66__To be forgettable
If she was joking, Rogan wasn’t laughing.
The past few hours had made him lose a century on his life span from all the rage, anxiety and desperation.
If Maia thought this was a cute way to end it all, Rogan hoped she quickly realized he wasn’t half amused.
“That’s enough,” he told her. “You can stop now.”
She tilted her head slowly, a frown creasing her forehead. “Stay… away…”
The warning in her words sounded a lot like fear, puzzling Rogan to no end.
“Stop it, Maia. You’re still weak, you need full recovery. There’s no time for this.”
She was shaking her head slowly at him.
Rogan sighed and rubbed his aching body as he took a step forward. “Maia—”
The arrow shot through the air. Rogan jerked to a stop, staring in shock at the arrow sticking out of his thigh as blood seeped through his pants.
“S-stay back!” she screamed with wild fear in her eyes, her shaky fingers quickly preparing another arrow.
He slowly raised his head and looked at her, disbelief turning his mouth numb. She’d shot him with an arrow. Maia had attacked him. Out of… *fear*.
“I d-don’t know you,” she said shakily. “I don’t know… how you know my name…. but stay back! Or I will defend myself.”
He hadn’t moved an inch, only staring at her in unhidden shock. Before Rogan could even think of what to say, she turned around and fled.
He watched her run until she disappeared into the forest. Something heavy settled in Rogan’s heart.
What was going on?
This wasn’t what was supposed to happen. She was supposed to have returned to him, puzzled as to why she was a thousand times stronger than before, after which he’d tell her how he’d so generously saved her, leading to her adoration and love for him for the rest of her life!
But…
A disbelieving breath left Rogan’s parted lips.
She’d stared at him and runaway.
As if she thought he was… a *monster*.
******************
The past three days had been a dark time for Rogan.
Silent as a grave, he lay on a long sofa in the Hostel, staring at the ceiling.
Cecile crossed her legs on the adjacent sofa, nodding her head sadly at the sight of him. “I understand how you feel, Master Rogan.”
Cassie strutted into the room, a huge bowl of chicken nuggets lodged between her hip and arm. “What is this? A therapy session?”
Cecile hissed in disapproval. “Stop! Can’t you see this is really hard on him?”
Cassie sat cross-legged on the floor between the fireplace and Rogan’s sofa. “And for what? The pompous King’s people are combing the forests for Maia, they’ll find her soon! He’ll worry himself into a damn coma.”
A rush of footsteps brought a grave-faced Aiden into the room. “We can’t find her.”
Cecile gasped. “Oh, no!”
“Useless as always,” muttered Cassie into her bowl of meat.
Aiden glared at her, but before he could retort, Clover and Claudia came into the room excitedly. “You finally found her?!”
“No,” Cassie told them. “His incompetent people can’t find her.”
Clover looked dejectedly at Rogan. “Oh, *noo*… What do we do? Rogan’s really… he’s so upset.”
They all looked at Rogan as he lay there like he was dead.
After a moment of silence, someone cleared their throat.
Everyone looked at the door to find Laurel looking in at them.
Cassie scoffed. “You’re back?! Where did you go for so long?”
Rogan sat upright, staring at Laurel.
She pursed her lips at him, slowly entering the room. “How did it go, Sorcerer?”
He quickly got to his feet. “Where have you been?” Before she could answer, he waved it away. “Never mind. Something weird happened. With Maia, that is.”
Laurel pressed her lips together. “Yes?”
“Yes, I’m thinking it’s to do with the spells Diana cast on her. Because I saved her, I saved her, right? But she woke up and she just ran off. She shot an arrow at me! And she…” He pressed a hand to his chest with a narrow-eyed look. “She didn’t *remember* me?”
Cassie choked on a nugget. “What?!”
“She didn’t remember you?” asked Aiden. “What does that mean?”
“That makes no sense,” said Cleo, hurrying into the room.
“Is that why you haven’t bothered to aid in the search for her?” Aiden asked.
“You probably know where she is, don’t you?!” accused Cassie.
Shaking his head in frustration, Rogan raised a hand for silence. When they were all calm again, he looked at Laurel. “Maia… she was afraid of me. I haven’t yet figured out what spell Diana might have used—”
“Diana didn’t do that,” said Laurel quietly.
Rogan blinked. “How can you be so sure? I know the kind of dirty tricks that woman would pull—”
“She didn’t do it!” Laurel insisted. She sighed. “Maia forgetting you… it’s a result of the wish you were granted that day. That was… that was the sacrifice.”
The quietly spoken words struck Rogan silent.
Slowly, he approached her, his dark stare chilling Laurel to the bone. She shivered. This was why she’d gotten out of his sight for a bit.
She’d thought she’d wait out his rage and then return. Too bad she didn’t consider that he might not think his losing the human girl was due to his own actions. Now she was caught smack dab in the middle of his wrath.
“*You*,” Rogan snarled, his black eyes narrowing. “You… *tricked* me?”
The room grew ten times colder.
Laurel shook her head. “No. I didn’t trick you, Sorcerer. I’m a Fairy… not a Goblin. We don’t do tricks—”
“Yeah?!” he demanded.
She jumped in fright, unable to stop herself. “Sorcerer—”
“I don’t remember you telling me that, healing me would lead to Maia *forgetting* me? You didn’t mention that?!”
“It was a consequence of your wish! I told you there would be a consequence. A sacrifice. That’s just how it is, you can’t have the best of both worlds—”
“How the hell do fairy wishes work?!” Rogan spat. “I thought you meant I would lose my powers of Sorcery or something!”
“I told you, you would lose what you loved most… in order to gain what you needed most, which was your wish.”
He was glaring darkly down at her. “What I love *most*… is my power of sorcery, handed down to me by my mother!”
Laurel looked at him. “Is it? Is it really what you love most?”
Rogan felt his teeth grind.
She was suggesting that it was his own fault.
She meant that he, Rogan, loved Maia. Not just that he loved her, but that he loved her even more than his powers. And it was that love that was the reason why Maia no longer knew him.
Rogan almost laughed.
*Almost*. He just didn’t really feel like letting out any giggles right now.
Not while he was so pissed off.
Laurel’s eyes were unwavering as she met his stare and saw his rage. When Rogan marched past her, she’d already read him like a book.
She spun around to watch his leaving back. “It’s no use, Sorcerer! Just leave her alone, she will never know you again!”
A dark, non-human growl echoed through the air after those words, leaving them all shook.
Not seconds later, the front door slammed loudly shut, rattling the walls of the Hostel.
They stared at each other.
“Wow…” whispered Clover. “Rogan likes Maia more than his powers.”
**************
Rogan was stalking through the forest, the hot fury in each step practically leaving the soil steaming beneath his boots.
What? She would never know him again? Like fucking hell!
She’d know him again if it was the last thing he did in this lifetime!
For the past three days, he’d remembered the fear in her eyes when she’d looked at him and had given her her space, knowing that she was safely recovering in her hidden portal.
But, no more!
He didn’t invite her into his life! She’d appeared out of nowhere, quite literally, and had hung onto him, blending into his life, like a cute chameleon on a tree!
She’d taken him through all sorts of things, driving him half insane in various ways, until he barely knew what a day could be like without Maia in it. And now?
She’d gone and *forgotten* him?!
Furious, Rogan smacked a Gemini flower bush as he walked, instantly turning all the pretty flowers grey and dead.
He didn’t care if he was bad for her. He didn’t care if she was better off alone in her portal.
She could call him any name in the book when she saw him, and he’d take it! He could be anything she said.
Rogan could be a jerk, he could be evil, arrogant and even a monster.
But, for Maia, what he would never be… was *forgettable*.