The Reaper's Wicked Obsession
Chapter 125: Face Your Truth

Chapter 125: Face Your Truth

"What awaits a beast when its leash is gone?" Logi said. "They are bound to wreak havoc beyond anything you’ve ever seen. They won’t stop because of the insatiable need to eat everything set in their path, even if just a spectacle remains they’ll stop at nothing until there is no life form."

Isadora’s eyes trembled, the weight of his words causing a tightening sensation in her chest. She looked away trying to hide the tears coming to the surface.

How could a person be burdened by such a thing? Knowing in their hands they would one day succumb to such pressure and everything would crumble?

And yet he smiled and laughed through it all. He may seem insane on the surface but it was nothing more but a lost mind holding on to the last fragments of sanity.

The complexity of Kraven’s mind was a force no one could handle, and yet he does.

A lone cold tear slid down her cheek. "He never chose this life. I-I thought..." Isadora paused, swallowing the heavy words in her throat.

Logi chuckled. "He does enjoy it sometimes... the need to erase things, he welcomes it and embraces it. His burden is his own."

Isadora’s heartbeat skipped a beat at his words. It was a sudden reminder of when she tried to ease his mind. The reason why he was angry when she got a peak of what lived inside his head, claiming his burden was his own.

She saw a glimpse of the ugliness that lived inside his head. And he hated it.

"Did I satisfy your curiosity, little one?"

Isadora said nothing as she walked to drop the broken bow.

"No more target practice?" he asked, amused, observing closely and noticing how shifted her mood was.

She didn’t look angry anymore but defeated.

Isadora turned to him. "I’m tired. Very tired." She blinked. "Thank you for telling me this, Logi."

She was really grateful he did and yet she felt scared because after all this time she could finally understand Kraven. And that thought scared her, knowing it wasn’t what she imagined.

It was far more she could possibly think of and her hate for him wavered.

She wanted to hate him. His burden doesn’t justify the things he had done to her yet... she pitied him, she hurt for him and she grieved for him.

"Did the truth disappoint you? It’s written all over your face?" Logi said with narrowed eyes.

"Does it?"

Logi frowned at her reply. "What exactly did you want to hear? That he wasn’t a villain? He’s a monster, Isadora, far worse than you ever know. Despite being burdened with madness, he still wants to eat this world. Do not pity him, Isadora, be afraid."

That was the thing. She wasn’t afraid.

"Maybe it wasn’t what I wanted to hear." She forced a smile on her lips. "Because I need a reason to hate him more. That is the right thing to do, that is what I should do."

Logi chuckled at the words, deeply amused. "And so... does saying that change anything?"

She gulped at his words.

"Face your truth, little one, take my advice this time."

~♧~

Isadora couldn’t stop thinking about Logi’s words. The revelation behind Kraven’s personality and powers was too much to grasp. and yet it explained everything that had haunted her mind.

She couldn’t stop thinking about him. In the name of the seven gods she tried. But the thoughts kept slipping through the forts she had built around her. A useless one.

Because it did nothing to protect her, to shield from these conflicting emotions and thoughts.

The thought of him. Knowing he hadn’t chosen this way.

The impulse to kill. The madness curled within the depths of his mind. Sometimes the way he looked at her... not just with the delight to cause havoc but the restraint.

The habit of using the dagger against himself. Like a reassurance to stop him.

Isadora set her eyes on the candelabra, the glow of the warm light mirroring on her skin.

Her brush flowed swiftly through her lengthy golden blonde hair, yet she did it mindlessly, too lost in her thoughts. She chewed the inside of her mouth.

He was still cruel, and capable of destroying everything if he willed it.

He was cataclysmic.

But yet... she thought of the way he had touched her, the way he had looked at her that night—not just hunger, but with a passion that awakened something inside her.

Had she begun to crave his touch despite knowing the monster he was?

Isadora scoffed at her own thoughts, dropping the brush on the table and rising to her feet.

She crawled into bed, eager to sleep and forget about this all. She shouldn’t think of him. She shouldn’t.

’Think of him with Nyssa, that should knock some sense into you,’ she thought, greatly eager to forge that image again but it wasn’t coming forth, not in the way she had imagined.

Instead, she thought of the look he gave before leaving the training grounds. The look he gave her in the Smithy.

It burned a hole into her head, the intensity of his eyes as they played madness and hunger like a symphony.

Isadora turned to her side, squeezing her eyes shut eager to sleep quickly and get some rest.

Instead, she was haunted by his silver eyes the moment she closed them. The color was akin to the moonlight, the eerily glow each time he laughed and stared at her.

Growling, she sat up, frowning upon herself, she held her chest, gripping the material of her nightgown tightly, but the sadness took over.

The thought of him living with such a burden all his life, the loneliness he must feel. The loneliness in his eyes.

Her chest tightened. Damn him!

She didn’t want to think of him like this... like the broken pieces of a puzzle were finally making sense.

She didn’t want to care. About how everyone had looked at him and seen a madman, a villain.

How she looked at him too.

She didn’t want to care! But she did, oh seven gods, she did!

Isadora crawled out of bed, her feet moved before she could stop herself; grabbed a cloak and flapped it on, wore her boots, and stepped out of her house.

She was still hurt. Still angry.

But that didn’t stop her from seeking him.