Eris Vanserra | Ignis Aurum ✓

Chapter 5: ALBA & ERIS

When the meeting was finally finished Alba got up, rolled back her shoulders and craned her neck. She felt the High Lord's gaze on her, but she had no idea how to interpret his behaviour. What was it about him? Of course, she knew that she felt attracted to him, but was this attraction mutual? She doubted that. He was a High Lord, and a terribly handsome one, he could have anyone. Although she had an inkling that they could be mates, but what if the mating bond would never snap for him? What if it had never snapped for her and it was just her imagination?

"Are you sure you don't want to stay over night?" Morrigan asked once they stepped out of the building, the sky already starting to grow darker. Thick clouds spread over the sky—a storm was about to come.

Alba shook her head, glancing towards Eris and hoping he'd do the same. His face was veiled in cool boredom and indifference. Alba took it as a no from him as well.

"It is really kind, but I want to go home. I want my bed," she told her friend from the Night Court. Mor pouted her lower lip, shrugging. "Alright, then we will have to catch up another time. See you soon." Hugging her quickly, Alba also told her to stay safe and have a good night. Then the goodbyes to the other court members followed and Eris and Alba were ready to depart.

"Does your husband know how you keep looking at the Illyrian brute?" Eris mumbled, when reaching his hand out for Alba to grab it.

"Karzine is first of all my fiancé. And his name is Cassian. And I looked at Cassian the same way I looked at every men—down on them." Alba grinned at her uttering, her fingers curling around the High Lord's.

Eris, as much as he tried to, couldn't hold back his own small grin.

Alba noticed it and something in her heart jumped at the sight of it and being the reason for him to smile—well, to grin. She did not make people smile genuinely that often. Never, it somehow seemed to her. Only Helion, Lucien, Elain and Leta ever smiled at her like that and sometimes her...little brother, but she hadn't seen him in a while.

"Hold on tight." Was all of an answer Alba got and soon her feet left the ground. She was swirled up, tendrils of brown and orange curling around her while the smell of cinnamon and rich spices filled her nostrils. When she opened her eyes it was not because her feet softly landed on the ground of the Day Court, but because something was touching her face while something else was moving her hair. Wind. It was raining and wind was blazing around them. A storm was starting.

"Where are we?" Alba shouted over the noises of the wind and rain, trying to get closer to Eris. He was shielding his face with his arm folded over it. Alba managed to clasp his hand in hers, stepping closer to him. "Where—?"
"I heard you. I don't know. I think still Night Court, but I am not sure," Eris shouted back. Alba squeezed his hand, her brows furrowing. "Then winnow us to the Day Court?"
"I can't and maybe we are already in Day. But with the storm going on it does not work."

"And you mocked my inability to winnow. Are you serious? Why does it not work, Lord I-Am-Great-At-Everything."

Why did it not work? Eris could not tell her. Could not tell her how every storm always reminded him of his father. How many times he had cried himself to sleep as a child because he had been terrified of the storms and his father made him sit outside, having to endure every minute of it as punishment.

Something inside of him constricted, hindering him from winnowing. As much as he hated it and wanted to do something against it, he could not. "I am sorry it does not work. Let's walk and find shelter," he grumbled, instinctively pulling Alba closer to him. She let him.

"Are you mad? With those shoes? And through the rain and mud?" Alba shouted.

Eris' gaze shortly dropped to her feet before he looked at her face again, trying to search her gaze. "Yes, with those shoes. Or do you want me to carry you?"