Hearts slaved to minds of darkness

3. Beauty between loyalty

I woke to the touch of Alec's fingers unconsciously glazing along the inches of my palm, guiltily.

My mind hasn't halted and Alec was the only who could sire my thoughts to rest, not out of distraction but with comfort. 

My head rests on the clean white sheets he had laid out for me last night when he offered to read me to sleep. Now the untouched poems lay forgotten near his surrendered body, his shirt from last night still haunted from Caelesti's curse and tainted with the key of my excruciating cry.

I watched him sleep, someone so worried finally gifted with peace. More than what I could ever offer. I wanted his kindness for myself forever, and he had given it to me as if it was something essential to the art of living, without appreciating how deeply I valued it.

We rested on the balcony through the night, unaffected by the cold because my light blessed us with warmth. Alec only needed to stay close to me to survive through it, an excuse he'd been longing for. I knew that the arm curved around my warm waist was not out of an instinct for survival, but out of a relentless desperation for my touch.

"Did you manage to get any sleep, or have you just been staring at me doing it because you've forgotten how to?" His freshly blushed face smiled at me, almost making me long for innocence, and for his beauty.

"We must be ready for the day. Not that I'm planning a grand welcome for our discrete invaders or anything."

"No Em, I'm sure you can afford to spend just a moment longer here. It's not every morning that I get to wake next to you, innocently." He held onto my retrieving arm and pulled me back onto the warmth we had left behind.

I stared onto the awakening horizon while his eyes remained fixed on my decaying happiness as yesterday's memories flooded back into the clutches of our minds. But his eyes held on to a different, unfulfilled memory instilled into him. His fingers carefully traced along my still aching arm. The darkness is watching, Ash is watching. The dark traitor warning Alec not to look further.

"Don't do this. I've told you to leave it alone." "How do we get rid of it?"

"There's no 'we' Alec. Don't get involved with things I may not be able to save you from. I can't afford to have you hurt, do you hear me?"

"I am not yours to protect, you've made that clear enough Emerald. But unfortunately, you are mine.  I won't stand our enemies entering our borders, harming you in a way that you won't even tell me, and leaving behind their spies. This is the beginning, and right now we are not the winning side. Fluttering your eyes and throwing threats may not work this time.
Please don't shut me out, if something happens- I rather be the one to die."

"Why do you act like this? Like you're nothing but a good enough sacrifice Alec? You are so much more my love, if you could only see what I see in yo-""Well if I saw myself through your eyes I wouldn't be this burdened to love someone I can only lay beside but never dare to touch."

"God do you never grow tired of loving and not loving each other?" Elorah walks over to wearily rest on the wall next to our fallen bodies. I can tell that this scene has provoked her unforgiving side, as opposed to her kind true self.

"It's not what you think Lora, it's not what it looks lik-" "Really? You mean you've just laid innocently through the night without committing something on the lines of 'fulfilling passion'? It's ridiculous. I don't have time to argue with you bot-"

"Stop acting so saintly Lore I've seen the way you look at my brother. I wouldn't be surprised if he was the reason that you're still dressed in yesterday's robes." I didn't like pointing this out, I loved them both too much to hurt like this. I watched Alec's expression grow shocked, completely unaware of the facts I had just laid out for the room. She didn't like it, I noticed her skin crawl into her exposed hypocrisy. I no longer felt the need to convince her of our innocence.