AEGIR
My heart fluttered at the combined scent of almond soap and horses that suddenly hit my senses. It was probably someone else’s scent, as per usual.
I realised then that during my four-day journey to the south and back, I had thought about her more than I had thought of anything else. I think I was looking forward to lunch, to talk to her, if only just for those few minutes while she set up my table.
It was a few words that we had exchanged after that incident with the young one, but the words that came out of her mouth that day…“I’m sorry,” she had blurted to her. Two little words that for some reason sent a raw ache to my heart. I didn’t like it when she feared me…I didn’t like it at all.
I knew it was not her at my door, both because of the knocking pattern—Cordelia’s was three taps at equal intervals—but also because of the scent. Cordelia’s was close to absent; the person behind the door smelled like a sand gale—Sabriela.
“Hello, young one.”
“Hello, Lord Hailin,” the freckled girl said, still wearing the cat necklace that Cordelia had made for her.
“You can call me Aegir.”
“Oh, all right, then. Hello, Aegir. I’m Sabriela.”
“I know. Where’s Cordelia?”
“Who? Oh! You mean Delia. It’s her day off today.”
“Day off?”
“Yes. King Belzari says that family is just as important as Amfir, so he lets us visit our family once a month. Delia is with her great-aunt as we speak.”
“Hmm.”
I did not eat my lunch.
I walked south, followed the same path we had arrived on this morning, but then veered left, instinctually following her scent.
Well, not her scent, the scent of her clothes, which I swore was soon going to drive me insane.
Too many times, I had snapped my head thinking it was her, only to find someone else wearing that same scent.
It unravelled my sanity—being deprived of my senses.
I couldn’t feel her happiness. I couldn’t feel her fear, her pain, her…lust.
She just…humanised me.
I kept left, obscured behind the rocky mesa, then walked along the wide crevice. Had the smell of horses not been there, I would have been surprised to find stables at such an odd location. Well hidden, I thought.
My heart pumped at the sound of her voice. It drew me closer, like honey does a bear.
I couldn’t understand why it did that. All I knew was that I went on stealth missions and battled with a calmer heart.
She sounded like she was…acting, in some way. I figured she was reciting something. And then I peeked my head and saw her reading. She rested her head on a brown mare.
All of it looked like a painting that, when you looked at it, your stomach ached with longing beyond reason.
I couldn’t properly describe any of it. All I knew was that her sweet voice pinned me there, my back to the wall, hidden, lest she catch my smile.
I tried to leave, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t just step away without at least talking to her.
So instead, I went in and…I teased her.
She stood up so quickly—too quick, even for my Fae eyes. Then she turned around, blurting, “Shit!” in my face.
Boreas. Fucking. Freeze me.
I’m a Fae from Ice, but would willingly let Pyrona burn me just to see this sight once.
Her face, striking—the kind that brings you to your knees.
Her big brown eyes, endless, protected by thick, long lashes.
Sometimes I moved closer just to see her look at me from beneath them.
And her pretty little mouth, blessed with those heart-shaped plump lips…
and her olive skin—I had never seen so much of it.
Before this moment, I hadn’t noticed how tiny her waist was.
Albeit thin—presuming due to malnourishment—her hips remained, and with that worn underdress, soaked, I could see all of that.
I could not see what I very much liked to lick, but with the light shining through the windows behind her, I could see her shape.
And I could tell that where her inner thighs met, a hollow gap formed right below her…
Shit! I was looking at her like she was a piece of meat.
So I looked elsewhere, only to find myself seeing more of her. Too much of her—or perhaps not nearly enough.
“My god, let it be her,” I prayed silently to Boreas.
That wish made me realise that while I was on the brink of crawling towards her, begging her to let me be her only family, then beg her to let me lick her, she—she thought me so cruel.
She was even willing to bargain for her.
That was what stopped me. I couldn’t let her see just yet.
I had to atone first, for how I had treated her.
I told her that I wouldn’t bargain because of her mare, but it was truly because of her. I suspected she saw right through me.
That same night, I went back to Semuel’s stable and healed her mare.
Then I warded the whole place. I wanted to tell her.
I really wanted to, but I swore to my brother, to others, that I would not expose my healing powers.
We wanted it to be kept hidden—hidden from the Naaris, in case we would need its use in desperate times.
Not that it was much when it came to Elemental Flames.
And despite my wish to see her smile once, a big, genuine smile that I had not yet seen, I didn’t tell her.
Before I left, I noticed that the hay storage was running low.