Vinter's POV

"Why would you tell her! Look what you did!" Aries pushed me which made me stumble back.

"I did what I thought was right," I replied.

"What if she will break the bond?! What will you do then?! If I knew you were going to take a such rash decision, I won't have told you about what happened in the juvenile center in the first place," Aries spat.

"She won't break the bond."

"What makes you think that she won't?" He asked.

"Because Dove never makes decisions in anger," I replied.

"You are pretty confident in her," he mumbled.

"She is my soulmate," I said. "Now if you will excuse me. I have to make a phone call."

I left saying that. I went back to the room knowing for a fact that Dove is going to come back without breaking our soulmate bond.

I dialed Dylan's number. He picked up my call almost immediately.

"Vinter Harris! You disappeared again without informing anyone!" He yelled. I moved the mobile away from my ears while my best friend ranted through it in his loud voice.
After he was done talking I placed it back on my ear again.

"Okay, now that you have stopped yelling. Let me give you my updates. Because of some emergency, I am not in the city right now. But I will be back soon, probably in a day or two. Please can you do me this favor and inform my family that I am fine. Tell my mom not to worry and Twilight too," I said.
I could hear Dylan sigh.

"I will inform them. But where exactly are you right now?" He asked.

"I don't know what this town is called. I will tell you all about it when I get back," I replied.

"Are you with Dove? Charles told me Dove took a few days' leaves, and you disappeared the same day as well," He interrogated.

"Yeah, I am with Dove. But don't tell to anyone that we are together, Dee. Not even Tristan," I requested.

"Don't worry about it. Just take care, you two," he said. "I will let your family know about it immediately."

"Thanks, Dee," I said and hung up.

Now all I have to do is sit and wait for Dove to return. I know I can count on my intuitions, I know well that she won't break our soulmate bond.

I am gonna get bored again. Only if I would have bought some musical instruments when I bought clothes, I could have composed a new song. It's weird how I have the inspiration to compose a good song right now but doesn't have my instruments or my PC with me.

~~

I ended up writing a song instead. When I went outside the room I didn't see anyone present in the home. I saw a bottle of wine placed on the table. I took the wine glass and poured some wine into it. I sat on the table comfortably as I sipped on my wine.

I heard a room's door open and saw Aries exiting from what I assume is his room. His clothes were covered in paint.

"You were painting?" I asked. He shrugged.

"The walls," he replied. I got up from my chair and took a look inside his room. The room was a mess as he had messily covered the bed with a white sheet, and other furniture as well.

"This used to be my room when I was a kid. The bed is smaller than my current height so I will have to replace it. I also didn't like the interior of the room, so will have to fix it as well," he mumbled.

"Want me to help?" I asked. "I am good with interior designing."

"Sure," he replied. I went inside the room and looked around.

"You painted this wall beige, then you should paint the ceiling a lighter shade of brown. The combination would look good," I explained.

"Sounds like a good idea," he said. He grunted as he opened the container of light brown paint. "We got lucky since we have this color."

I hummed I rolled my shirt sleeves so I can minimize ruining my clothes. I picked a paint roller and dipped it inside the paint.

"I'll do this side of the room. You can start with the other side," I said. He nodded and I climbed up the ladders. I started painting and he did the same.

"Do you feel anything?" He asked.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Do you feel like your soulmate bond has weakened or broken?"

"I don't feel anything like that. Why do you ask?" I questioned.

"It's taking Dove too long to return. I thought she might have broken the soulmate bond," he said.

"I told you, she won't do it."

He didn't say anything further. I stared at him for a minute, I realized he has a huge vertical scar on his eye. How did I not notice such a prominent scar before? Or maybe I did but it slipped out of my mind.

"If you don't mind may I ask you something?" I asked.

"Go on."

"How did you get that scar on your eye?"

"Bad past," was all he replied. Maybe he doesn't want to tell me about it. Even though I am curious, I won't pry into his business.

"Why are you painting your room though? Are you planning to stay here?" I asked.

"I don't think I will be able to be a part of the sins after this. Before Lucifer finds out about everything and tries to kill me. I will have to run away," he spoke.

What kind of man is this Lucifer? I have only heard about him in bits, but if given chance I would like to see with my own eyes what he truly is like. Though I would probably be dead after that.

"What kind of man is Lucifer?" I asked.

"What kind of man he is, you ask. If the devil is real then he must have mentored Lucifer, because that man is the definition of darkness."

"That scary huh?" I asked.

"That is not all. Among the sins some members are extremely smart, two of us were linked to the underworld before becoming a part of the sins, and Lucifer managed to manipulate every one of us to cover for him. He managed to hide his so many crimes, that man has links everywhere— the government, the police, you name it. Everything goes according to his plans, sometimes I feel he will take over the entire country."

"He can't possibly do that," I chuckled.

"Yeah, I wish that was true. But only people who have met Lucifer know very well what he is capable of doing," Aries replied. His words sent chills down my spine. This man Lucifer is far more dangerous than I thought.

"How did he manipulate you?" I asked.

"He told me, my grandmother was dead. Not only that he managed to drill that in my head without any proof. His words are too powerful, and I kept dancing like a puppet in his hands all this time," he darkly chuckled.

"If you ever accidentally cross paths with him, take this advice... Just. Run."

Aries looks like a fearless man, but if he is scared of Lucifer that means he is beyond my definition of dangerous. I think I should scratch the idea of ever meeting him.

I heard the front door opening which means Dove and Gabriella are back.

"They are back," I said.

Aries got down from the ladders, I did the same. We both went out of the room, while I stood closer to the room. Aries went ahead and checked up on Dove, who looked very pissed for some reason.

"Fuck off," Dove mumbled as she ignored Aries and stomped towards our shared bedroom.

"Let her be, she is just overwhelmed. She had a hard time facing the reality of the soulmate bond," Gabriella said.

"What happened?" Aries asked.

"You can ask her yourself when she calms down. I am going to go prepare the dinner," Gabriella spoke.

I can only ask her about it when her anger has completely calmed down. Before that I will have to keep my distance, good thing is working on Aries's room interior will keep me occupied for some time. I will talk to her after dinner.

~~

After we were done painting Aries's room's walls, we decided to have dinner. Aries made plans of buying new furniture tomorrow for his room.

I am standing in front of the room which I share with Dove, contemplating whether to go in and confront her or not. I knocked at the door, but didn't receive any reply from the other side, so with a sigh I entered the room.

I saw Dove sitting on the bed with her entire body covered with a blanket.

"What are you? A kid?" I asked.

"Get out," she mumbled.

"Not till you tell me what happened. I want to know it all," I said. She removed her cover from over her head and glared at me.

"Your glares won't work on me," I said.

She didn't speak anything for a few minutes. I sat there silently and patiently waiting for her to speak up.

"My mother told me this once how disappointed they were when they realized that I have a soulmate, they were disappointed. My family sees it as a curse and I was raised to believe so. But when I saw you for the first time on my television, I couldn't help but feel warmth in my heart. But I knew I couldn't approach you, because you are a pop star and I was just an ex-juvenile offender. My parents never supported me in anything, the only reason my old man got me out of the center was that he wanted to save the family reputation."

"I was never taught to respect this bond, like you were. I did love you at some point but it wasn't so important. Though I was very curious to meet you, so I took Charles's offer, and when I heard your dating rumors that only added more fuel to my excitement. I won't lie but I originally did take interest in Twilight just cause he's your half-brother, and I did want to use him against you. But he loves you too much to agree to anything I said where there were chances of you getting hurt."

I felt proud that I have a brother like Twilight. But the most surprising fact here is, Dove is opening up to me for the first time.

She took in a deep breath before continuing.

"Today when I went to break our soulmate bond. I was sure of breaking it, I did everything Gabriella told me to do. I just made one mistake though..." she paused in took in a deep breath. "I trusted someone with my raw feelings for the first time in my life."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"The sacred tree— it's not just a tree, it has human emotions. It can feel and reflect emotions. It reflected my emotions on me, except only the pure parts of my emotions. It absorbed all of my anger, hatred, and vengeance, but only reflected happiness and kindness which I thought I had lost it long time ago. It happened when I was going to break the bond, among all the happy memories it was reflecting, one memory specifically was the happiest for me. It was when I saw you for the first time, Vinter."

My eyes widened. She was the happiest when she saw me for the first time.

"I am not confessing my love for you here. I still very much love your brother, but after what I saw and felt today. I don't think I am strong enough to break this bond between us..."

Her words fainted as in my head the only thought that circled was;

She was the happiest when she saw me first.

If I recall the time when I saw her for the first time, I had mixed emotions. A bit of anger, agony, happiness, hatred... but all she felt was happy when she saw me for the first time. If she is so pure, and my emotions were so impure, does that make me the real villain in this story?

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