Page 51 of Dying in Flames (Reborn 4)
Maya
When my eyes first opened,I thought I had possibly woken from a nightmare. One where the demented man that had haunted my childhood had captured my mates and me. The same man who had led me to believe that my situation had been normal. That it was normal to be mistreated, and that love meant discipline when you didanythingthe other person didn’t like. Where hits were handed out like hugs and you constantly felt guilty for merely existing.
Yet somehow…I didn’t think this was a nightmare.
No, I had a feeling that our situation was far too real, and as I stared up at the dark ceiling, I tried to gather the courage to face my demons. To do more than just run from them, but to defeat them.
For my mates.
For the young phoenix that had been here for god knows how long.
For myself.
For my future.
A soft meow had me smiling faintly… For Bella.
Almost immediately, I got pissed. Pissed because of the person who started all of this… Okay, maybe that was an exaggeration, but he was at least partly to blame. After all, he did kidnap us and bring us here. He hadn’t even tried to stop the guards from hurting my mates, something I could never forget or forgive, and when I had tried to intervene, throwing myself in the way of their kicks and hits, only then had he barked something at them in another language that had them leaving.
Not before moving me to a different cell though.
I had no idea how the man played into this situation with Malcolm, but I did know a few things. First of all, his magic was really unusual and dark. Like something I had never come across before in my life. I didn’t have a lot of experience in the supernatural world, but his magic was overwhelming to be around, the shadows seeming to bend to his will.
Second of all, he was fairly scary and intimidating. I wasn’t nearly as scared of him as I should be, but every time I saw him I did get an uncomfortable feeling across my skin. It warned me to stay far the heck away from the intense individual.
Finally, if Bella got hurt, he was the one I was ‘going after,’ as my mates would say.
Just because I had been explaining that I had missed Bella to the other phoenix didn’t mean he had to go and get her! Who brings someone’s pet to a prison?! I knew a fair amount about being a prisoner, and bringing someone’s kitten was never a good idea. Honestly, he should have just babysat for us or something if he was trying to apologize. Or he could have let us go. I was a very understanding individual.
Something told me he didn’t have the ability to let us go, though. In fact, I didn’t think he had the ability to do anything besides what he was ordered. There was an edge to his gaze that almost made me feel bad for him. Made me think he was a prisoner as well. It didn’t help that he was wearing two black bracelets that looked almost like handcuffs and sparked with different colors of electricity, causing pain to break across his face, though he tried to hide it.
No. No, I would not feel bad for the nameless man who’d endangered Bella.
Bella’s scared meow echoed again, and I hated that there was nothing I could do to fix it. I was terrified as well; I could admit that. I was determined to get out of here, but underneath it all was a sliver of terror that reminded me just how bad this could get.
I muttered under my breath as I pushed myself to sit, my head throbbing as I looked around my cell. My eyes found the girl from before—the girl whose name I didn’t know, yet I felt like I’d known her for years. She had the same haunted gaze in her dark eyes that I’d seen when I first looked in a mirror at that gas station bathroom.
Right before everything changed and I met Marco.
Unlike me, the girl had strawberry-blonde hair that was matted and dirty, her pale face gaunt and small body bruised and littered with abuse. Clearly, they had decided to never make her bleed so that her phoenix couldn’t help her heal.
I was glad Malcolm had made me bleed, because even though I felt horrible right now, I knew I wouldn’t soon. Then I could focus on how this room seemed to be draining our energy. I mean, maybe it was some type of spell? I literally was struggling to keep myself upright. I felt weak and useless.
How long had we even been here? I knew it hadn’t been very long, but it felt like days.
“Maya.” The girl’s voice was soft and drew me out of my state as I realized there was movement and noises around me. In fact, someone was saying my name and touching my face. Odd.Very odd.
My head snapped to the side, my nose brushing the iron bars as I found my head tilting back and looking up into a pair of completely black eyes that were normally green.Croy. His face was so bruised and bloody.
My fingers were shaky as I came up to touch him, his cheek tilting to lean into it as I inhaled sharply, feeling a range of painful emotions. He’d been hurt by the guards as well. All of them had. His button-down was ripped and dirty, showcasing his golden skin, and his dress pants were soaked in blood, making him look wild and injured.
It was like all the happiness, light, and softness that had been in my life was being drained, and I was faced with my old reality without any of the hope that I’d get out or that my situation was normal. No, I understood perfectly well that this wasn’t normal, and now they were all trapped here with me.
“Please don’t cry, sugar.” His Southern-accented voice was rough.
His plea had me inhaling sharply as I realized that crying would do no good. It never had in the past, and it wouldn’t now. The only way out of this was to remain clear-headed. The only way out of this was through someone that had been in this situation for years… Me. I was the solution to getting out of this. I had to save my mates like they had saved me for so long.
“I’m fine,” I promised quietly, managing to keep my voice even.
