Rosalind - Amby Awards 2023 TOP PICK

80- Requiem (part 2)

The lord stood before Rosalind as she shut the door. Clad in nothing but a pair of dark trousers, she saw droplets of water clinging onto his skin. The heat from his bath radiated from his body to her. For a moment, she forgot about Troy, Transylvania, and the nightmare that would follow were she to fail. All she felt at that moment was the insane pull. Her to him.

"You look exquisite," Caspian purred. His gaze trickled over her black gown, at the way the long skirt swept along the floor, at the way the neckline plunged over ivory flesh. He did not know that nestled in her bosom was the blade for it has fallen silent as it waited to taste his blood.

At his compliment, Rosalind's gaze diverted from him and moved to the walls. Upon them, she saw new shadows. They crept along the stone and wound themselves around the candles. Taking a step towards them, she ran her hand over the cool wall. Once, she had loathed the way the walls had felt. She had hated the fact that Caspian had touched them and nearly worn the stones smooth. Now, she detested the lumps and bumps that felt untouched. When her hands spider-walked up towards an awaiting shadow, she knew her time with Caspian was running out.

Caspian stepped up behind her and placed his hands on her hips. Bowing into her hair he picked up the familiar scents of his drugs. "Are you high? You are going to end up dead if you take both at the same time. Have you lost your mind?"

Green eyes moved in a blink yet Rosalind's gaze never faltered from a nearby shadow. It reached for her and entwined its finger with hers. "I have lost my goddamn mind," she uttered. "It lays in shambles...I lay in shambles..."

"You do not lay in shambles. It only feels that way when you transform," Caspian commented remembering his own transformation from man to monster. The pain and hell he had felt were indescribable.

"Transform into what? A beast?"

"It is better to be a beast than terrified, spineless or unloved." Caspian stood behind his lover and pulled her closer. His hands sliding from her hips over her stomach.

"Do you mean that becoming the damned queen of a cindered world is better than being just another weak, high-born lady who few hold in high regard?"

Caspian did not reply. If she desired an answer she would have to find this one herself. "I want to fuck you," he growled into her ear softly, "love you. Keep you." Breathing hard against her hair, he slid his hands lower. "The boy admitted he loves you," Caspian said, his growl turning deeper, more volatile. Rosalind heard the anger turn into a sudden pain which ebbed from the lord as he begged, "Tell me it was never reciprocated."

Her thoughts fluttered to Troy. Yes, she thought. It was reciprocated...more than once. But what good is it letting you know when all it will do is destroy you? I will never tell you. Rosalind knew that she and Troy would have forever but tonight was her last night with Caspian. Taking the lord's hand, she stepped out of his embrace and pulled him towards his bed. "Lie down," she said softly, "and take off your clothes."

Caspian's ice blue gaze searched for the truth behind her eyes. "Tell me you never loved my son," he said through clenched teeth as Rosalind gently pushed him onto his back.

When he hesitated to strip, Rosalind grabbed the laces of his trousers and pried them open roughly. "Take them off, Caspian. You said you want to fuck me." Rosalind felt her insides burn. She did not want him talking about Troy. Lines blurred. Love, hate, destiny and sorrow blended together like watercolours in the rain. Erase him, a long-forgotten memory came to her. One of where Troy took her in the forest. Who are you trying to erase now? A phantom voice lamented.

The shadows crept down the walls and moved towards the pair. Dark, skinny forms of mist crouched at the foot of the bed and bowed their heads, avoiding any sights and sounds.

Caspian helped Rosalind remove his clothing but the question of her relationship with Troy gnawed at him bitterly. "Tell me, Goddamn you."

Straddling him, she lifted her dress and situated herself over his hips.

When he felt her smooth skin and realized she had nothing on underneath, Caspian's cock twitched. Moaning deeply, he cried as she reached for him and guided him inside her. "I love you."

"When we die," she asked moving her hips a touch, "is it the end for you and I?"

Caspian let out a guttural groan. Grabbing her hips, he moved her harshly over him. "You and I are eternal," he panted. Looking at his lover, he reached up and pulled her face to his. "Death has no hold on us," he whispered, "When the time comes, I will come to find you, again," he bucked his hips up, "and again until nothing dares ever separate us."

Tears stung Rosalind's eyes. Around her, the shadows wept yet when she cast a look at them she saw them all covered in horrid whip marks.

The sound of her and Caspian's love-making filled the room while outside the maddening lights roared in the sky and reached for every corner of Transylvania where they clawed and uprooted the snow.

Rosalind watched Caspian close his eyes and toss his hands above his head. The way he arched his back and the way his body rose and fell to her rhythm took her soul away. Her fragile mind may have found a place with Troy, but her feral soul would forever be Caspian's.

Against her breast, the vorpal blade began to sing. Its silvery song carried into the night. Rosalind slid her hand into her bodice and wrapped her fingers around the handle. Death would not only come to Caspian but to her as well. "True love is eternal," she whispered as she raised the blade over her head and thrust it down to Caspian's chest.

As the tip of the blade cut into skin, Caspian's eyes snapped open and his hands instantly grabbed the knife. All at once, he understood the blade was no ordinary one yet a vorpal used solely by slayers in order to slaughter monsters. Legends of the slayers were whispered in all four corners of the earth. When Caspian's hands tightened around the blade and blood formed from the cuts, he looked at Rosalind with tears in his eyes. "Your destiny was to be with me," he said mournfully.

Rosalind felt herself weaken. She wanted to hurl the blade away and bury herself in his arms. But it was now impossible. "I did not know," she said with a quivering tone. "It was only after I returned when I found out who I truly was."

Caspian's flesh burned from the cuts. As he held the blade tighter over his chest, the cuts grew deeper, greedy for blood. "You came back to kill me."

Nodding slowly, tears fell from her eyes. "And then I understood how much I loved you," her words stumbled to the ground where they shattered. "I sometimes wish I could have killed myself instead."

Caspian watched her cry. Her body racked with sobs but she would not let go of the blade. If anything, he felt her grip become stronger. "I would happily die in your stead," Caspian whispered as he relaxed his hands and allowed the blade to free itself from his grasp. "Whisper my name, beloved," he said under his breath, "one last time."

"Caspian," Rosalind complied mournfully, then dug the knife into his heart.