Page 119 of Cursed Lifeline

After a moment of silence, she softly cries, “I can’t take the chance.”

Stepping toward her, she instantly backs herself up against the cave wall and shakes her head. Swallowing hard, her gaze eventually drifts back my way.

“I can’t take the chance because…” she trails off, and I can fill in the blanks without her having to say a word. “I didn’t love Oberon,” she admits. “I loved how he made me feel, what he did for me. Before he…” she trails off, and the horrors she experienced are written all over her face. The nightmare she lived at the hands of a man she trusted makes her begin to shake. “Alfred, I… I can’t take the chance because…”

Hanging her head, she begins to cry, and I let her break. I don’t offer her solace. I don’t offer her my shoulder to cry on. Because she doesn’t want it. She wants to feel the pain. It reminds her she’s still alive after all she’s been through. It reminds her she’s a survivor. She doesn’t need me to hold her. But one day, she might need him, and I can tell that scares her more than a lifetime spent married to a monster like Oberon.

As she cries, I silently vow to protect her like the older brother she never had when we eventually return to reality.

Sniffling, she finally calms and looks my way. “What about you?” she demands. “Are you ever going to tell me why you hate Felix and Esme so much?”

“I don’t hate them,” I remind her. She cocks a questioning brow. “I entered into the blood oath to save my brother, remember?”

“But you still resent him.”

I shrug.

“Anyone can see that if they hang around you two longer than a minute,” she says. “Why?”

I debate not answering. I debate not telling anyone ever.

But looking into her eyes, an understanding passes between us. What is said in this cave stays in this cave.

And so I concede, “I was in love with a mortal once.”

Evangeline’s eyes widen in disbelief.

“I never got the courage to tell her. I watched her for decades living out a life I could never give her. Unlike my brother, I was able to keep my distance. I knew we could never be together, and was happy and content to watch her from afar. When she grew old, I sat with her in silence when everyone else she knew had died or left her behind to do the same. She never knew I was there, but I wasn’t going to leave her, too. When she took her last breath, no one came. No one cared. Except me, a man who would’ve given up eternity for a chance to be mortal and hold her just once. When Felix came back to my mother's house, and I sensed the way he felt for Esme, the way I once felt for a mortal myself, that’s when I entered into the blood oath with Ember. I didn’t want my brother to walk the same path I had walked in life. As time passed, his feelings for Esme grew, and a loophole to the curse was created, I resented him and her because they had a chance at obtaining what I never could.”

Evangeline sucks in a shaky breath as tears well in her eyes. I let everything I’ve just said sink in before I continue.

“Immortality, mortality they’re both a blessing and a curse. With immortality, I have an eternity to feel pain and love. If I were mortal, the pain would one day end, but so would love. Felix and Esme stand a chance to embrace an eternity of love if they’d just learn to prioritize each other’s happiness and …”

Evangeline cuts me off, and says, “That, definitely is something Felix and Esme still need to work on.”

I nod my head in agreement. If they had learned how to do that centuries ago we wouldn’t be standing here now. Which means, I could possibly still be bound tightly to Ember, because heaven knows she won’t let me go from my oath without a fight, even after Felix and Esme find a way to break the curse.

Reading my thoughts, Evangeline walks towards me and promises, “We will find a way to release you, Vik. I bet my life on it.”

I shake my head and grin, “We can’t have a pretty little fae princess like you do that.”

“Fine,” Evangeline smiles. “Someone else’s life then. But I swear we’ll find a cure. For you and Felix, and when we do, you’ll both be free to finally embrace the love you speak of.”

Grinning, I say, “I’ll take that bet only if you, in turn, swear that if that day ever comes, you’ll say yes to love, too.”

Evangeline shakes her head, denying she can before the unfortunate words ever leave her lips.

“Swear on whoever’s life you wish,” I tempt her. “Just swear to me, one day you’ll give love a chance.”

She stays silent for a moment, eventually takes a deep breath, and as a raven sounds in the far off distance of the forest, Evangeline promises, “I swear it.”

Forty One

Felix

song: tainted love | holy wars, NOCTURN

Las Vegas, Nevada

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