Playing with Fire [COMPLETED]

19 ~ revelations

It takes a moment for his words to sink in. But when they do finally sink in, I stand up and head to the door. Ruin jumps up and grabs my wrist. I face him, stopping just a foot from the door. He looks at me, his expression solemn. Those eyes of his, which are typically brown tinted orange, are devoured by the orange now.

He says, "I will come with you."

"No," I say.  "I can't let anyone else get hurt by that monster."

"Elorha, that is my sister. And if you have any hope of defeating her, you cannot go in alone."

"I can handle myself," I say.

"I know you can," he says. "Fuck, Elorha! I'm not saying you don't know what you're doing or anything like that, I'm just saying I am going with you so she can't hurt you like she's hurt me before."

Frigid fingers curl around my heart. I look at the misery in his eyes .... and I feel the pain in his heart. His own sister hurt him. Badly.  Badly enough that he won't risk sending me alone into her Court. And I can't possibly ask him to let me go in all alone. He won't allow it.

"She .... she hurt you?" I whisper, feeling a deep rage burning in my own heart.

"Yes," he replies, without hesitation. "I won't have her hurt you like she did me."

I look at him, and he pulls up his shirt, shifting his wings back so I can see the wicked scar that is etched into a jagged line on his back. He sighs and looks at me. "I was in her territory, and she found out. This was ..... years ago.... when the person who was brought here was Lucian. He .... he went missing. I went into Pain's territory, since she knew of the village and their strange way of thinking. I found him near death, fused to a tree. I tried to save him, but she did the same to me. It took me five years of time here to escape from the tree, and by then, Lucian had gone quite mad. I saved him and turned him into a demon, in order to ensure that he survived the trauma."

"And now he's dead. Because of me."

"Pain and Destruction killed him," he says. "And they both will pay for it."

I look at him, studying his face.  "I have to save her."

"I know," he says. "Let's go. We will do this together, okay?"

I nod, and he takes my hand, and whisks us away.