SGE His Broken Heart (Sequel to His Darkened Heart)

Chapter 23 The Sweetest Poison

"perhaps, Sophie was the cure to Japeth's sickness. She was the antidote to the disease plaguing his mind, threatening to rip his every inch of sanity away from him."
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~ JAPETH'S POV ~

Japeth had only kissed once in his life. It'd been his very first kiss, and the person he'd kissed had also never kissed anyone before until him.

There was reasons Japeth had never kissed anyone. Firstly, Japeth had never felt the desire to kiss anyone (other than Aric perhaps), and secondly, a part of him had once considered kissing to be overrated and a disgusting act between a lovesick couple.

Japeth had never thought of himself as lovesick or even felt a desire to do such an act of locking his lips with someone else's. He'd never been interested in anybody, and the first kiss he'd ever had was an experience he'd never thought he'd have. But it was an experience that was necessary nonetheless.

Japeth's first kiss was his kiss with the Lady of the Lake, a beautiful water nymph who hadn't even known a thing about him other than that he supposedly had King Arthur's blood running through his veins before she allowed him to descend his lips upon hers. In that moment, when their virgin lips had touched, Japeth could feel the hopefulness emitting from the Lady, and he could feel how she pulled him closer even as every inch of him screamed at him to pull away.

Back then, the Lady of the Lake had believed Japeth was the eldest son of King Arthur, because she didn't realize Japeth had Arthur's real son's blood smeared onto his hands after he'd taken Chaddick's life right in front of her. She'd been fooled, tricked into falling for Japeth without much effort on Japeth's part.

Japeth supposed it was so easy to get the Lady of the Lake to fall for him after just a few seconds, not only because he smelt like the kin of King Arthur, but also because he could sense the desperation and loneliness brewing in the Lady of the Lake's soul. He could relate to her pain, because it was his own pain.

As the snake, Japeth had turned his loneliness and grief over Aric's death into rage. He'd hid his inner feelings behind a sinister mask, and the Lady of the Lake too hid her inner feelings of pain, not behind a literal mask, but behind a metaphorical mask of beauty and goodness.

In a sense, Japeth felt that him and the Lady of the Lake were somewhat the same. Which was probably the reason why he'd felt so sorrowful as he locked his lips with hers. Sorrowful because in that exact moment he was just a boy who'd lost the only friend he'd ever truly loved. He wasn't the snake in that moment, some vengeful monster bent on attacking kingdoms. No. Japeth had been a grief stricken boy kissing an equally lonesome woman who'd guarded her heart for too long.

And then, when the kiss was all said and done, the Lady of the Lake's beauty gave way to an ugly hag as she was left broken and betrayed. After leaving her behind, Japeth too realized he was broken and betrayed as well because without Aric, he had nothing but the pain and rage in his broken heart.

Needless to say, Japeth's first kiss wasn't a very pleasant experience.

After that first time, Japeth had never thought about what it'd be like to kiss anyone else again. It was only that very moment—the moment Sophie drew close and pressed her lips against his own—that Japeth recalled the first kiss he'd had with the Lady of the Lake.