To my surprise, Sylvia burst into tears. I was so anxious that I tried to turn her around to look at her in the eyes, but she refused.
“You’re scaring me, Sylvia. What’s wrong?” I tried harder to turn her around, only to find that tears were streaming down her cheeks and her eyes were full of despair.
“I don’t understand. Why is it still there?” Sylvia asked, choked with sobs. She grabbed my hand, looking desperate and confused.
I tried to wipe her tears away despite the anxiety gnawing at me. “Honey, just tell me what happened, okay?”
Sylvia shook her head and whispered, “Rufus, I’m scared.”
“Don’t be afraid. I’m here.” Seeing her like this shattered my heart. I felt suffocated. Seeing that she was too rattled to speak, I tried comforting her with kisses.
Gradually, Sylvia calmed down. She wiped her tears with the back of her hand and felt a little embarrassed to look at me.
I lifted her chin and looked into her eyes worriedly. “What happened? Tell me, honey.”
Sylvia lowered her head and averted her gaze. I could tell that she was hesitant.
“It has something to do with me, doesn’t it?” Otherwise, she wouldn’t have gotten so emotional.
Hearing this, Sylvia stiffened. I pulled her into my arms and sighed. It seemed I had guessed it right. Sylvia was hiding something from me.
This was the second time that Sylvia had lost control of her emotions. The first time was also when we were about to have sex, on the day we left the border. I didn’t think too much about that at the time. I just thought that she was not feeling well. But today, the same thing happened again and it was clear that something was wrong. If she just wasn’t in the mood, she wouldn’t have reacted so violently.
Sylvia’s eyes darted all over the room hesitantly. “Sylvia, haven’t we agreed that we shouldn’t hide anything from each other? Look, you’re scaring me.”
Finally, Sylvia lowered her head and said, “There’s something on your back. It might be a curse.”
“What?” I was confused. Another curse? But I didn’t feel anything…
Sylvia sniffed and her eyes welled up with tears again. “There used to be a small mole on your back, but it just keeps getting bigger. I just know it’ll become a thorn in the future, and when it does, you’ll die.”
“How do you know?” I touched her tear-stained cheek. I felt sorry for her, but I also felt it kind of strange. She had been absent-minded and had nightmares lately. It turned out that this was what was bothering her this whole time.
Unable to bear it, Sylvia burst into tears again. “I saw this curse in a book in Noreen’s lab. I didn’t believe it at first, but later I realized that the pattern on your back looked a lot like the one in the book. The flower might’ve been able to remove the curse on your back, but now it’s gone.”
I was still confused. I touched my back, but I didn’t feel anything weird. “Where is the pattern you mentioned? I don’t feel anything abnormal on my back.”
When Sylvia first said that I had a mole on my back, I had specially checked, but there was nothing.
Sylvia’s POV
As tears continuously flowed down my cheeks, I lay there stunned. I then turned Rufus over and saw the pattern of a winding thorn on his back. It had already gotten very big.
Running my fingers over it, I asked, “Can’t you feel it? It’s growing here from your waist.”
“I… don’t feel anything.” Rufus shook his head in confusion.
“You should at least be able to see it, then.” If he even slightly tilted his head, the pattern on his waist would be clearly visible to him. And when he was taking a shower, he should have been able to notice it then.
After I got out of the bed, I grabbed a mirror for him to take a look for himself. “Well, can you see it now?”
Rufus turned his head around and his brows furrowed in confusion. “I see nothing.”
“How could it be…” My stomach churned from the strange feeling when I looked over at the mirror’s reflection and saw nothing in it.
I then thought it might be the problem of the mirror. I grabbed another mirror, one that was bigger, and raised it up to Rufus’ level. “Can you see it now?”
“No, still nothing.” Rufus looked as though he was about to say something but then stopped after thinking it over. Looking back and forth at the reflection on the mirror and the pattern on his back, I blinked my eyes repeatedly. I nearly thought I was insane and was imagining things.
“Have you been too tired recently? Maybe it’s a hallucination.” Rufus asked, his eyes laced with concern.
I placed the mirror down and my eyes made their way back to the black thorn on his back. There was no way it was an illusion, the logical part of my brain knew it was real.
But why couldn’t I see the pattern in the mirror? Could it be a manifestation of this curse?
Unable to bear seeing me in this state, Rufus embraced me with his arms and gave me a kiss on the forehead. “Well, don’t think about it anymore. I think all you need is to get a good night’s sleep for now.”
Around the same time, Rufus’ phone began to ring. His hand reached for the phone on the bedside table. But the moment he placed the phone on his ear, the blood on his face rushed out and he turned pale. Something had happened, it seemed. Something bad.
I immediately slipped my way out of his arms right after he had hung up the call.
“Go ahead with your work.”
Rufus hesitated and shook his head. “I’m too worried for you. After I see that you have fallen asleep, then I’ll leave.”
I pretended to be relaxed and patted him on the shoulder. “Oh, me? I’m fine. Maybe you’re right and it must be an illusion. My mind has been under too much pressure recently.”
Rufus sighed, then placed his hands gently on my shoulders and looked right into my eyes. “Promise me that you’ll tell me as soon as something like this is on your mind again, whether it is an illusion or not. You don’t need to bear any burden all on your own anymore. I’m not just anybody, Sylvia. I’m your mate and your future husband, remember?”
I didn’t want to make him worry anymore, so I nodded slightly and responded, “I know. I won’t hide anything from you anymore, I promise.”
As his hands cupped my face, Rufus smiled. “You really did scare me just now.”
I also smiled and placed my hands over his. “I’ll be alright. Go ahead and sort out what you need to at work. I’m sure I’ll be all better after some rest.”
“I won’t leave until I’ve seen that you have fallen asleep.”
“No, I’d just want to pester you. I won’t be able to fall asleep if you’re here,” I explained, wrinkling my nose teasingly.
Rufus knew he couldn’t persuade me any longer, so he sat up and put on his clothes, getting ready to deal with the emergency.
I calmed down when the room finally felt quiet. My mind couldn’t help from running over everything that had happened recently, and somehow it all had something to do with Noreen.
The name “Noreen” had come up around me ever since Blair was injured and cursed, and I couldn’t seem to get rid of it no matter how much I tried.
The curse on Rufus wasn’t a coincidence. The last time I fought Noreen, she had managed to figure out that I would go back to the lab because of that, at least her words made it seem like that.
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