SECRETS | Fate: The Winx Saga ~ Alternate Season 2

Chapter 1

Farah woke up with a start, trembling and sweating. She had had another one of those terrible nightmares that sent her back to her painful past. For the past few months, these bad dreams had been increasing in number, robbing her nights of precious minutes of sleep and making her very anxious.

The fairy realised that she was not alone with Andreas in the tent in the middle of the forest, but in her bed in her suite in Alfea, next to her husband, who was fast asleep. He was one of the only people who knew what she had been through, because she never talked about it. She had tried desperately to forget this traumatic event, but it was impossible, it always came back to her like a boomerang. Andreas had sullied her forever, and it had taken years for her to love herself again and to return to normal sexuality with Saul, who had never stopped supporting and loving her. He had suffered enormously, too, and she blamed herself. But he had not left her, he had even proposed to her after the battle of Aster Dell, and they had lived together for over fifteen years. He was her gem.

Farah felt a warm hand take hers and smiled. Saul could feel her moments of acute stress when she woke up after a nightmare, and he was always there to reassure her.

"You're with me, love, hold my hand," he whispered to her. "He's not here, he's been dead for sixteen years."

The voice of the man she loved was enough to soothe her and she rolled onto the mattress to snuggle in his arms.

"I know, Saul," she murmured, closing her eyes and shivering under the warmth of his skin.

He closed his arms around his wife and placed a tender kiss on her neck.

All these years he had lived with a sense of guilt that had never left him. Farah had been raped because he had let Andreas accompany her to the campsite instead of doing it himself, and he had never been able to forgive himself.
His wife was going through a daily hell and her past would not let her rest. She had not deserved this, even before she met him, her life had not been easy.
The Specialist could not bear to see her still in such a state eighteen years after the fact. Andreas had destroyed her and her womanhood, and Saul had avenged the woman he loved. He had found some comfort in running his former best friend through with his sword. He had killed him and was more than satisfied. At least he wouldn't put his dirty hands on anyone else.

After Aster Dell, the couple had decided to raise Sky by hiding the horrible truth from him, because Farah was unable to put words on what she had suffered. But now the Headmaster of Specialists was wondering if he should tell him everything. Sky had to know the truth, he was old enough to understand things.

He sighed and focused on his wife, whose bare back was pressed against his skin. It had taken her almost five years to allow herself to sleep without any clothes on again. Her husband thought she was so beautiful like this, the most beautiful woman in the world, but he would never tell her so, because this compliment would bring her back into the tent with Andreas. So he made her understand with body language.

With his hands on his wife's belly, he began to place slight kisses on the bare skin of her back, moving slowly up to her neck, which he began to cherish more frankly.

His fairy could not suppress a chuckle, tickled by his kisses.

"Please Saul, stop, I can't take it anymore," she begged him, laughing harder. "I'm gonna pass out."

He moved sensually up to her ear to whisper a few words:

"Would you die of love for your dear husband?"

She turned around so that she could see his face in the moonlight, quivering.

"I fell in love with him a long time ago," she retorted, before kissing him stealthily on the lips. "You are irresistible."

The gaze of the man she loved seemed to convey a kind of wonder, as it used to do every time he looked at her.

She placed her hand on his cheek, which reacted to the cold metal of her wedding ring. This jewel reassured her that Saul was never too far from her, which consoled her.

"You know what I think of you, sweetheart, you are a queen, and I will say no more," he said, still worried about her. "I'm sorry for everything, I wasn't there when you needed me most, and that's unforgivable."

Farah ran her hand down to her husband's torso, moved by his feelings.

"You don't have to apologise, Saul, you couldn't have known all along that he was manipulating you. All you cared about was saving me, and if it wasn't for you, I would have passed away long ago. You risked a lot for me, including killing Andreas, even if it meant risking being jailed for the rest of your life. "

She leaned her head against his chest before finishing what she had to say.

"You did all this for me," she affirmed gratefully. "If I had been angry with you, I wouldn't have accepted to marry you. We've been lucky, Rosalind was locked up before she could tell on you, and we could rely on Ben and Rose to keep the secret."

"Rose was an exceptional woman, she knew the right things to say to comfort you and she healed your wounds," he approved wistfully. "Ben was so happy all those years with her."

A tear rolled down Farah's cheek. Rose had been her best friend from the moment they arrived at Alfea, they had fought together, and the earth fairy had settled at the castle with her husband, where they had raised their two children, before being murdered by an unhinged during her daily jogging around the school. For a while, the police had suspected the husband of the deceased, before finding and arresting the real culprit.

"I'm so sorry I didn't go with her that day," she sighed, remorseful. "We used to go for a jog together and I didn't feel like running at that moment. If I'd been there, she'd probably still be alive now."

"Farah, I know this is hard for you, and we've all been through a lot, especially Ben, but I think we should leave the past where it belongs and move forward," he suggested, holding her hand.

She nodded, agreeing with him.

"Yes, you're right."

She couldn't go on living with that pain and guilt, she had to get rid of it once and for all, and there was only one way.