Chapter Twenty-Five #2
Draven turns around, shadows curling around him, ready to respond to a threat.
The fae with auburn hair has his two hands up in surrender. “Do not attack, who would listen to all of your girl problems then?”
Draven starts laughing. “Solene, this is Alaric.”
Alaric steps forward into view and my eyes fall straight to his pointed ears.
He is tall, although not as tall as Draven.
His frame is wider and bulkier, with muscle rippling beneath his deep green suit.
His hair is short on the sides, but longer as it reaches the top and softly curls.
His eyes are a vivid teal color. The obvious result of his mother and father’s eyes deciding to mix together, rather than one taking over completely.
While Draven’s features are sharp and hard, Alaric’s are soft and feminine. He is as perfect looking as his parents, but nothing will ever compare to Draven’s beauty.
“It is very nice to meet you. I have heard a lot about you,” I say.
Alaric picks up my hand, bending over to plant a kiss on the top of it. I slowly slip my hand out of grasp once he is done, placing it back by my side.
“The pleasure is mine, but I did not need the introduction, truly. I could pick you out from across the room from the many times Draven has spoken of every detail of you.”
I avert my eyes as my cheeks start to feel warm.
“That’s great. Thanks, Ric,” Draven says.
Alaric laughs. “In fact, I think Draven here would count every strand of hair on your head just to know how many you have, if you would only let him.”
I see where Draven gets his habit of speaking in riddles.
Alaric continues, waving his hand about. “If only you had heard him on the whole ride back to Vryko. More importantly, you should have heard him the entire week.”
Draven clears his throat, looking embarrassed. “Okay that’s enough, Ric.”
Alaric reaches forward, intertwining his fingers in a lock of my hair.
“What did you say her hair was like? A milky pool of dark chocolate as soft as—”
His sentence is abruptly cut off as Draven slaps his hand over Alric’s mouth. Alaric instantly let’s go of my hair.
“I said stop, you are not funny,” he whispers into Alaric’s ear as they both laugh.
With Draven’s hand still over Alaric’s mouth, Alaric wraps his arm around Draven’s neck in attempts to put him in a choke hold and drag him to the ground.
“Ow, did you just bite me?” Draven says in a muffled voice as he snatches his hand back.
As they fight to get one another on the ground, I look and realize many people have stopped what they are doing and are watching them.
I hide my laughter with my hand.
My eyes land on King Sander who is staring at his son intently and cutting his hand across his neck in a motion for them to stop. I turn and look to Alaric, seeing him notice his father as he immediately releases Draven. Alaric muses Draven’s hair as he pulls away from him.
Draven stands up, straightening his suit.
“This was fun, but I’m afraid I must return my time to the ladies of the court once more. Solene, it was lovely to meet you. I might have to steal you for myself, indeed,” he says with a wink.
He pulls Draven into a side hug, giving him a sloppy kiss on the cheek. Draven wipes it off with the back of his hand.
“You love birds have a nice night. I will see you again shortly,” Alaric says, as he walks away.
I watch Draven as he straightens his sleeves out and fixes the cuff links on his suit.
“I thought that you were strong,” I say, teasing.
Draven jerks his head back. “I am strong. But so are fae.”
I bust out laughing and he follows, although he fought it at first.
“Did I not tell you that he would want to steal you for himself?”
I nod. “You did, but I am not interested. In fact, I am already engaged.”
Draven lets out what seems like a breath of relief.
“Would you like to dance,” he says as he holds out his hand.
“Yes.”
I grab his hand, following his lead as we drift into the center of the room. Tension is still present between the two of us.
Couples spin around us in every direction.
Each in perfect synchrony. Draven brings us to a stop within an empty space.
He interlaces our fingers together and brings them up by our head.
He pulls our intertwined fingers toward him and presses another kiss on the top of my hand, his eyes burning into mine.
I feel my knees weaken at the intensity of his stare, but he wraps his arm around my back, pulling me close and holding me up.
A new song starts to play, and Draven takes the lead. He moves forward and I follow his movements. Our eyes are still locked on one another as we watch each other’s every move. The people around us start to disappear.
Step after step Draven moves us to the music.
Sometimes when I feel I am about to stumble, he lifts me up ever so slightly, then sets me back down so I can start again. It is hard to watch where I am going when all I am focused on are the deep pools of endless honey staring back at me.
He starts to twirl me once, then twice, bringing my body back in toward him and then we start again.
We move against one another like our lives depend on it, the contact of his body up against mine sending my skin ablaze. My breathing gets heavier as he starts to move us faster.
He spins me out once more, then brings my body back toward him, dropping me into a dip.
He leans forward into me as I lean backward.
His hand presses tightly against my lower back, pulling me into his chest as my back arches.
I feel his warm breath against my skin and the softest touch of his lips against the sensitive part of my neck.
A shiver drifts down my spine.
He gently lifts me back up and my head falls forward, leaning into his chest with my ear directly over his heart.
My arms wrap around his back as I steady myself, his hands resting on my shoulders.
People start to clap around us, but the noise slowly drowns out as his heart beat takes priority.
I hear each individual beat as it sounds, sending calming waves down my entire body.
I swear if my heart could match the rhythm of his own, it would.
“I missed you,” I say quietly.
I feel him shift, looking down at me as another song begins to play.
“You have no idea how much,” he says quietly back.
I lift my head up to meet his eyes. “Draven, we really need to talk.”
He nods, agreeing. “We do.”
He reaches down, interlacing our fingers together and leading me through the crowd as they part for us.
We walk between one of the arches built into the wall. Silver doors sit in front of us with hooked handles. Draven reaches forward, pulling one open and guiding me through it.
The warm air hits me as I walk forward onto the terrace. The sky is clear and the moon is full. Every star is looking down on us in audience as the grey wispy clouds swirl into the navy-blue sky. I take a deep breath to calm my racing heart.
I must tell him about the case before anything. But also, I am not sure what is more important here, the case and the fact that I am going to be kidnapped, or an apology.
I do not know if I am truly ready for what may follow the apology, but there is only one way to find out.
It makes more sense to start with the case then, getting it out of the way.
I turn to him, my back pressing against the railing. “I think I solved the case,” I blurt out.
Draven looks at me, his features falling. “Solene, the case can wait.”
“No, it really cannot, this is important Draven.”
Draven looks back at me and gone is the stoic prince.
What has replaced his usual serious set stare, is one filled with pain and desire.
His eyes stare back into mine and he looks as if he will fall apart any second now.
His eyes are filled with such longing, that I feel my withered heart break within my chest.
He moves one step closer to me.
“Do you know how it feels?”
“How what feels,” I whisper.
He takes a deep breath, shutting his eyes for a second then opening them again.
“Do you know how it feels to have everything you have ever wanted, everything that you have ever been waiting for to be right in front of you, but it still feels so far out of reach.”
My heartbeat trips over itself.
“Constantly living with the fear that if you get too close, it’ll be taken away as fast as it was given to you. Almost as if it was never even real to begin with.”
Yes.
He moves another step closer, closing the space between us.
“I lied that day about leaving. The first time I left for Faeria and did not tell you. I lied about why I left.”
I shake my head. “I do not understand.”
“I left that day because if I did not leave the castle and get far away from you, the thought of my lips against yours was going to utterly consume me. I was going to unravel if I could not touch you.”
I go to open my mouth to respond, but he cuts me off.
“It has taken over two hundred years for me to feel this way.”
He reaches down, grabbing my hand and pulling it to his chest. He lays it directly over his heart, resting his own hand over top of mine.
“To have my heart beat for an entirely different reason, for an entirely different person. Being around you and not being able to truly call you my own is one of the hardest things I have ever had to do in my lifetime. You consume every thought of mine, every minute, of every day. I think of you when I wake and I think of you when I go to sleep. I even wake in the middle of the night with thoughts of you. They flood my head and I cannot get them out no matter how hard I try.”
This, I do understand.
“I cannot bear to look at you sometimes because it hurts too badly when you are near. Like looking at the sun for the first time after being in the dark for so long. I have realized I do not want to be in its absence ever again. You are the sun filling me with light from within. I wish to never lose you because if I do, I will be nothing but an empty person, devoid of any light once more.”
A single teardrop falls onto my cheek. He looks at me as if a weight has been lifted off his chest and he can breathe easily again.
I take another deep breath. Rarely is there ever a time that I am speechless, but now is one of those times.
I know exactly how he feels because at some point within my time here, I started to wake up and feel the same way.
We stopped being friends a long time ago and I was just too stubborn to admit it.
My eyes drop to our hands resting over his heart. I look back up at him deeply, intently. He is so achingly beautiful. It hurts my body and soul to not be able to tell him how I really feel.
So, I will.
I slowly reach my other hand up, cupping his cheek in my palm. His eyes flutter shut and he leans into my touch like he has been deprived of it for an eternity. I lift up onto the tips of my toes, leaning into his chest so we can be closer together, no longer apart.
“I—”
A shrill scream comes from deep within the ball room.
“THE KING,” someone screams. “SOMEONE HELP THE KING.”
Both of our heads turn toward the doors, the screaming becoming louder.
“Father.”
Draven looks down at me with fear in his eyes.