Alex

“What!?” My wings did an involuntary half-flap. “Lilly broke your wings?”

Startled, the ‘cubus started running for his life.

I was too shocked to pursue him. Which was probably for the best, since he probably would’ve tried to kill me if I’d caught up.

“Lilly…” I hesitated, not wanting to ask. But I had to. “Did–did you really…?”

“No. That’s crazy. You really think I’d crush someone’s wings? Torture them? What kind of monster would–” She cut herself off abruptly. Looked down. “Oh… Right… The kind that… enjoys slaying dragons.”

As much as I wished I could just disregard the idea of Lilly torturing someone like that, I couldn’t. Not anymore. She has a darker side somewhere within her, one that takes pleasure in taking lives. I had to consider that there might be other activities she hadn’t mentioned.

“I can’t blame you for not trusting me, Alex. But… I didn’t hurt him. I promise. I–I don’t know why he–”

“You only hurt dragons, right?”

She nodded weakly.

“Well… that’s good, I guess.” I paused. “But do you ever… do that kind of thing to dragons?” I had to have answers. Had to know just how bad her dark side was. Otherwise, I’d just keep wondering.

“It’s… not always a quick death,” she admitted, “I… I did break some of their wings…”

“Thanks.”

“You believe me?” She finally looked over at me, and it was clear she was crying.

I wrapped my wings around her. “You admitted you enjoy killing–and torturing–the last remaining members of my species. I have faith in your honesty.”

“…I guess that’s one way to look at it, but…”

“We have enough things to worry about right now. Let’s just… try to survive the Academy. When we make it out, then we can worry about all this fucked-up personal stuff. Okay?”

“I suppose this isn’t quite as life-threatening…”

“Yep. Best to put the whole subplot on hold for now.”

I tried not to think about how depressing it is that my serial killer girlfriend, trained to ruthlessly murder my species, was among the least life-threatening concerns in my life.

I did not succeed.