Chapter 33
Chapter Thirty-Three
I pushed Maaier off me. Instead, straddling him with my knees caging him in. Holding his two large hands in one of mine was a feat in itself. Horror ran through me. I could still see the colour.
“No.” My words fell like a whimper, lacking the bite I had intended. What did he mean? Was he truly the grim reaper? Was he the one who saved me that night? Was I right all along? The questions swirl through my mind. Nausea rose in my stomach, edging throughout my body.
“Yes, my soul.” He almost pleaded, begging me to accept what he was. The warmth of the embrace before slowly ebbed as his words and gaze sunk in
“This can’t be happening. You are lying.” I slumped my shoulders down, the weight of the confession weighing me down, letting his hands free. I stumbled back, pulling my knees to my chest as I sat on the cold forest floor.
“I can’t help what I am, Vespera,” He said softly.
“What are you?” I pressed. Why could I only see one colour with him? Why was he here? What did he want with me?
“I am a reaper. The Reaper I should say.” Maaier’s tone rang with the slightest hint of cockiness. As if proud of what he really was.
“I can't handle this!” My heart raced within me. Pounding painfully as blood roared within my ears. This was wrong, this was all wrong. Heat prickled behind my eyes.
Slowly, darkness faded in. Overtaking my senses. A tear leaving my right eye. He was Death. I was the grim reaper's lover. No. it can’t be. It was all my mania induced brain that was it. I was insane. The word no uttered from my lips before the darkness consumed me whole.
I came too on the floor of the greenhouse. Warm hands wove through my hair as the last tendrils of blackness ebbed from me.
“I didn’t mean to scare you back there,” Maaier said softly from behind me. “My emotions got the better of me.”
I craned my head back to look at him, head resting on his bare chest. He sprawled behind me on the floor, holding me tightly against him.
His expert fingers rotated in circles around my scalp. The silence was almost unbearable. My lower body stung slightly.
“So it was all true? Not a dream?”
Maaier smiled small with a slight nod.
“Yes. You are my intended. The other half of my soul,” He whispered, his lips brushed a sweet kiss on top of my head. My eyes fluttered closed despite my anxious heart.
Maaier said nothing more until I turned to look away from him. Gazing out at the grey woods beyond the window.
His strong arms wrapped around me. It was fruitless to shake him off. His chin rested on my shoulder.
“Now that you know who I am Vespera, the choice will remain yours.”
I spun to face him. Still held tightly in his arms against him, my eyes met his. Our chests rising in time with our breaths. Synchronicity mirroring the movement.
“You will always have a choice with me.” He kept his voice low as brushed my hair back from my face.
“Why do I have a choice?” I said softly. Maaier’s usual cocky expression was gone. Replaced by woe. As if saddened and pained by the weight of the confession.
“You have a choice of living a full life on earth or an endless life serving by my side. You can have a life with your family to find another love and create life for yourself or you can spend eternity aiding souls to the afterlife with me. That is your cross to bear. Whatever you pick will be your choice and yours alone.”
“I choose-”
“Shhh,” He cut me off with a brush of his lips to mine. I knew my choice. I didn't want to be away from him. I needed him now that I knew who he truly was. I needed his help to find the killer. To help me end my curse. To bring me back to life. “I don’t want you to choose me just yet. You need to think about this. To consider what you want. You have been given a second chance at life. Whatever you choose I will accept. But think about it.”
His voice was solemn as if expecting me to change my mind.
“Now that you know who I am and your choices, my soul. I must go.” My arms tightened around him. My emotions at war inside me now rose to a slaughter. I shouldn’t want him. After what he did in the forest and confessed, I should run. Run far away and never return, never look back. But something in his gaze told me that he was expecting that. As if so many before had done the exact same thing.
“Will you come back?”
“Always, little bloom. I will be here when I can.” My panic lessened at the words he pressed into my forehead. The tightness in my chest shifted. Feeling lighter with every breath. The feeling of abandonment dissipating.
“Will the red stay?” I fumbled, changing the subject before I broke down in tears. Maaier chuckled.
“Yes. You can keep the red. I won't take it again.”
“You can take my colour at will?”
Maaier said nothing but placed a gentle sweet kiss on my lips. Pulling back just as quickly, his gaze roaming over me one last time as if committing me to memory.
“Goodbye, my soul. May the moon light your way until I am home again.”
His final words rang through the air as he stood, slowly backing away from me. The expression on his face full of grief and sorrow. His body was completely enveloped by shadows until they dissipated. Leaving nothing but his dark scent behind.
A warm tear rolled down my cheek as I exited the greenhouse myself and headed to my rooms. The cold air prickling my skin. Where was he going? Was another one I loved leaving me once more?
Confusion and hurt setting in amongst my brief happiness still lingering. The manor seemingly empty as I drifted down the halls to my room.
I looked up at the portrait of my mother now hanging at the end of my bed. Her beautifully dazzling smile on display. The red roses surrounding her blooming to life. I admired her beauty. Only stopping to notice the tiny mark poking out through the neckline of the white gown. Two faint diagonal lines peeking through. Her right shoulder peaking through the scrap of fabric covering her. A small blemish the shape of a petal painted so small you could barely notice it came into focus. My heart leapt into my stomach. It wasn't my mother. It was me.
A brief gasp filled the air.
Dorian stood in the doorway. Her hair combed. Not as manic as she usually looked. A red rose perched in her hand. A small smile lifted my lips despite myself. Dorian smelt the air. Her eyes shined in the moonlight.
“I had the portrait moved for you.” She explained keeping her eyes locked on the bloom in her hands.
I thanked her softly. Not wanting to startle her. The tension was crackling.
“I think you ought to read the book he gave you.” She nodded toward the book at the foot of her bed. The one of flowers Maaier had given me. “Not the strange blank one.”
“I’ll get to it,” I said, facing the portrait once more. The detail was immaculate. Right down to the birthmark on my shoulder I had not noticed. A small blemish like a rose petal only someone who had seen me intimately would notice.
Dorian eyed me cautiously before moving beside me. Her hand grasped mine. Her head rested on my shoulder.
“When you are ready,” She murmured.
I wasn’t sure what she was referring to but I knew she knew more than she was letting on.