Gothikana

by RuNyx

I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity. —Edgar Allan Poe, letter to G. W. Eveleth

“You might be a luring siren but I’m no ordinary sailor. I’m a mad pirate and I’m trying to resist your call. If I land on your shores, I will plunder and take away everything worth having. Be very careful giving me those eyes.”

“This is lust,” she whispered, trying to validate it, excuse it. “No, Corvina.” The side of his lips twitched. “I’ve known lust. This is something worse. This is a barbaric need to possess, to eliminate, to own. This is madness.” Madness.

“If this is madness,” she whispered almost against his lips, “drown me in it.”

“If this is madness,” he told her, echoing her words against her lips, “I’ve already descended too far.”

In fact, as he pulled back, she wanted to wipe the wanton way she had kissed him from his mind and never see him again.

“You’re taking all of my firsts, Mr. Deverell,” she whispered quietly as a confession.

His arm tightened. “I will take all your lasts, too, Miss Clemm. Mark my words.”

“This will last until the day the roses on my grave stop sharing roots with the roses on yours,” he declared. “I will have you even in death, little witch. I am your beast. I am your madness. And you, you’re my afterlife.”