Page 22 of These Dangerous Fates

She doesn’t comment on my statement. Instead, she appears to draw further into herself. I hate the sight of her cowering.

“I heard rumors just before the contest was announced,” I continue. “He missed a few days of work. People were saying he was in an accident. He wasn’t, though, was he Ellis?”

Wide, wild eyes focus on me. Her pulse jumps in her throat, and I don’t need Kai’s abilities to sense the fear rolling off her.

“I had to,” she whispers. “I had to do it.”

“What did he do to you?” Kai growls behind her. The words are distorted as his fangs descend.

Sterling stands from his seat and crosses his arms, a frown pulling his mouth into a snarl. His icy blue eyes never leave Ellis, and his muscles tense and relax as he flexes them.

She whimpers, and the sound seems to break her open. Tears pour from her eyes and she falls to the ground. I wrap my arms around her before she hits the floor, and haul to my chest, cocooning her from the world around her. Her entire body is trembling like a leaf, and I squeeze her tighter, trying to hold her together. She is so tiny in my arms, her face hitting the spot between my shoulder and chest perfectly. How the fuck anyone could ever hurt her is beyond me.

“It’s okay, Ellis. We’re here now.” I breathe into her hair.

Like a damn that has broken, she spills the entire story, keeping her head buried in my shirt. “My dad arranged for him to marry me, so he could have a son who was a mage. I didn’t know at first, and everything was fine. He was sweet and caring. But when I found out the truth, everything changed.” Her muffled words hitch as if they get stuck in her throat. “He … he threatened me when I tried to break things off. He became violent and possessive. He …” she stops and shudders. A small, helpless sound comes from her.

I press her tighter to me and her arms slowly wind around my waist. Sobs climb up her chest, wracking her body. She clings to me like a lifeline, and I glance at Kai over her head. Red rims the gray of his irises, a sure sign he is on his way to losing control. I can’t imagine the emotions she is putting off that he’s reading.

“You don’t have to tell us this,” I say to her, even as a nasty suspicion grows in my gut.

She takes another deep breath and shakes her head. “He raped and beat me every time I saw him,” she says brokenly, crying so hard it’s difficult to make out the words. “I was so strong at first, but it was too much. I couldn’t do it anymore.”

It’s deathly silent in the room, the two predators gone supernaturally still, so much so even their chests have stopped moving. The only sounds are Ellis’s sobs as she cries into my shirt. I struggle to wrap my mind around what she just told us. The torture she’s been through. The suffering and abuse. This beautiful goddess with clipped wings and a broken soul. My mind empties like the tide receding from the shore and I just stare at Kai over the top of Ellis’s head, at a loss for what to do.

Eventually, Kai breaks the silence. “Fuck!” He yells and throws his beer bottle. It shatters against the wall, beer and glass spraying everywhere.

Ellis jumps at the outburst and tightens her hold on my waist. The door slams behind Kai as he storms out of the room. I glance at Sterling, silently communicating with him to go check on Kai. As he walks through the door, I see the look on his face. He’s as torn up at Ellis’s story as the rest of us, and for some reason, he looks slightly guilty, too.

“Come on, love.” I lead Ellis to the couch again and pull her into my lap.

She curls up tightly to me, and I hold her as her body shudders against mine. It’s hard for me to act calm and collected with her, when on the inside, I’m a raging storm of anger. White hot fire burns through me, desperately seeking an outlet, and my magic is a wild torrent in my veins. I’ve met Samuel Morris a few times, never thought anything about him, except that he was stuck up Thomas Kennedy’s ass. Now, I want to tear him limb from limb for what he did to Ellis. Her dad, too. I don’t want to ask her, but I don’t doubt her dad knew what was happening and did nothing to stop it.

Fuck. How could anybody treat someone that way? How could a father let his child go through that, over and over? I realize I’m squeezing Ellis too tightly and loosen my grip. My body trembles with the need to protect her. The urge to tuck her away from the world and do whatever I can to make her happy is so strong it’s impossible to fight.

When she runs out of tears, I lean back and look at her. Her face is splotchy, her eyes are swollen and red, and exhaustion lines her features, but she’s still beautiful.

“What can I do?” I ask, needing to do something to help her. “What do you need?”

“I want to talk to my friend, Allie. I need to talk to her, but Malakai didn’t let me bring my phone.” She hiccups and wipes her hand over her face to dry her tears.

I dig my phone out of my pocket and hand it to her. “Use mine.” I gently lift her from my lap and stand before placing her back on the couch. “I’ll give you some privacy.”

She looks up at me with wide eyes, panic clearly written on her face.

“I’m not leaving. I’ll just be over there.” I point to the shelves on the other side of the room and she nods.

It’s easy to tune out her conversation since I don’t have the supernatural hearing Kai and Sterling do. I browse the books on the shelves, not really seeing the titles, while I keep one eye on Ellis. She’s crying again; I see her wiping her eyes. Each one is like a brand on my soul, painful and scarring. Why does seeing her upset hurt me so much?

When Kai and Sterling return, I wave them over so they don’t interrupt her. “You good?” I ask Kai.

“Yeah, sorry.” He rolls his shoulders like he’s trying to ease his stress. “I don’t know why that hit me so hard.”

“I think it hit all of us pretty hard.” Sterling stares at Ellis across the room.

“This changed everything, didn’t it?” Kai asks, quietly.

Sterling and I nod. I cross my arms over my chest and say, “Yeah, I think it did.”

---