Page 71 of Hell Bites

“It’s not!” he bellows, causing a few demons to look our way. We come to a stop, and he glares at me. Looking almost like fireballs are going to shoot out of his eyes. “Don’t you see what the hell is going on here? You want to go back to Xadrian? That’s not normal!”

“Of course it’s normal. He’s my—”

“No, Zia. You hate him! You ran away from him. Escaped that castle. You went topside. You did everything you could to get away from him, but he found you. He kidnapped you and he fucking spelled you.” I take a step back, shaking my head. “This,” Rae gestures to me up and down. “Isn’t normal. You acting like this isn’t normal. Your head is not up Xadrian’s ass, Zia. You hate him.” His hands are on my shoulders now and he’s still yelling at me. Angry. “You fucking hate him, and I swear I am going to kill him for this! I don’t give a fuck what happens to me this time. He’s dead.”

“You can’t kill him!” I shout back. “I love him!”

Those words have his eyes going nearly all black. I’ve never seen Rae like this before. Never. I’ve seen him grumpy and angry and furious. But this? This is something new altogether.

“You’re wrong,” he seethes, his voice so low it actually sounds demonic.

I open my mouth to say something, but all of the air is stolen from my lungs. My chest aches like someone shoved lava into it. I reach for my throat, grasping at it, wanting to breathe, but I can’t.

“Zia? Zia, what’s wrong?”

I blink, falling to my knees as the pain in my chest gets worse. It’s like someone shoved their hand inside there and is rearranging everything. I can’t breathe, and my head is getting heavy.

I fall forward, just barely catching myself when the sharp pain starts in the base of my neck. It hurts so bad, it’s blinding. The white light hurts my eyes, until it dulls out and turns into images.

Memories.

Flashes of moments I vaguely remember since I’ve been back of me practically begging Xadrian to love me and give me attention. It makes me sick to my stomach. They replay over and over, going all the way until the day in the library when that man came to visit. It flashes behind my eyelids, playing over like a movie. Them talking about the spell, explaining what it’ll do. Me sitting there, all proper and well-behaved.

My stomach lurches, and I dry heave, over and over until I finally catch my breath. The ache in my head settles, my chest slowly stops burning, and everything around me comes back to focus.

“So help me, Zia, if you don’t fucking answer me.”

I open my eyes and see Rae leaning over me, face full of concern.

I grin. “Hey, big bro.”

He growls, slamming his hand in the dirt. “You are not funny. What the hell was that?” he shouts.

I sit up, shaking the dirt off me.

“Well, it seems you were right, and I was spelled.” I force myself to smile wider, holding my hands out. “Surprise?”

He sighs, pulling me in for a hug. “I thought you were dying,” he says softly in my ear.

“Still here, and not going anywhere.”

“So I guess we can assume the person who put the spell on her is dead?” Silo says, causing Rae to pull away from me. His eyes narrow and he looks back at me.

“We can’t be that lucky.”

“Him being dead may not be a good thing,” I say. “Could mean Xadrian is pissed and looking for me.”

“Good point,” Rae answers. “Fuck, what are we going to do now?”

I blink a few times, my head getting fuzzy before another sharp pain hits me right at the base of my skull. I hiss, curling over.

“Zia!”

“I’m fine,” I say, holding my hand up. More images flood my head, and this time when my chest hurts, it’s for good reason. I straighten up, looking at Rae and feeling like I’m going to throw up. “Felix,” I whisper. “Where is Felix?” I look around. “He was here, and now… where is he?”

Silo looks at Rae, and they share some sort of communication in their heads.

“Guess we’re going to save your boyfriend,” Rae mutters, turning on his heel.

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