These Streaks of Blood

34

Nelye sits in the mud along a dirty riverbank. She isn't sure where she is; she doesn't really care. She had just wanted to get away. It's not often that someone speaks up against her, and Olivia had not only done so, but had brought Galador to confront his doubts. She had needed him; if she hadn't, she would never have been involved with him at all. He was so temperamental, so easy to seduce, to persuade of anything and everything if she went about it the right way.  

She knows, in time, he will beg for her to come back to him, to give him another chance. He will cry out apologies, tell her that he will not, cannot, love any other woman, that he will wait as long as it takes for her to forgive him. That he will wait as long as it takes for her to accept his hand in marriage. The problem is, she doesn't care about him. She was using him, and now, she has to wait.

She doesn't have time to wait.

She remembers the look on Ryffin's face, the way he had threatened to hurt her if she didn't tell him what he wanted to know. I will do whatever it takes.

She fantasizes what it would be like, for him to say those same words about her, if they were together, if he returned her feelings and she was taken away from him. Without Nelye, there is nothing. A heartwrenching sentiment, one she can't keep in her mind for long without feeling like she is setting her own heart aflame.

Nelye still hasn't changed out of her trench coat, and she knows that the material will be ruined in this mud. She can't remember the last time she missed a chance to change her outfit, besides when she was traveling with Ryffin. But right now, she doesn't want to go home. That is the last place she had seen Ryffin, and though she wants to see him more than anything, she is absolutely petrified that she might meet him there.

Oh, Ryffin. She clutches at her pendant, closing her eyes. What if he hurt himself? He left in such a hurry, with such urgency... he was so overcome with rage. What if he ran right into a fight? What if the twins hurt him? What if he's dead?

Swamped with a sudden sense of panic, Nelye shouts out his name. Though she knows the pendant can't show her his current location, can't show her anything but good times in their past, it is all she wants, to see the state he's in right now. To know that he's okay. A little banged-up would be fine, but he can't be dead. He can't be, he can't be.

She feels the wind pick up around her, feels the familiar sensation of transporting through time. When her stomach settles again, she opens her wistful eyes to a scene that makes her heart drop.

"Galador wouldn't stop looking at you. Again."

Nelye laughs gently, whirling around so that she's pressed up against his chest.

"It doesn't matter. You know I have eyes only for you, my love," she purrs, the mocking tone she is trying to use overwhelmed by the truth of her words. Ryffin smiles down at her.

"Glad to hear it. I don't think I'd put up with competition very well."

Nelye giggles again, and his eyes sparkle with amusement. He reaches his hand up to lift her chin and leans in close, teasing her. He speaks, and his lips move lightly against hers. She refrains from tugging him closer only because she wants to hear what he has to say.

"You look beautiful tonight," he whispers. Nelye closes her eyes, absorbing his words, trying to calm the butterflies in her stomach that never go away in his presence.

"Is tonight different than any other night?" she jokes breathlessly. He laughs, and it is obvious that he wants her, that he craves her touch.