ emrys said to her. ‘you’re right, you’ve been the only one to stay by my side since zeus. you didn’t deserve any of my anger. i just...i’ve needed you around for so long... and you’re right. that hunter will come before anyone else. and that... that is okay. we are thousands of years old. you out of the two of us deserve to not be alone anymore.’ 

all of this was so hard for the god of death. ‘she changed you.’ hazel said to him, and he stared at her for a long time in silence, unable to speak of the wolf currently asleep in front of the fireplace. ‘for the better i might add.’ and hazel smiled at him softly.

emrys took a few steps towards his sister, hand reaching out to take hold hers. ‘i’ll let him go. for you.’ and with that he left the room, leaving hazel stood in the office smiling after him.