74__Hate that I love you

The moment Rogan was out the door, Maia let her head fall weakly back against the headboard as she let shaky breaths of relief out of her lungs.

He was gone.

Straightening, she looked around the room, still trying to catch her breath. How the hell had this happened?

She felt like she’d had a dream within a dream.

Shoving away the heavy mass of the bed comforter, she scooted to the edge of the huge bed and lowered her bare feet to the floor.

Standing on shaky knees proved to be challenging, so she gripped the heavy lamp post for support.

She had to get out of here. Or get downstairs, at least. Before Rogan came back, she had to get her shit together.

Dragging in a huge breath, she forced herself to calm down. Her memory returning had nearly driven her insane. It had been accompanied by a wave of overwhelming anxiety and probably triggered some sort of panic attack.

With a semblance of calm restored into her mind, she walked unsteadily to the bathroom, shoving the door open.

His bathroom was mostly black marble and glass with priceless green and purple gem stones glowing luxuriously in various places.

The royal dark sorcerer feel was massive, making her look tiny in comparison as she stood before his mirror.

She looked a mess, like she’d just gotten out of her deathbed. Rogan’s long-sleeved t-shirt reached mid-thigh, the sleeves rolled up around her wrists.

Maia stared at herself for a moment, licking her dry lips and trying her best to just process everything.

She’d been taken by Nana’s killers. That was how it had all began, wasn’t it?

It had been some Queen who Maia didn’t even recognize.

However, she’d known Maia. And she’d known Rogan.

Feeling her chest constrict with panic again, Maia held a hand beneath the tap, thankful when cool water immediately fell into her palms.

She splashed it onto her face a few times, waking herself up and getting her head on straight. The cool liquid ran over her heated face and it really felt like a piece of paradise, the way it calmed her down.

She sighed, looking at her reflection. She saw the purple in her eyes and stared at it.

He’d done that, hadn’t he? Rogan had done something to her that had changed her. She wasn’t human any longer.

With a slight tremble in her knees, she turned her head to the side. Were her memories wrong?

Raising a hand, she swept aside the mass of curls covering her neck.

With eyes widening in shock, she stared. They were tiny and nearly faded, but she saw them. The bite marks on her neck.

It was true. She hadn’t been dreaming. Rogan had bitten her. Maia swallowed hard as she stared at the two, tiny holes.

She really had died. She’d died, they’d killed her.

Rogan had brought her back. She released her hair, shaking her head. It was far too much, she couldn’t process it.

Sprinkling water off her hands, Maia hurried out of the bathroom and out of Rogan’s chambers.

She didn’t know where he’d gone or how long he would be. He could be on his way back already. She’d panicked when she’d woken up and seen him. Without thinking it through, she just pretended she still didn’t remember him. Maia didn’t know why, she’d just reacted instantly. At least it had bought her some time.

She had to, at least, find a way to protect herself. Rogan being the one who she felt she needed protection from was secretly breaking her heart and she knew it, she felt the tell-tale prick of tears in her eyes. It didn’t matter.

All that mattered was that she’d been killed. And those who’d killed her let her know that Rogan had known it was them all along.

His family.

They were his family.

Maia scoffed, miserably.

He’d known. He couldn’t have been unaware, surely! He must have known and still he kept her in the dark. He’d left her at the Hostel on that day to get taken by his family.

Maia had been dodging death for all of her life, she wouldn’t give in now. She wouldn’t allow herself to be in danger any longer, not even if the danger was the one she’d gone and fallen madly in love with. She had to get away from him so she could think straight.

Running a hand through her hair, she walked barefoot down the stairs until she reached the front hall.

Ducking under the stair case, she opening the door there and looked into the neat little storage room.

Her eyes landed on a forest green bag and Maia grabbed it. Without even opening it, she felt the strong curve of her bow and the straight sturdiness of her arrows.

She had to keep this close to her.

She hurried out and closed the door, her body freezing with her hand on the door as she suddenly got a flash back. When she’d woken up.

Rogan had walked in as though everything was alright between them.

Maia pursed her lips. Of course he’d think that. For the past few days, she hadn’t remembered a thing and had cluelessly followed him, just like the first time they’d met.

He’d gotten away with lying to her and knowingly putting her in danger. Her jaw clenched. But why had he come after her if he’d been in cahoots with his family?

Maia remembered now the battle she’d woken up in in that strange kingdom. She remembered Rogan at the centre of that battle, power in his hands and rage in his eyes. She hadn’t recognized him even then.

It had been a massacre. And why?

Maia frowned. For her?

Could she really risk believing that the Sorcerer had gone against his own family for her?

A quiet sigh left her as she sank to the floor and sat in the shadows beneath the stairs.

She couldn’t risk it. She couldn’t risk thinking anything good about him any longer. She couldn’t trust herself to not be biased for him when she was so whipped for him, like the fool she was. She’d seen so much good in Rogan that she’d mostly ignored his evil. Not to mention that she’d been distracted by his face and how annoyingly handsome it was!

Look where that had gotten her.

She’d known he was bad from the start, but for some reason, she hadn’t cared. How stupid did she have to be to fall so deeply in love with him that she didn’t even care if he hurt her?

Maia shook her head in self-disgust. Even after he’d handed her to the Shifters, she’d stayed!

A few years ago, she would have never stayed with someone who betrayed her that way. But she’d stayed with the Sorcerer.

A harsh curse left her mouth, dark with the anger she suddenly felt against herself. Maia came out from under the stairs and went to the kitchen.

From the fridge, she took a glass bottle of cold water to drink, thinking her situation over as she hydrated herself.

How was she going to move forward now?

When she’d drank enough, she lowered the bottle, frowning in thought. Goddamn it, he’d had so much fun while she’d had no memory, hadn’t he?

She shook her head, placing her weapons on the table. He’d been telling her whatever he wanted!

What? He was her husband?! Huh! Maia angrily wiped at the drop of water on her lips.

After letting his evil cousin kill her, he’d had the audacity to say he was her husband?!

With her returned memory had come back every ounce of bad manners she’d learnt from Rogan and Maia was glad. She’d make him pay! He’d never see the quiet, sweet, meek side of her again!

To hell with leaving and staying away from him!

Narrowing her eyes, she looked at the bottle in her hand and focused her attention on it. Moments of concentration later, she watched as the bit of water left in the bottle began to swirl around until a tiny water tornado was going crazy inside of it.

“Hmph!” huffed Maia.

With the snap in her concentration, the water splashed apart and returned to normal.

A slow smirk pulled at her lips for the first time since she’d woken up.

She’d been killed and he’d revived her with the power of both his Vampire and Sorcerer souls.

Had he any clue that he’d given her a bit of his powers as well?

Maia didn’t care if he knew.

Her smirk grew darker. She would make him pay using the very powers he gave her!

What had he said? Never had he ever given her to a pack of Shifters?! That deceiving crow! She’d make him pay for everything.

“Maia?”

“Ah!” Startled, she spun around.

Rogan stood in the kitchen entrance, looking cautiously at her as his chest rose and fell with harsh breaths.

She stared at him, wide-eyed and silent now that she was in front of him. No. She had to get it together and make him pay!

He took a slow step forward as if he were approaching an endangered species in the forest, trying to no scare it. “Are… are you okay?”

Maia only looked at him, her heart racing in her chest as he took another step forward.

Rogan looked closely at her, reading her eyes. “Maia, are you sure… you sure you don’t remember anything?”

A sharp glint narrowed her eyes, filling them with a whirlwind of emotions.

Damn him to hell. Now that she was calm, just looking at his face was breaking down her defences. Not just breaking them, it was crushing them to powder and turning them into something else.

Something that made her want to get wrapped up in those warm arms of his and tell him she’d missed him so much. Maia bit on her bottom lip, holding herself back.

Maybe he hadn’t tried to kill her and had saved her… but he’d still known that it was his family.

She would make him pay.

Swallowing, she shook her head.

She wouldn’t let herself get wrapped in those arms of his. Not yet.

“No. I don’t.”

Rogan looked so dejected, Maia almost screamed at how unfair it was for him to make her feel guilty with his disappointment.

“You really don’t?”

“No. But…” Maia raised her chin. “I might. Do you… want to know what might remind me?”