The Reaper's Wicked Obsession-Chapter 215: The Dead Shouldn’t Scar You

"Alda! How are you so smart?" The crew said in wonder when he lost again.

"What can I say? I’m a child of Visindi," Logi bragged.

Isadora ambled closer, and her coming footsteps seized their attention.

"Isadora, you’re awake."

The Fae tipped his hat in a greeting. Isadora returned his kind gesture with a smile.

"I should work the sail. I’ll be back for more bets."

Logi chuckled deeply, raising the pouch he had won from him. "I don’t think that’s a good idea."

"I’m not giving up that easily." He laughed, walking away.

Logi clicked his tongue. "They never learn."

"Gambling? I thought Kraven hated it when you did that," She reminded, not forgetting what happened the last time he did.

"Well, he’s not here. And it was a friendly game. I went easy on him, don’t worry."

"This is easy?"

He shrugged and said. "I thought Kraven was with you."

Isadora swallowed a lump in her throat. She sat on the barrel, covering herself more with the blanket.

Logi ate his apple. "Are you okay?"

Isadora replied by shaking her head in a no.

Logi nodded, reaching for his side, and tossed an apple.

Isadora caught it swiftly.

"I seem to remember you’ve been sleeping for hours, you must be famished."

"Thanks," she muttered, taking a little bite. "I haven’t seen much of you either, even though we’re traveling together."

Logi stiffened at her words. "Well..." he drawled. "I was avoiding you." He gathered the cards on the barrel.

Isadora narrowed her eyes. "Why?"

"I couldn’t bear to face you after what happened."

"It wasn’t your fault, Logi. What happened was..." She paused, not bringing herself to finish.

"I should’ve done something, but I stayed, waiting and praying to the gods, Kraven got to you in time. Forgive me if your dog’s a useless one."

A faint smile found her lips. "Thank you, Logi."

"For what? I didn’t do a thing."

"For caring about me."

Logi paused, his mouth hung open, but he shut it close and cleared his throat as warmth found his cheeks.

The silence between them was comfortable.

Isadora kept her gaze on the lamp, watching as the flame danced in the glass.

"I don’t know if I’ll ever recover, Logi," she began, her voice barely a whisper, but he heard her.

"You will, little one. Just give yourself time."

She shook her head, a silent message that she wasn’t so confident. Her expression was detailed with anxiety.

Logi discerned this and said. "I have a feeling something happened with Kraven."

"I pushed him away," she voiced. "I’m scared I’ll keep doing that." Her thumb rubbed against the apple as she kept her eyes on it.

Logi exhaled heavily. "And Kraven can be intolerant, but I think when it comes to you, the wheels of the madman can be stirred."

"I don’t want to push him away."

"But?"

Her next words shattered her heart. "I can never forget what happened in that Hive."

"Isadora."

She shifted her gaze to him, a small smile on his lips.

"You’re not the only one who has to live with a scar," he said softly. "Everyone at some point in their lives bleeds every day from the ghost of their past." He leveled his eyes at the dice. "No one can escape it... only embrace."

Isadora had caught glimpses of this withered dice several times, and he always had the habit of feeling the piece as if he wanted to crush it, but at the same time seemed like it would disappear if he let go.

"Who gave you that?" she asked.

He kept it like a keepsake, so it must be.

"It belonged to a man I thought of as a father. He always loves his gambles and I was his key to riches," he mused, lifting his gaze. "Just like how you were Dashwell’s star price."

She tensed at his words. freēnovelkiss.com

"I don’t know my origins because I’ve been sold to every filth with deep pockets until one day I met him. But the thing is... he wasn’t an honest man and he taught me not to be honest." He shrugged. "He taught me everything I knew until he tried to kill me when his nemesis set their sights on me. His quote... if I can’t keep you, then no one can."

Isadora’s lips came apart in shock.

"But fret not, little one... I killed him first. And then I was just another brat to be tossed to more filth, but the price and need of my insignificant existence weren’t as tangible anymore. I was the ungrateful brat who murdered a man who was like his father."

"I’m sorry," she mumbled.

She didn’t know what else to say as Logi opened up about his past.

"It wasn’t your fault, little one. But look... something good came out of it. Guess who bought the brat despite the label I was condemned with..."

"Kraven."

The wind got harsh, almost dousing the flame in the middle of them.

Logi dropped the apple on the barrel and raised the hem of his tunic to reveal a grotesque brand on his chest. The brand made the skin uneven.

Whoever did this made sure the message was passed.

Isadora stared at the mark with horrified eyes.

"It’s the rune for slaves. I was born and bred a slave, a nameless brat with nothing but his brain that appealed to any deep pockets." He covered up. "Hence why I was very popular in the market."

Isadora always thought the fate of a mannfae was cruel and unforgivable, but it seemed even a full-blooded Fae had a fate worse than death.

Cruel treatments weren’t induced because of blood alone. The world was cruel.

A tear slid down Isadora’s cheek. "How could you live with such a scar?"

"I did... eventually." He said as a smile found his lips. "Kraven didn’t buy me to be his next brat who could cheat for him. He bought a companion, he bought my freedom. I could never forget how the chains made my hands heavy, but I learned to live knowing that my past is what made my future, and my future is mine to control. The dead shouldn’t scar you."

His last words caused Isadora’s heart to skip a beat, they were identical to Kraven’s.

She leveled her eyes to her apple, slowly bringing it to her lips, and took another bite, silent tears streaming down her cheeks.