"Do you know how bad you made me look?" Gharet said. He walked with his fists clenched at his sides.
Aurora walked quietly beside him. His voice cut through like thousands of knives, sharp and piercing. Every word sliced through her mind and an icy chill washed down her body. The chill of dread had already settled over her like a thick blanket.
"Well?" he said and looked at her.
She said nothing and kept her eyes on the dirt path in front of her.
Gharet stopped and grabbed her by the arms.
"Why aren't you saying anything?"
A vein pulsed on the side of his temple as he glared down at her.
"It wasn't my fault," she said. His light brown eyes blazed with rage.
"What do you mean it wasn't your fault?" He hunched forward to try and make himself more intimidating, but the movement was unnecessary. "You are the reason we arrived late, and that made me look bad in front of my family." His voice had dropped to a lower octave and a growl seemed to drip along his words.
Aurora didn't want to argue with him. Doing so was exhausting and never seemed to move them forward, only ever did the arguments begin and end with it being her fault.
They stood in the middle of a street and Aurora watched some of the passing gazes that glared at her and Gharet for not moving to the side and out of their way.
"Gharet we should move out of the middle of the road," she said and put a hand on his arm to try and coax him into moving. They lived in the eastern part of the kingdom and still had a bit of a way before they were home.
He ripped his arm from her hand and stared down at her daring her to try it again.
"Why do you try to change me?" he asked.
"What? I wasn't asking you to change," she said.
"You just did though, you said we should move out of the street. That would mean I would have to change my ways to better someone else, but I'm important too."
"Gharet, that was not what I was saying at all," she whispered. Onlookers were now pausing to stare at their conversation. Her voice lowered, "I'm not trying to change you, that's not what I said, at all."
"I will not change." Gharet stared at her with a hard look. They stood looking at one another and Aurora saw an older couple stop to stare. She didn't know if they were looking to intervene, by Gharet's tone, or had stopped to eavesdrop.
She watched him a moment longer, seeing the narrowed stare and resigned.
"Alright, Gharet," she said. She looked away as she started for their house again.
"I'm not done!" he argued standing still as he yelled behind her.
She kept walking, ignoring him the best she could as she finally heard his footsteps fall instep with her.
"I want to continue what we were talking about," Gharet said.
For a while all she heard was the crunch of dirt beneath her feet, the chatter of people around them, and the scurrying of others as they moved along their path of destination.
Aurora reached the corner onto another street. Three doors up on their right would be another street and on it their home. Behind her Gharet strode with a determination that grew with every step closer to their house.
She passed the stores along her right, a few doors she knew were the owners of the stores' homes.
The sky above was sunny and cloudless, but Aurora felt anything but cheery. Her feet feeling heavy and her body screamed to just lie down but she wasn't going to.
YOU ARE READING
Shadows of Iraedes | NanoWrimo 2021
RomanceAurora Bailey has had a hard life, and the horizon is only looking harder. She's finally had enough of her abusive partner and decides to leave him, but finds she can't when he keeps pulling her back, sometimes even physically. After many attempts t...
