Page 89 of Mated to the Kings

The man waves his hand over my face, and I scream out as I am suddenly able to move my face. He makes cuts across my breasts and stomach while I scream in agony. Each cut is deeper than the last, and I can feel the warmth of my blood on my skin as it trails down my sides. I can hear the cries of my mates as emotion overwhelms them.

“Please stop,” I plead.

“Then your mates will die,” he growls at me.

“No!” I yell at him.

“Then beg for death,demon-spawn,” he snarls.

“Please, don’t kill them. Please just kill me,” I beg. I won’t let them die for me. I know that will upset them, but I won’t do it. I won’t choose my survival over theirs.

“Then to hell you shall go, devil-touched harlot,” he says as he plunges the knife into my stomach. I grunt as the pain ripples through me. He twists the knife and digs in deeper before yanking it out. The immense pain forces a guttural groan from me. My vision is filled with dancing stars as I lie here bleeding out. Based on the cries and whimpers of my mates, they feel my pain.

This is it. My time has come. Somehow, I always knew that my death would be agonizing. I never deserved to be loved. Somewhere beneath all the pain is pure tranquility. It feels like a warm ray of sunshine beaming down on me while I’m lying in a field of wildflowers. My vision begins to blur at the edges as the voices of my mates begging me to fight fade away.

I can feel myself separating from my body until I am floating, looking down at the chaotic scene below. I am covered in blood as I lay lifeless between my mates. They are still but sobbing. Tears flow freely from them, and my heart breaks for them. I can’t imagine what it is like to feel your mate die. Despite seeing them fall apart, I feel, oddly, at peace. I have spent my entire life in pain; it doesn’t matter if I realized it or not. At least now I can move on and live my life free from my abusers. Zypher Fallins has no place in my peace. He can’t hurt me here. Not anymore. Really, this is a fitting end.

“Lilith,” I hear a voice say. I turn and see a familiar face smiling at me.

“Mom,” I say happily as she wraps her arms around me. “You’re here.”

“I am, sweetie, but you shouldn’t be,” she says softly, cupping my face.

“No one can save me,” I say. “My mates… they can’t save me.”

“You have to fight, Lilith. The world is counting on you,” she says. “Your mates are counting on you.”

“I don’t want to fight,” I admit. “Every time I fight, someone always hurts me. I’m just so tired of getting hurt.” Hot tears sting my eyes, but she wipes them away as they slide down my cheeks.

“I know, baby. I wish I were there with you to help you fight these battles,” she says. “You are stronger than you know. You will overcome this pain. You have your mother’s courage and your father’s determination coursing through you.”

“And out of me,” I say, motioning to my still-bleeding body. Everything is moving slowly as I talk to my mom. As if time is standing still for this moment.

“You will survive this, my dear,” she smiles. “You just have to fight.”

“I don’t want to leave you,” I whimper. “I just want my mom.”

“I’m always with you, Lilith. Every warm ray of sunshine that you feel is me. Every cool breeze of wind on a hot summer day is me. No matter where you go or what you do, I will always be with you. I will always be waiting for you to come back to me, but right now is not your time. You are not meant to be here, Lilith.”

“I love you so much,” I cry. She wraps me in a hug and holds me tightly.

“I love you too, Lilith. You have no idea how proud I am of you. Don’t ever forget that, okay?”

“Okay,” I sniffle as I pull back from her.

“You have to go back now. Okay?”

“Dad misses you,” I say, stalling. “They all do.”

“I know they do. Your father talks to me at night, as if praying to me,” she says with a smile. “Your brothers act tough, but I know they are just as depressed sometimes. Tell them that I love them. Leli too. We will all be together again one day, but not right now. You need to go now, Lilith.” Her smile is sad, as cups my cheek. “Remember, Lilith, you are the storm.”

“I am the storm,” I repeat softly as I nod.

I turn to look down at the chaos unfolding, and I’m pulled back into my body. My eyes flutter open to see a shadow rush into the tent with us. It quickly overtakes the witch by latching onto his head and shaking him until he goes limp.

Either I’ve lost too much blood or a giant otter with black and brown scales just broke a grown man’s neck. I gasp when it bounces over to me. It chitters and chirps as it happily licks me all over. I am in complete shock at whatever the hell this thing is doing, but when the pain starts to fade away, I realize that it’s healing me.

It moves away from me and curiously sniffs my mates before going over to the now-dead witch. I start to regain movement in my limbs. I slowly sit up to see this dork of an animal flop down and kick at the dead body with its hind legs a few times. When the guys sit up it simply glances at us before chewing on the body of the witch.

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