Chapter 30
Eden
I can’t believe that Azriel found me. Can’t a girl cry in peace? Does the hot and evil fairy prince really have to check up on me in here?
I snort and dry some snort on my sleeve. Disgusting but very efficient. I then clear my throat and ask, “Did you really have to pull the immortal card on me?”
“If my favorite mortal is sobbing in the bathroom, then yes, I need to throw my immortality in her face,” Azriel replies, his voice softening just a fraction. “What happened?”
I wipe my eyes again, embarrassed at how swollen they are and how much I want a hug. “I just found out my friend isn’t really my friend,” my heart hurts saying that. “There’s also the fact that my mother was murdered and that I’m about to be sacrificed. I’m… I’m barely keeping it together, and I’m sorry, but talking to the fae who is going to kill me isn’t going to make me feel better.”
Azriel is silent for a moment. I hear his footsteps. Closer and closer. Then comes the sound of him sliding down to the floor, his back against the stall door.
“I’ve been watching you,” he admits, not ashamed of it at all. “I had to, since you’re to be sacrificed to my sister. But that made me notice other things. Like how your friend Elvira has been jealous of you for months. She resents how everyone gravitates toward you.”
“That’s ridiculous,” I mutter, wiping my nose again. The snot won’t stop coming. “Nobody gravitates toward me.”
“The Alpha does. I do.” His voice is matter–of–fact. “Even that oaf Axel seems smitten with you. Your friend couldn’t handle it.”
I rest my forehead against my knees. “Why are you telling me this? To make me feel worse?”
“No,” Azriel says. I swear that I can almost hear the frown in his voice. “To make you understand that her betrayal isn’t about anything you did wrong. It’s about her own insecurities.”
I sniff, hating how much I want to believe him since I’m tired of making the wrong mistakes. Tired of being weak. Tired of being a burden. “Just a question… How would you know about Evlira’s insecurities?”
“I’ve read her mind,” he says casually, like he’s mentioning the weather.
My head snaps up. “You what?!”
“I can read minds. It’s one of my powers.” There’s a soft tapping sound. Is he like drumming his fingers against the floor? Probably. “Your friend thinks you’re prettier than her, despite your acne. She’s jealous of how the Alpha looks at you.”
My heart skips. “That’s not true. Logan doesn’t look at me in any special way.”
Azriel laughs. “Eden Felicity, are you blind?”
“No,” I’m genuinely confused. “And wait, go back to you being able to read my mind… Do you have to focus on it? Or does it just come naturally?”
This could be bad news for me, who’s been drooling over him for weeks!
Another laugh, softer this time. “I know that you think I’m the most beautiful boy… No, wait. Man. I’m the That’s what you’re worried about me remembering, isn’t it? The first day in class?”
beautiful man that you’ve ever seen.
He knew!
That’s why he was smiling when I first saw him. He was reading my
mind!
“It was,” Azriel admits, and his smirk is audible. The sound makes me want to kick him and maybe kiss him at the same time.
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Chapter 30
“You want to kiss me again, huh?”
I gasp. “Oh my god, get out of my head!”
“Please, Eden. Your mind is a circus. Why would I want to stop leafing through it? You‘ and you once wondered if I sleep naked.”
i think I’m devastatingly handsome, you hate how pretty my barn,
My cheeks flare so hot I could fry an egg on my face. “That was one time! And it’s your fault for looking like you walked out of a shampoo commercial” mutter into my knees, mortified.
He hums thoughtfully, tapping his ring on the floor just outside the stall. “I do not sleep naked, by the way. At least not always.” He lowers his voice conspiratorially. “Sometimes I wear nothing but sin and arrogance.”
Despite myself, I let out a strangled laugh. “Oh my god, you’re insufferable.”
“And yet here you are, hiding from everyone but me. Why is that, Eden? Why are you talking to me?”
I frown, hand pausing halfway through wiping my still–damp cheeks. He’s right. Why am I talking to him? I should hate Azriel, fear him at least. Instead, I’m having a heart–to–heart with him.
“I don’t know,” I admit quietly. “Maybe because you have made your intentions clear and aren’t pretending to be my friend.” Like Elvira did.
“Is honesty about terrible intentions better than false kindness?” His voice has lost its teasing edge, sounding genuinely curious.
I think about it for a moment. “At least with you, I know where I stand. You’re going to sacrifice me to your sister. No mixed signals.”
“And yet…” Azriel’s voice drops lower, “I kissed you.”
My heart stutters. “That was…a mistake.”
“You liked it.”
“Still a mistake.”
“Right… A mistake.”
“Something we should never do again.”
“Agreed.”
“Good.”
Silence falls and I furrow my eyebrows. Why is my heart hurting? I don’t understand my own emotions. Neither do I understand my actions. I should keep the bathroom stall locked, stay safe behind this barrier.
But my hand moves of its own accord, and then, like the bad influence that I am on my own fate, I slide the lock open with a soft click.
The door pulls inward, and there he is, the bad guy himself, Azriel. With his long legs stretched out before him, he looks almost normal.
Almost.
His inhuman violet eyes widen in surprise when he sees me, red–eyed and disheveled.
Luckily, he doesn’t comment on my appearance.
“Hi,” I say awkwardly. “Can I sit with you?”
“Sure,” he replies.
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Chapter 30
Is he…smiling?
He is. It makes my knees weak, but by some miracle, I manage movement even though I’m nervous. Azriel doesn’t comment on that either. He doesn’t move, doesn’t try to touch me, but the way he looks at me makes my heart race. I slide down until I’m sitting next to him, our shoulders almost touching It last for three seconds, and then I give in. I lean my head against his shoulder.
And he lets me.
Just what are we to each other?
