Pretty Painful by K.A Knight

Dabria

We soar over the city, heading for a strip of land near the forest surrounding it. I let both Mishal and Nyre search the city, knowing they haven’t seen it. I bet when they were here, it was nothing like it is now.

Just a small village, how times have changed, he whispers slowly, and I can hear him wondering what else has changed, what he has missed.

We’ll explore it all together, I vow.

We soar above the city, making sure not to get spotted until Nyre takes us down and lands softly in a clearing in the trees on the outskirts. He tilts to the side again and I slip off his back, steadying myself against his side. His tail curls around us and he turns his head to see me, those giant, golden eyes unblinking. Grinning, I step up to his snout with no fear and drop a soft kiss where I can reach.

“Thank you, Nyre,” I say softly, stroking his scales. They are solid, like metal.

Always, mi cielo, kiss me again?he requests, closing those eyes like he daren’t look if I do.

So, I lean closer and pepper kisses across his face, knowing they both need love.

He purrs before stepping back, his body curling in on itself, and a flash happening before Mishal stands in his place. I cover the distance between us, flinging myself at him. He catches me mid-air as I wrap my legs around his waist, my lips fumbling until I find his and we both groan at the contact.

“Missed me, little one?” he inquires, his hand rubbing at my back as the other grips my ass.

“Always.” I grin, kissing him again.

A soft smile curls his mouth, those black eyes locked on me. “Fuck, you are going to be the death of me,” he grumbles, gripping me tighter.

“I guess we should find the warehouse,” I whisper, knowing we need to, but I’m dreading stepping foot back in there. I keep seeing flashes of Rachel’s body in my mind, and I know it will kill me if it’s still there when we crash that place. It will all become real again.

“Little one,” Mishal growls, but I’m lost in my thoughts. My body is in his arms, but my head is stuck on the sight of Rachel’s body jerking when the bullet hits her. Again, and again on replay, like a stuck record, until I’m almost screaming in my head, begging for it to stop, like a car cash you can’t look away from, my eyes glued to her.

“Dabria, you fucking look at me right now,” Mishal roars.

Rachel, I sob, trying to reach for Mishal, but I can’t seem to find him.

“I swear, if you don’t fucking look at me, I’m going to tan your arse red,” he threatens, and it cuts through the panic and grief. As if in slow motion, I raise my eyes to his, blinking away the tears.

“I—”

“Shh, little one, you just got lost for a moment. It’s okay, we’re here, I’m here,” he assures me, walking us across the field until we reach a tree, then he sits at the base and pulls me into his lap, holding me while I cry again. I don’t want to, it’s weak and I know we need to get moving, but I can’t help it.

“Shh, let it out, we have time. It’s okay, little one,” he soothes, rocking me in his arms as his heat seeps inside my cold heart, warming me and forcing me to let all my pain out.

“If she is there, it will be okay, we will bury her. We can offer her the rest she needs, little one. I promise you aren’t facing this alone,” he tells me, repeating it over and over again until my sobs slow to soft tears trickling down my face, the pain manageable and not all-consuming. I don’t even know what set it off, but I can’t pretend to be embarrassed.

“You remember how I told you we killed our parents?” he asks and I blink, confused at first, before nodding against his chest.

“We had hated them for a really long time. We were nothing to them but something else to control, more power to have. We grew up learning to fight and harness powers, as we were thrown into wars and tortured. Through it all we stayed strong, we believed in their cause, we believed in them.” He sucks a breath and I look up at him, noticing the faraway look on his face, he is baring his pain to try and help lessen mine, I owe it to him to listen. “What I never told you is we had a sister, not by blood, she wasn’t our parents’, but as kids we had adopted her. Her father worked on my mother’s wait staff and had no time for a child. She was such a little thing, wearing these pigtails that used to fly behind her as she ran, and she had this giggle that made you smile whenever you heard it. She was an innocent. Fuck, she was just a child. I guess each of us saw in her what we always wanted—happiness and family. She brought us together, we made her our sister, we protected her as much as we could and offered her a family like she had never had. Soon, they realised this. They never paid much attention to us, so we never bothered, but it turns out they had spies watching us. They saw our love for our sister as a weakness. How could we care for a human?” He shakes his head and I stroke his chest, letting him know I’m here.

“One day, we were sent away on a mission, another slaughter, and when we came back, they were waiting. Her father was strung by his ankles above the castle door. We all kind of looked at each other and burst into motion. When we found them, in the sitting room, we froze. All the air was sucked from the room…there she was. Her broken, little body lay before the fire. She was still alive, but the things they had done to her—” He shakes in my arms. “But when she looked at us, those eyes lit up, she had believed the entire time we would come for her. That we would save her, she never doubted us, even though they hurt her. Fuck, she must have been about sixteen at the time. Just a fucking kid. They waited until we got there and they threw her into the flames of hell. We were forced to watch her burn, listening to her screams. We tried to get her out and one of my brothers was burned for his troubles. He should have died, but he didn’t. It set something in us free. The remains of our hearts, our loyalty, burned with her. Our little sister, just gone. I would never hear her laugh again, never watch her eyes light up when we showed her our magic or abilities. Just gone.”

“Mishal.” I shake my head, crying tears for him and his brothers. They were so young themselves, forced to endure the worst thing possible. No wonder he understands my grief.

“It was one of the reasons we decided to kill them. We plotted and planned for years, all the while playing the good sons. I hated it, pretending I didn’t hate them, but every time I looked at them, I saw her. Eventually, it was time. We killed them and we made it hurt, little one. They suffered for what they did before we tossed them to the flames as well.” He stops, sucking in a breath, his body racked with pain and old wounds.

“What was her name?” I inquire softly, watching him closely.

“Lilith,” he whispers. “Lilly to us.”

“I’m so sorry, Mishal,” I whisper, heartbroken for him. I try to gather his pain, to take it for him, but he doesn’t let me.

“I need it, little one, it makes me who I am. As does yours. I’m not saying it won’t hurt, it does, but the past builds us, it allows us to choose who we want to be now. I chose to be the person Lilly thought I was, not the one my parents did. Do you choose to be my mate? Do you choose to be nothing but the broken creature they tried to make you with her death, or do you choose to be the warrior I see every day?”

“The warrior,” I whisper, before licking my lips and trying again. “Warrior, I want to be the warrior,” I say stronger.

“The warrior and the dragon, I think they make a pretty good match.” He grins, both of us letting the pain flow through us but not overwhelm us. We let it fuel us and guide our decisions, knowing what the cost of life and making the wrong call is. We know death, we know pain and heartache, and together we will know love.