Chapter 14

Azazel.

Even in my mind, the name felt like cold fingers around my spine.

Rowan’s kettle hissed over the fire, but it didn’t calm the shaking under my skin. I kept my hands hidden beneath the blanket, pressing them against my ribs as if I could physically contain the panic.

My body still felt wrong — like something inside me hadn’t fully settled since the garden yesterday. Like the earth itself was breathing beneath my feet.

Rowan didn’t turn around, but his voice came low and steady.

“You don’t have to explain what your mother said.”

My throat almost closed. “How do you know she said anything?”

He gave a soft breath that might’ve been a laugh. “Because you look like someone suddenly waiting for the world to collapse.”

I almost smiled. Almost.

But the name echoed again.

Azazel.

Searching for you.

I stared at my mother’s sleeping face, trying to breathe past the tightness in my chest.

Rowan set the kettle aside and moved toward us. “The tea’s ready. I’ll help her drink it when she wake