Avernus || Book 1 ✔️

||Reveal||

I trembled against the wall as the man's head lowered to my neck. He took a deep inhale, a pondering hum vibrating against his vocal cords before he pulled back to look at me once more.

"Your scent is almost identical. Although yours is...tainted slightly. You're bonded?"

Shakily, I nodded, but I recoiled when his mouth downturned in obvious contempt. Still, I couldn't help my confusion at his initial statement. My scent is identical to whose?

"P-please, who are you?" My voice was small, and my eyes remained lowered as I desperately tried once again to get some kind of explanation.

The man looked at me once more, his green eyes boring into my own as he seemed to be mulling something over.

"I'm offended that your mother never told you about me. Although seeing that she kept you away from me all these years, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. But my name is Cyprus Kant."

Cyprus Kant? That didn't sound familiar...

"Mama? W-why would she...?"

My brows furrowed in confusion, but my mind was racing at an unnatural speed as I started piecing the puzzle together.

They're all monsters, Primrose. They take what they want and throw you away when you've served their purpose.

Your smell is almost identical

Avernus, it's a...it's a very bad place. They only know darkness over there, that world is cursed.

...You like just like her

Don't let him get to you.

My eyes widened and my stomach twisted and squeezed violently almost as if Cyprus held it in his grip himself. I had a very bad feeling, and it worsened the more he spoke.

"I never even knew that I had a daughter. And yet, here you are all grown up."

He reached out as if to touch me once more, but I staggard away from him, feeling as though I was about to faint from this revelation. Hearing the words out loud only solidified what my brain was thinking.

"No...h-how is that possible? Mama said that my father d-died from illness when I was a baby—"

A booming laugh startled me, cutting off my train of thought.

"That's the story she told you? How pathetic."

He reached out again but this time grabbed my arm in a firm grasp as if he was trying to make a point.

"I met your mother 17 winters from last. The King and Queen were hosting a celebration for their 2-year anniversary. Amara was one of the faeries chosen to dance that day, and when I saw her up there, twirling around in that tiny blue dress of hers, I knew that the Gods had chosen her for me.

"I caught up with her afterwards to confirm that she was my fated, but being that close to her...and that scent..." Cyprus shook his head in reminiscence, his lips upturned with devilish mirth, "...well...let's just say I couldn't help myself." A sly chuckle followed his statement, and it travelled down my spine, settling as a haunting chill that was left by the underlying cynicism of his words. It hurt to delve into such dark thoughts, but I had a strong inclination that his advances were unwanted.

"I never saw her again after. It was just that once."

His hand released my forearm, and I resisted looking down at it, knowing that there would be 5 darkened finger-shaped marks that formed the shape of a handprint.

"I wasn't allowed to see her after that. Your elders wouldn't let me past the portal. I thought that was the last I would ever see of her...until I heard about you."