Mia's POV
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A bang resonates as the locks to the door break and the door goes flying open, sending me stumbling back. I feel Knox's strong grip on my arm keeping me upright, but I keep my focus on the five tall, strong elves that step into our room, each one holding a knife or sword. Panic swells within me, but I barely have a second to calm it down, because a second later they strike.
Two of the Cin run at me, their knives catching the hallway light from outside. I barely dodge a swipe of a knife, swinging mine out and nicking one of them. But there's only one of them and two of me. I cry out as I feel a kick land to my side, and I whip around, bringing one of my knives up just in time to catch the Cin lady as her knife arcs towards me. Our two blades clash together, and a second later I swipe mine down as hard as I can, slicing her leg. I'm about to punch her down when a pair of strong arms wraps around me, holding me in place. I scream and kick, thrashing around, hearing the grunts from Knox a few feet away. Suddenly I feel my windpipe being pressed down on, and realize the Cin has his arm around my throat, squeezing just hard enough that I stop fighting. My knives are no longer in my hands.
Knox killed one of the three on him, but the other two are holding their own. I'm not sure why this Cin is just holding me, not killing me. I still struggle, but I'm forced to stop when dots appear in my vision from lack of oxygen.
The zing of a blade rings through the room as Knox cuts the other Cin, kicking him and sending him sprawling to the floor.
An almost dream-like sensation comes over me as I see the last Cin bring his long, curved knife up. The blade gleams. I dig my nails into the arm around my neck, trying to yell at Knox. I can almost feel the Cin behind me smirking.
The knife sails down, and Knox looks back up. Just in time for the knife to lodge in the center of his chest.
The whole room turns ice cold. My chest tightens. It feels as if someone has sucked the soul out of me. I feel empty, hopeless, in the span of a second.
I'm vaguely aware of the Cin leaving, the pressure lifting from my throat, but it feels too tight still. I feel like I'm floating. I can't hear anything. It's like my head is underwater.
I scream as blood, black in the dark, blossoms from the center of his shirt.
His eyes close.
My eyes open to the dark.
Panic bursts out of me in a scream as I jump to the ground, looking around the hotel room for Knox, lying on the floor with blood pooling around him. Just the thought has a strangled, horrified sound coming from my throat. My breaths come out heaving, like I just ran a marathon.
I feel someone's hands on my forearms, stopping me from scrambling around like I want to. There is a voice, but I can barely hear it as I thrash, trying to get the arms holding me away. The hands lift and a light turns on, momentarily blinding me. A mix of panic and rage and absolute despair rises up like a tsunami inside me as I turn. But Knox is standing there, in only his pajama bottoms, looking alive as ever. My eyes flick to his bare stomach, and everything is fine. He's fine.
It was a dream.
The tsunami comes down, but instead of panic is overwhelming relief, and a lot of shock. A very much unwanted sob bursts out of me, and I cover my mouth with shaking hands. My whole body is shaking, I feel sweaty, my face feels tight from dried tears. Even though it wasn't real, it sure as hell felt like it. And now I feel the memory of the dream, the feeling of it, the emotions, still hovering over me.
Knox's brows are furrowed together in concern when I step towards him in a desperate attempt to truly convince myself that this is real, that it was all a dream. I start to check his chest for blood or any cut at all, and when I come to terms that it was, in fact, just a dream- just a nightmare- I nearly collapse in relief.
Knox doesn't hesitate to wrap his arms around me, letting me cry on his shoulder. I close my eyes, but all I see is the knife sticking out of Knox. That brings another nauseating wave of panic over me, and for a second I think I might have my first panic attack. But Knox holds me, whispering reassurances, until my throat opens up enough for me to get in a deep breath, and my limbs are slightly less shaky.
He sits me on my bed, the mattress squeaking as he sits next to me in the dark.
"What- what happened? Are you okay?" Knox asks quietly, running his thumb along my cheek to wipe away a tear. I sniff and wipe away the other tears, then press the palms of my hands to my eyes, taking a few deep breaths before looking back up at him.
"Did you wake me up?"
"Yes, it looked like you were crying in your sleep, then you started yelling or- screaming, it sounded like. So I woke you up."
"Thank you," I whisper. I don't know if I would've been able to handle any more of that nightmare. It still feels too real. I shiver.
"Bad dream?" Knox asks. When I nod, he says, "you don't have to tell me about it if you don't want to, but I'm here."
I nod, but the lead-like weight of it on my chest is pressing down hard enough that I figure I should tell him. Hopefully then it will seem less real.
"It was just as if I was waking up here. We were in this room, and there was a knock at the door and Cin came in and attacked us, and-" my voice wavers, more tears slipping out of my eyes. I wipe them away quickly, angry at myself (for some reason) for even crying in the first place, and take a deep breath. "And they killed you." My voice breaks at the end, and I feel like I'm going to lose it again. Knox's face is filled with such empathy, he must be realizing what it must have been like for me. What it would feel like if he had a dream like that about me.
His warm, comforting smell envelops me as he pulls me to his side again.
"It felt so real," I whisper, trying to shake the disturbing feeling from my bones.
"I'm sorry, I can't imagine," Knox says softly. But, judging from the thick emotion in his voice, I think he can. He pulls away and cups my face with his hands, giving me a soft smile that, with a flutter of butterflies, takes away some of that disturbed feeling.
"I'm fine, right?" He says quietly. I nod with a small smile. "And I'm not going anywhere."
I sniff again, nodding, trying to force every word into truth. Neither of us are going anywhere. Knox's hand slides around the back of my neck and he leans forward until our foreheads touch. I close my eyes, letting my tense muscles relax from his touch. It sparks a heat in my chest, one that lights up the darkness inside me.
"Feel better?" He asks when we pull away.
"Yeah, I think," I respond. When he asks if I need anything else, I shake my head. I don't want to be any more trouble.
Knox nods contentedly and stands, pulling the covers over my legs as I roll onto my side, flipping my tear stained pillow to the other side.
"Goodnight," Knox whispers in elvish, getting up to go back to his bed.
The minute I can't see or feel him, and being on my side like this, like I was when I woke in the dream, I feel the tendrils of it starting to reach out again inside me. Not the dream itself, exactly, but the feeling of it.
"Knox can you stay here?" The words are out of my mouth before I can stop them, and even though it sounds weird, I don't regret saying it. I can feel the panic sitting like a predator waiting for its prey inside me. The lights are all off now except the one in the bathroom, but I see the dark figure of Knox stop and turn, his figure silhouetted by the dim light.
"Yeah, of course," he whispers as he walks over to my bed. I shift over to the far side as Knox slides under the covers next to me. For a second I feel nervous, but then think, why should I? I'll probably be asleep in a minute anyway. Plus, now that I can feel Knox's body a few inches away from my own, I know he's safe, and that panic feeling slowly ebbs away. The sheets ruffle as I roll over to face him.
"Thank you," I whisper. I feel his hand grab mine and squeeze in return. I smile and turn to face away from him again, closing my eyes and focusing on Knox, alive and perfectly fine, lying beside me.
Sleep comes quickly, and is mercifully bleak.
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Consciousness slowly spreads through my body, waking me up. I open my eyes, squinting at the light that filters through the blackout curtains of the big window. I smile to myself, loving the feeling you get waking up under the warm blankets, the perfect temperature, your brain still a bit foggy from sleep.
When my brain wakes up a bit more, I become aware of the feeling of a dip in the mattress behind me. And the feeling of a lean chest pressed to my back. And an arm draped around my waist. An intense blush feeling rises in me, and now that it's light out I feel almost completely normal, the dream just a memory now. A bad one, but it doesn't feel real anymore. Especially because I can feel Knox, very much alive, right behind me. A dopey grin splits my face.
I don't want to wake him up, I think. Ever so slowly I turn, keeping his arm around me, and face him. His face is half sunken into the pillow, mouth open the slightest bit. A sleepy warmth radiates off of him, and, of course, his hair is perfectly smooth still. The smell of warmth and of him makes me melt into the mattress again.
Now that I'm awake, a zap of memory, the thought of what we have to get done today, hits me, but I stubbornly push it aside. I don't want to do anything. I just want to stay here with Knox. It's only been a day without fighting and only a few without training in Earthe, but it feels like forever ago. For a second thinking about training brings me back to my first day training with Elanil. That really does feel like it was forever ago.
I look back at Knox, and he starts to shift, his arm that was around me lifting to stretch. Not going to lie, I wish he hadn't moved it.
I don't mean to be all creepy, me staring at him being the first thing Knox sees when he wakes up, so I turn to lie on my back until I hear Knox yawn, and roll back to face him again. His eyes are half open, and he has the cutest little smile on his face as he watches me. I reach out a hand and brush a piece of hair from his face, smiling.
"Hey." Yes, that might be the dumbest, cheesiest thing for me to say, but I don't care. I can't really care when Knox is looking at me the way he is.
"Hi," he replies, his voice husky and slightly deeper than normal from sleep.
AHHHHHH oh my god. Ok, calm down Mia. But that was hot. Jesus, get a grip.
"Did you sleep better..?" Knox asks, referring to my dream. A small surge of the dream feeling hits me, but it's buried deep under the happiness flowing through me, and it doesn't affect me as much in the light.
I nod. "Yeah. Thank you, for, uh, you know-" I pause, not knowing how to put it. My eyes stray around the room.
"Sleeping with you?" Knox deadpans. I can't help it, I completely burst out laughing, and Knox follows suit a second later. Blatantly hearing it like that sounds absurd. I hadn't thought I would even have a boyfriend by now when I was younger, let alone sleep with someone. But it wasn't for the normal teenage reasons, and that's fine with me.
Once we're both calmed down I stack my hands under my head like a pillow and look at Knox. A sigh falls from my lips.
"I don't want to get up," I mutter, yawning. I temporarily close my eyes, but wink one open when I feel Knox's hand run softly down the side of my face. Butterflies flutter to life in my stomach. Yes, still.
"Me either."
"What time is it?"
Knox rolls over and cranes his neck to look at a clock on the wall.
"Eight," he reports as he rolls back over to face me again.
"Ugh. We do still have the whole day..." We look at each other, both acknowledging that we have things to get done. But, those things will hopefully take under three hours. Hopefully including the more complex problems.
"This is what it's like getting up for school every day," I say, remembering how that felt. I haven't been to school in so long.
"Oh. Sounds like school isn't fun on Earth."
I shake my head, smiling a little. Of course school on Earthe must be fun. Everything about Earthe is amazing. The only part I miss of school is my friends. I miss Lizzie.
"Meh."
Almost as if Knox can sense the bit of sadness Earth topics bring, he pulls me closer to him as he lies on his back. I rest my head on his chest and his arms go around me.
We don't get up until 8:30.
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Sorry not sorry I had to at least ONE classic trope in here😌