Chapter 27
Elowen POV
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“I, uh… I brought you something.” Daxon said, reaching into the inner pocket of his jacket.
He pulled out a small, worn photograph. The edges frayed, the corners soft with time. No frame. No glamor. Just truth.
He held it out to me, like it weighed a thousand pounds.
I took it with trembling fingers and blinked down at the face staring back.
A woman. Pale skin. Midnight hair flowing past her waist. Blue eyes that matched mine exactly. She was laughing, holding a tiny bundle
in her arms.
My breath caught.
“That’s…” I whispered, throat closing.
“Your mom,” Daxon said softly. “And you. You were maybe a few days old.”
The world blurred.
“She looks like me.”
“She is you,” he said. “Same fire. Same fight in her eyes. I thought… maybe it would help. Seeing her.”
Something inside me cracked. Because it did help. And it hurt like hell.
“She’s beautiful,” I whispered, barely holding the tears back. “Thank you.”
His voice dropped. “You deserve to know where you come from.”
The photo shook in my hand like it was made of lightning instead of paper.
Her face stared back at me…soft, ethereal, terrifyingly familiar. The same blue eyes. The same bone structure. My fucking mother.
I didn’t even remember her name.
“She was beautiful,” I whispered, the words catching in my throat.
L
“She is,” Daxon said gently. “The Fae didn’t kill her. They imprisoned her. High security. Deep in the Glade.
My breath hitched. ‘She’s still alive?”
He nodded, golden eyes soft for once. “We’ll get her out. I swear it.”
Before I could process that emotional gut punch, Ash piped in from the corner of the room where he’d been brooding like a Victorian
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12:01 Mon, Sep 22
Chapter 27
ghost with great hair.
“We should wait,‘ he said, arms folded. “There’s no point storming a Fae prison with no strategy. You’ll get yourself killed. Or worse…capture her and lose Elowen in the process.”
Daxon stiffened. “You think I’d be that careless?”
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‘I think you’re emotional, Ash said coolly. “And you’re not thinking straight. She needs a calm mind right now. Not…whatever you are when you’re three seconds from shifting and growling at chairs.”
“Say that again, bloodsucker,” Daxon growled, stepping forward.
“Bloodsucker?” Ash’s eyes flared black. “How creative. Did your balls shrink on the way back through the portal, or were they always that
size?”
‘Bite me,” Daxon snarled.
“Gladly,” Ash hissed, fangs flashing.
And just like that, they were chest to chest, snarling like animals, radiating raw testosterone and barely leashed murder.
And me? I was done.
“STOP IT!” I screamed, slamming the photo down on the table so hard it cracked the wood beneath it.
They both froze mid snarl.
“Do you even hear yourselves?” I yelled, voice shaking. “Do you realize I just saw the face of my mother for the first time in my entire goddamn life and you’re too busy trying to prove who can piss farther to even notice I’m fucking unraveling?!”
Ash opened his mouth. I raised my hand to shut him the hell up.
“No. Don’t you dare speak. Not until I’ve finished losing my entire mind in peace.”
Tears flooded my eyes before I could stop them. “I didn’t ask for this! Any of it! I didn’t ask for powers I don’t understand or this prophecy or to be hunted by some masked psycho science cult with a god complex!”
My chest was heaving now. I couldn’t breathe. The walls felt too close.
“You keep talking about how to protect me,” I gasped. “Like I’m a fucking thing. A mission. A problem to solve.”
Daxon reached out like he wanted to pull me in. I backed up so fast I hit the wall.
‘No. Don’t touch me right now. I need to get out of here before I scream.”
I grabbed my phone, shaking fingers flying across the screen.
[Emergency run. Meet me in the trees. Don’t ask. Just come.]
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Chapter 27
:
‘Elowen, please, Daxon said, stepping forward. “You’re not okay. Don’t leave the Keep.
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I’m not okay because of you two! I shouted, pointing at them like they were the chaos gods Incarnate. “So maybe let me be not okay in fucking peace!
I turned on my heel and ran. Barefoot. Hair wild. Sanity hanging by a thread.
Ash’s voice chased me, low and desperate. “Please stay in the wards.”
But Lyssira was already clawing at the edges of my soul, screaming for freedom.
Chapter Comments
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Visitor
7 days ago
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Yeah. That little freak out towards them? Not OK. Like they aren’t struggling with all of this!?
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