Page 84 of Conflicted

“Trust me, it’s happening.” The sight of Micah’s ruinedback flashed through my mind and I had to struggle not to let my demon surface. “You’re right, it wouldn’t be happening if Micah wasn’t letting them.”

Dimitri went rigid. “Explain.”

I ran through everything I knew. That Micah was receiving physical punishments from Heaven. That I suspected this wasn’t the first time it had happened. That he was hiding it from the Seraphim and had tried to hide it from me too.

The blood drained from Dimitri’s face as I spoke. By the time I was done, his lips were white.

He stared at me mutely. He didn’t move until his phone started to vibrate in his pocket.

He answered it as if he were on autopilot. “No, I’m fine. I’m just in shock. No, don’t come here. I’m okay. I’ll explain later.”

I waited until he’d hung up. “Dagon?”

He nodded curtly. “He and Lucky felt my emotions through the bond and were worried. I’m sure you know what that’s like though, with Micah.”

“Micah and I aren’t bonded.” And we never would be. Fuck, I hated that.

“But you are mates?”

I toyed with my lip ring as I debated how much to reveal. Fuck it, Dimitri might be the only one who could help me, and after I was gone, maybe it would be useful. Maybe he could look out for Micah, knowing he’d lost his fated mate. “Yes.”

“Fuck,” Dimitri sighed. “I suspected as much after how he reacted to you in Hell. That’s fucking shit though.”

“Why?” Something in me turned cold. “Am I not good enough for Micah? Because if you think you’ve gotanyfucking say over how he lives his life then?—”

“Simmer down,” Dimitri said, his lips twitching. “That’s not what I meant at all. But surely you must know Heaven won’t allow the two of you to be together?”

Just like that, my fury left me. “Yes, of course we do. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to stand by while someone hurts him.”

“As you shouldn’t.” Dimitri paused. “It’s just so hard to believe, you know? Micah’s infallible, he always has been. I can’t believe he’s letting someone do this to him.”

“Nor would I if I hadn’t seen the scars myself.”

“Wait.” Dimitri frowned. “How has he been scarred? Why didn’t his body heal?”

I repeated what Micah had told me about the cursed ointment. “They’re lash marks, so he’d been whipped. Repeatedly and over several hours, if I had to guess. He said he’d been healing for weeks.”

“Weeks…” Horror dawned slowly on Dimitri’s face. “Fuck. No. Was this because I asked him to help me in Hell?”

My fingers dug into the table once more as I tried to stop myself punching him. “Youaskedhim to help you?”

To his credit, Dimitri looked sheepish. “I needed him and the unit. My mate was in danger.”

I counted backwards from ten in my head, reminding myself that stabbing Dimitri wouldn’t help matters. “Was this the first time you asked for his help in a situation involving your mates?”

He didn’t answer me, but his expression told me everything I needed to know.

“Fuck, Dimitri, that’s low. So you’ve asked him to help you, repeatedly, knowing he’d never say no to you.” I shook my head in disgust. “You know how Micah feels about you. You’ve never once returned his affections,but you’re happy to call on him as often as you need to.”

“I didn’t ask Micah to fall in love with me,” Dimitri said hotly. “I can’t control his feelings. And trust me, he’s hardly an innocent in all of this. I almost lost Dagon for good because of his actions.”

“I’m not saying any of that isn’t true,” I ground out, “but the fact is that you manipulated his feelings for you for your own gain. You won’t be with him, but you drag him into situations where your happiness is flaunted. He’s had to help you save the men you love while thinking he’s not worthy of you. You ask him for help knowing there’s a good chance there’ll be repercussions for him afterwards.”

Dimitri sighed, the fight going out of him. “Not this, though. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought they were treating Micah this way.”

“Well they are and I’m going to put a stop to it.”

“Good,” Dimitri muttered. “I might be salty about how things played out between us, but I care about Micah. About all of the Seraphim. I’m happy with my mates, of course, but I can’t deny that I miss them.”

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