Chapter 9 Scars #2
I couldn't stop the tears once they started. They spilled hot and fast down my cheeks, dropping onto Magnur's chest, my throat closed up as I tried to swallow past the knot of rage and grief forming there.
"I'm sorry," I managed, my voice breaking as I tried to wipe the wetness from my face. "I shouldn't be the one crying."
"Why not?" Magnur asked softly.
"Because it didn't happen to me," I said, hiccuping slightly as I fought to regain control. "You're the one who lived through it."
"Every mark is something I lived through," he said, gesturing to the landscape of scars that covered his body. "Every time they tried to break me and failed. I'm still here. They're not."
"They were monsters." I said, trying to swallow done the rage building inside me.
His expression softened as he reached up to cup my face between his hands. His thumbs gently wiped away the moisture on my cheeks.
"It was a long time ago," he said. "I survived. I built a life. I found ways to make meaning from what happened."
"It shouldn't have happened at all," I insisted, leaning into his touch. "No one deserves that."
He nodded. "When choice has been taken from you, you understand its value more than most."
Fresh tears threatened as I imagined him bound and helpless, forced to act against his will. I pressed my palm flat against his chest, directly over his heart, feeling its steady rhythm beneath my hand.
"I'm sorry I made you tell me about the scars," I whispered, reaching up to trace the line of his jaw with trembling fingers.
"I'm not," he replied, turning his head to press a kiss against my palm. "You should know who you've tied yourself to. What I've survived. What I'm capable of."
"And what are you capable of?" I asked, though I already knew the answer.
"Anything," he said. "To keep you safe."
I shifted in his lap, pressing my ear against his chest where I could hear the steady thump of his heart. His arms wrapped around me, secure and warm, creating a cocoon of safety I hadn't known I was searching for until I found it.
"Tell me about how you help others now," I requested softly, needing to hear how he'd transformed his pain into purpose. "The ones in situations like yours."
As he began to speak, his deep voice rumbling through his chest and into my ear, I listened with heavy eyelids, my body melting further into his with each passing minute.
The intensity of everything over the past few days had drained me completely.
I tried to follow the story he was telling, but exhaustion tugged at me with insistent hands.
"You're falling asleep."
"Mm-hmm," I admitted, not bothering to open my eyes. "Your fault."
His chest rumbled with a soft laugh. "How so?"
"Made me cry. Emotional hangover." I nestled closer against him. "Plus, demon sex club marathon. Very tiring."
His hand moved to stroke my hair, the gentle motion only pulling me further toward unconsciousness. "Sleep, then."
"You too," I murmured, already drifting. "S'comfortable here."
The last thing I registered before sleep claimed me was the press of his lips against my forehead and his whispered, "Goodnight, my mate."
I dreamed of hands holding mine. A thread glowed red-gold in the darkness, tying me to something that somehow needed me as much as I needed it. In my dream, I cradled that thread carefully, knowing I would fight to keep it whole.
A harsh electronic sound sliced through my dream, shattering the peaceful images.
I jerked awake, disoriented in the near-darkness of an unfamiliar room.
Magnur's arms tightened reflexively around me, though his breathing suggested he hadn't fully awakened.
The TV's screensaver provided the only illumination, a slowly drifting pattern that cast weird, shifting shadows across the walls.
The noise came again. My phone. I blinked, trying to clear the fog of sleep from my brain as I stretched out an arm, careful not to disturb Magnur, and managed to snag my phone off the table. The screen blazed to life, painfully bright in the darkness.
INTRUSION DETECTED.
I stared at the notification, my brain refusing to process it for a long moment. Then, with clumsy fingers, I tapped to open the app connected to my apartment's security system.
- Front door sensor triggered at 2:37 AM
- Motion detected in living room at 2:38 AM
- Motion detected in bedroom at 2:40 AM
- Current status: Motion ongoing
Someone was in my apartment. Right now. Moving around in my bedroom.
Trevor.
The security app pinged with an update. "Camera 1 disconnected." Then, seconds later. "Camera 2 disconnected."
I swore, that bastard was making sure I couldn't identify him.
A new alert popped up. "Smoke detected."
My blood turned to ice. Trevor was setting fire to my apartment.
"Magnur," I said, my voice emerging as a strangled whisper. I cleared my throat and tried again, shaking his shoulder gently. "Magnur, wake up."
He stirred, eyes searching for me in the darkness.
"What's wrong?" he asked, instantly attuned to my distress.
I held up my phone, the screen still displaying the multiple alerts from my security system. "Someone's in my apartment. They've disabled the cameras and now something's burning." My voice shook despite my best efforts to keep it steady. "It's Trevor. It has to be."
The change that came over Magnur's face was terrifying to witness, his jaw tight as he held out his hand.
"Show me," he said.
I handed him the phone with trembling fingers, watching as his eyes scanned the alerts.
"He's going to regret this," Magnur said softly.