3. Blooddebt | ✓

29. Love and Tragedy

"He was towering tall with a strong, large build. He had the sharpest features that looked way too charming for a knight, so much that he might be better off being a rich nobleman or a royalty. But I'm not quite sure if he could fit those roles. I mean, Jason ate way too much and snored louder than a bear," Thunder shrugged his shoulders lightly and laughed out loud. Though that happiness quickly vanished and a heavy sigh sounded before he continued, "But Jason loved me with the whole of his heart even when I had nothing to offer in return. We braved through countless battlefields and fought against death and hardships together. Jason wasn't just my family. He was my friend and my sole confidant."

"What happened to him?" Izekiel grew more curious.

Thunder tilted his head back and stretched his arm out, pointing up to the night sky. Izekiel stared into the flickering fiery lights scintillating against the ebony canvas above them and he understood it all even before Thunder explained, "He left to join the stars. You see, he's twinkling so annoyingly happily with the other half of his soul."

"Have you ever resented him for leaving you?" Izekiel had many questions tonight, but he figured that Thunder hadn't minded since he answered them all unhesitatingly.

"No," Thunder smiled towards the sky. "I couldn't find a reason to resent him because he gave me a good reason to stay in this realm without him. I also couldn't hate him for wanting a happily ever after with his love. He's a good person and he deserved everything great."

"A good reason?" Izekiel noted his words, picking it up as he wondered.

"What's wrong with it?" Thunder turned to look at Izekiel. "Sometimes, one good reason was all that was needed."

"A reason, huh?" Izekiel laughed as a flash of memory rushed into his awareness.

※

100 years ago
Thethia: Mt. Lusian

• Izekiel •

The moment he pierced the sword through her chest, all he saw was red — her lips in vermillion, her blood in scarlet, her rage in crimson.

"Izekiel, why...?" she exhaled excruciatingly.

His betrayal had crept into the amber of her eyes, dulling it with a hue of disappointment. He was supposed to feel relieved but the guilt within him intensified and that's when he knew that he loved this forbidden woman more than he ever imagined.

He was never meant to feel anything for the daughter of his worst enemy. Beneath the scorching guilt was glutting disgust that he fell for the very kind that sullied and murdered his sister in cold blood.

Izekiel's parents passed when he was in his tender age and the only family left to him was his older sister, Lavinia. She took care of him and raised him to be the claw's leader. To him, she was not just a sister. Lavinia was his mother, his mentor and his closest friend.

His sister was elegant and otherworldly enchanting. She could beguile onlookers with a just a stare into her lush emerald eyes and her feline confidence was as captivating as her magnificent smile that doesn't just extend to her eyes but deep into her soul. Though, it was devastatingly unfortunate that Lavinia's beauty was more of a curse than a blessing.

Abducted by the wolves, her innocent was tainted by their heinous lust. Those despicable scums humiliated her in the worst way possible before leaving her overwrought and verklempt at the entrance of the panther's cave. Izekiel remembered how his sister trembled so violently in his arms but still unable to shake off the trauma that writhed beneath her skin. Lavinia was scarred in places he couldn't see, she was hurt in places that went deeper than torn skin and fractured bones. In the end, that incurable anguish of hers became a palpable entity that took her away from him.