Chapter 55

MILA

I stayed in the hospital for two more days. Every day, they tested my heart and my blood and checked the stitches on my stomach wound. It would apparently leave a nasty scar, but would fully heal in about a month.

But between me and Felix… things were tense, to say the least.

It was incredibly difficult to process the information about the Dragon Knights and the Destined Bride when I never had a moment to myself. Despite our argument, Felix insisted on sleeping in a chair next to my bed every night and staying in the room, leaving only to take calls from his father or get food.

I was refusing to speak to him. I was furious at him for lying, and even more furious that he had been using me.

Apparently the worst of my wounds had been magically healed by Esmeralda, and the hospital had taken care of the rest.

“You’re cleared to go,” the doctor told me. “Just make sure to avoid stress and intense physical movement for three weeks. That includes sex.”

He shot a look at Felix with that last sentence. Felix opened his mouth to speak, but I cut him off.

“That won’t be a problem, Doctor. Thank you.”

I gathered my things–all I had to show for myself were the clothes I had been kidnapped in, and those were so torn and dirty the hospital had to give me jeans and a t- shirt just to leave the building. I could feel Felix watching me, wanting to say something, but I was silent.

We walked out of the hospital doors, and he began.

“I’m sorry, Mila,” he said. “I really am. I never wanted it to get this far without telling you the truth. You have no idea how awful I feel.”

I slid into the backseat of his car and slammed the door, forcing him to get in on the other side.

“Not as bad as I feel,” I said. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done to me, Felix?”

“I–”

“The first night we met, I had just had my heart broken by a scammer,” I said. “All I wanted from our relationship was honesty. And you’ve been lying to me since day one!”

“I wanted to tell you so many times,” Felix said. “But I am bound by a code of honor, Mila. I cannot share this secret with just anyone.”

“And I’m just anyone?” I turned to face him. “I thought I was the love of your life. We were going to get married, Felix. What was the plan? Wait until we said our vows and then tell me that actually, you only married me because our souls are cosmically bound? That’s bullshit, Felix!”

He lowered his head. The car arrived at his city apartment, and he helped me out. I cringed at the feel of his skin against mine–how it still felt good, easy, natural. Nothing about this was natural.

We made our way up to the apartment in silence.

“Mila, I would do anything for you to forgive me,” Felix said as soon as the apartment’s door closed. I exhaled shakily, knowing that a wave of emotion was imminent. “I understand how I’ve betrayed you, but my feelings were real. They were always real.”

“Don’t you get it?” I said, tears springing to my eyes. “Charles and Isabella were right about you using me. And I really, really, really didn’t want them to be right.”

He clenched his jaw and looked away at the mention of his brother.

“Charles and Isabella have caused enough damage to our relationship,” he said. “Please don’t let them destroy it.”

“Charles and Isabella aren’t the ones to blame here,” I said. “Felix, the thing is, I don’t even think I would have been mad if you had just told me the truth from the start. It’s the fact that you lied to me for weeks and let me think I was going crazy with the injury stuff that pisses me off.”

“I love you,” Felix said. “That is the truth, Mila. I love you and I want to marry you and I would want to spend the rest of my life with you even if you weren’t my Destined Bride.”

“And I love you,” I responded. “That’s the problem, Felix. I fell in love with you, but I fell in love with a lie.”

“It wasn’t a lie,” Felix said. “It took me a while, but when you were kidnapped, Mila… I had never been so afraid in my whole life. I realized then just how much you meant to me. How much I loved you.”

He realized he had slipped up the moment that it left his mouth. Something white-hot flooded through me. Rage. My tears instantly stopped. I cocked an eyebrow. I was so angry, I was calm.

“So you proposed to me without knowing if you actually loved me?” I asked. My voice was scary. It didn’t even sound like my own. Felix shook his head in a panic.

“No, that’s not what I meant, of course that’s not what I meant–”

“But that’s what you said.” My words felt ripped from the deepest, darkest part of me. I hated this. I wanted it all to be over and to forget dragons even existed and to go back being in an easygoing relationship with the sweet man I had fallen in love with. But we couldn’t go back to how things were before. Something had irrevocably changed between us, the true power dynamic revealed.

“Mila,” Felix’s voice was full of pain. “If it was just about you being my Destined Bride, I would have just ordered you to marry me the night we met. But it’s not. What we have is real, and magical, just even more magical than I originally thought.”

“I’ve had enough of this.” I said. I started walking to the front door of the apartment. There was a loud ringing in my ears, an echo of my rage.

“Mila, please!” Felix grabbed my arm and pulled me to him. In an act of true desperation, he pressed his lips to mine, as if kissing me would somehow fix what was broken between us.

I yanked my arm away and slapped him across the face. Hard.

“Did you feel that?” I snapped. It was mean, and I knew it was mean. But I was angry, and he had lied, and he deserved it.

“Mila–”

I cut him off. “I’m leaving. I’m taking my things and leaving. Don’t call me, don’t text me, I don’t want to hear from you until I say so. Is that clear?”

“Where are you going?” Felix was crying now, actual tears. The sight of him crying moved me, and for a moment, I saw the man I had wanted to marry.

“I’m going home,” I said, my voice breaking.

“You are home.” He was pleading. I was breaking. Everything was a disaster. I had to get out of here before I said something I would regret forever.

“Home home. Back to America.” I said, and walked out the door without saying another word.

I made it to the elevator before I burst into tears.