Chapter 85
G
Eden
I’m all alone when I open my eyes. I should get used to it. Azriel and I never share a bed in this dream world. But I still get lonely waking up to no Axel…or Elvira flushing the toilet in the middle of the night. Or Cedar swearing at the kitchen equipment.
“Just me and my broken heart, huh?” I ask the hollow feeling in my chest. It really feels like someone carved out the middle and left the shell.
Eden.
…did someone just say my name?
I freeze and listen.
Eden.
It’s his voice.
But not the one who rules this palace with silence and shadows.
This voice is warm. Desperate. The soft Azriel that I once knew.
I sit up in my bed, breath caught in my throat. The moonlight paints silver on the floor, but nothing stirs in the room. No sound. No movement. And yet… I
feel him.
I curl my fingers and summon a flicker of foxfire. It sits in my palm.
“Azriel?”
No answer, but I can feel his presence.
“Are you stuck in this world just like I am?” I whisper.
I’m still not given an answer.
But the light shifts, and the world around me melts. Not like fire is burning it, but like whatever I’m talking to knows this place isn’t real and is trying to challenge its existence. The bookshelves disappear for a second. So does the furniture.
And then… I see him.
Azriel.
The real one.
He looks like he did before everything went wrong. Exhausted. Blood stains his collar. His hair is messy. Wings hanging limp. But his eyes are soft and violet. Familiar. My heart stutters just looking at him.
And now I understand. This isn’t reality. We stand in a space that isn’t real… well. The place where the other Azriel has trapped me isn’t real either. But this? This is happening inside my own head. A dream, maybe.
“I don’t have long,” he says.
His gentle voice. Gods. I could cry just hearing it. I continue staring at him with longing in my heart. Azriel gives me an uneasy smile,
“Believe me, my foxy little mate, I have missed you too. But now isn’t the time for romance,” he says, staring directly into my eyes. “The me who is corrupted by Mara’s magic is starting to notice when I try to reach you.”
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Chapter 85
I want to run to him. To wrap my arms around him and never let go.
But I stay frozen.
“You’re still in there,” I breathe.
He nods. “Buried. Caged. He’s strong now.”
“Who is he?”
Azriel swallows hard. “A corrupted version of me. When I ate Mara’s heart, my personality split into two. It wasn’t supposed to happen. But Mara was corrupted and wrong, and the more of her heart I consumed, the crazier I became. Now there are two of me.”
I almost choke hearing the heart–eating part. I knew Azriel ate her heart, but hearing about it? Ew.
Azriel chuckles. “You can throw up if you want. I won’t tell.”
My eyes narrow. “Don’t read my mind!”
“Can’t,” he smiles. “It is far too interesting.”
His familiar teasing makes me want to hug him.
Instead, I say, “You’re not gone. You can still fight the corrupted part of your mind and come back.”
His eyes glint with something like sorrow. “I’m trying. But he’s drowning me a little more each day.”
I take a step forward. “Then I’ll help you. I’ll find a way to-”
“No,” he says, gently. “You have another path. You always did.”
I blink. “What does that mean?”
Azriel breathes like the weight of the world is on his chest. “You’re a nine–tailed fox, Eden. There’s no end to your magic. Maybe if you look through the library, you can find something to help us.”
My heart stutters.
“Help us?”
He looks at me then. Really looks at me.
“Me, you… Axel.”
Axel.
The ache rushes in, sudden and sharp. I close my eyes, but it doesn’t stop the wave of pain that’s tearing through me like a storm.
I see Axel and I lying in bed. No romance, just two friends sharing the same sleeping space because he knew I needed it. His warmth chased away the cold. I miss that idiot so much. That stupid smirk when he stole the covers. The way he always pulled me into his chest when I couldn’t sleep. No questions. No expectations. Just safety.
Axel tried to soothe my heart when my mate was gone.
My Beta and best friend.
I curl my arms around myself. “I miss him,” whisper.
Azriel gives me a sad look. “I know.”
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Chapter 85
“He died trying to protect me,” I choke. “And I wasn’t strong enough to save him.”
“You were never supposed to carry this alone,” Azriel says softly. “None of it.”
But I am carrying it, and the weight is unbearable. Thinking about Axel’s but with whom I still can’t be together? That’s killing me too.
The dream begins to unravel.
Azriel looks around. “Looks like our time is up.”
death is killing me from the inside out. And thinking about my mate who is here,
“No!” I reach for him, but my fingers pass through him like he is made of air, and then he’s gone.
I wake with tears on my face, clutching the blanket like it could hold me
together. But there’s no stopping the pain inside me.
Axel, my poor, strong Axel.
He gave everything without asking for anything in return.
How could I not fight for him now? I can’t give up because I’m not just fighting and trying to find answers for myself. I’m doing it for him as well.
I will go to the library and find my way out of here so Axel didn’t just die for nothing. And if there’s even a sliver of a way to change everything that happened on the night of the war against Mara… I’ll tear this dream apart to find it.
For me.
For Azriel.
And for the boy who never stopped believing in me, even when I didn’t believe in myself.
AD
