Wren knew that every word Leo had spoken was a lie. It had to be. He had worked too hard for it to be the truth. He had emptied his coffers to protect her virtue. He had accepted violence to defend her future. He had broken his own heart in half to give her the better piece. He had forsaken the experiences that others of his age and rank had happily partaken of. He had agreed to a marriage he didn't want. He had forced his heart open to a girl he had no desire for. He had fallen in love with Aileen in a desperate attempt to protect Leo from his own growing darkness.
He could not believe he had cursed Leo instead. He would not believe it. She had been dead and he had promised everything within himself if it would only bring her back. It was his fault that she had died. It was he who had angered the bear. Wren was the one who had been too weak to fight back.
It couldn't be true. It just couldn't be. He was the bad one. He had to fight for every ounce of goodness. It was why he tried so hard. It was why he'd allowed Arthur to beat him bloody that night in the gardens. It was why he had met him again the night he'd left Leo in the brothel. Because Wren was the one overcome with darkness. Not Leo. Not the girl with the bright smiles and the ready laugh and the sparkling eyes.
Wren looked at Leo.
Her eyes were not sparkling. He could not remember the last time he had heard her laugh. She still smiled that vibrant smile, of course, but when had it last reached her eyes? When had he last met her gaze and seen something, anything, but darkness looking back at him?
It hadn't been so hard to be good. It had been harder to break the rules, after all. He'd struggled harder against himself when he had chosen to run away in search of Leo than it had when he had chosen to accept the betrothal to Aileen. The night of the carnival was the same. It had been harder for him to stay in that brothel than to leave it. How many of the men he trained with had told stories of hours whiled away inside those very establishments? But not Wren. No, Wren had been on the edge of panic.
Leo had not.
Wren looked at her now. Really looked at her. She was not afraid now either. His heart was breaking and hers wasn't. The last threads binding them snapped one by one. It felt like his flesh tearing from his bones. He was in agony. But when he looked at Leo? All he saw in her eyes was a mild kind of disappointment.
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sparrow and lion
Fantasya noble & an orphan meet in an alley & make a promise they were always doomed to break. new chapter every thursday. random letters at random times.
