Chapter 117
Chapter 117
Elvira
The worst part isn’t that he doesn’t remember me.
It’s that he is trying to be nice about it.
Axel stands a few feet away, shoulders tense, jaw tight, his entire body radiating discomfort, but his voice? Soft. Careful.
“Are you okay?” he asks.
Like I’m the one who might be overwhelmed.
I want to laugh. Or cry. Or maybe just sink into the floor and never get up again.
“I’m fine,” I lie.
He frowns. “Sorry if I’m being weird. I just… don’t know where I am. Or who any of you are.”
Azriel steps forward, his expression tight.
“That’s not supposed to happen,” he mutters, mostly to himse
cleansing.”
Eden looks up sharply. “What did you do?”
spell shouldn’t have erased memories. It was a bond unbinding, not a
Azriel’s gaze is locked on Axel. “It might be temporary. The body sometimes reacts to trauma by pushing things out. Give him time to rest and maybe it will come back.”
Eden places a hand on Axel’s arm. “You’re the captain of have trusted you with everything.”
Axel stiffens. “I believe you. I just… don’t feel it.”
The silence that follows is suffocating.
“I will show him to a room,” Eden says quietly.
“No,” I blurt. “Let me.”
y guard. You’ve been with me since before I became Queen of the Dream Court. We
Eden gives me a long look. I know what she is thinking, that he is not the same. This will hurt.
“I will be fine,” I add. “Please.”
Azriel nods once.
I don’t wait. I walk. Axel follows.
He doesn’t remember the path, but his steps match mine, as if his body remembers even when his mind doesn’t. That should comfort me
It doesn’t.
The silence between us stretches until can’t take it anymore.
1/5
jure fae guard system. They still look to you for
Is eyes are the same. His expression isn’t.
“That explains the stares,” he says dryly. “Everyone acted like I was supposed to say something important.”
“You usually do.”
He gives a small, rueful smile. “Was I good at it?”
“The best.”
He chuckles. “So, you’re not just pretty, but you’re kind, too.”
And yours, I want to tell him, but I don’t.
“You were important to everyone here,” I say instead.
We stop at the door of the room that used to be ours. I open the door, but I don’t make it inside.
Axel raises an eyebrow at me. “You’re not coming inside?”
My cheeks heat up. “N–no… I mean…you don’t remember me. And sharing a room is…”
“Hot?”
“I was going to say weird since we are strangers…”
“Strangers? You don’t act like I am a stranger to you.”
“But I am one to you!”
He leans against the doorframe, eyes flicking over me, then smirks.
“I could be made to remember.”
The look he gives me is playful, heated, and sends my brain into a spiral.
He takes that the wrong way and approaches me. “We could have some fun together in bed, if you want.”
What?!
No!
I slap his arm. Hard.
It makes a sound that’s louder than I expect.
He winces, laughing. “Okay! Damn, you’ve got a right hook for someone so small.”
I try to shake it off like it’s nothing, like I didn’t just swat away the ghost of a man and mate I miss so much it makes my bones ache. I want him, but that kind of flirting? It makes me feel sick. Because he doesn’t know I used to belong to him. That means he would flirt like this with any pretty female that came along.
“Don’t flirt with me like that,” I snap, “You don’t know me.”
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He sobers a little. “But I want to.”
My breath catches. It’s stupid, I know it’s stupid, but something about the way he says it undoes me. Like he is not just stating a fact, but reaching out to something he doesn’t even understand.
I recoil slightly, caught off guard. I hate that my heart skips, that the anger in me melts just enough to make room for ache. He doesn’t remember me. This is nothing. A stranger’s charm. But it still hits like a memory I didn’t know I needed.
What does it mean if he wants to know me without the bond?
I don’t know and since I don’t, I just open the door and step back. “Get some rest. Maybe it’ll all come back tomorrow.”
“Will you be here if it does?” he asks, voice quieter n
how.
I look at him.
He is looking like a large, lost puppy. A handsome one.
Fuck, my knees are already weak.
“I’ll be here,” I whisper.
He smiles. “Promise?”
કતાર
“Promise…” I mutter.
Then I walk away..
Later, I’m curled into myself in one of the guestbooms. My arms around my legs, chin on my knees. Everything hurts, but quietly. The way
bruises do after the color fades.
I got what I wanted. Sight. Clarity. The world back in color.
And it cost me the only person who made the darkness bearable,
Was it worth it?
I still don’t know.
A knock.
Not Axel.
Eden.
She steps inside and closes the door behind her like she’s done this before. Like she knows I won’t send her away.
She doesn’t speak right away. Neither do I.
“He seemed… steady,” she says finally.
“He’s always steady,” I whisper. “That’s the worst part. He doesn’t know me, but he’s still so… him.”
Eden sits down across from me. Her presence is quieter
now than it used to be. Or maybe I’m the one who is quieter.
“What happened to you after we… parted?” she asks softly.
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Chapter 117
My breath catches. Shame creeps into my spine like ice.
“I was taken back to Logan’s pack. Paris and Hilda kept me in the dungeons,” I say, my voice trembling. “Said they couldn’t trust me since! betrayed you, the person who was supposed to be my best friend.”
Eden says nothing.
I press on, needing to finish it.
“I’m sorry that I became friends with Paris and Hilda. I let them get inside my head. Thought the only way to unlock my wolf was to become your enemy and their best friend.”
Still no reply.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper. “I was weak. I was lonely. And now I miss my family, and I don’t know if they will ever take me back. I don’t know if they will forgive me for betraying you.”
Eden looks at me for a long moment.
Then she reaches out and takes my hand.
“The past is in the past,” she says. “I have already forgiven you, but what is left now is for you to forgive yourself.”
I stare at our joined hands. Her warmth, her quiet strength.
“You were always looking for a place to belong,” Eden murmurs. “I just wish you’d known it was with me all along.”
A knot rises in my throat. I nod, but words won’t come.
“Do you think they’ll hate me?” I ask finally. “My parents? My brothers? My sister?”
“They’ll be angry. Hurt, maybe. But hate you? No,” Eden says. “I know what it looks like when someone gives up on family. That’s not what they did. They’re waiting for you to come home.”
I don’t know if I believe it. But I want to.
Eden watches me for a moment longer. Then her expression shif
“There’s going to be a ball,” she says. “Here in the Dream Court. A formal celebration to honor new alliances.”
My brows lift. “A ball?”
“Yes,” she nods. “And you should stay for it. All the Courts will be present. It will be a good chance for you to just relax and have fun after everything that you have been through lately.”
I swallow. “Oh, I don’t know if-”
“I’m saying this because you might want to stay close to Axel.”
What is that supposed to mean?
I blink at her. “What?”
Eden gives me a look before sighing. “Okay, fine. I will explain. Let’s just say… now that he’s no longer bound, he might start getting attention. And he might return it since he doesn’t know any better, especially since a lot of the female fae interested in him are nobles.”
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Chapter 117
“Who?” I ask before I can stop myself.
She lifts an eyebrow. “Lady Merina of the River Court has already sent a gift to his door.”
My stomach twists.
A rush of something hot flickers in my chest. Possessive. Unwanted. I try to hide it.
Eden smiles faintly. “So I’m basically saying, if you want to remind him that he is yours, you might wanna stay for the ball. Before someone else dances into his memory and makes a home there.”
