To ruin an Omega

Chapter 164: Closer to peace

FIA

I blinked against the dim interior of the car. My fingers found my throat again, searching for phantom pain that wasn’t there. The tears kept sliding down my cheeks in steady tracks. I couldn’t seem to stop them.

“What is wrong?” Cian asked.

I dragged my hand across my face. The wetness smeared but more tears replaced them immediately. My chest felt tight. Compressed.

“I had a dream.” My voice came out rougher than I expected. Like I’d been screaming.

Cian stayed quiet. He just looked at me with that focused intensity he sometimes got. The kind that made me feel like I was the only thing in the world worth paying attention to. I didn’t know if he wanted me to keep talking or if he thought I might fall back asleep. Either way, he waited.

But sleep felt impossible now. Mother’s face hung in my mind too clearly. Too vividly. Her smile. Her voice. That secret she’d almost told me before everything dissolved into nothing. The memory had been real. Something from when I was small. Something I’d buried or forgotten. Something that hurt to remember.

My head throbbed. I pressed my palm against my temple but the ache only deepened.

“What did you dream about?” Cian finally asked.

“I’m not sure.” The confession slipped out easily. Too easily.

I looked around the car properly for the first time since waking. The seats. The windows showing darkness outside. The quiet hum of the engine beneath us.

“Are we leaving the party?”

“It’s late already.” Cian shifted slightly. His shoulder moved against mine.

“Did I cause you trouble?” The question felt necessary. Important somehow.

“No.” He said it simply. Without hesitation.

I waited for more. He usually gave more.

“A lot happened.” He continued after a moment. “Rather than giving the gossip brigade something new to work with, I figured we should go home. I also didn’t want your parents cornering you and pressuring you into accepting their ass apology.”

The corner of my mouth lifted despite everything. Despite the tears that still hadn’t stopped. Despite the weight in my chest.

“I wouldn’t.” I meant it too.

“I know.”

“Seeing my father still defend and protect Hazel when he never did that for me.” I paused. Swallowed around the lump in my throat. “It sort of opened my eyes completely. He never loved me or Mother. He just wanted a mate of fate and he hated the complexities that came with it.”

Cian’s jaw tightened. I saw the muscle jump there.

“What about Madeline?” The question came out before I could stop it.

Cian swallowed. The motion was visible. Deliberate.

“She’s in the car with Aldric and Elara.”

I nodded. Tried to keep my expression neutral. Tried not to let how much that bothered me show too obviously.

“Did you—” I started, then stopped.

Anything I said would reveal too much. Would show exactly how jealous I’d been. How hard I’d tried to not let Madeline’s presence affect me. How badly I’d failed at that particular task.

“Madeline wants to help my mother with her magic.” Cian said it plainly. Matter of fact.

I turned to look at him properly. “Huh?”

“I think you should know that.” He met my gaze without flinching. “Considering you’re shielding again.”

Heat crept up my neck. I’d thought I was being subtle about it. Apparently not subtle enough.

“Nothing is going to happen between me and Madeline.” He spoke slowly. Carefully. “I promise you that.”

My cheeks burned. I could feel the flush spreading across my face. I managed to keep my voice level though. Mostly level.

“I wasn’t thinking that.”

“You’re a horrible liar.” The hint of amusement in his tone made my embarrassment worse.

I opened my mouth to protest but he continued.

“I want to promise you though.” His voice dropped lower. Serious again. “Whatever hell you went through with your father at Silvercrest, you will never have to face it at Skollrend.”

The words hit me harder than they should have. Settled into my chest and wrapped around my ribs. I reached for his hand without thinking. Found it warm and solid. Real. I rested my head back against his shoulder. The position felt natural now. Easy.

“You promise?”

He nodded. I felt the movement more than saw it.

My mind drifted back to the party. To Isobel’s confession. To the revelation that had shattered something inside me. She’d killed Mother. Suffocated her. Which meant the cure I had been working on for the rot had somehow worked. At least enough to cure the disease first.

Alchemized poison. The rot. Was it something I could actually do? Something I’d inherited?

“I want to get justice for my mother.” The words came out quiet. More to myself than to Cian.

“That might be hard.” Cian’s response was immediate but not dismissive.

I lifted my head from his shoulder. Turned to face him again.

“She killed my mother.”

“I believe you.” He said it without hesitation. Without doubt. “But she was diseased with the rot and on the last days of her life. When she died, no foul play was detected. This would be hard to pin on her.”

Frustration bubbled up in my throat. Hot and bitter.

“So you’re telling me to just let it go?”

“I didn’t say that.” Cian’s expression stayed calm. Measured. “She cares a lot for her daughter. I saw it. And I made sure to force the hands of your parents to make sure that Hazel faces the charges of murder for the dead sentinel and attempted murder for what she did to you.”

I stared at him and tried to process what he was saying.

“She’ll be tried by the elders.” He continued. “If she wants a charge to be dropped for the sake of her beloved daughter, she can consider catching one for her. She can confess.”

The logic made sense. Brutal sense. The kind that would force Isobel to choose between her freedom and Hazel’s life.

“You’re not wrong.” I admitted slowly. “But Isobel is not that much of a mother.”

Would she really sacrifice herself for Hazel?

This was the same woman who had spent years shielding her daughter at every turn. The same woman who had killed, not out of desperation, but to settle an age old score against me and my mother. She had just confessed to murder, not with remorse, but to provoke me, to turn it into some twisted contest between us. And the worst part was that I felt a strange calm at the idea of Hazel finally being forced to face the consequences of her actions.

But confessing to the elders was different. That meant punishment. Real punishment. Not just words spoken in the heat of the moment.

“We’ll just have to wait and see then.” Cian said.

I turned his words over in my mind. Examined them from different angles. The plan had teeth. It could work. If Isobel loved Hazel as much as she claimed. If she was willing to pay the price for all the things she’d done.

The car rolled through the darkness. Steady and smooth. Taking us away from Alpha Julius’ estate. Away from my father and Isobel and Hazel. Away from all the ghosts that now lived in that place.

My tears had finally stopped. The tracks on my cheeks dried sticky and uncomfortable. I wiped at them again with the back of my hand.

“Thank you.” The words felt inadequate but necessary.

Cian glanced at me. His expression softened just slightly. Just enough.

“You don’t need to thank me.”

“I do though.” I insisted. “You didn’t have to do any of this. You didn’t have to push my parents. Didn’t have to make sure Hazel faces justice. You could have just let it all go.”

“No.” He shook his head. “I couldn’t.”

The certainty in his voice did something strange to my chest. Made it feel tight and loose all at once.

I settled back against his shoulder. Let the steady rhythm of the car lull me into something close to peace. Not quite peace. But closer than I’d been in a long time.

Mother’s face drifted through my thoughts again. Younger. Happier. The way she’d looked in the garden with sunlight in her hair and dirt under her fingernails. The way she’d smiled at me like I was something precious. Something worth protecting.

You are magic, she’d said.

Now those words were starting to carry a different kind of weight.