A Court of Secrets and Moonlight (Timeline Version)

4: Wind Part I

Cassian

523 years ago, Windhaven Camp

I woke to the sound of tiny footsteps padding into my room.

Leur was standing at my bedside, the grey stuffed cat toy she carried everywhere clutched in her arms, eyes brimming with tears. I shot awake within moments, clutching her shoulders.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

Her face was red and splotchy, and I watched as she flinched at a crack of thunder from outside. My legs slipped over the side of the bed as I sat up, Rhys still sleeping soundly in his bed on the other side of the room.

"I- I don't like thunderstorms." She looked down as she spoke, her voice a soft whisper among the pelting of rain against the windows.

I had remembered waking up to find her sleeping in bed with Rhys before, remembered him telling me that she always came to him when it stormed outside. The loud booms scared her, the sound of the lighting echoing off the mountains, the howling of the wind. And her brother was right there, just a few feet away. She could have gone to him, like she always did.

But she had come to me instead.

Tears were streaking down her little face, wide violet eyes focused on the windows as if at any moment they'd shatter. And I realized at that moment that I had become her brother too. I realized that not only had Rhys given me a home, a bed to sleep in, but a family as well. And somehow, over the past three years that I had been living here, I had never learned that I had a responsibility to the little girl standing in front of me. Not just as the Princess of my court, but as my sister.

"Come here." I opened my arms, and she fell into them.

She cried as I held her, as I pulled her into my lap and sat back against the headboard. "You're okay." I promised, "I've got you."

Tiny fists balled into my shirt, her cat long forgotten about as she held onto me for dear life. I rubbed her back as she cried, shushing her as I rocked her back and forth. I did not know how much time had passed, did not know how long I spent with my wings wrapped around her to muffle the sound. All I knew was that eventually she drifted into sleep, and I made a promise to everything in the world that I would spend my life protecting her.

Just like an older brother should.