Page 71 of Live Like Legends

“We’ll get you out, Nick!” Reese yelled, grunting as a sentry kicked him. As he sucked in a breath, he said, “we’ll find her!”

Beetee looked as if she wanted to cry but they were almost like angry tears, her eyebrows pulling downward. Elise stared daggers at Ariel, likely plotting his death over and over in her imaginative head.

Morgan came around and created a portal with her own key, letting the sentries past her so we could go through. Ariel came up next to me, a smug look on his face. His broken nose was the only thing that made this moment worthwhile.

“Rogue angels rot in the Ethereal Bastille. They don’t get to be the hero.”

Ibacked up, holding in my body’s protesting ache. My back hit the wall gently and I let out a heavy well-earned sigh before I swallowed. I blew out two quick breaths before I raised my right leg up and then my left, bending my knees. I eyed my right thigh, blood coating that entire part of my body. I reached down, tentatively touching the four open gashes in my skin. The blood was warm to my touch and I couldn’t help but glance over at the already open wounds on my arm from Dimitri’s first physically debilitating brand of torture.

The wounds on my thigh were deeper than my arm. He wanted to make this one hurt. As much as he claimed tocareabout me, that didn’t mean that he would be seen giving me any sort of special treatment. I didn’t want it anyway. I started to stretch my leg out and hissed at the pain. I leaned my head back, closing my eyes and mentally counting down until he came back in here and did it all over again.

I frustrated him with my resistance which in any sort of situation would have made me laugh at how red-faced he wouldget, but Dimitri was getting more hostile. He’d come in here with Lilith pathetically at his side and had his guards slam me up against the wall. The stone ground against my back as he’d, without hesitation, relinquished his claws and tore into the skin at my thigh.

I’d let out an unbridled scream that was silenced the minute he slammed his hand over my eyes. The visuals had been instant but they were darker and more brutal. Images of all my friends getting hurt, all the mutilation and harm was in clear view. Ifelteverything. Every single blade that went through their stomach, every punch to the face, every single fucking bone that broke and cracked rattled through my body.

I’d wanted to vomit from the never-ending pain. Dimitri could have been with me for three minutes but it felt like three hours. He’d let me go and before I’d let myself rally and focused on rational thinking; I’d let my hands get hot. I welcomed the little tingles from the light. I saw Dimitri’s green eyes light up with amusement and I looked down at my hands, wobbling on my feet.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

The shadows were just starting to emerge but hissed at me when I immediately told them to retreat. They obeyed as they always did, taking the light with them. I’d had this feeling that the light somehow knew it needed to avoid this situation all together, it knew what was at risk, but heroics were its calling and if I was in dire need to help people, it was right there whether it wanted to be or not.

My hands had returned to normal but Dimitri had gotten all he needed. It wasn’t enough to boast to his father about, but it was enough for him to adjust his shirt collar with his only hand and smirk. He’d brought my chin up towards him, lightly burning me for my lack of immediate compliance. “Now, was that so hard?”

He’d stood back, waving his hand in the air and revealing a frightened Leah. One of the guards had her by the hair, pulling her head back and a silver blade was to her neck. Her children stood in the far corner crying over their mother.

“You told me that you…” I’d started to yell but he shushed me.

“Now, now, be quiet. This was just a precautionary measure. Simply for if you failed me. I told you that my patience was wearing thin and like the impressive girl you are, you have come through.” I didn’t speak so he’d continued. “I’ll make sure to tell him to let her go, fornow. Remember though, when you let that little hybrid beast of yours out, you aim at one of them, not at me. We all know what happens if you decide to be the most beautiful heroine in the realms.” He pointed his finger towards his guards who swallowed so loudly it echoed throughout the room.

He’d snapped his fingers, removing the visual of Garrett’s family. The guards let me go, my legs giving out on me from the lack of support and I hit the ground.

I opened my eyes, blinking away the memory. I scanned the ground, letting my eyes fall onto the pool of blood my thigh wound had created before I was left alone and had decided to move.

I looked back down at my leg, seeing a flash of platinum blonde hair. I tried to shake my head at the thought, but the same thing came back when I tried to look again.

Lilith had come over to me as Dimitri left, kneeling down beside me. She hadn’t even tried to move her dress away from the blood that trickled around the hem.

She’d reached her hand out, stroking her knuckles against my bruised cheek. I’d attempted to pull away, but even the smallest movement had my muscles aching. “We both know you’re holding back and I can’t say I’m surprised. Stubbornstupid girl. This will all be worth it if you let it be. And then it will be a distant memory when things are how theyshouldbe.”

I’d gritted my teeth. “I don’t listen to you anymore. It’s funny how there was a time I was mildly afraid of you.” I’d peeked over at her as she’d eyed me. “Now, you are the least scary thing in the room.”

She’d chuckled lightly, pressing her fingers into my wound, drawing out more blood. She pulled the skin apart further and tears threatened to spill at the corners of my eyes. “My ruthless, relentless Soul Seether would have shown her skills and risen up above all the rest, damn the consequences. Now you let the lives of others rule your decisions. You owe them nothing. It is everyone else that owes us, can’t you see that.” It had been more of a statement than a question. She’d casted a look over her shoulder at Dimitri who looked as if he had been impatiently waiting for her. Her eyes focused back on me. “You had your fun in your false sense of happiness, now it’s time to come home andstayhome. We can create a much bigger home, a more powerful one.”

I’d narrowed my eyes at her, steeling myself. “Get away from me.”

She’d dug her nails into my wound and I ran my fingertips into the stone. Lilith ripped them out before getting up and smoothing out her dress. “It truly does make me sad to see you like this. You’ve let love cloud your judgment and I taught you so much better than that. Who would have thought that along with all this glorious power, you are still so weak.”

I placed both my hands into my curls, feeling them shake against my head as I forced myself to rid her voice from my memories. It wasn’t loud within my head, but it was constant along with Dimitri’s hands on my face, his claws slicing through my body were on a loop as my muscles remembered tightening at the feeling of him breaking skin.

Lilith had always made it a point to tell me that we loved ourselves and only let people in for short periods of time, only when we needed them and then swiftly let them go. Maybe I should have known I was different the minute I wanted Elise to be closer than an amicable acquaintance, or maybe it was when I’d started to want to open up to the angel I once thought was just a fun entity to tease.

Perhaps things would be so much easier if I didn’t give a shit about Garrett and his family or Natalia and her people. If I had just sustained my emotions, my feelings, then this whole thing with Dimitri would be smoother; it would possibly be fun seeing things crumble and rebuilt with me at the forefront. I pressed the heels of my hands against my head, hoping that the pain would rid myself of these unnecessary thoughts.

I couldn’t. I couldn’t. I couldn’t.

My fingertips rubbed at the place Morgan had yanked my portal key off my neck and the memory of her smug face seemed to flash every time I closed my eyes for even half a second. There was a wooden plank that protruded out of the wall that I’d been sitting on for the past hour and despite my ass hurting from the uncomfortable seat, I was more antsy than anything.

I had never been inside of an Ethereal Bastille cell, let alone been a prisoner in one. There was almost a muted blue tone to the room and there were no windows. I had been looked at by every angel we passed since Ariel had told the sentries to take me the long way, as if he wanted me to feel some sort of shame.

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