CH.19 Smoke and mirrors
Iris sprinkled salt all over the house. Not a single gap was to be left. She drew symbols on the door and window frames with chalk, exactly as they were depicted in the book Luc had given her. If the spell was right, she had created an impenetrable boundary that would keep him in.
"What are you doing up so late?" she heard Luc's voice.
She turned to him with trepidation. He stood by the stairs, beautiful and majestic.
"I couldn't sleep," she said.
"Then come back to bed, and I'll help you."
He stepped toward her, but an invisible force stopped him. Confusion flashed across his face. Then he noticed the lines of salt outside the door, glowing in the darkness of the deep night.
"You obviously want to run away." He wasn't naive. " Why?"
"Because you're a disgusting liar," she replied.
Luc sighed. Even without further words, he knew exactly what she meant. "Call me a liar all you want, my little witch, but the truth is, I have never lied to you. I admit I have withheld a few facts, but I have never, ever lied."
"How can I trust you? How can I know that every word that comes out of your mouth isn't a lie?"
"You feel it. You feel it inside you, Iris."
"You tricked me into accepting you."
"It was your free will. You made your own decision, Iris. Just as I decided to connect my life with yours."
"I didn't know what that meant."
"Your ignorance does not excuse you."
"You took advantage of my desperation."
"I admit it wasn't the most noble of me, but I am a demon, my dear. You can't expect good from me. I fell from the heavens a long time ago."
"Exactly. You are a demon. The king of all liars."
"Don't ever accuse me of such a purely human trait again." There was anger in his voice.
"Are you really my protector or just a perverted demon who has come to feed on an innocent soul?" she asked him.
His lips twisted into a sinister smile. A spark flared in his eyes.
"You are certainly not innocent, Iris. And don't try to blame all these evil and terrifying ideas on me.
It was born within your mind. In your beautiful, twisted mind, Iris," he said.
"And It didn't start with my arrival. There is something in you that simply craves blood, and even if you successfully suppress it, sometimes it comes to the surface.
Remember that dead child, that poisoned maid, and that sailor with the cracked skull?
Even that drunkard, even though he deserved his fate. "
"They were all accidents," she objected. "Except for that drunkard."
"Yes. How you stuck that broken bottle into his throat because he didn't understand the meaning of the word no. Didn't it feel wonderful when he fell dead at your feet?"
"No!"
"And do you really think those other deaths were accidents?
You were thirteen when you threw those mushrooms in that soup.
They were poisonous. You knew it. You just wanted to know what it was like to eat them.
And who better to sacrifice than an insignificant maid?
Remember how those children broke the almond tree you planted with your mother?
Isn't it a coincidence that the stitches on those wings you sewed for them were loose?
And that sailor who, after your father's death, wanted to take over his ship that had supported you all those years.
He fell overboard drunk and cracked his skull on the pier. That's how it was, isn't it?"
His words made her doubt herself. Would her own memories be deceiving her?
Did she want to see Jocelyn with bloody tears running down her cheeks, unable to breathe, the fear in her eyes as she pleaded for help in a weak voice?
She had been watching her the whole time.
Was it really an accident on that boat, or had she simply pushed him when he said he would give it up if she let him taste her? Disgusting old man.
And suddenly, she began to fear herself. Was there something wrong with her? When she looked at the blood, and felt an incredible satisfaction. She also wanted to turn her stepsister and stepmother into frogs and cook them.
"I know all your secrets, Iris. I know you.
Your mother couldn't have children. But when she met your father, she wanted you so badly that she performed an unholy ritual to bring you into this world.
Without your father's knowledge, of course.
And things like that leave a mark. There is a darkness within you that draws me to you as much as you to me. Don't deny it."
He leaned against the spell that kept him from crossing the threshold of the house. He fixed his bewitching gaze on her. She couldn't bear the heat of his golden eyes, looking away.
"You didn't answer my question," she said.
"I have always been the protector of your family. As I told you, I have not lied. Never. From the moment I first met you, I knew that you would be mine. It draws us to power. The more powerful the soul, the more untamed the heart, the stronger the allure."
He could feel the power emanating from her, winding through the air like a summer heat. She didn't even realize it, but he could feel it.
"And you, my queen, are the blazing sun. As bright as a lighthouse on a dark night. I can't resist. And your madness. The way you want to tear the world apart in flames. I have waited too long for someone like you. I chose you, Iris."
His gaze reflected an infinite desire to possess her. Like the gaze of a predator upon its prey, which it had finally caught after long days of hunting. It sent chills down her spine.
"But I didn't choose you," she told him.
"Deep down in your heart, you did."
"Mother obviously knew very well why she protected me from you."
"You shouldn't have given up that necklace, Iris, because I'll never give you up.
Not when I finally have you. Sooner or later, I will get out of here.
You shouldn't have given up that necklace, Iris, because I'll never give you up.
Not when I finally have you. I'll get out of here sooner or later.
You can't keep me locked up here forever, your power is still weak for that.
And then I'll find you. There is no place in this world where you can hide from me, Iris.
Not when we have a bond. I will find you even in the depths of hell itself. "
"And I will wait for you, my dearest demon."
She pinned her hair with a snake-shaped clip, her mother's. Her golden hair suddenly turned the color of fire. Her eyes turned green. Her face was no longer hers, it was Anastasia's. Luc grinned wickedly, as if admiring what his eyes saw.
She turned her back on him and walked towards her destiny that had been stolen from her. Maybe Luc was right after all, she had a darkness inside her. She was what her mother had made her. And she wasn't going to hide it anymore. She refused to be the nice one anymore. Her demon was right.
"Iris. Iris!" he shouted after her as she was leaving. "Iris!"
She didn't even look back. She couldn't. She knew that if she hesitated, she might go back and free him. She would long to taste his lips again and lose the courage to leave.
"Iris! Don't leave, Iris!"
She refused to be the naive girl he found crying at her mother's grave. Not anymore.
"Iris!"
She had lost her naivety. She was no longer going to be charmed by him.
He is a demon. A rose with thorns. He draws you to him with his golden gaze, and as soon as you get close, he stabs you with his thorns.
She had learned her lesson. She did not hesitate and kept walking forward. She did not look back.
"Iris!"