30. Flashes of Color #2
“I see,” Vore said as we crossed the domed bridge, leaving behind the lantern and fire lights of Nisse. Water roared and pulsed as we neared the giant waterfall adjacent to the cottage I was meant to stay in.
“Is your scar from your fight with Wraith?” I asked as he sat me down by the falls.
Vore assessed a slippery path, testing the stability of the rocks, before answering. “No. Wraith could not harm me if he tried—and try he did. I am the strongest there is. He’s a far, far second.”
I studied the jagged pearlescent slash across his onyx skin. The scar stretched from the side of his face and down his chest, as if a lightning bolt struck a mighty oak. “Where did it come from?”
Vore extended his hand and led me down a path near the rushing water as he answered. “It is a reminder of a battle from long ago. My opponent was, and remains, a blight upon this side of the veil. The greatest of evil and source of much of your people’s despair.”
“This creature or person is still alive?”
“Regretfully, yes. Trust that I will never let him harm you.”
“I hate that anyone has harmed you .”
Vore pulled me gently down a path that sprayed my hair and soaked my gown, but through the darkness, we ended up in a small enclave directly behind the falls.
The water rushed before us in a ferocious teal cascade.
“You care?” Vore asked in a low voice. As I marveled at the rushing water, he watched me intently.
“You are… spellbinding to me, Prism. The most exquisite creature I have beheld in any realm.”
I brushed my wet hair from my forehead and looked up at his monstrous face. A face that was somehow no longer so terrifying. “I care,” I admitted softly, feeling a rush of warmth and comfort rise in my bones.
Suddenly, bright green flashed in my vision. Followed by a streak of purple, then, pink. I gasped. “Sprites? My matri told me of water sprites, but I never thought I’d get to encounter them.”
Vore’s lips curled in a smile. “They like you. See how they dance in honor of your beauty?” His words weren’t the flattery of a man attempting to gain what they wanted.
This wasn’t the flirtation of a human seeking anything in return.
Vore’s words were ancient as they were true, and he spoke them as if he only needed to say them and for no other reason—no expectation or motive.
A wither.
A monster.
A killer
Yet something pure. Something gentle.
My spirit tugged me forward before my mind could argue.
Reaching up, I pulled at Vore’s arms. He cocked his head in confusion before lowering, bringing his breath close to mine.
As the glow of water sprites unseen danced around us, lighting us both in blues and teals, I cupped my hands along Vore’s sharp jaw.
His pale eyes hooded as he stared at me intensely.
“Can I try something?” I asked on a whisper.
Without hesitation, he responded, “Yes, you may kill me dead if you see fit. You may do whatever you wish.”
Inching closer, the magnetic, indescribable lure between us reeled me in until I could no longer fight it with contrary thought.
My lips pressed against his.
I kissed my monster.
Vore held my waist and my back, his handspan alone covering me as he gently held me closer.
His lips dancing with mine, our breaths entwined.
Vore tasted like autumn nights, like a surprise, magical pumpkin patch amidst the midnight gloom of October.
I parted his lips with mine and let my tongue dart beyond his sharp teeth.
When his tongue met mine, it didn’t just flick his taste against me, it wrapped twice around my tongue and tugged me closer into his mouth.
With a gasp, I pulled back, my breath ragged with desire.
He released me immediately and eyed me with concern. “Did I take it too far?”
I shook my head. “No, I-I liked it… what was that with your tongue?”
Vore smirked before opening his mouth. A long black tongue unfurled, and he moved it like a snake, showing me its forked, serpentine edge. “A forked tongue?” I questioned.
My thighs tensed together in wicked delight. “I like that taste…” he growled lowly. “The taste of your desire is the richest, darkest honey.”
My cheeks flushed as pink as the lights glowing around us behind the waterfall.
Wither or not, monster or not, fearsome, gruesome, and terrible—Vore’s kisses felt like magic. The way he gripped me close, surrounding me in him, blocking me from the world. Vore was the rushing, powerful, all-consuming waterfall, and I was a tiny twig, hopelessly adrift in his mighty tides
We embraced until the glimmers of light faded into echoes of pinks and greens, making me wonder if they were ever really there at all.
Faeries were so persnickety, and they’d never allowed me to see them before, only Rumor.
To me, they looked like common bugs, but to her she described their petite, feminine silhouettes.
Unless she’d been playing a trick on me—that was certainly possible.
As children, Rumor and Adder Viper would tease me that the loom would someday chop me up and throw me in the fire along with its log deliveries.
Who knows how many little magical tricks and white lies she’d told me in teasing.
It had never bothered me that she was a witch and I wasn’t.
Our moms never made me feel different or lesser.
If anything, especially after the raptures, they seemed thankful to have one less enchanted child to worry about.
Rumor’s powers had to be purposefully silenced and stunted so as not to trigger Asunder’s wrath with a rapture.
A rapture like the one that took my moms…
a rapture carried out by the very creature I stood kissing.
On that thought, I pulled away, looking down at my feet, hoping Vore couldn’t see my face in the growing dark of the cave.
“You look sad,” Vore noted immediately. Of course he could see me. He was a wither—a super predator.
“What does it taste like?“
“Your sadness tastes like frost chilled lemons. Did I frighten you? Did I go too far?”
I shook my head. “I miss my mothers, who are gone forever. I miss my sister, who is nearby, but may as well be as far away as they are. It is hitting me that I’ll never see her, or any of my family, ever again.”
“Are you unhappy with me?”
“No, not necessarily… in fact, as strange as it sounds, I think it’s possible I could come to like it here in Nisse… maybe even love it… I suppose I just wish I could have said goodbye.”
Vore’s throat rumbled. “Do you miss… him?”
It took me a moment to understand his meaning—then it dawned on me that I hadn’t thought of him much at all.
“My fiance, Birch?” I asked, wishing I could make out Vore’s expression better, but he all but disappeared in the darkness.
However, I could feel his mighty presence surrounding me as he still held me close.
Only a grunt in acknowledgment answered my question.
“Surprisingly, no. Birch didn’t love me…
I don’t know if I even loved him, either, as terrible as that sounds.
Fulfilling my wedding rite just seemed like the right thing to do. ”
“He isn’t looking for you,” Vore said lowly. “He, nor his kin, have come into the forest other than for their provided hunting times.”
The words, though said without malice or intent to harm, stabbed me in the heart. “Oh,” I said softly. “If you know that, do you know of my sister?”
Vore was silent a moment. “We have not seen her… not in the forest or in Willowspire.”
“What do you mean she hasn’t been seen in Willowspire?
” Horror shocked my senses. “Is she alright? What if she’s hurt?
” My thoughts raced to her affliction, the ailment that plagued her head and mind, sending her to bed for days on end.
“The last I saw my sister, she dropped to her knees and looked to be in pain… what if she’s been bedbound—or worse—this entire time?
How can I leave her to suffer or die alone, Vore?
How can you claim to care for me and let that happen to my only family? ”
The wither shifted on his feet before bending to scoop me into his arms. “It is getting cold, and I don’t want you to catch an illness. I will make you a fire while you put on dry clothing.”
Letting out a sigh of defeat, I shook my head and resigned myself to being carried around the falls.
Our moment gone, and all the wonder replaced with sorrow and concern for my sister.
Oh, and a tiny tinge of heartache that Birch Viper hadn’t even bothered to come after me.
Truly, he hadn’t even shown up for our rite.
His aim was to leave me—and when a monster took me, he didn’t even come for me.
Unless, of course, Vore was lying… but why would he lie? So that I wouldn’t try to escape again?
Too many disjointed and melancholy thoughts bounced around my mind as my wither marched me back to my wooden, ivy-covered cottage. Wordlessly, he sat me down on my porch and without lingering or speaking, I slammed the door behind him, resting my shoulders against the door.
Pain hollowed my chest as emotion rose in my throat.
Pressing my palms to my eyes, I flung myself onto the bed, burrowing my face in the bedding.
Sobs choked through me, followed by pain because I missed my mother and matri.
I wanted my sister to be alright and selfishly wanted her to protect me from this mess I’d fallen into and tell me what to do.
At the same time, feelings conflicted within me.
Did I want to live in Willowspire again?
Did I really want a life with a man who didn’t want me, to live on a farm to be ignored, with a sister who saw me as her ultimate burden?
All in a town dusted in fear and shades of sad gray?
Nisse was a hidden utopia drenched in color.
The thoughts of tending the community garden and making it thrive…
forming friendships with the women here without Rumor stealing the show with her boisterous and more interesting nature, that all sounded kind of… exciting.
Then there was Vore.
The monster I shouldn’t love that I could feel myself slipping deeper and deeper into. My lips had met his in a way that screamed my desire. Life with Vore, a life in Nisse, would be an adventure. An adventure I’d never imagined that an unmagical, Willowspire-raised-nobody would be worthy of.
A part of me wanted to run home and check on Rumor. Curl up next to her in bed, pull the covers over our heads, and pretend this was all a bad dream.
Another part of me wanted to decorate my cottage by hand painting daisies on the doorframes. Something inside me wanted to rest my head on my wither’s chest as he poked the fire and the music from Nisse danced over the rushing waterfall.
How could I want two opposing things at once?
What did that say about me?
Who was Prism Malefic now?