Lark kept Sasha away from his house for a few days longer as he converted one of the bedrooms to an office for her and satisfied himself that Lynn was really gone. Everywhere he went he checked to see if he was being followed. He even hired a private investigator to follow him when he went out. The private investigator reported that no-one had followed him at any time and, finally satisfied that Lynn had decided to leave him alone, he had let Sasha come to his house.
She was amazed when she saw what he had done for her.
“Thank you so much, Lark. You didn’t have to,” she said. “We could have managed in one office.”
“We could have,” Lark smiled, “but I need space as much as I enjoyed having you less than a shout away.”
“Thank you,” Sasha said again. Then she asked, “Is Lynn here? I should say hello to her. It would be rather rude of me not to.”
“She’s gone,” Lark said coldly. “Things didn’t work out between us.”
“I’m sorry,” Sasha said.
“It’s nothing. We just weren’t meant for each other. She had different goals to mine and it’s best we went our separate ways.”
“Okay,” Sasha said.
Lark kept Sasha busy and she learned a lot from him very quickly. Since they worked at Lark’s house, they ate lunch there too. They took turns cooking and sometimes ordered in. Sometimes they had breakfast as well and sometimes dinner too.
Their relationship developed quickly and Lark encouraged it fully. He felt more smitten than he ever had with Emma and Erin. Perhaps it was simply that he had denied himself love for so long. Perhaps it was that only Erin reincarnated would ever give him the love he sought. He had other relationships in the interim but as he had experienced with Lynn, there had always been something missing.
They arrived at Lark’s home and entered. Lark made coffee in the kitchen and carried it on a tray to the living room where Sasha stood staring out of the glass of the sliding door that led to the patio. The garden was lit with lights that Lark had strategically placed to ensure there were no places where intruders could hide.
Lark came to stand behind Sasha and she saw his reflection in the glass of the door.
“Your house is beautiful.”
“Thank you,” Lark said.
“I don’t recall you having the security system before and all the lights in the garden,” Sasha said.
“No. They’re new,” Lark said.
“Did something happen?” Sasha asked.
“Not exactly no. I just thought it might be better to step up security as opposed to taking things for granted.”
“I guess you can never be too careful,” Sasha said. She turned to Lark and lifted her face to look into his eyes. Hesitantly she placed her hand on his chest. Lark smiled and looked back at her. He put his hands on her hips.
“I’ve liked you since I met you,” Sasha murmured as she held Lark’s gaze.
“And I have been attracted to you since the moment I first saw you,” Lark replied.
“Well, shall we do something about it?” Sasha said.
Lark looked at Sasha as he considered his options again. Honesty won as always and he sighed. Taking her hand he led her back to the sofa where she sat down. He knelt in front of her.
“I have to tell you something,” he said.
Sasha frowned. “What is it?” she asked.
“Well, I’ve done this many times before, and it’s always failed so I’m going to try something different. Give me a minute.”
Lark disappeared to his office and returned a short while later carrying a book. He handed it to Sasha and she took it. She read the title and the author and then looked at Lark curiously.
“Open it and read the first lines,” Lark said.
Sasha did so and then Lark told her to close the book. He uttered some strange words and the book changed into a very old book in her hands.
Sasha screamed and dropped it.
Lark picked it up and opened it. Sasha looked at the first page.
“I… I can’t read this,” she said.
“It’s magic,” Lark said. “Real magic.”
“You’re a magician?” Sasha asked in disbelief.
“Lark shook his head. “Not quite. I’m a witch. But please don’t focus on names and the magic. Focus on what it shows you. Stay calm. I promise it can’t hurt you.”
Sasha nodded hesitantly. Lark uttered more words and an image appeared in the air. It played like a movie in mid-air.
Sasha watched in amazement. She saw herself as Erin, she saw Lark and saw him become a monster, she saw a witch and a man with the witch. The man killed the witch. She saw herself crying and then getting married to someone else. She saw Lark reappear and become a monster. She saw herself die after she was shot with a crossbow bolt. She saw the monster try to kiss her and herself die just before he could. She saw herself again in another life and the monster again. She saw herself die again and then followed a series of lives that Lark knew excluded him. There was no monster but she married in life after life and was desperately unhappy in all of the lives. The image finally ended showing her sitting on the sofa right then with a monster before her. Then it faded away into nothing.
Sasha finally met Lark’s gaze again.
“What was that?” she asked.
Lark explained what he had shown Sasha. “I have tried simply explaining with words in the past but I have failed every time. Perhaps this time things will be different. I am cursed. I am the monster that you saw in the images. I ask that you bear in mind that you never saw that monster hurt you. It… I… only ever tried to save you.”
“Who were the other people?”
“The man you saw, in the beginning, was your father. In those days it wasn’t uncommon for parents to arrange marriages for their daughters and even sons. Your father had other plans for you but we loved each other. He had me cursed. The curse cannot be cured with magic. It can only be cured by a kiss of love.”
“But why are you sometimes a monster and sometimes not?”
“I am a monster when I am with you. Always. That is the curse. Whenever I come close to you my emotions change me into a monster.”
“But you’re not a monster now,” Sasha said.
“I am,” Lark replied. “I found a spell that hides my transformation. I had to. There was no other way I could get close to you after you died. In every subsequent life, you could not possibly understand a man becoming a monster unless I managed to hide it and tried to explain it to you. After the second time, I gave up though. That’s why in so many lives after that you don’t see the monster, me. You see the lives you’ve had and how desperately unhappy they’ve been and I haven’t been in a single one. That’s because I gave up. I accepted that I would live forever without you because it was better than the killing and seeing you die in every life where I interfered and tried to show you the truth.”
Sasha was silent as she absorbed everything Lark told her. Finally, she spoke. “So, you are the monster right now? That thing?”
“Yes,” Lark said.
“Why are you telling me? Why did you not just kiss me? I would not have known the truth and it would all be over.”
“Because,” Lark sighed, “after I was cursed and I told you that I had been cursed and what could break it, you raised a very good question.”
“Which was?”
“What if there was a second curse that was activated when we kissed and that curse affected you? That’s not something I could live with.”
The fear became evident in Sasha’s face then. “Do you think it’s real?” she asked.
“No. I don’t,” Lark said. “I don’t. But I would never not tell you and not give you the choice to decide what to do. Because if I am wrong and it is real, I couldn’t live with myself for not telling you. I love you too much.”
Lark’s last words seemed to calm the fear in Sasha’s eyes. “You need to decide what to do. I don’t believe there is a second curse. I don’t believe your father would ever have cursed you.”
Sasha hesitated. “I don’t know.”
The disappointment on Lark’s face must have been evident.
“I’m sorry,” Sasha said.
“It’s okay,” Lark replied. “I understand. If I was in your shoes, I would feel the same. It’s just that we can’t move beyond this as a couple without the kiss. I know it sounds like insanity but I’ve shown you what I can to make you understand as best as possible. Just know that I could never hurt you. I would have died a thousand times if there were another way. There isn’t. But I believe the kiss will end this.”
“I have to think about it, Lark,” Sasha said.
“I know. Take your time. But please don’t run away. There is nothing to fear.”
“Okay, Lark. I understand,” Sasha said. She stood then and Lark stood with her. He wanted to take her in his arms but she made no move towards him. She picked up her bag.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” she said softly.
“Sure,” Lark said. Sasha stepped back and around the sofa. Lark let her out. He watched her as she walked down the sidewalk. She looked back once and then carried on walking. Lark didn’t expect to see her again. He looked away before he saw the shadow that followed Sasha.
Lark left the house early the next day. He sent a message to Sasha telling her he was out and would be back later. He had given Sasha the security codes and the remote she needed to turn off the security system. She replied and Lark hoped that she would be there when he returned home.
As Lark unlocked the front door, he felt the transformation begin and he activated the spell that made him appear normal. He stepped inside and closed the door. He looked in Sasha’s office but she wasn’t there. He crossed to his office and stopped.
Sasha was tied to a chair and Lynn stood behind her, a knife in her hand. Sasha looked at Lark with terror in her eyes. Lark could not believe what he was seeing. The universe was cruel. He had not had to deal with Sasha’s father this time but it had sent him someone else. He was almost sure of how this would end. He considered his options even as Lynn spoke.
“You know I’ll do it,” she said harshly. “Give me the books and all the magical knowledge you have.”
“And then you’ll leave us?” Lark asked.
“No. You kiss her too and then I’ll leave you.”
“Why must I kiss her?” Lark asked.
“Because I said so. Now, I’m going to count to three, and the books better be ready. One…”
Lark wasn’t going to fight. He uttered the words that removed the spell from the books. He wasn’t going to do anything with them anyway. Let her have them.
Lynn reached across to a bookshelf and removed a book from it. She opened it and a broad smile spread over her face. “Beautiful, perfect,” she murmured as she pulled book after book off the shelf.
“You got what you wanted,” Lark said. “Now free Sasha.”
“Kiss her first,” Lynn demanded.
“I have waited forever for this kiss. You will free her so we can kiss properly.”
“Whatever,” Lynn said. She removed Sasha’s gag and untied her. She stood right behind Sasha with her knife, ready in case they tried anything.
Lark and Sasha looked at each other. Their eyes searched each other for the hope that everything would be okay. “It’ll be okay,” Lark said trying to reassure Sasha. Then he stepped towards her and took her face in his hands. Sasha closed her eyes. Lark bent his head slowly but didn’t close his eyes. He wanted to witness this moment he had waited for, for so long.
Their lips touched ever so briefly, ever so softly, and then closed on each other. They both breathed deeply as they kissed.
Lark felt the sensation start in his heart. It spread outward like warmth through his whole body. He felt as if something were releasing him as if he were becoming lighter and he sensed a brightness around him. At last, the spell was broken. He watched Sasha as she kissed him. Nothing happened to her. Her face remained as beautiful as ever. There was no second curse. He knew it as he kissed her. Sensed it. She was safe and they were free. They had eventually broken the cursel and they smiled as their lips parted.
But it wasn’t over. It was far from over. Lynn had circled them as they kissed and as they parted, Lynn plunged her knife deep into Lark’s back from behind. He straightened as his eyes widened from the pain. The knife punctured his lung. His eyes remained fixed on Sasha though as he realized he was dying. The curse had been broken and he was no longer immortal. Lynn had known it. It was why she had insisted on him kissing Sasha.
Lark incanted the words for the spell that protected the books again and their true knowledge was instantly hidden from the world again.
Lynn heard Lark incant the spell and realized what he had done. “No!” she screamed as she ran for the books to see if they were still free from the spell. She screamed as she realized they had been enchanted again.
Sasha screamed as she realized what had happened. But another effect had taken hold with the breaking of the curse. Lark’s age had been frozen under the curse as he had been immortal. Now, however, with the curse removed, his body began to age. His body had a debt to time that had to be paid. As Sasha watched, Lark aged rapidly. His skin became sallow and thinned. His hairline receded and his eyes aged quickly. His hands changed and became those of an old person.
The last words Lark said to Sasha were, “I love you, Sasha. Go. Now. It is not safe. Perhaps in another lifetime…”
Whether it was the aging that killed Lark or the knife that had punctured his lung, Sasha would never know. Lynn was screaming and opening book after book as she tore them from the shelves. Lark fell to his knees and uttered a few last words Sasha did not understand. Instantly fire sprang up all around the room on the walls and as Sasha saw Lark’s body turn to dust on the floor, she ran for the door of Lark’s office. She looked back once at Lynn who seemed oblivious to the flames. She was shrieking as she sat holding books. Sasha ran to the front door and exited the house. She looked back once and then walked away as tears ran down her face. Behind her, the house and Lynn were consumed by the fire that destroyed everything.
A few days later Sasha received a letter delivered by courier. It contained a locker key and a note saying it was for a locker at Grand Central Station.
Sasha took a cab and went to the station. She found the locker and opened it. There was an envelope inside it.
Sasha removed the envelope and opened it. There was a letter inside. Sasha read it.
Dear You.
Forgive me for not using your name but I really couldn’t tell which ‘You” would read this letter.
If you’re reading this it means sadly that we never got to spend our life together after all but at least we got to kiss and if I kissed you once in my lifetime it was the greatest gift I could ever have hoped for.
Perhaps in another lifetime, we will meet again and fate will bless us with better luck. I loved you always and only you, across the miles and the years.
Love always and forever,
Lark.
Sasha began to cry as she read the letter. The letter gave her a password and an address. It informed her that the property and everything on it were hers. She had to give the password to the butler who would then see that everything was transferred into her name and all duties paid.
Sasha’s tears dropped on the paper and she quickly wiped them away. She closed the locker then and left the station. She hailed a cab and gave him the address in the letter. Then she sat back and thought of Lark seeing his face in her mind’s eye as she thought of might have been.
She wondered, considering the lifetimes she had lived in which Lark had the opportunity to break the curse if they might ever possibly have another chance, another lifetime to experience the love they could have shared for each other.