Me And The Dark

Chapter 53

Valentina

My eyes remained fixed on Mattheo's as I stayed silent.

I wasn't particularly confident about being alone with him, the images of my last encounter with him still haunting me. However, at this stage, I was too far gone to turn back; I had to get some answers.

"The name of my prophecy?" I asked, in a tone cold enough to impose distance, trying not to lay eyes on his bare chest, on the scars that had since been added.

"You heard me," he replied, crossing his arms and not once lowering his gaze.

I gave him a questioning look. How could he know that and had he never told me? Once again, I was suspicious.

"Did you at least read your ancestor's entire diary to the end?" he asked with an air of arrogance that irritated me even more.

I broke eye contact, pondering his question. No, I hadn't. I thought I'd found all the answers to my questions, which is why I'd lent it to Mattheo afterwards.

But I lied. "Of course I did."

"If you had, you would have realised that the whole prophecy was written there," he scoffed as my face contorted with embarrassment and the many questions that beset me.

His tone was clearly tinged with sarcasm, but he didn't smile. I couldn't believe that he knew more than I did and hadn't told me.

"Because I didn't find anything in it that would help you, and I didn't really have time to tell you either," he added with a slight chuckle.

I looked up, realising that even after the circumstances, he could still read me like an open book.

The shadows of the past seemed to thicken, and I wondered whether these revelations would bring us closer together or drive us further apart.

"Can I see the diary?" I asked, clearing my throat, trying to hide the embarrassment that was washing over me.

Mattheo gave me an indecipherable look, then nodded, retrieving the black diary from a bag beside him. He handed it to me with particular care, as if he understood how important it was to me.

"I've cast a spell on it, no one but you and me can open it. Just as a precaution..."

I nodded as I took the diary in my hands, feeling a strange connection with the pages filled with sketches and notes.

"Page 543.." I muttered aloud, rereading the note written at the bottom of the last page. I looked up at Mattheo, searching his brown eyes for answers.

He took a deep breath. "It's an old prophecy, Valentina. Prophecies don't always have the answers.."

"In the shadow of snakes and crossed stars so high,

A destiny intertwined with dark riddles, on an intriguing night.

Two twin souls, bound by history's hold,

In conflict, their future shall be foretold.

The fallen sister, bound by sacred vow,

Emerges from darkness, in a whirlwind now.

Light and shadow, their blood intertwined,

A beloved's fate, cruelly confined.