The Heart's Content

Chapter 116

Valentino sent a swarm of broken glass shards after both Husk and Rosie. Using magic and heightened sense, they were able to dodge the attack. Rosie then removed her wig, fake ears, and gloves, making rays of solar energy appear in one hand and summoning a tidal wind in the other. She blasted him with sunlight and tide but Valentino's mirror-body just reflected the attack back on to her. Same applied to the bullets Husk shot at him.

"Is that the best you can do?!" He taunted.

Rosie and Husk fought him with everything they had but anything they did only seemed to make Valentino grow stronger. Their anger and fear toward him, he was feeding off of it like a parasite. Each attack was like a re-charge for him and Rosie knew this, but at the moment she couldn't figure out what other way to stop him. Or at the very least, distract him long enough for Charlie to make it to the sea.

"Oh enough of this!" Valentino scoffed. "I have a schedule to keep!"

He created smoke-like tendrils from his breath, which knocked away Husk's gun then constricted and hoisted him up along with Rosie.

"Release us!" Rosie commanded.

"No. I don't think I will." He said smugly. "You know Rosie, it was always a mystery to me why you were born with the gift and not me. Why I ended up born mortal when you're the one who wished to live among them."

"It's not my fault you inherited our father's genes!"

"But it is your fault that our family never accepted me! You always had to be so perfect! So gifted! So much better than me at everything!"

"You can't keep blaming me for the family rejecting you! I had no more say in how they treated us than you did! We were both just children! And Mother and Father never favored me! They never wanted me anymore than they wanted you! I was an accident and our parents were forced by their families to marry and raise us! But in truth, they pretty much ignored us both! Only time they ever acknowledge me was on my magic and nothing else! You know that!"

"But our grandmother and our aunt wanted you! They adored you! I didn't have that!"

"They tried to love you! I tried to love you! But you were always so jealous and hateful that you couldn't let yourself be loved! You were only happy when other people were in pain! You didn't want love! You wanted to make the world suffer for how you were born and that's why you're such a miserable, loathsome, sub-creature!"

"Shut up!"

He slashed at her face with a shard of glass.

"Leave her alone you bastard!" Husk growled. "Touch her again and I'll crush you into bits of sand!"

"And then there's you!" Valentino turned his horrible face to Husk. "You pitiful, pathetic, backstabbing Judas! I took you in and gave you work when no one else would! And how do you repay me? By falling in love with my sister of all people!"

"What?" Rosie responded confused.

"Oh you mean you still haven't told her about your little secret crush?" Valentino said pulling Husk's cheek in a teasing manner.

"Get off me you psycho!" Husk snapped at him, trying to bite his hand. "And I don't know what the hell you're talking about."

"Sure you do! But if you don't have the gutts to confess, I'll do it for you!" He turned back to Rosie. "You see Sister dear, this mistake of nature has been head over heels for you since the very first moment he saw you! How stupid! But I must admit, he hid his feelings well, until that crush of his grew so strong that he decided to turn against me in order to protect you!"

Rosie looked at Husk astonished.

"Husk." She said gently. "Is this true?"

Husk couldn't find any words to answer but his eyes said it all and Rosie could scarcely believe it. Valentino cackled, finding this scene perversely enjoyable, then he raised Husk up and slammed him down hard on the ice.