Page 188 of Scars Like Wings

So many emotions and thoughts swirled in my head, and I didn’t know what to tackle first. I didn’t know if I even wanted to unravel anything. My tail flicked, and my wings fluttered with nervous energy. I wanted to run away. I wanted to take flight andkeep flying until I met the horizon. I wanted to scream until I couldn’t talk ever again.

I … I just…

I didn’t know what to do.

Water

Iwalked away.

It wasn’t long after Quinn pulled the shard out of my side before Simone, Maisie, and the cousins approached. They were cut and wounded, but they were starting to heal or had healed already for the most part. I breathed a sigh of relief at the sight.

They let me and Quinn know that the blood witch-fae had fled not long after tossing the blade to Zaria with the Archive Guardians going after her, knowing they might not be able to catch up to her. They hadn’t gotten her name and her face had been shrouded in a bloody mask of fog, but they knew that she was working with Zaria to collect dragon blood to use for her magic. She needed a book from the Vault for a spell, but they didn’t know what book or what she intended to do. I honestly only half-listened. Knowing that everyone was okay was all that mattered to me.

I needed to leave.

Simone asked what would happen to Zaria now. Quinn advised that she would be shipped out in the next hour to the Hunter’s Council to decide her fate. She definitely wouldn’t be coming anywhere near me again, Quinn promised. As Cody and Cole lifted the still unconscious Zaria from the floor, I mumbledsomething to Simone and Maisie about talking to them later. I didn’t linger for their response, instead heading straight to the elevator. I stepped on to it. I pressed the button to descend, preparing to let my emotions take control. Knowing we were physically safe again, my dragon receded, taking my wings, tail, and everything else with her until I was human-appearing again.

Just before the doors closed, though, a large hand stopped them. I knew before the doors retracted who it was.

My tears were falling before Quinn boarded the elevator. She allowed the doors to close and us to go down a few floors, then she pressed the stop button to ensure we were stuck together.

I wanted to create a crystal pillar through the ceiling to give me a way out.

I wanted to fly away.

It all justhurt.

I was so consumed by it. I didn’t even know where to start. An ex-girlfriend who was a huntress trying to kill me? Dragon hunters in general, like the ones that killed both of my parents and my aunt as well as tried to kill me and the rest of my small family? Blood fitches working with them to make weapons using dragon blood? My blood, bones, scales, and essence being used to buy someone’s fucking Tesla? My girlfriend that I loved so much I would give my heart to if she needed it was a part of it all? I had dreamed of a future with her. And now? Did I even know this woman?

Of course you do. She has saved your life, protected you. She’s our fated mate. She loves you.

But how could I love someone who could kill me? How could I trust her?

She could have killed you before. She is our fated mate. She loves you.

It’s dangerous. What would my parents?—?

She is our fated mate. She loves you. Love should be enough.

The war in my head was giving me a migraine. I closed my eyes and held my head in my hands to try to calm it.

“Byrdie—” Quinn started.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked as I looked up at her. She was blurry behind all my tears that I couldn’t stop shedding.

“How could I, Byrd?” Quinn’s eyes were wet, too. “Putting aside that I couldn’t tell you until you knew about hunters, there was never a good time or a good way to do it.”

“That day that we played human? You could have done it then.”

“And robbed you of the time you needed to heal? You had just found out that my ex-girlfriend wanted you dead and had tried to kill you. You needed that. I wanted that for you. I’m sorry, but I’m also not?—”

Our mate is right. You know she is?—

I shook my head, interrupting Quinn and my thoughts. “How many?”

“How many what?”

“How many of my kind have you killed?”

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