Chapter 112
Chapter 112
Elvira
I hate that I’m blind because I can’t fucking walk on my own now! I’m useless!
I’m the dead weight Axel drags behind. I keep trying to lift my feet, keep pretending I have control, but I don’t. I accidentally move, thinking it will help, but it just makes it worse. My body is not working as it should. But the worst part is… it’s not even about walking.
It’s about Eden and the fact that I don’t want to see her.
I don’t want to face the best friend I betrayed. I don’t want to be here.
But here we are. Step after step. Past every moment I chose wrong. I let fear own me, and now I’m here to face the music.
I’m not ready.
What is Eden going to say when she sees me? Will she look through me? Will she smile and say she forgives me while hating me underneath?
Axel adjusts his grip and keeps us moving.
Good, at least someone is paying attention.
We crossed a bridge a few minutes ago. I heard the echo under his feet, felt the wind roll up from water far below. We must
be close to the Dream Court since there is something different in the air now. It doesn’t just smell like magic.
It smells like judgment.
Fae magic.
Shit.
I don’t belong here.
Do not freak out. This is just magic. I can handle magic. Wait. Is Eden magical now?
Axel squeezes my waist a little tighter. Like he knows I’m about to break.
“We are at the Dream Court,” Axel says.
I can tell from the swish of leaves. A cough somewhere up ahead. Voices I don’t know murmuring like gossiping ghosts.
Then-
Footsteps that belong to… Eden.
My lungs stop working.
Axel shifts slightly but doesn’t say a word at first. Then, under his breath, so quiet only I hear it, he whispers, “Elvira. You
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don’t have to be afraid.”
But I am.
The air changes. The murmurs stop. The whole world holds its breath.
“You’re back,” Eden says.
“I am,” Axel replies. “And I brought a friend.”
“I can see that…”
Eden doesn’t say anything else, but her voice is different. No longer the bullied Omega, but someone calm the way storms are before the lightning hits.
It awakens more fear in my bones. I don’t want her to come closer. I can hear her walking toward me. Silk brushing her
ankles. That same perfume I used to steal when she wasn’t looking. Her presence brushes against me like memory. And
regret.
I shake my head hard. “Don’t.”
Axel doesn’t move.
“It’s alright, Axel,” Eden says, gentle like she is speaking to a child. “I just want to talk.”
It’s not alright. Nothing is.
I flinch when she steps too close. I can feel her hand reaching out.
“Don’t touch me!”
My arm flies out.
I hit her.
I don’t mean to. I just… panic. I’m not even sure where I hit her. Her wrist? Her shoulder? Her pride?
Gasps ripple around us.
“Traitor.”
“Coward.”
“She hit the queen!”
Queen? Is that what Eden is?!
“How dare she touch her?!”
“Is this the friend who betrayed Eden?”
I can’t see them. But I hear everything.
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And Eden? She doesn’t say anything at all and that’s worse. Why isn’t she lashing out? I lost my temper! She should hurt
me back!
But she doesn’t and that makes the tears come.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper. My voice is barely there. “I didn’t mean to. I just…”
“You’re scared,” she finishes for me. Soft. No malice.
Of course I’m scared. I’ve never stopped being scared. And I hate that she can still see it so clearly.
I don’t know if that makes it better or worse.
Axel steps in front of me. Fully. Like a wall between me and the world.
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“Enough,” he growls at the crowd. “She is not here to beg. She came because she was invited. Eden herself told me it was okay to get her.”
There is more silence. But it feels different now. Like someone turned down the volume on the world. Like someone pressed pause on their knives.
I think I hear Eden walk away. No rush. Just quiet footsteps that fade.
“She is not ready to face you,” Axel says to Eden.
“Give her time.”
Time?
Am I worth that?
I freeze and after Eden is gone, my knees buckle.
Axel catches me.
We sink together to the edge of the grass. I feel the shift from stone to soil, soft and damp under my hands.
I’m breathing too fast. My ears ring like I’ve been underwater. I feel the court watching still, but I can’t tell how many eyes are on me. One? A hundred? A thousand? The weight of it makes my spine curl.
“I hit her,” I whisper.
“You panicked.”
“She tried to be kind. And I…”
“You were trying to protect yourself.”
I curl tighter. My body folds into itself. My arms hug my knees. My head tucks down.
I can still smell Eden’s perfume in the air.
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Sweet. Cold. Wrong.
It makes me sick.
“They hate me.”
Axel doesn’t answer right away. Because he doesn’t lie.
They do.
I can hear them. Still whispering. One of them scoffs. Someone says something about honor. About betrayal. About how some people should never come back from the dead.
But Axel crouches beside me anyway. Pulls me against his chest like I’m something that deserves shielding.
“Let them hate you,” he whispers near my temple. “I’m not going anywhere.”
And I believe him.
Even while I shake. Even with the whole court staring. Even when my chest hurts and the past crawls out of the dark to remind me what I did.
He hasn’t let go of me once.
Not when I was bleeding. Not when I was blind. Not now.
And maybe… maybe that’s the part that matters.
Far above us, a bell rings once. Soft. Clear. Final.
Like something old has ended. Or something worse has just begun.
I try to sit up straighter. I can’t. My arms are lead. The ringing in my ears swells. Deeper now, darker. My breath catches.
Everything tilts.
“Fuck, she doesn’t have a protection spell for the bells!” Axel hisses.
The bells?
The world tilts again. And then it’s gone.
Black.
Just Axel’s voice, distant now, calling for someone.
“She is not waking up. Get the fucking healer!”
Then nothing.
