Darling Soul

Chapter Nine

Love isn't random, we are chosen and we could wear the same crown.

She walked towards her fiancée. He looked majestic like he did the first time they met, but instead of the black tunic he wore this one was dark blue with accents of gold, it matched his dark eyes, and from the lights in the ballroom she could see it better than she did in the garden earlier. He had a golden necklace with a pendant in the shape of a bolt. 

"Hello.", she said shyly and he held out his hand, "Hm?"

"I told you that wasn't the last time you danced with me.", she held his hand and they walked to the center of the room. Everyone that was dancing quickly cleared the space to give them room and the crowd formed a circle around the couple.

"Everyone is watching.", she whispered.

"You're self-conscious now? After all that?", he asked. 

"I still get shy... I just don't show it.", he grabbed her waist like he had done before and his touch felt familiar and comforting, she relaxed into it.

"If it serves you of any comfort, my Queen, they are staring because you are painfully breathtaking. Everything about you.", he confessed in her ear while they danced across the room.

"I'm not your Queen yet.", she smiled and he smirked.

"Yet. Words hold a big meaning, Darling."

"Do they? Who knew?", he swinged her around the ballroom, she laughed and he smiled, she talked and he listened, she was light and he was her shadow.

After so many twists and turns, the couple left the dancing space and walked to a balcony to get some air. Atlas made the rain stop after they parted ways so it was safe to be outside staring at the starry sky.

"I made a wish this morning.", she confessed.

"What was your wish?", he asked. He was leaning on the stone wall while she sat in a chair next to him on top of his dark coat, because he didn't want her sitting on a wet chair.

"I wish I could have hugged my brother longer. My wish came true thanks to you.", she looked at him. He looked even taller since she was sitting down, therefore she had to tilt her head back to properly look at him.

"I didn't do much.", he turned his face away. Her beauty had become unbearable to him with the moonlight shining on her. Her doe eyes were two pools of green and blue and they shined brightly at him, her defined nose painted in freckles had him fighting the urge to kiss the tip of her nose and her cupid bow shaped lips were a temptation. Astra was angelical, a sweet contrast to his normal persona. A personality she hasn't met yet and, if she did, she wouldn't be the target of it.

"It meant a lot, Eiran. I'll forever be grateful to you.", she got up and hugged him. He was startled. Yes, she had touched him before, they have held hands and danced before, but this? Them hugging in a lonely balcony with the moon and stars as their witnesses? This was a level of intimacy they haven't explored before, that he hasn't known until her, hugs were a foreign language to him. 

"You don't have to thank me, really. I just.. I wanted you to be safe, even if you didn't felt safe by my side and chose a different path. If you look at it, I was being selfish?", she took her head out of the crook of his neck and stared at him smiling, with her arms still around his neck.

"You call that being selfish?"

"I did it for my own reasons."

"Your reasons were my well-being. That makes your action selfless, not selfish."

"There's no point arguing with you, is there?", he chuckled and she got closer again, resting her head on the crook of his neck once more. Astra was tired, she didn't do much really, but the events of the day were wearing her out, especially emotionally but she felt comfortable in the place she was, in his arms.

"Can I stay here? Do we have to go back inside?", she asked and he patted her back with one hand while the other hugged her waist.

"It's almost midnight, the party should be ending soon. You will be able to rest in no time."

"I don't...", she trailed off and his hand stopped. There was something she wasn't telling him, he previously thought she was just tired, but maybe there was something else that made her exhausted and disapproving of going back in.

"What is it?", his hand went back to her waist, and she hugged him closer.

"Nothing."

"You can talk to me, Darling.", he returned the gesture and hugged her tighter.

"I know. I'm sorry, I'm okay, I guess I'm just tired.", lies, he thought.

"I'll come for you first thing in the morning. We'll travel by carriage, it will take some days but I promise it won't be a bad trip."

She caressed his cheek and the urge to cry rose in her, but no tears fell, luckily. What Eiran didn't know was the terror that awaited Astra as soon as she was back in her room, the whiplashes, the mind breaking and painful words, the ripped clothes and the broken flesh, new scars will meet her older ones. 

"We should go.", she said.

"Are you certain you're alright?", he asked tilting her head with his finger on her chin, he examined her face, hoping to get anything that could tell him what changed her mood.

"Of course,", she replied with a smile on her face, "it will be the last time".