𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄'𝐒 𝐋𝐀𝐁𝐘𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐇 ~ [Darius x fem!oc]

Chapter 3

Marigold was grounded, which made it a little harder to sneak out of the house than it would have been usually.

Not that she ever snuck out, but she had noticed something with her dad that she couldn't just ignore.
Whenever she told him she was spending the night at Eda's or Raine's, he just nodded and didn't ask. He also never asked Eda's or Raine's parents if she was really staying over. In other words, it would have been enormously to sneak out if she had not been grounded.

She listened carefully to when her father went to sleep, which fortunately was always quite early. Then she simply put a cloak over her pajamas and pushed up her window as quietly as possible.

Marigold peeked out onto the street, because if one of her neighbors saw her, they would surely tell her dad that they had seen her sneaking out and she really wanted to avoid that.

What would her mom think if she saw her now? Would she be proud that Marigold didn't just bow to the Emperor's system or would she be worried? Probably a mixture of both, but her mom had never given up. She had wanted to be a wild witch, a free witch, no matter what Emperor Belos had said. No matter how much she had been chased by his followers.
And that's why what Marigold was doing here felt so right to her. She wanted to prove that it was okay to learn more than one kind of magic. That it was okay to not fit into one magic track perfectly from the beginning.

However, she still wasn't quite sure if she could trust Darius Deamonne. He made a really mysterious impression on her and even if she would have liked to find out more about him before meeting him in the middle of the night, she probably had no other choice if she wanted to continue pursuing her goal.

"Everything will be all right." she murmured to herself as she looked out again. The street seemed to be completely empty. So she had gotten lucky there.

With a circular motion of her finger, Marigold conjured up a green vine that grew up to the top of her room window.

Marigold listened again into the house, but all was perfectly quiet. Then she gently picked up her palisman and put her on her shoulder. Her name was Hoppy and she was a spider. A damn cute spider.

Marigold carefully stepped out of her window onto the vine and left her window open a crack, so that she could return later that night.
Then she slowly let the vine disappear into the ground again until she was standing safely with both feet on the street.
She took a deep breath and then muttered, "Well, here we go."

Hoppy turned into her staff and Marigold flew towards the library. On the way there, she tried to avoid the Emperor's scouts as best she could. Not that they would have the idea to stop her and ask what she was doing out here so late. Of course, she could have tried to lie her way out of it, but the incident in the library was still relatively recent and Marigold feared that the scouts could probably recognize her.

First, she landed on the roof behind the building where she was supposed to meet Darius. He was already there and Marigold suspected that he was just not someone who liked to be late. Otherwise, the roof seemed empty and there was nothing going on in the street between the buildings.

Marigold glanced over at Hoppy, who just looked at her encouragingly.
"Do you think I should just risk it?" she asked her little palisman quietly. Hoppy nodded and it almost looked like the little spider was smiling. 

So Marigold bit her lip and finally flew over to the other roof and dropped to the ground next to Darius.

"You are very early. "he stated a little surprised and eyed her with interest.

Marigold pushed her lips forward. "But so are you."

"Well, you seem like one of those scatterbrained people, you know? "Darius explained, looking down at the library.

"I'm not scatterbrained. "Marigold returned, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

"And yet you managed to get caught in the library," Darius said, grinning at her, "Well, I'd call that scatterbrained if you ask me."

"Too bad I nobody asked you." Marigold said, "Did you just call me here to insult me?"

"I'm not insulting you at all!" He put a hand over his heart and looked offended by Marigold's comment, "I was merely sharing an observation with you - what is THAT?"

Suddenly completely horrified, he stared at Marigold, or rather her shoulder.
On her shoulder sat Hoppy the spider, looking skeptically from Darius to Marigold and back again.

Darius summoned abomination goo and said, "Stay very still sweetie, I'll remove the vermin for you."

"Vermin?" asked Marigold in horror, holding a hand protectively in front of Hoppy, "Don't come near my palisman, you purple worm!"

"Palisman? Why is your Palisman a spider?" asked Darius, looking completely horrified, "Why would anyone- "

"Oh, and what is your palisman? A peacock?" Marigold interrupted him, "That would fit in very well with your 'elegance'."

Darius blushed.

"Ha! So I'm right!" Marigold exclaimed triumphantly.

Darius said nothing in response, but merely smoothed out his purple cloak and finally cleared his throat.

"I'd say we'll just pick up where we left off, then," he said in a slightly calmer voice.

Marigold raised her eyebrows, but Darius just glared just at her.

What a drama queen. But somehow Marigold found it very endearing.

"I asked you here tonight to solve your library problem," Darius explained, motioning Marigold to follow him. Together they approached the edge of the roof and looked down on the Bonesborough library.

Marigold nodded to let him know she was listening and then asked, "So what do you plan to do?" Although she already had an idea of what Darius was getting at, and she wasn't quite sure if she liked it or not.

Darius glanced over at her briefly and then a smile spread across his lips which Marigold wasn't sure what to make of. "We'll break into the library and get the books that way."

Marigold stared at him for a while, confused, trying to process what she had heard. Sure, she had already expected something like that, but she had hoped Darius would suggest something that wasn't so ... drastic. What if they got caught? Besides, how many books would they take with them? Where would they hide them? Would they eventually bring them back and get new ones?

Apparently Darius was able to read her like an open book, because he said, "A rebellion against such a system usually goes a little further than one first assumes."

Marigold sighed and looked down at the library again. She thought of her mom. She had fought for her freedom and given everything for it, but had also lost so much in return. Was Marigold willing to lose so much, too? Could she really risk it?

And yet the answer was right in front of her. By coming here, she had already shown that she was willing to do a lot. Now she just had to take the next step. But she was not alone.

She looked over at Darius, nodded, and managed a small smile. "Let's do it then."

Darius winked. "Come on, scatterbrain."

"Don't call me that, Deamonne!"Marigold protested, but she felt her cheeks grew a little pink.

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I really hope you enjoy the story so far🥰

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