Free Web NovelChapter 106: Chapter 105:The Dream
Eve floated in darkness.
Not the terrifying kind....the peaceful kind. Like being suspended in warm water, weightless and safe. She couldn’t feel the bed beneath her, couldn’t hear Silas’s breathing or the sounds of the estate. Just... nothing.
Then light began to bloom in the distance.
It started as a pinprick, then expanded into a doorway of golden radiance. Eve felt herself drawn toward it, not walking but gliding, as if the light itself was calling her home.
When she passed through, she found herself in a garden.
But not just any garden. This one was impossibly beautiful....flowers in colors that didn’t exist in the mortal world, trees with silver leaves that chimed like bells in a breeze she couldn’t feel, and a fountain in the center that flowed upward instead of down, the water defying gravity as it danced in crystalline spirals.
"Hello, my darling girl."
Eve spun toward the voice and froze.
A woman stood beneath one of the silver trees, and Eve’s breath caught in her throat. She was stunning.....tall and graceful, with long dark hair that fell in waves past her waist, and eyes... amber eyes. Exactly like Eve’s. The same shape, the same color, the same way they seemed to glow from within.
Eve’s hand went to her own face unconsciously, touching her cheek as she stared at this woman who looked like an older, more refined version of herself.
"Mom?" The word came out as a whisper, confused and hopeful.
The woman’s face crumpled with emotion, tears streaming down her perfect cheeks as she smiled. "Not the mother who raised you, my sweet child. But the mother who gave birth to you. The mother who loved you from the moment you existed."
Eve’s mind struggled to process this. "You’re... you’re Queen Lilith?"
"I was," the woman.....Lilith....confirmed, moving closer with that same inhuman grace Eve was learning to recognize in herself. "Before the coup. Before we had to give you up to keep you safe. Before...." Her voice broke. "Before we lost you."
"Then this is a dream," Eve said, trying to ground herself in logic. "You’re dead. Both of you died when I was a baby. This is just my mind creating what I wish was real."
"Is it?" A male voice, deep and warm with affection, came from behind her.
Eve turned to find a man standing near the fountain. He was tall....taller even than Damian....with the same dark hair touched with silver at the temples, the same amber eyes, and features that were masculine but unmistakably similar to her own. Where Lilith looked like an older version of Eve, this man looked like what Eve might have looked like if she’d been born male.
"Dad?" The word felt foreign on her tongue. She’d never called anyone that. Never had a father, just the absence of one.
"Azrael," he confirmed, his voice thick with emotion as he moved closer. "Your father. And yes, we are dead, little one. Have been for twenty-three years. But death is not the end....not for those of us with enough power to leave echoes behind."
"Echoes?" Eve’s scientific mind latched onto the word, trying to understand.
"Imprints," Lilith explained, reaching out to touch Eve’s face with trembling fingers. "We knew we might die. Knew the coup was coming. So we did something forbidden....we stored pieces of our consciousness in the royal pendant. The one your adoptive mother gave you. The one that activated when you first touched it."
Eve’s hand went automatically to her throat, but the pendant wasn’t there. She’d left it in the master bedroom, locked in a drawer for safekeeping.
"We’re not fully our original selves," Azrael continued, moving to stand beside his wife. "Just fragments. Memories and knowledge and love that we wanted to pass on to you if you ever claimed your heritage. This is the first time the pendant has allowed us to manifest....probably because you’re finally strong enough to handle the contact without it overwhelming your mind."
Lilith couldn’t seem to stop touching Eve....her face, her hair, her shoulders....as if reassuring herself that her daughter was real. "You’ve grown so well," she whispered, fresh tears streaming. "You’re so beautiful. So strong. So much more than we ever hoped you’d be."
"I don’t understand," Eve said, her own tears starting to fall. "Why am I seeing you now? Why not earlier, when I first got the pendant?"
"Because earlier, you weren’t ready," Azrael said gently. "The knowledge we need to give you would have broken your mind when you were newly awakened. But now...." He studied her with those amber eyes that were so like her own. "Now you’ve survived awakening, bonding with three alphas, developing powers at unprecedented speed. Now you can handle what we need to tell you."
"What do you need to tell me?" Eve asked, though part of her didn’t want to know. Didn’t want this perfect moment with her birth parents.....even if they were just echoes....to be ruined by harsh truths.
But Azrael’s expression turned grave. "The truth about the coup. About why we died. About what’s coming for you."
He gestured to a stone bench near the fountain, and suddenly all three of them were sitting....though Eve didn’t remember moving. Dream logic, she supposed.
"The Seraphim Court wasn’t always fractured into factions," Azrael began. "When I ruled, we were united. Strong. But power always breeds ambition, and there were those who believed the old ways....the monarchy, the traditions....were holding us back."
"Lord Malachai," Lilith said, her voice hardening. "He was my cousin. Family. Someone we trusted. And he was the one who orchestrated everything."
"He convinced enough nobles that the Court needed revolution," Azrael continued. "That succubi society should be governed by council rather than crown. That hereditary rule was outdated and corrupt. He gathered supporters, made promises, formed alliances. And then, when everything was in place...."
"He struck," Lilith finished. "During the Autumn Festival. When the palace was full of celebration and the guards were relaxed. His people came in the night with cold iron weapons....the only thing that can truly kill our kind....and they slaughtered everyone loyal to the crown."
Eve listened in horror as her father described the massacre. The screams, the blood, the way trusted advisors had turned into assassins. How he and Lilith had fought desperately, killed dozens, but been overwhelmed by sheer numbers.
"We knew we were going to die," Azrael said quietly. "Knew we couldn’t win. So we made a choice. Your mother used the last of her power to teleport you to the mortal realm, to a location we’d prepared in advance. Your uncle Raphael....my brother....was waiting there. He took you and ran."
"We died protecting the throne room," Lilith continued, her hand gripping Eve’s tightly. "Died buying time for Raphael to get far enough away that Malachai’s people couldn’t track him. Died knowing our daughter would live, even if we didn’t."
"And we’ve been waiting ever since," Azrael said. "Waiting in the pendant. Waiting for you to grow strong enough to claim your birthright. Waiting to give you the knowledge you’d need to survive."
"But the Court..." Eve started.
"Is hunting you," Lilith interrupted, her expression fierce. "They know you exist now. Know you’re powerful. Know you could invalidate everything Malachai built if you take the throne. So they’re coming for you, my darling. They’re already here."
Eve’s blood ran cold. "Here? At the estate?"
"One of them," Azrael confirmed grimly. "An assassin. Sent by Malachai to kill you before you can become a threat. He’s in the estate right now, Eve. Right now while you sleep." freёwebnovel.com
Panic spiked through her. "I need to wake up. Need to warn..."
"We know," Lilith said, her hand moving to rest over Eve’s heart. "That’s why we pulled you into this dream. To warn you. To prepare you. To give you what you need to survive."
"I don’t understand," Eve said desperately. "What can you give me? You’re echoes, you said so yourself...."
"Echoes with power," Azrael corrected. "Power we’ve been storing in the pendant for twenty-three years. Power that was always meant for you."
Lilith’s hand began to glow....soft white light that pulsed in rhythm with Eve’s heartbeat. "Your mother was the most powerful succubus queen in five generations," she said. "And I’m going to give you access to everything she knew. Every technique, every ability, every secret of our kind."
"And I’m giving you the knowledge of how to rule," Azrael added, his own hand joining his wife’s over Eve’s heart. "How to navigate Court politics. How to identify allies and enemies. How to be not just powerful, but strategic."
"This will hurt," Lilith warned, her amber eyes.....so like Eve’s....filled with love and sorrow. "Taking in this much knowledge all at once will feel like your mind is being torn apart and rebuilt. But you’ll survive it. You’re strong enough now."
"Wait...." Eve tried to pull back, but their hands held firm.
"There’s no time," Azrael said urgently. "The assassin is already in your room. Already preparing to strike. If we don’t do this now, you’ll die before you wake."
"We love you," Lilith whispered, tears streaming down her face. "We have always loved you. From the moment you were conceived to the moment we died to this very second. You are our greatest achievement, our proudest joy, our beloved daughter."
"And you’re going to survive," Azrael added fiercely. "Going to claim your throne. Going to unite the Court. Going to be the queen we always knew you could be."
Together, they pressed their glowing hands against Eve’s chest.
Pain exploded through her mind.
It wasn’t physical....it was worse. It felt like someone was pouring molten knowledge directly into her brain, filling every empty space, burning away ignorance, carving new pathways for understanding. Centuries of accumulated wisdom, technique, power....all of it flooding into her consciousness at once.
Eve screamed. freёwebnovel.com
Images flashed through her mind faster than she could process:
Her mother in the throne room, power radiating from her as she faced down attackers.
Her father fighting with deadly grace, killing those who threatened his family.
The moment they’d decided to send her away, the anguish on their faces.
Raphael fleeing through portals with a crying baby in his arms.
Twenty-three years of him watching from shadows, protecting without revealing himself.
The coup’s aftermath.....Malachai claiming the throne, declaring the monarchy ended, fracturing the Court into factions.
The search for the lost heir that had lasted years before they’d assumed she was dead.
And underneath it all: knowledge. So much knowledge.
How to manipulate energy with surgical precision. How to enthrall multiple people simultaneously. How to kill with a thought. How to read intentions in micro-expressions. How to identify lies. How to navigate the deadly waters of Court politics without being destroyed.
How to be a queen.
"Wake up now, my child," Lilith’s voice cut through the pain. "Danger hovers over you. You’ll know what to do when you wake. Trust yourself. Trust your power. Trust your mates."
"Wait!" Eve gasped, fighting against the pull of consciousness. "What danger? How do I deal with it? I don’t understand...."
But she was already fading from the dream, the garden dissolving around her. The last thing she saw was her mother’s worried face, tears streaming, mouthing three words:
I love you.
Then darkness.
Then consciousness.
