Page 5 of Midnight Kingdom

“Go on.”

“While Variant was fucking Anona, he reached underneath a pillow and pulled out a knife which he used to slit her throat.”

Dragan’s eyes go wide and he reaches out with his other hand, wrapping it around my upper arm. “And you watched the whole thing?”

“Yes,” I answer with a brief nod. “I was forced to watch the whole thing.” I take a deep breath and look at him again. “There’s more.”

“Okay,” he starts and begins rubbing my arm up and down. “Tell me when you’re ready.”

“I was forced to watch him kill her and I was helpless to do anything about it,” I start as my courage falters and I wonder if I can tell him the rest of what happened. “And, all the while, I was forced to… pleasure myself.”

“Pleasure yourself?” he repeats, shaking his head to show me he isn’t following.

“I had to sit there and watch him fuck her and kill her and he forced me to finger… myself.”

He nods as understanding dawns on him and I can see the anger in his eyes. He drops his hands and as I glance down at them, they turn into fists. “I’m sorry, Eilish. I’m sorry Variant subjected you to… that.”

“I am too,” I answer and then breathe out my discomfort. “Anyway, that’s what I told Cambion during the conversation we both shared.” I clear my throat. “It’s how he knew Anona was dead.”

“I’m surprised you told him,” he responds and appears confused by the fact.

“It wasn’t as though I just volunteered it,” I explain. “Cambion witnessed a vision of what happened and he demanded to know the truth, and you know how insistent Cambion can be.”

“Yes.”

I nod. “Evenutally, I told him.”

“Does Revenant know?”

“No,” I say and shake my head.

“Are you going to tell him?”

“Maybe eventually,” I answer as I take another deep breath because there’s something more on my chest. “And there’s something else.”

“What?”

“When I was with Variant,” I start as I breathe in deeply. “It was that same evening,” I continue and find my attention shifting to the floor. I can’t look Dragan in the eyes as I remember the specifics. “After he killed Anona, he walked over to me and I thought… I thought he was going to rape me.”

“Did he?”

“No,” I say and shake my head as I look up and into Dragan’s concerned gray eyes. “But, I thought he was going to and something happened when he touched me. It was like this huge blast of light and energy exploded out of me and it burst into him, sending him across the room.”

“Jesus,” Dragan says.

I nod. “And maybe it was due to that light burst or maybe he already knew,” I start as I exhale and then look up into his eyes. “But Variant knows I’m an intact angel. He knows I have my wings.”

“He told you he knew?” Dragan asks.

I nod. “He told me he knew.”

“Fuck,” Dragan says as he runs his hands through his hair and appears distressed. “Does Cambion know?”

“No.”

“Revenant?”

“No.”

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