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Chapter 52
Chapter 52
Eden
Azriel’s werds make me shudder, and I turn around. “It used to be the Dream Court?”
His jaw works, and then he takes my hand without asking. His warm hand is large enough to engulf mine. “Come, I’ll show you
The walk is normal at first. I feel the sun on thy skin. I hear the birds in the trees. But the further we walk from Ariel’s cottage, the more…wrong everything becomes.
It’s subtle at first. The birds disappear. Then there are no more colorful flowers. The trees change shape from beautiful to gnarly, with barely any leaves. covering them. Their branches are like spindly arms trying to reach for a bright sky that is no longer there.
Then see the worst part–the
Or what’s left of them.
Withered black petals cling to thomy stems, and the ground where they are growing is cracked and ash–dusted like everything is falling apart
“This garden used to be sacred” Azriel says in a low voice. “The Court of Dreams was a place of beauty, imagination, and indulgence. When my parents ruled they grew reses that could bloom with your desires.”
“What happened?”
“Mara happened,” he says simply. “My brother and I didn’t want the throne after our parents perished. Mara wanted it, and she corrupted everything. The Dream court changed into the Nightmare court and now the roses reflect fear and rot. Like everything else here”
He leads me past the roses and toward a low ridge. Poison ivy crawls up the trees now, wrapping tightly around trunks like a noose.
“Don’t touch anything,” Azriel warns. “Most of this greenery has been cursed to lash out or poison.”
I don’t need to be told twice. This place is nothing like earth and since I want to surive i stick to my mate’s side. He is the only thing keeping me somewhat calm since this place…well… It’s like the forest is pretending to be beautiful, but I can sense the decay under the mask.
“There,” Azriel says, pulling me gently down into a crouch behind a cluster of mossy rocks.
I follow his gaze and gasp softly
Other fae folk.
A group of them is gathered around a long table made from tree bark and crystal. They look..terrifying Pale, Jittery. Their wings are born in places, and their clothes hang off their thin bodies like rags.
They’re eating
But not food. Not really.
Rotten pastries, moldy bread, grey soup with skin forming on the surface. They gobble it down with greedy fingers, stuffing it into their mouths. The sickening part is that they hum like it’s still delicios. Like it isn’t hairy, ill–smelling, and gross
My stomach churns. “That’s-”
“Horrible?” Azriel finishes. “Yes. They’re deranged now. They don’t even realize the food’s gone bad.”
“I thought le didn’t need food…”
“We don’t, but we like the sensation of eating”
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Chapter 52
“Yes, but that’s good food… These we are eating rotander, why are they eating that shit if they don’t need for
“Habit. Desperation. Once, they’d share cakes and sing songs for each other. Now they gorge onant and think they’re fasting. They’re Mara’s pats. Sha doesn’t need soldien to rule when she’s already broken the minds of everyone in this court.”
I press a hand over my mouth, but before I can respond, something brushes my shoulder.
A fat, glistening, eight legged spices that is too freaking large is crawling across my armi
My soul nearly leaves my body.
1 tuck in a breath, ready to scream
But removes faster
His hand clamps gently ever my mouth. It stifles the scream before it erupts.
“Shhh,” he whispers in my ear, purple eyes dancing with laughter. “You’ll give us away”
My heart is thundering. My limbs are locked in place. And Ariel–he’s fighting a full grin, clearly amused.
He leans in a little closer, his breath brushing my ear. “Don’t panic, little fox. It’s just a spider. A magical, mildly poisonous, mildly ill tempered spider
I glare at him. His hand is still over my mouth, and I know he can feel the daggers I’m mentally throwing
Azriel slowly reaches with his other hand and flicks the spider off me like it’s nothing.
Then he removes his hand from my mouth.
“You were going to scream,” he teases.
1 was NOT” I whisper–yell
“You totally were. And it would’ve been the cutest scream I’ve ever heard.”
I swat at him, but he only laughs, grabbing my wrist mid–swing and pressing a kiss to the inside of it
Infuriating charmeri
on’t that a compliment?” he asks.
“Gods, will you leave my head alone for just a second?!”
He chuckles. “I could stay inside your head all day, darling. Your thoughts are very interesting to me, but we should keep on moving, We’re not done with
your tour of horrors just yet.”
High but follow him as he leads me deeper into the corrupted beauty of what used to be a dreamer’s paradise.
The Nightmare Court is terrifying but with Arief beside me, it almost feels like a fairy tale.
Avery twisted one.
As we walk further, a cool breezestes the air, the trees begin to hum–a low, eerie sound that seems to echo through the forest
I glance at Azriel. “Are the trees…sing
He nods, “Lamenting actually. They remember what they used to be.”
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“What they… used to be?‘
will explain that later.
“Uh, okay
We reach ao
le where a silver pool lies untouched by the not. Its surface is still a minor one at the edge and peer into it
My reflection stares hack Pale skin, Wild hair But then Azriel touches beside me, and our reflections merge. Instead of looking at myself, the flawed red haired fox, I’m staring at the perfect man with tanned skin, dark hair and violet eyes that are so enchanting I’m half convinced Azriel is a breathing, ving
daydream
“You lock ike you belong here,” I whisper, my voice almost painful since beanly it frighteninglame,
orgeous people at school bullied me
But not Armel
Never him
His eyes search mine in the water. “And you look like the only light this court has left.”
I smile soft, then splash some water at him.
Anel blinks, then smirks “You want war?
“Bring it, wing boy”
He lunges, and i shriek I don’t expect him to be strong like a werewolf Surely don’t expect him to be even stronger, which is why I laugh when he easily scoops me up and twards me in the air like I’m nothing
It’s fun
I forget that I’m hunted by my own pack. That I’m destined to be eaten and die. I just laugh like a girl who is in love.
Eventually, Ariel sets me down. His hands, however, linger on my waist as if not touching me is a crime. “You keep doing that,” he murmuri
“Doing what?”
“Reminding me that hope might still be possible.”
“How do I do that?”
“By being you. By being sweet, cute, and human. Not emotionless like us fae.”
I rest my head against his chest. “You’re not emotionless.”
“I was before I met you?”
My cheeks werm “But you’re changing”
Tamile at his admitting it. Maybe the Court of Dreams isn’t completely dead?
Not t
We start walking again, through a path lined with ancient trees. There’s something off about them–too symmetrical, too still.
“Azriel,” Task, owning “What kind of trees are these?”
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Chapter 52
He doesn’t answer right away.
“Ariel?”
He halts, then gestures at the free nearest us. “Look closely,” he says quietly,
Ide.
And I wish Thadist.
The bark is rough and weathered, but shaped to human. A face is etched into the trunk. The mouth is ope is in a silent scream, eyes wide with terror.
Istapper back
“No,” I whisper. “That’s not
“She turns people
le inte trees,” Arrel says, his voice like shattered glass. “When she
she’s bored. Or when they defy her.”
A thousand chills rush down my spine
“Mara doesn’t kill them. Not really,” he says. “She just plants them.”
The tree proams–no, sobs–wood creaking like bones, like lungs that no longer breathe. Its eyes glisten with trapped awareness, and 1 sickening horror…..
The trees are alive, and they still think. They still feel. They aren’t just trees.
They’re prisoners.
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