𝐈𝐥𝐥-𝐅𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 ✔️

41

V A L E R I A

5 weeks ago: Thailand, Malaysia, and Australia.

3 weeks ago: Morocco, Mali, and Egypt. 

This week. Serbia, Bulgaria, and now Greece.

The warm wind travels into our room through the open window. The curtains move with the breeze, I feel it make contact with my skin as I sit on the edge of my bed, my wet hair from the ocean finally beginning to dry. The candles in the corner of the room make the room smell like vanilla. 

My head tilts as I watch Adonis' back. He stands, in front of a mirror, I can see his reflection in it. I see his black hair which is also still damp. His muscles in his back move as he puts his white button-up shirt on and through the mirror, I look at his abdomen and chest and the tattoos on his skin. He didn't use to have those.

For the past few weeks, I had my old life back. In some ways. With his memories back, it felt like I finally had my husband again. We did everything we had done so long ago - only this time we could touch. 

"Remember when we were in Greece 200 years ago?" I question. The sound of the bugs outside are the only noise and the orange glow from the sunset lands in our room and onto me. "It wasn't even called Greece back then."

I watch him smile in the mirror as he begins to button his shirt back up. He nods, "You created your own name for it."

"You called it stupid," I said while smiling. 

"It was," he says. 

I laugh. And he does too, until it stops and through the reflection, I see the look on his face that makes my stomach drop every time. He falls silent as he shuts his eyes. I let the room remain quiet for a few moments before asking, "They're telling you to kill me right now. Aren't they?"

He slowly opens his eyes again and gives me a small nod. 

Our love would never be normal. He was cursed to kill me over and over again. He would have to fight against the voices in his head every single day - and he has been. He's been ignoring them as we've traveled the world and swam and ate foods I had never even heard of. 

He turns around and walks over to me. He grabs my hand and pulls me to my feet before placing his hands against my cheeks. He tells me, "They can't convince me to do it, Valeria. Not again."

I nod. While I had everything explained, there was one thing that never was. Who was that girl in the cave who could read my mind? I have not returned to her. She has not spoken to me. I know she feels betrayed. She helped me for 200 years only for me to choose the man we were both trying to kill over her. 

But I could not help it. While he was cursed to want to kill me every time, I was cursed to love him every time. Hearing the explanation, seeing him try so hard to fight it and be with me - I could not help but fall in love again. All I could wish was that this time I would not die at his hands.

He leans down and presses his lips against mine. I kiss him back without hesitation. I knew our love was wrong, I knew it was forbidden, I knew everything in the universe was against us being together. But none of those things could make me stop loving him.

"You're fine with staying in this body forever?" he asks me. 

"As much as I'd like my old self back, I've been this girl for so long it feels like me," I tell him. "Besides. I cannot bring myself to kill you for it."

His death was what would bring me back. But I do not want to be back at the cost of him. 

"Really?" he smirks. He begins walking out to the patio and I follow him out, my hip pressing against the ledge as he puts a cigarette between his lips. "I can remember how you looked at me in that graveyard after I killed you."