Chapter 91
Eden
The wine tastes like rot.
It coats my tongue with the memory of what happened here last time. Mara controlling Azriel. Axel and I escaping.
Not this time.
I lower the goblet and stare at the table.
Axel is chewing happily on my left. I can’t look at him or I’m going to hug him. I’ve missed him so much that it is physically painful. Azriel too. This version of him that is zero corruption and not choking me.
Since I’m weak, I glance at him. He is rigid and silent at my right. When our eyes meet, he wrinkles his nose. I realize he is scenting me and then…his eyes widen. It is obvious he can tell something is different.
I avert my eyes. If you’re reading my mind, Azriet, don’t say anything. I can handle this. I know what I’m doing.
My mate relaxes in his chair.
He trusts me.
It would make me smile if his sister weren’t celebrating and laughing to herself at the head of the table. She is all elegance and poison, her smile cartoonish and wolfish as if it belongs to the villain in a fairy tale.
Goosebumps prickle over my skin.
It’s creepy how I’m back in time. Part of me is afraid I won’t be able to change things, but…I have to.
For Axel.
For Azriel.
I glance at the food. The illusion is flawless. The bread looks soft and golden. The meat glistens. The fruit glows like jewels. But I know this is all fake, what hides under the glamour.
I remember the maggots. The mold. The rot.
I turn to Axel. “Don’t eat the food,” I whisper.
He blinks at me. “What?”
“Just… trust me.”
Something in my tone must reach him, because he frowns. He doesn’t look happy about what I said. He is a big, muscular guy and needs his daily vitamins, but he nicely lowers the fruit he’d been lifting to his mouth.
“Okay.”
Good. I’m human, but my Beta still listens to me
I place the goblet back down. Pick up the knife. Hide it in my pocket and then I stand up.
It is now or never.
All heads turn, including Mara’s.
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Chapter 91
She wears a curious blooming smile. “Is something the matter, little.. lex?” She blinks, as if ionship something in 60 Maybe the cần tell my u longer the same as it once was.
Doesn’t matter.
કવિ ની પા
I walk toward her. My bare feet silent on the cold marble. The knife hidden in my sleeve. Each step feels heavier, More final. Like fate is building toward this moment and holding its breath.
Azriel’s gaze sharpens, like he is ready to protect me.
Stay back, I tell him.
He doesn’t move, but I wonder if perhaps telling him not to intervene is a mistake. I’m just Eden right now. Not a fox. Just a human girl with a knife and a name. Will Mara even be able to be controlled by a human? What if it needs to be a supernatural creature speaking her true name?
Shit, why didn’t think of that?
I consider turning around, but that’s when flashes hit me. Elvira’s body crumpled against a tree. Axel’s scream when Mara tore out his heart. Azriel whispering my name with violet eyes, fighting the shadows consuming him.
I can’t give up now.
I stop two feet from Mara. Look her dead in the eyes.
And then I whisper her true name, praying to the gods it will work.
Nothing happens. For one breathless second, I think I’ve failed.
Then-
Mara convulses.
Her scream isn’t just a sound. It’s air ripping. Magic buckling. Shadows peel off her like skin. The chandeliers shatter in the ceiling. The marble groans under her knees. The glamour vanishes, revealing rot, blood, ruin. Even the shadows look afraid.
“Y–you!” Mara hisses, her limbs trembling like she is a puppet fighting invisible strings.
Her hand lifts. I’m not sure what for. Maybe to choke me? But poor Maraisn’t strong enough to fight the power of her true name. She isn’t Azriel. These grounds don’t recognize her as the true Queen of the Nightmare court.
A smile curls my lips. “Kneel.”
The command leaves my mouth like a blade. And Mara obeys.
Against her will.,
The Queen of Nightmares, the monster who nearly devoured everything I loved, drops to her knees before me. Her head bowed, her body shaking.
The shadows stare from the walls, no longer under her command. Even the magic in the room twists in disbelief. Gasps echo through the chamber too. Fae guards gawk as if they can’t believe their Queen has fallen.
And now I will show them Mara will no longer rule.
I move forward with my fingers gripping the hilt of the knife like it belongs in my hand.
I crouch in front of Mara. Her eyes meet mine, full of hate and disbelief, but she can’t move. Can’t speak. Not without my permission.
My smile grows cold.
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Chapter 91
“How ironic,” I whisper, leaning in close, “and almost poetic… that the Queen kneels before the Omega before she dies”
Tinhale her perfume. “And you know what? You smell like death.”
Famous words before I drive the blade into her throat.
Blood spills over her chest.
Mara’s hands twitch, clutching at the wound, but she can’t scream. She can’t fight. She chokes silently, her eyes going glassy when she sinks fully to the
floor.
I watch the life leak out of her eyes.
A sick part of me finds it beautiful since this woman killed Axel.
She deserves this.
“Checkmate,” I whisper, my voice the last thing in Mara’s ears before she dies.
And after she has taken her last breath, the Nightmare Court itself seems to exhale. The shadows vanish. The rot fades. Like the realm itself is shedding a skin of darkness it didn’t choose to wear.
Then the hall explodes into chaos.
Guards shout. Magic thrums. There’s confusion all around. Azriel reaches me in the midst of it, his arms like steel around my waist when he pulls me to
his chest.
“Eden…” he breathes, hugging me so that I’m making out with his abs. “I…I don’t even know what to say. Your head…your thoughts… Are you from the future? Did you time–travel?”
I don’t answer.
Axel rushes forward, mouth open, eyes wide. “Eden?”
I look up at him.
Alive.
And I let out a breath that’s half a sob.
“I stopped her,” I murmur, still half–pressed to Azriel’s chest. “Before she could start the war. Before she could take anything from us.”
Azriel’s hand lands on my shoulder. His voice is quieter. “You’re crying.”
lift my eyes to him. “These are happy tears.”
His jaw tightens. But he doesn’t press me because even he can tell that something is going on with me. The room is spinning now. The adrenaline is fading from what I just did. My limbs feel like glass.
Someone is shouting orders in the background. Guards rushing. Servants screaming. But I hear none of it.
“I…I don’t feel so good,” I mumble.
My hands are trembling. Not from fear. From sheer exhaustion. Like the universe borrowed my strength for one final blow.
And then my knees buckle. Maybe time–traveling took a lot of my stamina?
Either way, Azriel catches me. Violet eyes land on mine. “Eden?”
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My eyes flutter, vision dimming.
But before I can go out like a light, I whisper, “This time…this time I ended the nightmare myself.”
Azriel blinks, but I never get to hear his answer because the world tips sideways. Then I fall into the dark, free at last since I’m no longer running from nightmares.
