Chapter 20 Chapter 20

Chapter 20 Chapter 20
Adrian
That evening, I was in the library, staring at the map of the moors, but my heart wasn’t in it.

My mind went back to the event two nights ago. If the constellations had aligned, if the universe had agreed, Vivian was determined to leave me.

She was going to disappear forever. What would that make of the saying of the fortune teller? That she wasn’t a seer of renown, or that she didn’t see correctly?

But I wasn’t worried about the fortune teller. I was more worried about myself. I was supposed to drown Vivian in a well of love that she would have no other option but to reciprocate it.

But I’d failed at it. I thought I was doing a good job, but my temper, forcefulness and rage had failed to give me what I want.

And now, Edmund has returned. If I know him, the excitement of Vivian around would be strong enough to keep him around from not making further trips.

The man was always constantly looking for excitement, and this was enough to keep him adventurous.

And that only meant one thing. I have to be more protective of Vivian. I would be obliged to keep an eye on her every movement.

Cordelia, on the other hand, who had been eying the seat of the Northbrook, wasn’t going to watch silently.
She sees Vivian as a threat. I saw it from the way she watched her at the ball.

From the gaze she gave her on the night of the red cloak woman. From the way she speaks when they walk past at the hall.

I walked to the window of the library, looking at the garden outside. I have to prove to Vivian beyond every reasonable doubt that I love her.

I have to prove it to her.

She needed to see it and be beyond convinced.

I knew she would keep looking for escape, and that is where I come in. I would drown her with so much love that she won’t see the need to go back anymore.

I left the window and returned to the map, my fingers tracing a path towards the village.

My skin prickled at a familiar presence, and the scent of jasmine hit my nose. I let my shoulders fall slightly, but I didn’t turn to acknowledge her.

Vivian.

“The village is restless,” I muttered. “The rumors Cordelia is spreading… they are not merely social slights, Vivian. She hints that you are a harbinger of ill luck. That the wolf followed you here.”

I felt her presence shift, and when I glanced briefly, she had moved to the window.

“She wants me gone, Adrian,” she replied. “She thinks she’s destined for you.”

I turned in that moment, looking at her. She was looking at me now with an unreadable expression, a flicker of fear, curiosity and jealously in her eyes.

I approached her, stopping just inches away, just enough for her jasmine scent and an otherworldly, pleasant scent that she carried about her to envelope me.
“Destiny is a word for people who lacked the will to choose,” I said. Reaching out, I brushed of a stray curl from her forehead. “Cordelia is a woman of the present. You… you are something else entirely. I see the way you look at the stars, as if you are counting the seconds until the move.”

I paused, watching her. She still had that unreadable look, but she was doing a bad work of hiding the flickering emotions behind her gaze.

“When you speak of things I cannot understand, I see the fiery furnace in your eyes,” I stepped even closer, my hand sliding down to cup the side of her neck. Her skin was lukewarm, and her hands moved, resting upon my chest.

The touch was electric in at instant, and I felt that pull tug hard.

“I am a cursed man, Vivian. I am a beast who wears a Duke’s skin. But when I am with you, the beast within me lays silent. It reminds me of what being human truly is, and for the first time in my life, I do not feel hunger, but peace.”

As her eyes bore into mine, I saw how her resolved push loses to my pull. For the first time since I met her, her gaze looked at me like a partner. Like an ally.

Then she leaned her head against my shoulder, the scent of jasmine and something pleasant from her hair, enveloping me.

For the first time, I saw how her hair shone. It wasn’t like that of the women of the present, the soft touch caressing my chin.

“I don’t know how to stay,” her voice came through, barely above a whisper. “I don’t know how to be a woman of this century.”

“Then do not be. Do not attempt to,” I whispered into her hair. “Be the woman of the future. And I shall be that man who protects that woman until her future catches up with us.”

I felt the conflict within her stretch.

She was considering me, her plan to stay conflicting with her desire to leave. But I did not push it. I was never going to.

I will play the long game, and by the time I’d be done, she would have no decision of her own.

“This is going to be hard,” she said. “And with Cordelia’s eyes watching my every move, I don’t know if I can handle the pressure.”

I slowly wrapped my hand around her, lightly at first, before tightening my grip around her. She didn’t flinch, nor did she pull away.

That was when it hit me. The events of two nights ago wasn’s just a disappointment. It was the beginning of a new era in my own life.

The era when the beast within learns the act to stay restrained because of the woman that the voice of prophecy has placed beside me.

“I am here. You need not worry of their schemes,” I said with a tone of surety.