Idiot.

I heard shouting as the demon squealed in panic, his shouts echoing loudly enough that someone was likely to hear. I stabbed again and again, lost to anything other than the blind adrenaline pumping through my veins, intense enough I was able to ignore the pain of my wing temporarily. There was a shout, then arms pulled me off of him and threw me down. I cried out in pain when I hit the ground, as sounds of fighting registered as vague, dull noises in the background. I was on the verge of collapse, nauseated and riddled with agony.

“Easy.”

Gentle hands reached for me and I lunged, blindly attacking. The figure retreated, and the screaming began again. It went on and on, and it was all I could do to just exist, forcing myself to take one shaky breath at a time as my wing throbbed. Then, the screams stopped abruptly. It was quiet for a little while, and then the arms returned.

Thad approached me through the storm, the rain coming down hard enough to force me to squint to identify him. He picked up my chain with one hand and slung a massive sword over his shoulder with the other. He walked towards me as I tried to stand, but I fell into the mud, my legs aching and tired. For once he didn’t drag me up or sneer at me. He simply offered a stable arm as I picked myself out of the filth. I glanced around me and noticed we were alone. His hand clenched into a fist as I leaned on him, and something flickered in his eyes as they took in the large gash in my wing.

“I killed him. I ripped his skin from his body and displayed it for the rest of them to see. No one will touch you again, just like I promised.”

Words. Just empty, useless words. No one was supposed to touch me before.

“Wren. Please.”

I cracked an eye open, and Thad’s dark gaze caught and held me. His hands delicately went under my wing joints and knees, lifting me as though I weighed nothing. The demon was gone, but the feeling of helplessness as he’d held my chain lingered.

“He said you’d given me away.”

“Never,” Thad snarled, his grip tightening. He lowered his head, nuzzling my temple with his nose. “I made sure he suffered, though your venom did a fair amount of damage. Nasty stuff. Don’t look.”

I immediately opened my eyes, catching a glimpse of the demon’s ravaged, skinless body hanging over the main gate of the fortress. Thad quickly carried me under it and through the gates, each slight bounce of his steps sending another flash of white-hot pain through my body. I drank what he gave me in his room without question and fell asleep.

The next day I felt awful, and it had little to do with my wings. Thad was away the entire morning, but he kept shooting me worried glances as we descended down to the training fields once again. It took all of my energy to stay upright as I trudged behind him. I made sure to take another long look at the demon’s body on the gate, the trauma of yesterday still fresh in my mind. He couldn’t hurt me because he was dead. Thad glanced back at me, his brow furrowed as he took in the dead expression in my eyes.