The Taming

Who Lacks Faith

She was lovely, even in her sorrow.

He was relaxed, lounging against the door frame. Arms crossed and ankles crossed. The object of her fury now invading the comfort of her chamber, I suppose.

The air in the room vibrated with their energy.

"Is it you, I wonder, that powers this castle of water? I can hear them even now."

The walls.

"Do you make them flow or do you have help?" Her voice was a low murmur.

"It's a hundred of me." He said glibly. "Are you trying to focus on everything except the fact that I'm here, in-front of you?" He queried.

"No." She argued automatically. Sitting up to face him. Drawing the blanket with her. "What do you want?"

"I heard your thoughts. I came to tell you; I gave you the mirror as no insult. You're so quick to believe the worst in me."

"Then why did you?"

"I thought it was lovely...and I wished you to view yourself for the truth. As I've seen you. Not through your skewed perception. To learn to see yourself as the same beauty I see..." He paused to allow her to speak.

She said nothing. Only blinking at him. Face expressionless.

"Do you know why I've bound you in mortal skin?"

"Because I'm more powerful in my valkyrie form."

"In the beginning yes." He cocked his head grudgingly. "But now, because you fear it. I was curious to see why you hide in the form of your beast. Can you come to terms with the woman part? The part that you abhor?"

Her lip curled, and her eyes fell.

"Look at you." He ordered. "You're disgusted at the mere thought!"

She looked hesitantly into the dark ocean eyes of her reflection, swallowing convulsively.

"You are beautiful." He enunciated the word. "What woman wouldn't want to flaunt such a face and form." He pressed. "Your thoughts are so dark. And you guard your secrets so zealously even I cannot glimpse them. What is it you so fear, Elsabet?"

At some point while he spoke, he'd left the doorframe to come to her. Now he reached around the front of her to lift her chin. Levelling her gaze in the mirror while he leaned around her shoulder to see her. The other hand encircling her stomach and his breath warm along her neck and ear.

"My name is Serenade." She squeaked out. Panting.

His head slowly turned to meet her gaze in the glass.

"No." He shook his head slowly. "Serenade is the angry creature that'd drop a man from the sky." He caressed a tress of her hair, tucking it behind her ear. "My Elsabet is this." He stroked her jaw. "A beautiful woman with vulnerability in her eyes, a smile that hasn't touched her lips in years, I'd hazard a guess... And a heart scared of everything."

"I fear nothing."

He scoffed mockingly. Breathing against the shell of her ear as he murmured. "You're afraid of everything, Elsabet."

Her eyes widened as it dawned on her he'd called her by her name. "No derogatory nickname, today? As is your wont?"

He opened his mouth to retort but was stopped by the moisture he saw creeping into her blue eyes. He touched her thoughts and was shocked to find she resisted the urge to rush against him. Certain his arms would wrap comfortingly around her.

They would.

Do it...

Reacting instinctively, she stepped from his reach instead.

Filling his soul with disappointment.

"Why must you always fight this attraction between us?"

"I don't want you, Sebastian. I don't want the difficulties of...wanting you."

"What you mean is you don't want to want me?" He asked. A hint of pain seeped into his voice despite his best efforts. "You can't allow yourself to welcome my touch."

She was quiet.

He could feel the tension washing through her. He turned his hand and stroked the back of it down her arm.

"Do you hate it so much?"

"You know I don't." She said in a weaker voice. Shivering with pleasure. "But I will not be so weak."

He bobbed his head in a nod. Ignoring the tightness in his chest. His hand fell and he turned to go. But her voice stopped him in his tracks.

"Did I hurt you?" She called after him as he reached the doorway, confusion rending her voice. And a bit of desperation making it higher than usual.

"Of, course not. Elsabet. How could you hurt me? You'd have to believe in love, in being united in spirit, in mates. You'd have to believe that I could love you. And yearn for you to love me back, for your words to cut me. Wouldn't you say?"

"I feel like you're being unkind."

"I?" He shook his head in disbelief. Rounding on his heel. "Twenty years you've been in my care-"

"You're captive!"

"Twenty years I've cared for you, never harmed you. Tried to get to know you, and kept you safe. Indulging in whatever you requested of me, yet still you shun my touch, my thoughts, and every single thing I'd offer you." His shoulders slumped in uncharacteristic defeat. "And you think it's in me to desire another when I'm clearly faithful to you."

She crossed her arms over her chest and cocked her hip doubtfully. "How could I possibly know that, when I've never been permitted to go with you, to see what you're really up to?"

"You think I've orchestrated all this," He expostulated. Waving his arm around to encompass all of WaterRose. "To deceive you?"

"I don't know. Have you?"

"What could I possibly gain from that?"

"What are you losing?"

"That's ridiculous! Any woman would be simpler! But I don't want them. I've spent two decades devoting myself to you. Trying to earn your touch and prove to you that I can be worthy of you. Yet all you see is fault!"

"That's not true." She said quietly.

"Then what do you see? Really?"

Her mouth whitened and she shook her head. "Don't ask me that?"

"Is it so awful?" He deflated.

"No. But I will not be proven a fool by making declarations of what I think without any evidence of my own. How can I know when I've never seen how you interact with barmaids in taverns. Or peasant girls who undoubtedly stare at you adoringly?"

"What would you have me do?"

"You know what I want."

"Please, don't." He implored. Willing her not to say it again.

"You mistake me." Elsabet said in a hard tone.

His brows lifted in confusion.

"It's not my doubt in your that causes my reservations. It's your doubt in me..."