Chapter 439: "You were Astral?" Part 3
Belle raised her hands to his face, cupping his jaw in her palms as she said, "It turns out everything I thought I knew and believed before today was all a lie, Rohan. My identity was a lie." She mused quietly, causing Rohan to frown down at her.
"What happened? Tell me everything," he breathed against her mouth, looking into her eyes as she nodded her head.
He had brought a witch to remove the soul that was living inside her, only to end up removing his wife completely. Nothing in this world had prepared him for that, and now he waited to hear it all.
Belle had no intentions of hiding anything from him in the first place because she would need him and his wings to fly her to places too far to remove and send a soul to the land of the dead. Hence, she parted her lips and began to tell him what happened from the beginning without keeping anything from him, not even the fact that she had once been a reaper, the same one he had befriended.
Rohan stared at her as though she had grown two heads before he finally found his voice.
"You were Astral..." he said.
It wasn’t a question but a statement born from utter disbelief. He had never even considered that possibility. He had never even thought she could have been Isabelle, there had been no possible way around it. But her being a reaper before... suddenly everything made perfect sense.
No wonder when he first met her, when she was just a little girl, there had been this strange pull toward her, a sense of familiarity that made him feel attached. It was as if he had known her before.
So that feeling was there because she was Astral all this while...
When his family had left him in that abandoned attic, Astral had been his only company, his best friend. And this time around, after so many years when he had thought his life was good even though it wasn’t, Isa had been there for him again, showing him what a perfect life could be.
And Isabelle... no wonder a part of his heart had felt drawn to her and her things in that old mansion. It turned out they were all connected to be one.
Rohan’s head rang as he realized the other words she had spoken about punishment for not crossing his soul and punishment for her actions of messing with time.
"How come they let you return if you had broken all those laws in that land?" he questioned gravely, his eyes never leaving hers. Everything she had just told him made something fierce coil inside him, possessiveness, and the desperate need to keep her safe. With what she had done in the land of the dead in the past, it seemed impossible that they would allow her to live without punishment, without facing consequences.
"They didn’t let me off," she said quietly. "I am to take back one hundred and eighty souls, and all of them are scattered in different parts of the world and city. I must not fail to bring them back at the exact time listed in their destiny books." She moved away from him slightly and knelt on the bed.
"Let me show you the list of them, and how utterly impossible taking back some of them will be." She lifted her hand, and a transparent, scroll-like roll appeared in her palm. She unfurled it on the bed; the transparent scroll contained the names of souls to be taken, and Rohan moved closer to read them and see where they lived.
"Groovestill," He muttered with a deep frown. "That is an entirely different land, so far away from here."
"The Elders gave me this task in my human form because they believe I won’t be able to achieve it and would end up receiving my initial punishment. That’s why I will need you. All I have now is this scroll, a tracking watch, and my scythe. I don’t have my reaper abilities. Can we do this together?" She turned to look at him as he stared down at the scroll, his eyes fixed on one particular name.
He raised his eyes to look at her. "I won’t let them take you or punish you, Isa. I will do anything in my power to help you." He reached out to cup her neck; she managed a small smile and then looked back down at the scroll.
She was grateful Rohan wasn’t just anybody who would need time to digest things and that he understood what needs to be done to avoid bad things from happening to their family in the future.
Rohan’s eyes went back to that particular name he had been staring at and then he asked, "Why does this person’s name have the castle address?" He pointed to Christian Hathaway, his eyes narrowing at the unfamiliar name.
"Because he lives here," she muttered, her heart tightening. "It’s Rav. He is one of them..." she confessed quietly.
Rohan blinked, for a moment believing he had heard her wrong, before realizing he hadn’t. He fell back from where he knelt, sitting up and raking his fingers through his hair.
"How come he’s there? Was it because of what I did to his family?"
"You didn’t cause his family’s death. The only thing you did was make it happen faster, but they were destined, including Rav, to die in rogue attacks a few months after you sent those rogues their way. Raventown sits on the border, where the forest is known to be the house of rogues. It was something that was meant to happen.
"The only thing you did was mess with his destiny by turning him into a vampire, and if he isn’t taken... he will ruin others’ destinies when he becomes a rogue. He’s turning already..." Her eyes stung with tears as she whispered the words. "I have to take his soul three months from now."
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In another part of the castle, Rav looked out the window of his dark chamber, where he noticed the rain was falling in earnest now and the thunder was getting louder. He had retired to his room to rest and to hide away from too much noise and light that hurt his senses and caused him discomfort.
But upon seeing and hearing the loud thunder, he knew a certain someone must have bundled up on her bed to hide from it, because he had told her not to come to his room until after their marriage.
For days, he had succeeded in hiding his discomfort because Evenly had become consumed by worry and concern for Angel, who was locked with his father inside the drawing room, along with her unconscious friend.
Now that everything was over, he felt guilty for not actually being there to support her and for always coming back into his room with the excuse that he was busy and needed to see to somethings. He had realized many times that she wanted to be in his company and when he subtly turned her down, she became hurt but never showed it because she was trying not to be clingy to him.
Now, without thinking about anything else, as his discomfort had subsided, Rav moved away from his bed and put on his shoes that were laid there.
He walked out of his chamber and made his way to hers. He didn’t even knock, as he knew she wouldn’t hear him with her fear of the night storm. He opened the door and walked into the room. Just like he had expected, his wife-to-be was curled up inside her blanket on the bed, jumping slightly when a loud thunderclap echoed in the sky.
He made his way toward her and carefully reached out, lifting up the blanket from the side. Then he used his right foot to pull off his left shoe and did the same with the other before getting on the bed, crawling close to her.