Page 14 of Angel Unchained

Knox

Suddenly, I was back at home.

A phantom slid through the open window and into my bedroom. Celica. Her specter form paused just a few feet away, staring out into the expanse of the snowy garden as she receded, becoming smaller and smaller and gradually fading away until nothing was left but a haze of tangled snow.

“Don’t go,” I choked out. “Celica.”

I stared out at the flickering light that illuminated the snow as though it were some kind of idol. A place to mourn and worship when she was alive. When she was my everything. And I failed her.

My body jack-knifed off the floor, my heart pounded. I was drenched in blood and sweat. A whoosh filled my ears and I tried to figure out what was happening.

Something was kicking my hand. I blinked hard, the cell slowly coming into focus.

“Wake up, Knox, stop it!” Samantha kicked at me.

My breath was short and croaky, my vision hazy. I was lying almost flat on my back, the stone ceiling glared down at me. My wings tucked against me providing a cushion against the stone floor. Dusty darkness surrounded me and I realized I was holding onto Samantha.

I released her ankle. “What were you doing?”

“Me?” She huffed, reaching down and rubbing where I had a hold of her. “You’re the one who lashed out from your nightmare.”

“And you shouldn’t startle someone when they’re sleeping,” I snarled. Not when nightmares plagued them every time they close their damn eyes. How it felt like my heart had been dug out of my chest and I’d never truly be alive again. Like I was a walking corpse.

“Who is Celica?” Her voice soft, but there was a weariness in her eyes.

I looked away, swallowing down the lump threatening to choke me. After two years, the truth of her death and how I failed her still burns a hole through me. Nothing these bastards torture me with has the capacity to devastate me like this truth. I swore to take her revenge on our enemies, and I wouldn’t let this vixen distract me from that. I wouldn’t let them win and take my soul like they took my heart.

“She was one captured with you, wasn’t she? A relative?” She inhaled sharply. “I’m so sorry.”

I felt sick, as if I had drunk too much poison, the taste of it still in my mouth. Did she think I sullied my wife by almost giving in to the temptation of the herb tonic she had washed into her hair?

I closed my eyes, not wanting her to read the pain and anger brewing there. I would not give her another advantage over me. If she had checked my file, she’d already know this. So she had to know the truth and was trying to play me like before.

“Was she your sister?”

Opening my eyes, I swallowed down the bitterness coating the back of my tongue. Nodding to her question to see if I could read her, that she already knew all about me and my wife. Besides, she had asked if Celia was a relative and among my species, we were all related through blood or marriage.

“And you came onto me after what they did to her?” She waved a hand, a weariness in her voice. “Why? I mean, I get that you might be lonely, but shit. We almost did it here in this prison cell.”

I didn’t answer her, but glance over. Her brown hair was messy and part of me wondered if that was from our kissing and groping. My cock stirred and I gritted my teeth. Didn’t need to start up the idea of fucking again.

She let out a bitter laugh. “Well, I guess I can safely say that you are definitely no angel.”

As if daring me to contradict her, she glares at me.

“My wife used to tell me the same,” I said and instantly regret giving her any further information about me. Things she already knows.

“Oh my god, you’re married?” She shook her head backing away from me more. “Is your wife on your homeworld?”

I looked away, unable to correct her or look at her with fire in her eyes.

“What do you have to say for yourself? If I was your wife, I’d beat your ass. Shit! I hate people who cheat on their spouses.”

“You’re not married?” I asked before I could stop myself.

“No.” She clenched her fists, something flashed in her eyes that I couldn’t name. “And if I was, you can bet I wouldn’t have let you touch me. No matter how desperate I was. What do you have to say for yourself? Are you at all sorry?”

I shrugged a shoulder. If this human only knew how much I’d loved my wife, she’d be crying her eyes out. The fact I was using my dead wife as a shield made me sick to my stomach.

A great bellow of thunder erupted in the distance. Hazy shadows from the barred window in the far corner played over her face.

“That’s it? No remorse or apology?” She looked at her fists, and her anger vanished, replaced by cold hate.

Good. Let her think I was a monster. It was better for both of us this way.

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