Gabrielle was coming back to the castle after a scouting mission. She was surprised she didn't see Skyler earlier, and was worrying that he may have gotten in trouble. She felt an instant rush of relief when she saw Skyler standing outside the gate. She ran up to him and tackle hugged him, she felt him fall back but regain his balance.
"Whoa, hey there!" He laughed and took his hands out of his pockets to hug her back.
"Where were you this morning?" She wanted to at least know the reason why he didn't show up when she got to Elega.
"I was helping a friend with some relationship issues. He said he'd talk to Death to see what he could do." He shrugged with his hands.
"Death? As in Death himself?" She was surprised that anyone could get an audience with the grim reaper.
"Pain's a pretty high level reaper now. After Fira helped him out, he started blasting through the ranks. I think he has enough experience under his belt to talk to Death." He nodded.
"Oh, I never knew he was a reaper. Even Fira never told me about that, even though she did say he carried a Scythe with red eyes on the hilt." She hadn't put two and two together until just then, and it made her feel silly.
"That's fine, it's just his job title, not actually part of who he is," he said.
"Oh, well, I'm glad he's doing better with his job now." She was happy his best friend was doing alright, for the most part.
"Aren't you going to ask why he needs to talk to Death?" He looked at her blankly.
"I'm guessing because he's immortal and Fira isn't?" She guessed that anyone with pale skin was immortal, like vampires being immortal.
"You'd be right." He frowned slightly.
"If that's the case, why haven't you worried about me?" She was very sure she was mortal, just a normal human besides having magical powers.
"Shai told me you'd be let into the Veil of Light soon, and that's not something she says lightly. Anyone in the Veil of Light becomes immortal, so I don't really have to worry about that." His smile returned and he patted her shoulder.
"Really? I was never told about that." She was surprised and excited at the same time.
"Yeah, you growing old and dying won't be a problem neither you nor I will have to worry about soon." He nodded again.
"So I won't age either? I'll be like this for all eternity?" She admitted that it seemed a bit wrong, but she also decided that, if Skyler was ageless and deathless, that she'd want to be the same too, and not leave him alone because of dying of old age.
"Yep, you'll be just like me. Ageless and deathless." He softly sighed out of his nose.
"Aren't you scared that I'll die before I get in?" She wondered what would happen if she didn't make it before she could become like Skyler.
"If that ever happened, you know I'd use the book to bring you back. Losing a piece of my soul isn't anything compared to how I'd feel losing you." His face hardened.
"You mean that forbidden book? You lose a bit of your soul if you use it?" The thought broke her heart. Him sacrificing a piece of his own soul to bring her back if she died was something she didn't want to think about.
"Yes, I only know a few people who have ever used it, two of them are the ones we're fighting against, one of them is my aunt," he said.
"You mean Elaine used it? Why?" She didn't notice anything off about Elaine, and didn't think that there was a piece of her soul missing.
"To bring the man she loved back to life, that's why Pain exists." He became visibly sad.
"So did Pain and Elaine ever date before that happened?" She wondered why they didn't help Elaine when she had almost died.
"Nope, he hated her." He frowned.
"Oh, but why? She's a good person for a demon, isn't she?" She was confused, what could have made him hate her?
"For one, Elaine tried to get him to fight her by faking his girlfriend's death, he hated her ever since, but for the most part it was the golem, who was the girlfriend, that was controlling his emotions." He sighed and shook his head.
"Golem? I never heard about that either." She didn't know things were so complicated between Pain and Elaine, but a golem, a creature she thought was made of stone or clay, complicated things more.
"Yeah, nobody knew what she really was, she fooled me too," he said.
"She must have hid herself very well." She trusted Skyler, enough to know that he would have found out at the slightest hint of the golem's true self.
"She did, anyways let's go inside, it's pretty chilly out here." Skyler gestured towards the gate.
Gabrielle told the guards up top to open the gate. They walked in, and she reached out and held his hand. He turned to her, and she turned back with a smile. They walked into the castle, and she let him to her new room.
"Wow. I thought you said you only had a small bed in a tiny room?" He looked amazed.
The room was large and regal looking, The entire room was ornate, the checkerboard tiles and candlelight gave it almost an otherworldly look. The heavy golden curtains blocked out all the light of the outside world. There was a king sized bed covered in golden cloth as well.
"That was the old room, they gave me a new one." She was given a new one since she showed them how far she had come in terms of training. She had to explain to Shai she got her training from Zlyena, and even though Shai looked slightly angry, she begrudgingly let her continue to train her.
"You must have come far for them to give you the VIP treatment." He smiled at her.
"They said they'd bring us food, I ordered food for two, by the way." She put her hands behind her back. She hoped so much that he would show up that she even ordered dinner ahead of time.
"You were expecting me, weren't you?" He chuffed.
"It was wishful thinking at least, I know what you like, so I ordered your favorites." She remembered all the things he said he wanted to eat, but couldn't because his family didn't have enough money.
He would bring a coupon book to school and drool over all the food he couldn't afford. She used to sneak him out over to her place so she could have her parents feed him, because she knew that he wasn't having dinner. She always used to make him lunches and bring them to school so he could eat, too. He couldn't even afford cafeteria food, he depended on her for so much, it hurt when she had to leave.
"Just like old times." He gazed at her lovingly.
"It should be here any minute now." Her heart stopped for a moment because of the way he looked at her, and she peeked out of the door. She wondered when the butler would be arriving.
"You don't have to worry about that, it's the thought that counts." He let out a small chuckle and grabbed her hand, and held it in hers.
"You must be hungry though, I hope they come soon." She led him to the medium sized table that had two chairs that was in front of the bed. She wondered if he could feel her quickening pulse as he held her hand.
"Alright." He sat down, and slowly let go of her hand.
"I'm sure they'll be here shortly." She sat opposite him, and adjusted her dress.
There was a knock at the door. She perked up and quickly tapped her way over. She swung open the door, and a butler stood there with a silver platter with a large silver lid.
"Your dinner, madame" The butler lightly bowed.
"Oh, it's not just for me, it's for my bo- I mean, husband, as well." In her romantic trance she had forgotten for a second she was magically married to Skyler.
"Wait, did you just call me your husband?" Skyler piped up, she turned to him and he had a deer in the headlights expression on his face.
"Well, you did tell me we're married, at least magically." She shrugged, She didn't think it was that big a deal to correct herself.
"Y-Yeah but." He rubbed the back of his head, still looking stunned.
"No buts, you're the one who told me, so we are." She jutted her head forward. He was the one that the ritual was for, for the most part, and she didn't want him to feel like she was going to break up with him at any moment.
"A-Alright." His face flushed gray.
"Excuse me, madam, you and your betrothed's food." The butler interjected.
"Oh, yes, right this way." She turned back to the butler and gestured for him to come in.
The butler brought the platter in, and placed it on the table.
"Your meal, ladies and gentlemen." The butler took the lid off.
A meaty smell assaulted her senses, there was steak, a large turkey, and a succulent honey smell coming from the ham. There was sides of fruits, veggies and greens but the big hitters were the slabs of meat.
"It's like the coupon book came to life." Skyler gulped and mumbled.
"Drooling yet?" She grinned over the rising steam coming off the plate.
"Y-yeah." His eyes were glued to the table.
"Bon Appetit" The butler nonchalantly rattled off and turned and walked out.
"Well, what are you waiting for? Dig in!" She giggled, he was still staring at the plate like he was under a spell.
"O-oh, yeah." He snapped out of it and grabbed the fork and steak knife beside him, and started to cut into the turkey.
She turned to the same utensils and picked them up. She went for the ham instead, and left him to the turkey. She placed a slice of it on her plate, grabbed a bit of fruit and put that on the plate as well, and then started to eat.
He was eating through the turkey at an alarming pace. It almost looked like he wasn't even breathing in between bites, besides when he grabbed the cup of ice water and took a swig. She shook her head ever so slightly, he was a demon, so of course he would be partial to meat. The room was silent besides the active chewing noises coming from the both of them. She couldn't help but smile as she chewed. Even though he was mostly focused on the food, he would look up from the table at her with sparkling eyes.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" She covered her mouth, since there was still a piece of ham she was working on.
"You do so much for me all the time. You're so generous and all, and I'm just, I'm in awe," he said after he swallowed a mouthful of turkey.
"Oh please, it's nothing." She gulped down the piece of meat she was eating and laughed.
"No, I mean it, I didn't expect anything like this." He stopped eating for a second, even though he had a piece of meat floating in front of his face on top of his fork.
"It's just food, you don't need to be this surprised." She didn't know what brought this up, was it the fact that she called him her husband?
"I haven't had the pleasure to eat like this for most of my life, you know, this is something big for me," he said after inhaling another bite of turkey.
They continued eating until all of it was gone. She would laugh at the occasional burp Skyler would do, he looked embarrassed each time, but she thought it was funny.
The butler came back and took the leftover bones and bits of green that were on the plate out the door, along with the utensils and half-empty glasses.
"You ate like a starved animal." She laughed, impressed with how fast he powered through the meal. She was mesmerized by him the entire time.
"H-Hey, come on now." He flushed gray again and rubbed his upper arm.
"Come on nothing, you could eat an entire horse in half an hour." She smiled and flopped onto the bed.
"I wasn't eating that fast! Was I?" He put his hands back in his pockets.
"I could have timed you, that was world record breaking amounts of eating speed. I was floored." She chuffed. He was one to eat like he hadn't eaten in days, but he was gulping his food down so fast that she had only seen him eat like that once before.
"Really?" He didn't seem to believe that.
"Yes, really." She lifted her head back up and got onto her elbows.
"Let's hope demon metabolism is higher than human metabolism." He meekly played with his hands.
"Did you completely forget the all you can eat buffet incident? You ate enough for ten people, I was having flashbacks of that." She poked at her head.
"I was hoping you forgot about that." He lowered his head.
"If your metabolism was higher than that, you'd be one lanky guy." She eyed him up and down.
"Aren't I already lanky looking?" He was visibly confused.
"I mean James the Killer lanky." She cupped her hand to imitate how skinny his limbs would be and moved her hand from left to right.
"As if I wasn't James the Killer enough." He let out a single awkward laugh.
She sat up and tugged on his coat sleeve.
"What is it?" He looked at her hand.
"Come here." She patted the space next to herself. She couldn't stand to be too far away from him at that moment, and she desperately wanted to be closer to him.
"Okay." He sat beside her.
"How do you feel about your new body anyways?" She flicked the cloth of his coat on his chest and placed her hand slightly under the cloth. She was worried about how he was doing, on top of all the other, more lewd things she was thinking of.
"It's been a few years, so I'm fine with it now. I had real bad alien limb syndrome but with my entire body for a while after, but that's gone." He put his hand on hers.
"Are you… Sensitive about it?" She put her other hand on his inner thigh. She wanted him so badly, but didn't know how else to convey it without sounding needy.
"What exactly are you getting at?" He looked down at the hand she had on his thigh, his cheeks went gray.
"I was asking because I've been worried about how you've been adjusting to it, what with the scars and all." She lightly brushed her hand up and down his thigh.
"I'm thinking you're worried about something else, how… You know… It, looks." He pointed down.
"Oh, no, I wasn't going to ask about that." She took her hand off his leg. She felt conflicted, she wanted him and yet she didn't want to let him know for various reasons, one of them being that she didn't want to seem needy.
"Oh, I thought you were. I uh, I can't really control receiving your feelings if they are this strong, you know." He pointed to the back of his neck.
She was found out, her cover was blown. Her whole face went hot and she pulled her hand out from under his, and put it on her chest. Her heart was beating out of control, she was having a very hard time controlling her feelings for him.
"You act different to how you feel, and it confuses me. You need to be more honest about what you really feel." He slowly looked up at her.
"Let's do it, then." She raised her hand back up at him and started to take off his coat. She was already found out so there was no use holding back.
"Wait, what?' His eyes went wide.
"You want me to be more honest, so I will. I'm not joking." She worked on taking off the other sleeve of his coat.
"I thought you said that-"
"I did, but that was because I didn't want to admit we were married yet." She let go of his sleeve and it flopped onto the bed behind him.
"Are you sure?" He relaxed his eyes but he still had a stunned look on his face.
"I'm going to explode, please, don't keep me waiting for an answer." Her whole body was hot, and she felt like her heart was going to bust it's way out of her chest with how hard it was pounding.
"Aren't you going to ask me if I've done it before or not?" His stunned look turned into one of concern.
"Are you comfortable sharing that with me?" She wasn't going to ask him about his past endeavors, but he was the one who brought it up.
"Would it make you feel better if I said I got checked and it came out clean?" He lightly scratched his chest.
"You know I haven't done anything at all that wasn't with you, so I think that settles it." She put her hand back on his thigh. She wanted him so badly she could barely contain herself.
"Well, alright." He turned his body towards her and leaned in.
The heat radiating from her body was matched with his, and as soon as she felt it, her body got even hotter. There was a long silence, her heart was like a battering ram trying to break out of her rib cage.
"You promise you'll be gentle?" She placed her hands on his chest.
"I promise." He nodded and wrapped his hands around her waist.
The rest of the night was a blur, but the image of Skyler's bare chest was burned into her mind. The single black scar that ran from the center of his lower abdomen, where his belly button was, down to his right hip looked deep in the center, and she found herself reaching out and touching it from time to time. He assured her that it was fine, but to her it still looked like it hurt. She also found herself reaching up and touching the scar on his eye as well. He had to constantly say he was fine, but that wasn't the reason why she would touch his scars. She wanted to make him feel better, and she thought her touch would somehow soothe him. The next thing she knew she was fast asleep in his arms. For someone with ghost white skin, he was very warm.
Read the rest of The Light Maiden's Mark here: https://moonquill.com/book/46