“Cynthia, I will have to go to the village at the evening. I'll return in the morning.” Thea told her. She had to keep the promise she made to Romeo. She couldn't back down even though the mere thought of sleeping with him made her cringe and feel like puking.
“Why?” Cynthia asked.
“Umm... see, I don't want to lie to you. Romeo took me to that witch's address and in return he asked to spend a night with me. Now I have to keep my deal.”
Cynthia burst into fits of laughter hearing this. Thea had been ignoring Romeo all her life and now she was going to sleep with him.
“Why so desperate to save money, Thea? Aren't those brothers paying you well?”
“They don't bother themselves with it. Cara is in charge of paying and supervising the maids. And she loves to give us a tough time by deducting our salaries over tiny mistakes.” Thea gritted.
“Well, I didn't know that.” A masculine voice startled both the sisters. It was Zyaire standing at the door.
Thea and Cynthia quickly got up from the bed and lowered their eyes in respect.
Zyaire smiled and entered their room.
“Sorry to intrude but I didn't know Cara was a greedy bitch.”
“Master Zyaire, you don't need to bother yourself with our problems.” Thea told him respectfully.
“Miss Thea, you work for us and if someone is harassing you on work then it's our problem too. And now that it's revealed that you are Aurore, your comfort matters to us a lot.”
Thea looked up at him with eyes full of shock.
“How do you know that?”
“Well, Zelda came.” He shrugged.
Thea lowered her eyes immediately when she realised she was staring at him for too long.
“Umm... can you tell us about Aurore?” Cynthia asked him curiously.
Zyaire looked at her with keen eyes,“I don't know much about her. All I know is that Aurore was an angel who fell in love with a half-god.”
“A half-god? What's that?” Cynthia asked.
“Child of a god and a human. His name was Damon. There is a divine being named Marcus. He cursed both Aurore and Damon. Aurore was cursed to be born as a human in every century. And Damon...” He stopped midway.
“What happened to Damon?” Thea asked him curiously.
“Damon was made... The Evil.”
Both the sisters looked up at his face with shocked expressions.
“You mean The Evil was created only because he dared to love an angel? How cruel of that Marcus!” Cynthia complained.
“Well, I agree with you. Evil too is a victim. But he is our enemy nonetheless. We are born to end him.” Zyaire couldn't believe he was saying that. He too sympathized with Evil, just like Axlan did. But sadly it was their fate to end him.
“But that's not fair. To love someone is not a crime.” Cynthia complained again.
“But in his fury he started causing destruction. He became evil in true sense. That's why they created Ace. And see what he did to Ace. Divided him into five forms.”
“If we look from his perspective, he was only protecting himself.” Cynthia defended Evil.
“Cynthia, are you seriously defending him?” He asked, getting offended at her siding with The Evil.
“I am only stating the obvious.” She shrugged.
Zyaire glared at her before stomping away from there. Cynthia frowned at his childish behavior, “What happened to him?”
“He got angry on you defending The Evil.” Thea stated with a smile.
“Am I his lover that he got angry on that? Grumpy old caveman.” She muttered in annoyance.
✿ ✿ ✿
The five brothers were gathered in the library with no doors. The room was under a spell to make sure no one else could hear their conversation.
“Do you all think it's a nice idea to break it to her that she is mated to five men?” asked Xavier.
“Absolutely not.” The other four replied in unison.
It shouldn't be surprising but still they were surprised at the similarity of their opinion.
Alexander began, “How about we create certain circumstances where she herself finds out that she is no ordinary human?”
“You mean we create situations where she ends up using her powers on her own?” Alarick asked.
“Exactly!” Alexander exclaimed.
“That's a tough task.” Axlan sighed.
“But it's not impossible.” Zyaire commented.
“Okay, boys, think over it.” Alarick continued, “What can make her accidentally use her unknown powers?”
“Anger.” Axlan replied.
“And what makes her angry?” Alarick asked.
“CARA!” Zyaire exclaimed loudly.
✿ ✿ ✿
In the evening, Thea reached the village. When she neared Romeo's house, she saw a crowd gathered in front of his house.
“Why are you all gathered here, Aunt Margaret?” She asked a middle-aged woman.
The lady grimaced, “Romeo passed away few hours ago.”
“What? But he was fine this morning.” Thea was bewildered.
“He began coughing blood and died in the matter of minutes. How unfortunate.” The lady told her.
Thea turned around to leave, still in shock. Romeo was a guy in his twenties. How could he die suddenly? She kept thinking about Romeo while walking through the woods. She disliked him since childhood but he wasn't a bad person. She felt sad on his death.
As she kept walking through the woods with only moon as the source of light, she felt like someone was following her. But then she dismissed the thought thinking that she was feeling scared because of the darkness. And she kept walking.
But then she felt someone's presence again.
Thea halted in her steps and slowly turned around. It was dark. She could hardly see anything. She gulped in nervousness and tried seeing through the dark.
“Nothing. There's nothing.” She breathed a sigh and turned around to continue walking. However she hit into somebody. Her breath hitched. It was a dark figure. Tall, rigid and scary. She looked up at his face but couldn't see it in the dark.
Thea mustered some courage and asked, “Who are you?”
After long silence, she got her reply.
“Damon.”
Damon clicked his fingers and darkness embraced her senses. Thea fell on his chest, unconscious.
•••
Thoughts 💭
