Quoted By:
You weren’t afraid to tell people your dreams. That you intended to do the most with the life Hell had saved. He’d been unable to fulfill his dreams before he kicked the bucket, so who else could take up that flag but you? Admittedly, you were as put together on what you and Hell wanted as he had been, but you knew that to become the Legend of Legends, you had to be a warrior, for who could even know how long.
It wasn’t so easy to admit what you were afraid of that getting in the way of.
“What’s a wife supposed t’ do?” You asked, answering straight off, “Make babies? Take care of the household? Raise kids?”
“Well…” Magnus had an air of objection, but you weren’t having it.
“No,” you cut him off, “That’s what wives do. That’s what mothers do. I know that because my <span class="mu-i">whore cunt</span> of a mother <span class="mu-i">didn’t</span> do that. She rode on cock for coin and shat out two little girls and got her head beaten in. That’s not what a good mother does. Sure as shit nobody was marrying her. She was just doing what she wanted without a care for anythin’ but…but the next <span class="mu-i">high</span>. Drifting on until there was a man to fuck or somethin’ to smoke, or stick up in her arm, or whatever. That was the most important thing to her.”
Magnus looked discomforted, hurt, even. Like how Alina looked when you told the truth about mother. That useless garbage bin that couldn’t even be bothered to <span class="mu-i">live</span> for you both. The woman whose name you didn’t remember- because apparently, nothing about her life before you was worth a thing, even when she tried to ply you with kindness in dreams. “Anya…”
“I’m afraid of that, Magnus, I want t’…I want to be the best thing to ever happen to you. But I…” You pounded a fist on the car door. “I can’t give up everything for that, y’know?”
Your boyfriend’s mouth tightened, like he didn’t like part of what he heard. “I know what it’s like to chase after something grand. To be on a journey to ever improve myself, to always become the best of myself. Yet, Anya…” He leaned back in his seat with a sigh, “…I do not wish to journey forever.”
Neither did you…but you weren’t sure enough of that to say. Not yet.
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The place of the duel was out of the city, in the hills you and Magnus had toured earlier. Plenty of privacy to be had there- especially in the present dark and the full moon. The stars were bright enough away from the city to light the ground with a soft blue light, wherever the trees did not block them utterly. However, the clearing where Yuliana waited was lit by a trio of incandescent lamps burning gold. Glowbugs danced about, looking for love.
She stood there, staring as you rustled forth through the manicured grass. The whims of nobility wanting this land both tamed and wild at once, unknowingly setting a stage for you both. Nothing had to be said- neither of you were under any illusion of what you were there to do.
