Chapter 73
Azriel
Pain has become a companion. Not a visitor. My pain is a permanent resident.
I hang suspended by chains of obsidian. Wings bleeding. Arms stretched above me. Ankles bound below. Blood trickles down from the fresh wounds in my palms, where Mara has nailed me to the wall of her private chamber.
The worst part isn’t the searing pain. Not the spikes through my neck. Not the that never get the chance to heal.
e–deep ache in my torn wings
No, the worst part is knowing she’s watching.
Mara paces in front of me. My eyes are locked on the hem of her black gown sweeping the f
herself like she’s at a tea party, not torturing the last living male of her bloodline.
“Do you remember our brother, Azriel?” she asks sweetly, almost childlike.
My jaw clenches. I say nothing.
She hums to
She tilts her head, smiling. “Rhinoa was such a delicate thing. So full of hope. You were his favorite.”
Still, I don’t respond. My strength is fading. But my will…my will still belongs to me.
She saunters closer, running a clawed finger down my cheek. Like I’m her favorite toy. As if my pain amuses her. “It was so easy to snap his neck. Like twisting the stem off a flower.”
I snarl, the shadows inside me coming to the surface. They want me to snap and curl around me.
Mara hisses at them. “Still clinging to your nightmare powers, are you? They won’t save you. Neither will they save
your slutty mate. Not from me.”
I grit my teeth and spit blood at her feet. “You will never touch her.”
Mara laughs. It’s soft. Melodic. Terrifying.
“Oh, brother. That’s the beauty of it. I don’t have to be her ending. You will.”
She circles me, speaking into my ear, her voice venom wrapped in silk. “You see, I’ve sent someone very special to find your little fox. Someone you trusted. Someone who pretends to owe you a favor.”
I freeze.
Cedar.
My insides twist.
“You think he still serves you?” Mara whispers. “How naive. You forget, Azriel, power always demands payment.
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Did you think Cedar wouldn’t want more?”
I say nothing and Mara laughs.
The seashell might be your gift to him, but Cedar, like every high–fae, is greedy. He wanted more. So, I told him that I could give him an important place in the Nightmare court if he helped me betray you.”
My stomach turns.
Mara grins. “You gave him a gift, and I taught him how to use it. You trained your own spy.”
No.
No. No. No.
She touches the ragged remains of my wing and digs her fingers into the raw flesh.
I scream.
The shadows recoil.
She leans in, lips brushing my ear. “And the best part, brother? Now I get to kill you both, but I won’t kill you yet. I will torture you and she will feel it. Every scream. Every tear. Your precious mate feels it all.”
I sag against the chains, breathless.
Mara pulls away, admiring her bloody fingers. “I’ll eat her heart, you know. After your beloved Cedar deliver her to me. When you break. And you will break, Azriel.”
She exits the room, leaving me alone in the cold, flickering torchlight.
Silence falls.
Except for the whispers.
The shadows return. Stronger now. They coil around my arms, my legs, my chest. Whispering. Promising.
Power. Revenge. Salvation.
“You want to kill my sister,” I whisper.
The shadows swirl. They don’t deny it,
But they offer me something else in a vision. There’s a throne. A crown. A kingdom forged in blood, Ash and
shadow.
King of the Nightmare…no.
King of the court of Ash. A new court that’s not related to dreams, but to what once was…
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close my eyes.
I see Eden, smiling at me through the bond. I feel her pain. Her confusion. Her heart still beating for me.
The shadows slip inside me, and I let them. They expand my magic. Fill every crack. My vision sharpens. My strength returns.
But so does the darkness.
I laugh, low and cruel. A laugh I don’t recognize.
It scares me.
1 pull back. Gasp. Fists clenched.
I’m not ready. Not yet. But soon.
Soon, I will be.
Because if I want to save her, I have to become something else entirely.
Something monstrous and worse than Mara.
And the terrifying thing is? Part of me is starting to like that idea. A cruel and powerful high–fae wouldn’t have to fear anyone. I could keep Eden safe. So very safe.
A key rattles in the lock, and the door groans open.
A guard steps inside. He is one of Mara’s favorites. Tall. Smirking. Too comfortable.
He sneers. “Still alive, princeling? You look like hell.”
The shadows around me pulse and my lips curl.
Perhaps I could play a game?
I look up slowly.
The guard takes a cautious step back. “What–what are you-”
The shadows surge forward, making me chuckle. They are so obedient and seize the poor guard like a thousand
black vines. He lets out a strangled gasp when the tendrils of darkness twist around his limbs, pulling them taut
until he breaks. His sword clatters to the ground. The smirk on his face vanishes, replaced with raw terror.
“Wait-!”
I tilt my head, watching him with morbid curiosity. My lips twitch into a smile. It’s too wide. Too cold.
The shadows squeeze.
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Bones snap.
His scream is wet and high–pitched. Then silence.
The shadows retreat a moment later, slithering back toward me like loyal pets returning from a hunt.
All that remains is a slick smear of red on the floor. A single boot.
I stare at it.
And then, I laugh again.
Not like myself.
Not at all.
Soon.
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AD
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Chapter 74
Chapter 74
