CHAPTER 35: CHAPTER 35

Zeenare smirked, moving to sit on the edge of the bed. "Oh, no! That is serious."

What the... he was easily fooled, Rhea thought, a faint chuckle threatening to escape.

He pressed a hand to his chest dramatically. "My heart is beating backward, and my brain is circling around the house."

Rhea’s smile vanished. Noticing Zeenare was mocking her, she threw the tissue in her hand onto the bed. "What do you mean by that?" she asked, her voice flat.

"The same thing you meant," Zeenare pointed out, his brow arched in amusement.

Rhea stared at him, her eyes narrowed. "You think this is a joke?"

"I thought we were joking," Zeenare replied, holding her gaze.

He saw right through me. This is so embarrassing. Should I still go along with his charade? Rhea’s lips twitched, but she remained silent, having made the wrong move.

Noticing Rhea’s silence, Zeenare leaned back on the couch, legs crossed. "Did you think that’s how it works?"

"How would I know?" she shamelessly shrugged, still trying to play the game.

"You’re intelligent, and I know you can think of better options than that," Zeenare stated, his gaze intense.

Feeling exposed and scrutinized, Rhea crawled onto the bed, trying desperately not to look directly at him.

I truly don’t like the way this man looks at someone.

She shifted her gaze slightly to him. "I think you should leave—"

"You’ve been going to strange places, haven’t you?" Zeenare interrupted.

His words hit Rhea like a sword. Her neck snapped back to look at him as she swallowed the lump forming in her throat. Her fists clenched tightly underneath the duvet.

Zeenare walked up to Rhea. "Haven’t you been seeing things lately?" he added, placing his thumb on her furrowed brow.

There’s no way he’s guessing. But how does he know? I haven’t even told Tia yet.

"What about it? Do you have a reason now as to why it’s happening?" Rhea’s voice was heavy, searching for an explanation, but her body posture held firm defiance.

"I believe you’re aware you’re dying," he said softly, his head down, looking at her fidgeting hands.

"And what does that have to do with you?" Rhea asked, her arms crossed over her chest.

"Everything." He lifted his head, his gaze softening.

What is he implying now?

"Why don’t you think back to the first night you spent in this place—the night I brought you here. You were also dying, weren’t you?"

"So? Are you trying to say my condition mysteriously improved because of you?" Rhea muttered.

Zeenare squatted almost between her legs, "It wasn’t that you didn’t have a health issue; it’s because we shared our body fluid. That’s why your illness vanished."

Rhea scoffed. "Do you even hear yourself talk? It seems you’re in a cult, and your colleagues have brainwashed you. Now you’re uttering gibberish." Her heart rate increasing.

Blandly, Zeenare replied, "What makes you think so?"

"There’s no logic to what you’re saying," Rhea emphasized. "What? That you have a miracle penis or something?" Rhea’s tone was dry and mocking.

Most times I wonder how these words crawl out of her mouth, Zeenare thought, a flicker of amusement in his eyes.

He pinched the bridge of his nose, then quietly stood up almost hovering over Rhea.

"What do you want?" Rhea shifted in her seat, moving backward.

"It doesn’t have to be logical to be real, Rhea." His hand graced the hair on her forehead. "You can always give it a try, then go to the hospital to confirm." His fingers trailed from her jawline to her chin, then tilted her head up, meeting his gaze.

Rhea searched Zeenare’s expression for any trace of a lie. But there was nothing. He was serious and appeared to have more to say.

"Even if it’s real, I’m not going down that lane with you," Rhea stated, brushing past him to the opposite side of the room. "And besides, I still don’t understand anything you’re saying."

Zeenare turned toward Rhea, leaning on the bed frame. "What I’m about to tell you will sound strange, perhaps even irrational, but that’s only because you’re seeing it through limited eyes."

"What does that mean?"

"It means you won’t understand," Zeenare informed her.

"Give me a try, then," Rhea urged.

"First, understand this, Pumpkin. I am not human. And you... you’ve died and been reborn twenty times. This is your twenty-first life." Zeenare explained.

Rhea’s brow twitched as she held back the laugh threatening to escape.

"Sorry, I wasn’t trying to laugh, but I couldn’t hold it back. Go on, please." Rhea waved her hand for him to continue.

"You were cursed to die at every twenty-fifth birthday." Zeenare walked to the window, staring into the night.

Rhea’s brow furrowed, her arms folded, her face laced with skepticism.

"Are you implying that because I’m close to my twenty-fifth birthday, that’s why I’m suddenly getting a series of health issues?"

Hmm... that was quicker than I thought, Pumpkin. I like that.

"Yes, correct." He agreed.

"That’s too convenient of a curse," Rhea interjected. "So why was I cursed? Because I know that for every problem, there is a reason behind it."

"I chose you over my fiancee. And her mother placed a curse on you."

"Why did you have to do that? What kind of love makes you cheat on your fiancee?" He turned towards Rhea, striding to the bed and seated on it.

"So because of you, I’m living in a time loop. Now I’m the one paying for your cheating—" Rhea’s eyes trailed to the space between his legs.

Not only you, my love, I’m paying for it too. And I’d do it again even if the punishment was harsher than this. Zeenare savored the thought.

If what he’s saying is true, what did I even see in him that made me bear a curse for him? Why didn’t his mother-in-law give me a reward or something to leave her daughter’s man alone?

"So how do we break this curse?" Rhea questioned.

"We have to be intimate to lessen the effects of the curse, but we have to be genuinely in love to break it completely. But we’ve never been able to get to that point after your first life."

"And why is that?" Rhea asked, her tone devoid of any emotion.

"You never remember. But by the time you do remember, you die."

"Anyway, since it seems you are mentally ill, I’d advise you to go for a checkup real quick," Rhea stated.

Your information holds no part of me leaving.

Rhea stride to the door, hands on the handle. Asking Zeenare to get out.

Zeenare tongue trailing over his lips as a he smirked wildly his eyes smiling.

Stepping forward towards Rhea, he rubbed his palms against each other, his steps majestic his gaze hungry.

Should I scare her? Or should I awe her?

Zeenare stood directly opposite Rhea, his eyes eating her up, he leaned in pressing her against the door his hands over her head hovering over her.

"What are you doing?!" Rhea heart skipped, as Zeenare brushed her hair over her shoulders, her skin bare.

"Hey!" Rhea choked on her breath, as Zeenare slide his arms around her waist, pulling her in against him with no breathe pass between them, her legs almost giving out.

Zeenare leaned in until his breath grazed her neck, molten and unhurried, each exhale stroking over Rhea’s already goosebumped skin like a silent promise of what he hope his mouth wouldn’t do next.

Whispering in her ears he said, "Watch carefully and take great details of what you are about to see, Pumpkin.

Rheas hands were resting on his thick arms, her eyes glued on his face.

Suddenly the air in the room shifted like the room itself held it’s breathe.

Between her arms she felt Zeenare’s body slightly shaking, then the room was occupied by a flapping sound, something had popped out from his body — a wing.

White feathers erupted from his back in a slow, sinful unfurl, each one edged in a molten sheen that shone brighter that the light within the room.

Rhea couldn’t breathe, her eyes widened. Every sound in the world was swallowed by the low rustle of those wings, the velvet scrape of feather on feather. The scent of him was dark spice and smoke. It wrapped around her, pulling her closer when she really wanted to step back.

"Don’t be afraid, take one step closer." Zeenare said breathingly.

Rhea eyes gently trailed from Zeenare’s face to the wings behind him. As they fully spread, arching above and around her like a cage of living night, the tips brushed the floor, enclosing her within him.

"It’s... beautiful." Rhea breathe, her eyes trailing along the curling gold pattern around the wings. His eyes changed to black with golden ring shaped thorn.

Rhea’s attention moved to Zeenare then back at the wings, subconsciously reaching to touch them.

It’s so soft and warm, Rhea mused over them. But how is it possible.

"Do you think is it real now, or are you mentally ill?" Zeenare asked, his hands clamped around her tightly. "Or is your heart still beating backwards?" A scoff escaped him.

Rhea’s brow attempted to furrowed after the question hit her.

"I want you to take you time and think about all I told you, okay." Placing a kiss on her forehead, Zeenare stepped away from her, as did the wings and reached for the door.

"Good night, Pumpkin."