Daybreak

XII

It was almost as if we were playing some strange game before he started speaking, bouncing the focus first towards getting me something warm to drink and cleaning the cut over my own throat before I convinced him to sit down in the seat opposite to me, the empty fireplace looming dark and empty behind him and I wrapped my fingers around the warm mug he'd given me.

Itching to stand I got to my feet, eyes trained on him as he fought for the right words to speak-

"There's something I never mentioned to you before," he said, eyes glued to the ground, foot-tapping away under his uninjured arm bouncing over one knee. "With the order of killing Thalias, I also- I have to come back with a queen."

Seeing I wasn't understanding how this possibly could come to me, he continued green eyes warily meeting mine, "Tradition has it we must present gifts to our chosen partner, if he, or she accepts them, the gifts could continue for days or even years before we ask them to remain by our side for eternity."

"And how am I-?"

"My partner is you."

The sharp sound of glass splintering the floor at my feet followed his last sentence, the mug slipping from my hands, lukewarm tea exploding over the floor, and the elf flinched heavily at the sound that echoed like a gunshot.

"What?" I could hear my own voice sound dull and muted in my ears and I watched almost in third person as Noah rushed to his feet, hand going out to steady me and I ducked out of his grasp.

What the hell-

"Bree, look, I know that probably wasn't the right thing to start out with- that's why I didn't want to tell you-"

How had I not seen this before? The way he looked at me? All the stares that gave me the creeps so many times before?

It was love.

Now I knew Sylvian's form was a lark of all things, the exact same as the bird that had come to my window after I turned eighteen-

It was all starting to click.

Click in some mad, insane sort of way.

Those years before I left, all of those tiny stones and flowers showing up on my windowsill, they were all from him-

How did the old stories go? You accept a gift from an elf, you're bound to them for eternity? Well, that's what I've been doing. For years I took those gifts from this- this pervert, disguising himself as some bird in an attempt to earn my love for him, and in return I get to be stuck, bound to this thing forever-

How fair was that?

"Bree," at that moment, he made a move towards me, and I stumbled backward at his touch to my arm, nearly tripping over the small table in the room as I did so. "No! You get away from me-"

"Bree, look, I'm sorry, I promise it's not like that-"

"Then what is it supposed to be? Hm?" My mind was racing, my heart caught in my throat as I forced out the string of words barely legible in my own head- "You tricked me into being your queen, Sylvian, how am I supposed to trust you if you weren't even willing to tell me the truth in the first place?!"

"I- I didn't think it mattered-"

"You didn't think-" my sentence could do nothing more than break off, some sort of laugh. I- I think I'm in some sort of shock- "No, of course, you didn't think, why wouldn't you think? Who would've thought you're just another selfish brat out to save your own skin," I meet his eyes, saltwater running down my face which I hadn't seemed to notice till now.