Page 123 of Cursed to Be Mine
Thirty-Eight
HER
“You know?” I ask, my voice cracking under the pain, wondering how long he’s carried this secret on his fragile shoulders. Khalid might be a strong and powerful witch. He might be a man who’s never let himself get close to people in fear of having to kill them, but he is still…human.
He still hurts and feels loneliness like the rest of us.
“Micha can’t control shadows,” he says so flatly I can hear the pain under his mask of factual evidence.
“Your ma told me about what you do for this Family,” I say, hating how he tenses against me, how the worry that I will see him as a monster flows through our bond. “We can run,” I whisper, the words falling from my lips as fast as the tears fall from my eyes. “After we escape from here, we can change our names and just pretend to be dead. We can –”
“I won’t leave them.”
“But what they’re forcing you to do –”
His fingers brush my lips, quieting my words butnot the pain in my heart. “They’re not forcing me,kira. I do it because I don’t want any of them to have to.”
“Why not?” I ask selfishly. Ma wouldn’t have cared for my sacrifice, and I cannot fathom how his brothers can truly appreciate what he is doing for them.
“Because it’ll break them.”
“And what?” I cry. “You deserve to be broken?” How can he think so little of himself? How can he not see they are using him like Ma used me? To unload all of their shit and to make themselves feel better.
“Kira…”
“No! Just because they’re your family doesn’t mean they get to treat you like shit. It took me a long time to realize this, but we don’t need toxic family just because they’re all we have. And you have me. We can pretend we died. We can escape and run far enough and settle down with new lives. We can start a family.” I choke on the last word, my need to keep him safe clashing with promises I don’t know if I can keep. I want to be enough for him. I want to be the woman he needs, but the thought of being a mother terrifies me.
But I can do it if he’s there.
We can figure out how to raise his child together.
“Kira…” he murmurs as he touches his lips to mine and his thumbs brush away my tears. “Thank you for loving me.”
My heart both thuds hard and stops on a locked breath as I shake in his arms, realizing the truth of his words. It might be his bond influencing me. It might be the trauma of the situation tying me to him. But I know it’s neither.
It’s three months of watching him through my window, of waiting for his smile, for the intensity ofhis eyes to find mine. It was the moments of breathless anticipation as I did the shopping around town, hoping I would run into him. It’s seeing how he looks at me, how he listens to the words I don’t say. How he makes me feel beautiful and cherished. It’s knowing I can rely on him regardless of the situation, that no matter what happens, he will be there.
It’s the feeling in my chest, the overwhelming feeling that exploded when I thought I lost him.
Mykira.
My sun.
My moon.
My stars.
Gone.
His pain is mine, and I don’t know how to save him from it. Threading my hands through his hair, I kiss him hard. “I do love you,” I rasp, my words breathless against his lips. “I love you.”
“I love you too,kira.” His tongue sweeps inside my mouth, harsh breaths wheezing from his lungs. I reach between us to grab his cock, needing to show him, to let the overwhelming emotions flowing around me out in some way, but his fingers encircle my wrist, stopping me.
“It’s why I am going to kill Talon regardless of my job as reaper. He hurt you and that is an unforgivable sin.”
Before I can respond, harsh light pours from above. I squeeze my eyes shut as it burns through my skull. Angry hisses scramble away as whatever monsters circled us retreat from the light of our world. I’m pulled up, Khalid’s arms still around me, and experience a moment of utter weightlessness.
Then we’re pulled from the nightmarish realm andinto one of Hell.
