Feather Light

Chapter 6

On the second night when she appeared silently on the balcony, I knew she was there before she spoke. I always knew where she was. How could I not? I was obsessed. I could hear her voice as she laughed in the kitchen with my brother, catch her scent on the wind as she slept, sense her as she moved between rooms. As she breathed the same air as me, only steps away, my pain disappeared once more.

In the wake of all the turmoil of the last few days, I had turned to the only book I knew that could hold my mind captive. I had already been a voracious reader; now I read non-stop to keep my mind from constantly returning to her. But as soon as she stepped out onto the balcony, the book was forgotten as my memory flew through the events leading up to that moment.

After returning home with our injured charge, my head pain stayed gone. I lurked in the clinic, staring at her, absorbing every detail, logging every measurement and element of her into my mind. Leigh laid her out in the spare bed and sent me off to mine, but the second I stepped out into the corridor, the headache returned, a familiar and unwelcome friend.

As a chronic, long-term sufferer of migraine pain, the complete absence of discomfort had shocked me deeply, but it required analysing. I retreated to my room to process what had just happened.

For hours I thrashed in my bed, but I couldn't sleep, only think. There were only two possibilities from what I could deduce. Perhaps my lack of pain was pure coincidence, a freak respite brought on by the adrenaline rush caused by the chase and the lack of oxygen from our climb.

Or there was a second option; it was her.

The problem for me was the concept didn't make a modicum of sense. How could a person serve as pain relief? Leigh had helped soften the ache in the past by providing distraction or entertainment, but this wasn't the case here. The complete lack of pain seemed to come about simply by being in her presence.

I had to know for certain, had to test the theory with an experiment. Slipping out onto the balcony, I made my way down to the room where she lay.

Leigh was unconscious on a chair in the corner, snoring softly. In the bed, she lay like a fairy-tale princess, asleep and relaxed. The instant my eyes found her, the pain melted away again, as if it had never existed in the first place. She was like a balm, the panacea to my ills.

How could this be? The pain might have been gone, but the all-consuming desire to understand remained. I moved close to her form, fascinated as to how one girl I'd never even spoken to, could be my remedy.

It wasn't just the easing of pain that made her captivating; it was the way my heart rate increased, my shallowness of breath, the rush of new emotions within me. And the most intriguing aspect was that I didn't even care to comprehend it. I just wanted to be near her.

She awoke. I never really understood people, especially people experiencing extreme emotions like anger or fear, but her terror was evident to me as she lit out running and made a leap for the open sky.

I'd seen the sheet, wrapped around her wings like a death sentence the moment she started to run. Calculating in my head, I knew the difference between her falling or my chance to catch her was only milliseconds. I would have grabbed for her anywhere else if there had been a choice, but there wasn't. I didn't feel guilty about it. A broken wing was a better alternative to spinal injuries, head trauma or possible death.

When she dropped down into Leigh's arms, I knew my continued presence would be counterproductive. I returned to my room and my headache followed momentarily.

Leigh stopped by to inform me of her progress, and her name. Keira. Even the sound of the two syllables was soothing to my overloaded mind.

For the next twenty-four hours, I attempted to sleep and failed. I attempted to understand and failed. All I knew for certain was that I was consumed, overcome with feeling towards this person who had appeared like a bolt of lightning and split my logical world in two.

I was hyperaware of her presence, constantly cognizant of her location within the house. I knew she was back in her room, knew she had slept, knew she woke, knew she moved to the window and watched me. And now she moved towards me.

I had no words. I wasn't a talker. Words had a way of twisting up on their way out of my mouth. What I meant almost always came out wrong. So I sat and watched her and waited for her to talk first.

She stopped a few feet away and leaned her back on the rail. Her unbroken wing fluttered in the night air like a banner. She was white and blonde and yellow, sunshine and open skies. Her grey eyes watched me, unblinking and cool.

"I'm Keira," she said, her voice slightly husky and low.

"I know," I replied.

She rolled her eyes. "Right. That's where a normal person would say, 'I'm Noah.'"

I considered this. "What makes you think I'm normal?"

Surprising me, she laughed, a sound of pure light. "You're right. We're the opposite of normal. Winged weirdos, we are."

Although I didn't entirely understand her mirth, I enjoyed the sound of her laughter on a primal level. Silence descended and she studied me with a measured stare.

"What are you reading?" she asked eventually.

I flipped the cover for her to read and she moved closer to see. Her scent suddenly flooded my head, sugar and lime. Her hair fell forward in a sheet over her shoulders as she leaned down. With a furrowed brow, she read the title out loud. "The Bible? Really?"

"Really," I said, watching her retreat back to the railing. "It's a good book."

"Well, yeah," she said hesitantly. "I guess I didn't expect it. I don't know what I expected."

"Then you can't be disappointed," I pointed out. "Do you believe?"

"Believe what?"

I indicated the book. "God. Jesus. Angels and Mary and Satan. Do you believe?"

She twisted away, her face uncomfortable. "I don't really know enough about it all. I never went to Sunday School or anything." A half smile played on her mouth. "I remember the story of Noah."

Unable to stay in my chair any longer, I stood and joined her at the railing. I only meant to stand next to her, but I couldn't keep my distance. Magnetised, I moved in until I was only inches away from her, staring down as she gazed up. Softly, I spoke. "Everyone remembers Noah."

We stood, close enough that I could feel the heat from her skin, close enough to see the light freckles on her cheeks and the silver in her eyes. She did not move and neither did I.

I knew very little about girls. Or women. I'd made a decision a long time ago about who my life belonged to. Additional to that was the way I looked and my nature; I never thought I'd need to consider love, romance, sex. My expectation was to lead a life of celibacy and study, to be a modern day monk, sequestered in my room compiling knowledge for all my days.

Yet, here I was, nose to nose with this exquisite creature, her breath on my chest and her mouth only a heartbeat away. Words slipped unbidden from my lips as I struggled to keep my fingers from tracing the lines of her face. "How can you not believe, when you look so much like an angel?"

I couldn't handle the thought of her breaking this moment, one of the few in my life that I would consider as perfect. Tearing away from her, I pushed up onto the railing and out into the cool night. I didn't look back. I didn't trust myself not to fly straight back and capture her in my arms.

Theevening swallowed me up and my pain returned. I prayed quietly as I climbed higher and out to sea. I prayed for strength, for direction, fordistraction. 

Intense, physical attraction - a good thing?  Or not?  Discuss below!  

Noah's chapters tend to be like him; they use less words.  I'll post again soon.  Remember to vote, my darling.

xxoo Kate