Chapter 66
66 His Cure
“My mother?” She sounded surprised to the extent her eyes went round, and she was. She never really expected he’d ask about her mother of all things. The forest was a bit foggy and the sounds of twigs snapping as he walked echoed in the quiet forest.
“Yeah, you said sir Steve knew something about your mother’s corpse, so tell me what happened to her?” His tone was shockingly gentle, neither was it an order. Anna didn’t even respond and only blinked at him in surprise, but the being just stared ahead as he walked, looking as though half of his mind wasn’t particularly here at all.
‘Why is he acting strange?’ thought Annalise as her lips curiously pulled up in wonders. For some reason, she doubts there’s an ulterior motive behind his questions, he actually sounds like he was interested in knowing more about her.
The only people who were this interested in knowing her was Calista and the physician. She remembered the physician could equally transport as well, was he a Demon too?
So many unanswered questions, but Roshan’s calm attitude right now surprised her even more
A faint smile formed on her lips at the thought of her mother, but the memories of her death made those pretty smiles fade from her lips and Roshan could sense her hesitation when he felt her shiver slightly.
“I might do a lot of things, but I respect people’s personal thoughts” he immediately told her in case she was uncomfortable, “... if you can’t talk about it, it’s fine too.”
“My mother died on a ship during a terrible thunderstorm.” She began, “I was still a child back then, so I couldn’t do anything to save her or anyone.... a terrifying wave ruined the ship we were in, everyone died..... everyone except me.”
Her tone carried a heavy weight that oddly affected him, he could sense the pain hadn’t been forgotten and as much as he hated to admit it, he knew what it felt like to have painful memories haunting the day life out of you.
.....
She continued, “I got blamed for the death of those people because somehow I survived the incident, the mark on my forehead gave people reasons to point fingers at me, they claimed I was cursed and I wasn’t accepted.”
“And you still want to help these people?”
“I thought about it and then I realized, you can’t expect the world to be fair to you just cause you’re nice, that’s like expecting a lion not to eat you cause you didn’t eat him.”
Roshan actually found some sense in her statement, but still...
“Well, the royal family of Euphrasia took me in since they owed that much to my father.”
“Your father?”
She nodded, “yes, sir Mateo Hunter of Draekharm village, he was among the greatest warriors who fought in the last war between Euphrasia and the creatures of the night, but he didn’t make it.”
That name lingered in Roshan’s head for a while, ‘sir Mateo Hunter? No wonder that golden badge looked familiar!’
She sighed. “Anyway sir Steve claims my mother’s body was never found, I needed answers cause I was sure she got buried, but he doesn’t believe ippt, that’s why I attended the ceremony.”
“Why didn’t you tell me this before?”
“I assumed you wouldn’t listen so I didn’t.” She didn’t actually assume, she knew he wouldn’t listen.
“Either way, you should have said something, I understand what it feels like to lose someone important and we could have worked a way around it.”
“Wait_ you’ve lost someone important before?” She asked, finding it shocking and surprising to her ears and when he didn’t respond, she asked further.
“Is that the reason you’re so cold to everyone?”
“I don’t know, I’ve always been like this.”
“You promised you’d tell me if I tell you mine, so tell me, why are you so full of anger and hatred all the time?” She asked, ” if you wanted revenge for yourself, you could have easily wiped the royal family of Euphrasia but you haven’t even been there, what are you searching for?”
Roshan clicked his tongue, suddenly regretting why he even agreed to her demands in the first place, he wasn’t the type who knew how to say his personal thoughts to someone else.
“Can’t you be a dummy and forget I made that promise?”
“Well I’m no dummy, so tell me now.”
She noticed his face grew pale all of a sudden and his expression... he looked like a wind wandering the world like a rejected guest. The pain in his crimson red eyes were visible as though he was wearing them like stars and that look stunned Anna more than ever.
Roshan had emotions??
Meanwhile, Roshan had a hard time stopping those memories from plaguing his mind. The look in his mother’s eyes when she was roughly dragged away, his sister’s scream when they were seperated, all the painful memories were still fresh and continuously replayed in his head. It reminded him of the loser he was, how useless and helpless he was at that moment. He couldn’t save them despite trying so hard and....
“I lost my mother and sister at a very tender age.” He started and Anna listened carefully, “They were both mercilessly killed and dragged away in front of me, I couldn’t do anything to stop it.” Roshan suddenly paused, unable to say the rest out loud and his gaze lowered.
His father had called him weak when he was a child, his father didn’t accept him because he was half human. His father always carried the ideology that being human meant weakness and he started to believe that at some stage in his life. Aherlow punished him without mercy, inflicted injuries and scars on him to the point he began to question if truly that was his father.
There was nothing called love in his family, his father was all about producing strong heirs that’ll take over from him.
He didn’t blame Azazel for doing nothing more than just stare back then, there was nothing he could do to help the situation cause they were only children.
The humans were no different after he left the underworld, they hated him for being out of his mind but they never spoke of they were never kind.
And even killed the only people he ever considered.
Humans, Demon’s, he could barely find the difference between them, most of them are just demons in sheep’s clothing and what they made him go through would never be forgotten.
“We’re here.” He said instead, Anna was actually expecting him to continue but unfortunately, he didn’t. Almost like he was scared of hurting himself again.
Was that it? He’s scared of loving again.
“Will you drop?” His voice brought her back and she recalled she was still on his back, she unwillingly blushed and finally dropped from his back.
Emsdar lake was surrounded by fresh crystalline turquoise water, the pines and coniferous forest beautifully surrounded the lake edges, Lily’s sublimely floating atop the water, with tiny fire dragons dancing from one lily to the other.
“This is Emsdar lake?” She asked, disclaiming the weariness that dragged upon her spirit like leaden weights. It looked beautiful but Roshan only strode to the big tree and sat on the ground, resting his back on it.
“Yes, we’ll wait here for them.” Roshan’s gaze shifted to the woman who stood ahead, admiring the surrounding with an impressed stare, her big brown doe eyes looked bright again, the soft waves of her deep cinnamon-brown hair fell like flowers from paradise to her lower back and he didn’t even realize he was admiring the beautiful woman. She looked like a picture of a young rapt saint, lost in heavenly musing.
Anna joined him afterwards and stared at his face, he looked strangely pale and delicate as the flush on a rose, he looked so innocent that she was having second thoughts about whether he was the one who ripped a man’s head and arm off.
He looked unwell, out of worry, she felt his forehead and he was burning up.
“Roshan, you’re not...”
“It’s the poison.” He spoke up, before taking her hands off his forehead and Anna mistook the soft shade of pink color on his cheeks as one of the sickness reactions, leaving her even more worried.
“We can’t just leave it spreading inside of you.” She said but he only chuckled. “I’m serious!”
“Well, it’s impossible to get the cure.”
“What is the cure?”
He looked at her, “your blood.”
“What?”
He tilted his head at her, a burning glint sparked in his eyes, “Will you let me have a taste of your blood?”