Page 144 of Cursed to Be Mine
Micha might’ve been a rising star in their ranks before being sold, but what Maddox did to her… She wouldn’t survive a single night.
Then again...maybe she thinks death would be better instead of living without magic.
My eyes fall to my missing hand again.
I lost one and so can still control my abilities.
But Maddox took both of hers.
He didn’t cut them off, nothing as quick and clean as that, but he disfigured them beyond use. Mother tried to fix them after, but despite how powerful she is, even she wasn’t able to make them work again.
Micha’s magic isn’t gone like Varius’, but attempting to use it will most likely end in her death.
Lifting my gaze, I catch my girl’s eye through the open glass door of the living room. Her smile falling, she climbs out of the pool and grabs a towel. She’s in front of me a moment later, her hair dripping wet as it hangs across her shoulders.
“When are you leaving?” she asks.
“In a few minutes.”
She struggles to control her fear, but it’s all over her face, as well as blitzing down our completed bond. Being able to feel it makes me smile. When I started it, I thought it would give me happiness to know she was mine, but I was a fool to think I could imagine how itwould make me feel. Like someone fully blind trying to imagine colors. Someone deaf hearing music that makes others weep. Someone with aphantasia able to picture all the scenes in their favorite book.
“When will you be back?”
It’s a question that doesn’t have an answer, but I know she needs one to cling to. She’s been so strong these last few days, trying to overcome her disliking of families to fit in with mine. It helps that she can feel my love for them all, but her mother tore her to pieces for too many years for six days to have fixed.
Cupping her cheek, I kiss her. When I pull back, I press a light one to her forehead. “I’ll be back by the end of the week.” As long as Talon doesn’t run.
As long as he doesn’t kill me. Although normally, he wouldn’t have a chance, his expertise as a businessman who sometimes gets his knuckles dirty versus mine as a reaper. But I am still recovering from the magic I wasn’t able to control. My kidney is mostly healed, but I still only have one working lung and the pain from heating my blood still lingers. My skin is hot to the touch.
Varius has banned me from using magic, but that will be lifted as I hunt Talon, and Scarlett knows it might very well spiral out of my control, consuming me completely this time.
“I’m not dying before I get a lifetime with you,kira,” I murmur as I rest my head against hers. “I promise I will be back.”
She nods mutely, then throws her arms around me. “I’m going to hold you to that.”
I smile as I kiss her forehead. “I need to get my mask from upstairs before Vlad gets here.”
“Vlad’s going with you?” She wrinkles her nose, notthe biggest fan of the vampire that was so rude to her while she was grieving.
“Yep. He might not be coming back though.”
“Yes he will,” Varius says as he enters behind us.
I turn to face him. “It was a joke.”
His only response is to hold up his hand, my mask dangling from his fingers. “He’ll be here soo–”
The vampire in question suddenly appears beside us, and Scarlett jumps on a small scream. Maddox comes in from outside, a towel around his waist, a wide grin across his lips.
“Dicktective!” he shouts as he opens his arms to hug the guy.
Scowling, Vlad bares his teeth. “Touch me, and I’ll bite you.”
“Kinky. I’m all right with that.” Turning to me as the vampire glares, he slugs me in the shoulder. “Kill T quickly, okay?”
The temperature in the room drops to zero as I nod sharply. Scarlett squeezes my hand, and I drop a kiss on her lips, then step away. I don’t want to linger, to draw out the inevitable.
“I’ll be back soon,” I promise as I grab the reaper mask from Varius. Vlad places his hand on my left shoulder, and then we phase, my stomach dropping out of my feet as the world disappears around us.
