Page 50 of Dying in Flames (Reborn 4)
At least…at least her bleeding meant she would heal.
It was so fucked up to think, but if I didn’t find something remotely encouraging, I would be lost to a completely different darkness. I looked around the dark cell of hers, trying to see if she was in any immediate danger, but all I could see was a small, curled up form in the corner, seemingly half the size of Maya. I knew the flight was behind me, our cage empty outside of ourselves, so I instead focused on the possible threat to Maya.
I whistled, attempting to get the individual’s attention, and almost immediately they looked up. My chest squeezed uncomfortably as a girl that I had to assume was only twelve looked directly at me.
I winced when I noticed how battered she was. Most of her bruises were old—reallyfucking old—but some of them were new. Her hair was also shorter in some places, and her eyes were bloodshot and dark, contrasting her pale, almost gaunt face. Poor kid. I didn’t want to even consider how long she’d been here.
“Please don’t talk to me,” she whispered. “The witch just came in here and hurt her for talking to you. I don’t want to get in trouble. He’s so much worse than any of the guards.”
I looked around, confirming there were no guards around at the moment. “Just answer me this—you’ve been here for some time, right?”
“Yes, but I don’t know how long it’s been,” she answered honestly. She curled up further, and the sound of a meow had me narrowing my eyes at her.
“Bella?” I called. As the kitten in question peeked her head out from the girl’s arms, the girl made a worried noise.
“I am taking care of her and protecting her until Maya wakes up. I promise, that’s all. She asked me to.” The girl looked terrified of me, and to be fair, I probably looked horrifying. I nodded and looked back down at my mate, frowning as I reached through the bars and placed my fingers on her pulse, relieved to feel it thrumming strongly.
“She will be fine soon. He made her bleed… The other guards made sure to not do that, but he seemed to know her. I hope he doesn’t stay. He’s new and he uses a belt to hurt people,” the girl offered in a sad voice.
“You know what she is?” I demanded softly.
She nodded and swallowed, her eyes darting over my shoulder before she answered. “A phoenix, like me,” she murmured, tucking her head into Bella’s fur.
The kitten looked in pretty good shape. Her fur was a bit dirty, but she was licking the side of the girl’s face, making me know that Maya had really assigned Bella to protect the girl, not the other way around. I shook my head. My mate was so damn sweet, it was actually dangerous sometimes.
I still didn’t understand why or how Bella even got here…
“Maya was telling me how worried she was about her, and the demon brought her in a few minutes later.” The girl’s voice turned confused. “She got really mad at him. Yelled at him and everything about bringing her here…which seemed to confuse him, and then he got mad. She swore at him and told him to go away… He actually listened to her. It was insane.”
That’s my girl. I would have paid to see that fucking bastard run from her.
Before I could respond, Marco’s voice had me looking over at where he was struggling to get up. “What the hell—”
“Some type of prison. Malcolm is here. I don’t really know what else is going on,” I admitted roughly. “Apparently the guards tried to do a number on us.”
“Triedis a goddamn understatement,” he muttered before seeming to realize the seriousness of the situation.
His emotions slipped into a mask of fury as he took in Maya’s limp body. I exhaled sharply. “Marco, how the hell are we going to get out of this?”
The flight leader looked at me, and his jaw tightened. “I have no idea.”
