I held my breath as she turned the handle at a pace that felt agonizingly slow.
She had bewitched me, this simple little princess, in just a few weeks' time. I wasn't sure how she managed to get through my ever-hardening heart. Perhaps it was her meekness, her shy character that was as humble as could be. Or, it could have been her outward beauty, her long hair and glimmering eyes. Those eyes. They seemed to entrap me from the moment I first looked into them.
I was never one for love, I didn't care for those stories in our history books. The ones of the Perfects meeting and, somehow, righting the wrongs of our world. And yet, they never seemed to be able to fix all of them, and never seemed to care. As long as they fixed just enough, they were content. They lived their lives on, seemingly with a happy ever after.
But, I knew better. I knew that nothing was ever as easy as it seemed in the books. Those books, though they were our history, were full of fluff, of things made to make it seem more glamourous than it really was. They were full of romance, of all of the wars that we had won. But, they failed to include the couples that weren't Perfects, that weren't able to complete the bond. They didn't include the wars and battles that we had lost, the hundreds of brave creatures and people that had died.
I knew better than to believe what I read in books.
When she walked into the room, she gasped, and I thought she didn't like it. I worried that she would be furious at me for making the room for her, that she wouldn't want to stay with me. Even the small amount of work we've made, I still worried that she would think that I was moving too fast.
When she turned to me, she had a smile on her face and tears in her eyes. She gave me a tight, lingering hug, her tears wetting my tunic. "Thank you," she whispered.
I glanced at the room over her head, proud myself for bringing her happiness. The room was small, there's no doubt about that. But, with the princess's presence, it made even the smallest hole in the wall feel like a castle.
There was nothing in the room except for a plain, wooden bed with a matching night table, an oil lamp, a bookshelf, and a small armoire. I wish I could give her more, because she deserved so much more. But, she didn't seem to mind the meagerness of it.
"I'm glad that you like it. I was afraid that you wouldn't have."
"It's perfect, I love it."
I smiled and gestured to the bookshelf. "Ina knows a good bookstore in town. She said she'll take you one day. No one can ever have enough books, or so she says."
She laughed. "That's true, I do like a good book every now and then."
I sighed, wrapping my arms back around her. "So, do you like it? Really like it?"
She laid her head on my shoulder. "I really do. I wouldn't lie to you."
I tightened my hold on her. "I have one last surprise for you, but you can't have it until tonight."
I felt her stiffen a little, and I laughed. "Not that kind of surprise, my dear. We just have to wait until the sun sets."
She relaxed and laughed a little herself. "You always seem to know what I'm thinking. It's like a gift or something."
"It is a gift. I can't hear your thoughts, but I can feel your emotions. It's part of the bond."
I felt her head against my chest as she nodded. "I'd forgotten about that."
We stood there for some time, her head on my chest, my arms wrapped around her. Neither of us seemed to notice as the room slowly turned darker as the day passed us by. Just being there with each other, holding each other as lovers would, felt like a million stars had just aligned and created an arrow pointing straight at us.
I moved my arms, panicking when the princess started to slip. Quickly, I tightened my arms back around her as she jolted awake, clasping her hands tight around my arms as to brace herself. I laughed once she was upright. She slapped my arm playfully, crossing her own across her chest.
"I don't know what you find so funny." She said curtly, going to the mirror hanging above her dresser to fix her hair.
"Just you, Princess. You seem to amuse me in ways I can't describe."
"Well, if you weren't so comfortable, I wouldn't have fallen asleep."
I chuckled again as I glanced out the window by her bed. "Finish getting ready, we'll leave in a bit."
She nodded, and I made my way to my room. Throwing myself on the bed, I ran a hand down my face, wondering how far I would fall before I was completely lost in the girl that should have been dead.
Unlike any girl I'd ever seen, she was like a painting by a master, kept from the world. Her laughter was contagious, reaching all the way to her eyes as the melody slowly captured the air of any room. Her smile made me, of all people, weak at the knees. Her hair fell down her back in the softest curls, curls that I wanted to run my fingers through all day.
This girl, this princess, she had to know magic. She must have trained under the chief wizards to have bewitched me as she had. She had taken over my thoughts, my emotions. I leave her at night counting down the minutes until I see her again, savoring every moment we're together. I knew that it was the incomplete bond that was causing such strong feelings. But, those feelings would've had to be there in the beginning in order for the bond to intensify them, would they not?
When she knocked on the door, I realized how much time I had wasted in my thoughts. Changing my shirt and combing my hair, I met her outside our home. Smiling and taking her hand, she laid her head on my shoulder as we walked out into the night.
agN/V9#m
