❝𝐃𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐬, 𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐝𝐨𝐯𝐞? ❞
❝𝐘𝐞𝐬, 𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬,❞ she huffs, anger in her voice as I infiltrate her walls more than I already have.
❝𝐌𝐦,❞ my disapprov...
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"𝐂'𝐌𝐎𝐍, 𝐀, 𝐖𝐄'𝐕𝐄 𝐆𝐎𝐓a flight to catch."
My head is still soaring in the clouds, rearing over the thoughts of my dream and the man who'd stood in the shadows and watched me last night when Aeris's words catch my ears. I shake my head and try to blink away the glossy confusion, angling down to view my brother.
He's opening the door to the room I stayed in last night and beckoning me out of it with a strange look on his face. I don't even question it, my ability to appear normal, failing horrifically, and pad out past the threshold, beginning to retrace my steps from the night before.
I pull my hat over my hair and wait for my brother to catch up with me as we head to the front door of Beau's personal Estate. My thoughts are still flooded by my recurring nightmare, by the man above me, and the forest greens, and the blood—so, so much blood—my thoughts are still numbing as I think about the face of pure serenity that had observed me so dexterously last night.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Aeris asks me.
I shake my head, my voice too delicate to speak.
I don't want to tell my brother of the nightmare again because I know he already knows. I don't want to tell him that while I was hugging him, my desires lay in another man's arms, that while he was comforting me, the only security I truly got was in jade, green shields.
"Well, you should talk about it."
"Aeris," I softly rebuke.
"Don't do that," he sighs, "Don't block me out. You left the hotel in the middle of the night to see the same man who caused you to run out at dinner. You didn't even tell anyone that you were leaving! I had to hear it from Beau fucking Torres, and good thing I did!"
"I told Aemon," I say bluntly.
Aeris scoffs, "Great. You told our passive older brother, but not me."
"You weren't awake, and it's not like it was intentional. He was fucking Esme and I happened to walk out at the same time she did. I'm sorry I didn't tell you, but me being sorry doesn't mean I want to dive into what happened between Beau and I."
Aeris stops in the middle of the hallway.
I take three more steps before I realize his dramatics have him rooted in place. I tuck my hands into my pocket, exhale exaggeratedly, and turn around. Aeris's black hair is a long mask dangling at the base of his nose, but it does nothing to hide the questions flaring in his brown irises.
I don't even care that I've said more than I should've.
I'm so tired of being the princess and lying and being stalked.
