by Kira Saito
His eyes met mine and for a moment, he studied my face as if he were recording every detail of it. “Je t’aime, Arelia,” he said before covering my mouth in an all consuming kiss that made me feel as if the world was the most perfect place ever. I even allowed the sweet smell of jasmine to intoxicate my senses and momentarily forgave Erzulie for her deceptions.
"I love you too," I said when our lips finally parted. "Truthfully, I wouldn't know what to do if I lost you again either, and that's why I'm not going to allow that to happen. Even on the other side when I didn't know you existed, my soul longed for you. I worked my ass off to have a life that I thought was perfect but deep inside; I always felt empty like an imposter going through the motions to please society. I hated being that girl. I don't ever want to be her. As complicated, twisted and painful as this life is, I can't imagine sharing it with anyone else but you."
“You’ve turned into a full-fledged romantic, haven't you?" he teased as he covered my mouth in another kiss which gave me the urge to rip off my flimsy gown and beg him to make loud, passionate love to me. He pulled back, and I showed ladylike restraint.
"That's how I was before I met you. I was always trying to court the right women, please society and figured all of the empty spaces could be filled with whiskey and gambling. The moment I saw you the world stopped. My heart stopped, and I knew that my very existence would never be the same again, and it hasn't. I love you, Arelia. I love you truly, madly, passionately. If it ever came down to it, I would put my life on the line just to see you happy.”
Tears filled my eyes as I recalled the feelings I had experienced while I was descending into the abyss. “Don’t say those words. Don’t fill my head and spirit with romantic musings.”
“Why not?” he asked.
I thought of all the relationships I had witnessed and how every single one of them ended in tragedy and despair. To think of it, there wasn’t one relationship that had managed to secure a happy ending. All of them ended in death. “Because what if…” The dark invaded the light again, and all sorts of negative scenarios started to haunt me.
He kissed away my tears. "No what ifs. We will be together," he said with such certainty that my tears instantly dried up, and my doubts evaporated.
We lay there for hours talking, making plans and enjoying one another until our eyes closed and the sleep that we desperately needed finally beckoned us.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Darkwood Plantation, Present Day
Virtue
My eyes opened. The familiar scent of coconuts and roses filled the air, and I knew the time had come for me to see the things I had been too afraid to acknowledge. I glanced beside me and saw that Lucus was sound asleep. His chest rose and descended in a peaceful rhythm, and a content smile rested on his lips. I let a small sigh of relief. I had half -feared that he had run off into the graveyard again. The bedroom door creaked open, and my body immediately got out of bed worried that someone was spying on us.
I lit a white candle and headed to the door not wanting to wake Lucus from his peaceful slumber. I opened the door and half expected to see Louis standing there with a half-empty bottle in his hand. To my surprise, there was no one there. I glanced into the hallway. It was empty, dark and utterly silent. The smell of roses grew stronger as did the scent of the ocean breeze. The Wild Rose was near, and she was determined to show me something.
I quietly closed the door behind me and followed the scent down the long hall and then to the right where there was another corridor. A door rested at the end of the corridor. "Open the door," whispered Rosaline. "Open the door. You will see the evil that lurks here and the evil that will manifest in the city and country. The evil that is returning comes not only from Haiti. It also comes from the Old World and a time so ancient that most seem to have forgotten its existence. It has risen with such a force this year, yet so many do not see what is in front of their eyes day in and day out."
My blood froze at her words. I had asked her to reveal more information to me, and I had gotten my wish. “Where?” I pressed her from more answers.
“What colors have lit up the world this year?” she asked hoping that I would get it already.
I shrugged. “The colors of the rainbow? I don’t know. It’s been a wild year.”
“Think harder, Arelia. What are the colors of this country?”
“Red, white and blue.”
“What colors have you constantly seen on Facebook this year?”
“Facebook? Really?” Did spirits use social media? Of course, they did.
“There has been a lot of red, white and blue because of…” Oh. I was beginning to see why she was beating around the bush.
“Say it, Arelia. Say the words. The first step to accepting something is to say the words out loud.”
“There have been lots of terror attacks in France this year… This has something to do with Lucus, doesn’t it? His family is involved too, aren’t they?”
She was silent.
“Come with me, please,” I asked her. I prepared to enter the point of no return.
I heard her start to sob. “I’m not allowed there,” she said. “Please be careful, Arelia. If you don’t see this, I can’t tell you what happened in Haiti and with the two men I loved.”
I took a deep breath. My hands trembled as I opened the antique door handle and stepped inside the room. A spiral staircase rested on the other side of the door. I glanced at the massive set of stairs that led to the third story of the house and panicked. I was about to turn around thinking that I could wake Lucus and ask him to come with me when the door slammed shut. “No!” I pounded on the door, but it was locked. “Crap.” I summoned the courage and started the long ascent up the seemingly never ending steps. It was utterly dark aside from the single candle flame that lit my path. When I finally reached the end of the staircase, I was led to another heavy wooden door which was locked with a heavy rusty metal chain. I gently shook the chain, and the lock opened.
My heart raced a mile a minute as I turned the door handle and stepped inside the massive room which reeked with blood, rot and spider webs. Rows of black candles rested on a nearby ledge. I quickly lit them to get a better view of the room and exactly what I was supposed to be seeing. My mouth opened and closed, but the screams wouldn’t come out. I was standing in a sea of skulls, human skulls. Vomit spewed out of my mouth and landed on the glossy white bones that lay beside my bare feet. In the middle of the room, there stood an enormous guillotine. Its steel blade glistened as did the dry blood that rested on it.
I glanced at the walls and saw that they were covered in symbols drawn in blood. I didn’t recognize any of them. The handwriting on the wall read:
The Revolution must continue. The new cornerstone must be capped. The war did not end. His secret destiny must be fulfilled. If the basis of popular government in peacetime is a virtue, the basis of popular government during a revolution is both virtue and terror, virtue, without which terror is baneful, terror, without which virtue is powerless. Terror is nothing more than speedy, severe and inflexible justice.
I didn’t know what to make of what I saw. I knew that I had to get out of that room and quick. Erzulie’s warning that there were spirits that came from various parts of the world entered my mind. I turned towards the door and saw a shadow emerge. The shadow had been watching my every move. It had been calculating the moment I would find this room and the deep secrets that lurked under Darkwood’s history, a past that had been covered up by half-truths.
“Who told you that you could come here? Did I give you permission to invade my privacy?” The shadow asked as it became clearer.
Sheer shock, uncertainty, and panic gripped me. The room started to spin as I quickly tried to connect the dots. I opened my mouth to speak. The words wouldn’t come out. The person lurking in the darkness picked up a skull. Before I could make a move, I felt the object smash against mine. My eyes were closed. I fell to the ground. The spiritual and
physical worlds went dark. I knew that life as I knew it had forever changed.
Dear Readers,
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Thank you for continuing this adventure with Arelia and the gang!
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Book 8 is coming soon!
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Please like my author page for up to date information on the series and other books I have in the works.
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https://www.facebook.com/authorkirasaito/?ref=bookmarks
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Also in the series
Bound
Punished
Possessed
Oppressed
Suppressed
Repressed
