Meredith had always known about magic. Her family was magic, one of the most powerful mage lines out there. Having lost her parents to all the fighting though, she stayed far away from it, focusing on school and lading a primarily normal life.
Unti...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Mer woke screaming, but she didn't know why. Something had her terrified, but she was so disoriented that she couldn't find up or down as she turned, and she couldn't see. Everything was black, and then red, dripping blood and she screamed again. Something hit her in the head, and she fell onto the cushy comforters of a bed. The instrument used to fell her turned out to be a pillow, and she took a minute to breathe slowly in and out and take in the world around her.
"Meredith, silence. I'm trying to sleep." Rush's voice pricked her ears, but that seemed impossible. Was she not dead?
A hazy dream had her mind rattling in a jumble of thoughts and feelings, but she couldn't for the life of her remember what it had been about. She tried to move but found she couldn't under the force of a pillow that Rush must still be holding. The pressure on her head pushed a shudder of breath from her lips as pain seared through. Tears lined her eyes, but Rush let the pillow go so she could sit up and turned toward him.
Fangs bared, and his dim eyes only half open, he growled his words. "Are you done?" Anger shook his tone as his face contorted in hatred toward her, and Rush looked like he wanted to backhand her until she was unconscious.
"I'm sorry." Mer whispered the apology, unsure whether or not she was about to cry.
"You said that the last seven times." Rush's voice pushed his frustration through tight lips. "Stop. Screaming. In your sleep." Rush curled up on the farthest edge of the bed he could get from her, and it reminded her of how she'd hurt him. She touched her neck on reflex and found it wrapped in some sort of gauze.
"You don't have to be so far away that you're rolling off the edge of the bed," Mer mumbled.
Rush set his teeth, and a long groan escaped his lips. It was a new upgraded version of his sigh of annoyance, so he must be really irritated now.
"Do you not recall ripping apart my arm?" Rush's hissed, though she could tell he was exhausted from the bags under his eyes and the way he sank on his elbows into the sheets. If he was this tired, it had to be daytime.
Had she slept the whole night through?Or whatever sleeping and waking up screaming repeatedly was.
"I thought that was what the shackles were for," Mer said, lifting her arms, and then she gaped at her free wrists. Rush let out another long groan and turned away from her.
"Go to sleep, Meredith." Rush didn't turn back.
It left her alone to ponder her existence. What had happened, and why wasn't she dead? Had Rush never intended to kill her? The way he'd thrown her down and ripped into her neck with his teeth, she'd been sure he'd wanted her dead. It was only a few moments upright before she had to lay her head down on the pillow, so she'd lost enough blood to make her dizzy. She hadn't imagined that.
