Eden
Even though the battle around me is moving fast, time is slowing down around me since my brain is taking it’s time to think and assess the situation
Time is mending. Slow and sharp all at once. There’s no longer snow circling down from the sky. I can no longer see my cold breath. All I can focus on is Mara and the blackened snow under her shoes.
Mara is watching me too. Her black gown fits in with the ash that came with her from the Nightmare Court. Magic coils around her like smoke. Her wings are curled around her like a shield, not purely black like the ones belonging to my mate, but more blue like the dark shade of her hair. They rustle with anticipation. Yet Mara doesn’t rush.
She doesn’t need to.
1, on the other hand, am running on empty.
My human body is trembling with exhaustion. Nine tails are fanning behind me, but they flicker with the fear that’s curling around me and my lungs.
Am I strong enough to defeat the fairy queen? My magic is strong. But it’s not endless. And Mara?
Mara is endless.
She takes a step forward, the snow melting and disappearing, turning into ash.
Dream pack wolves growl behind me, but I hold up a hand to tell them to stay back.
This is my fight.
It has to be.
Mara smiles. Her teeth are sharp and wrong, like they weren’t meant for a mouth. “You’ve come a far way, Eden. Not quite as strong as you were in your past life, but you’re definitely looking tasty tonight. I can’t wait to devour your heart and steal your magic.”
Her voice slides over me like oil. Every syllable is soaked in mockery. But I don’t flinch. I can’t afford to let her frighten me since it would cost me in battle.
Mara lifts her hand, and I move on instinct. My nine tails snap forward, ribbons of searing energy slicing through the magic she cast in my direction. Foxfire burns the air. I let my tails hit her with it, three tails coming for her sternum.
But my touch doesn’t burn her.
It sizzles.
Mara sways back, her smile never faltering. She tilts her head, studying me like a butterfly that refuses to die.
“Not bad,” she says, voice silky. “But not nearly enough”
She moves.
Faster than thought.
Her wings snap out. One of them strikes my side like a blade. I’m not ready for how powerful those limbs are. I scream and go flying, slamming into the frozen earth hard enough to make me cough blood onto the ground. My ribs crack. The breath is knocked from my lungs. Yet I don’t give up and struggle up on shaking legs.
My skin is scraped. My right arm is limp. I’m barely fucking breathing. Am I broken?
Doesn’t matter.
1/5
Chapter 80
My eyes narrow, and I pant whille focusing on the laughing fairy queen. My ears ring. The forest spins. But this battle hasn’t even started yo
My opponent isn’t tired.
Mara glides forward.
I back away, steps faltering, vision swimming. My tails flicker weakly. My knees buckle.
Then she’s in front of me.
One hand wraps around my throat, and her strength is terrifying. She lifts me like I weigh nothing. Her fingers like steel. I claw at her, magic flaring, but it sputters uselessly against her skin.
She smiles again, tilting her head. “You’re so fragile. Did Azriel fall in love with this?”
I choke. My vision dims.
Then there’s a blur of cream.
A howl before a body slams into Mara.
Her grip loosens.
I fall, and air rushes back into my lungs. I hit the ground on my side and look up.
Elvira.
She is snarling at Mara in wolf form. Her blonde fur is streaked with blood and although she stands no chance against Mara she has planted herself between us like a protector. Her whole body shakes, but she’s holding the line.
I can’t let her.
“Get back!” I growl.
But Elvira doesn’t move.
Mara straightens slowly, brushing invisible dirt from her shoulder.
“How noble,” she says, almost amused. “A mutt defending a fox.”
Mara lifts her hand, and Elvira growls louder.
But there’s nothing the blonde wolf can do. Mara is faster, Stronger. She doesn’t even use magic.
Just her strength.
Her wing slams into Elvira, sending her flying. The sound her body makes when it hits the tree is…grotesque. I hear the snap of bones. It was such a hard hit that the tree cracks. Elvira crumples at its base, unmoving.
“Time to end this!” Mara laughs, and something inside me shatters.
Elvira jumped in front of me.
She took the blow.
For me.
My chest heaves. Tears stream down my face. The bond between me and Elvira–frayed, wounded, uncertain–flashes with something bright. We used to be best friends. We used to walk to school together, and when Mara lunges for her to finish her off…
Chapter 80
I scream.
Magic explodes from me.
All nine tails surge upward, burning v
hot. 1
/channel everything I have, every last scrap of fox–fire, every drop of fury, I throw it all at Mara.
A wave of pure fox–magic crashes over her.
It burns.
I see it burn.
She stumbles back, screaming this time. It’s a real sound of pain, and no longer her having fun. Her skin blackens. Her dress chars. Her wings hiss with pain.
But then…she laughs.
Smoke pours from her mouth, and I watch all of her injuries heal with black magic.
Just like that, and she is all put together.
My knees give out.
I hit the ground. Powerless. Drained. I can barely breathe.
Mara laughs louder. “You want to die first?” she asks. “Very well, you shall die, Alpha Eden!”
The fairy queen comes for me, but that’s when I feel my Beta through the mind–link.
‘I won’t let her get to you!‘
Axel.
He arrives in a blur of chocolate–brown fur and fury. His massive wolf form barrels into Mara with everything he has–fangs bared, claws slashing, a snarl that echoes through the clearing like a war drum.
‘No!‘ I scream through the mind–link. ‘Stay back! She is too strong for you!‘
But he doesn’t listen.
He leaps for the fairy queen again, jaws snapping for the smaller woman.
But Mara is too fast.
Axel lands without landing a bite, snarling in frustration. I don’t think he will be able to land a hit, but he surprises me by making use of his adrenaline. He turns and bites into her shoulder until Mara screams.
“MY ARM!” She yells, and I gasp when Axel manages to rip it off her body.
His teeth tear through the flesh. Biting. Crunching.
All while Mara snarls in true pain for the first time
Then her wings open, and dark magic pours out of her skin and wings until it covers Axel.
“One wing to defeat the protector,” she murmurs.
Black magic holds Axel in place. He tries to twist away.
Chapter 80
Too late.
Mara plerces his side with the sharp tip of one wing. There is a sharp claw there, it breaks through chocolate for, through ribs, through everything.
Axel’s scream is loud, echoing in the mind link.
I try to move. I try to crawl. I can’t.
Mara lifts him off the ground, forces him to shape–shift back into a human so that she can laugh and hold him up like a prize ready to be celebrated
“Such a loyal mutt,” she murmurs.
Then her claws plunge into Axel’s chest.
Time stops.
My mind goes blank.
Her fingers curl around Axel’s heart.
And she rips it out.
He lets out one last whimper.
His body shudders.
Then goes still.
His blood steams in the cold air.
Mara drops his lifeless body and lifts the heart to her lips.
And eats it.
Something inside me breaks. Completely. Utterly.
Memories crash into me–Axel laughing with me in bed. Cuddling me. Protecting me. Us traveling through Swedish Lapland together. The way he stood guard outside my door without being asked. His smirk, his terrible jokes, the warmth of his hugs when I couldn’t breathe through the grief of losing Azriel. He never asked for anything in return. He just stayed. Loyal. Constant.
He was supposed to live.
Tears fall, hot and fast. I want to scream, but nothing comes out. I can only stare at the place where he should be. At the space he no longer fills.
The power that erupts from Mara is like a shockwave. It knocks trees flat. Wolves scream and scatter. The portal pulses wider.
I’m not screaming.
I’m too far gone.
Axel is dead.
Elvira might be dying.
And I am empty.
The last thing I see before darkness claims me is Mara’s eyes—bright with new strength.
That’s when I realize this battle might be lost.
4/5
