CURSED: FROM THE BEGINNING [D.M]

-(83) her art to stare at

Luci was the colors in her life. Without him, everything was just plain black.

And she would've ensured everyone saw how devastating that was if her mother, the ever-loyal Queen Zara, hadn't plunged her sword into her own chest after linking her daughter's life with hers.

Five hundred years in the spirit realm without him was torture beyond compare.

But she has him now. She has her Luci, her Draco. And she'll be damned to ever lose him again.

"Yes", she breathes, "Yes, he would do that."

Blaise chuckles then. "You've been driving him mad since day one."

"He's been driving me mad since day one."

Blaise chuckles at that too. "Sure, but the effect you had on him was far stronger. I'm not trying to diminish your feelings or anything. But I knew him- I've seen him not even batting an eyelash when all the other girls were ogling over him. But you- when you looked at him- it got under his skin so fast and it utterly infuriated him that you could do it so easily."

"Yeah and he was an asshole about it", Zilliah chuckles back as she rewinds her head to their initial days in this lifetime.

And as much of a catastrophic mess that was, it was a lot lot better.

She can envision the warm smile on Blaise's face even though she can't see him. "He was an asshole in general. And mind you, he still is, just not to you anymore.. like ninety-nine percent of the time, I guess."

Zilliah finds herself smiling wide and free at that despite all the pain and fatigue in her body. "Yeah, we can a give him ninety-nine percent. Though he won't be pleased he was deprived of that one percent."

Blaise leans into her and lets his chin rest upon her shoulder. And it's comfortable. "I would've slapped you for this fifth year."

"I would now say that I would've deserved it", his voice is light and carefree, and it soothes some part of the uneasiness in her. "I was a sex-crazed bitch back then."

She can't help but laugh again at that. "I mean considering you have a baby girl at eighteen, I'd say you're still a sex-crazed bitch."

Because they're flying just below the clouds, it doesn't obstruct their vision of the several islands beneath them, both tiny and large. But at the same time, they're up high enough to make all of it seem so insignificant.

"That's not true", Blaise says reaching his hand out to the space between them and petting Lenin as the latter croaks out a sound of joy, probably because he was getting to fly this far. The petting only increases the happy noises and it soothes her even more. "I mean.. of course, I'm still addicted to sex. But now I only want sex with her and that too, when she wants it. I don't know, it's unusual how she has made every other woman in this world unattractive and made me grow so much patience with her presence in my life."

"You love her, Blaise."

And she can literally feel his smile now somehow. "That I do."

And it pangs at Zilliah's heart that he was here with her, instead of being with his child and his girlfriend. "You stay safe and clear of any danger at this island then, okay? You want to get back to her and kiss her and make love to her and play with Viv and watch the two loves of your life sleeping peacefully by your side. And for that, you will not put your life on the line and do something reckless to get anything or save anyone you hear me, Blaise?"

"Yes, you're right", his tone turns a little grave as he says it. "But if we go down, we go down together."

"Blaise-"