Hiding Royalty

17

Midnight was falling over the small island as Lyra led Liam out into a clearing in the wood where fireflies flew about drowsily and the moon cast down its beams onto them. Forcing a smile, Liam took Lyra's hands and together they swayed in the cool night breeze coming from the direction of the sea. She felt safe in his arms, and he found a small degree of warmth in his chest from being so close to her.

The trees watched as they moved slowly in a warm silence, not an uncomfortable one, and they would occasionally exchange small smiles. Lyra had hoped that dancing in such a serene and scenic setting would take his mind off the grief and guilt he was feeling. They soon grew breathless, and sat down in the centre of the clearing on the dry ground.

"I know nothing about you Lyra, or at least I thought I did but I see now that I don't. I had all these ideas about what you were supposed to be like, and I see now that you're not like that," Liam mumbled as he pulled as a long strand of grass, averting his attention down to the floor.

"I understand, don't fret about it. Growing up in a land where the monarchy is hated and you are a princess, next in line to the throne, is hard. You learn to grow thick skin," she whispered to him, and he met her eyes and for a moment he thought he saw a great sadness in them.

"Tell me about your past Lyra, I want to know about you. The real you," he leant forward and took her hands in his and held them.

"Every child grows up thinking their parents are the best people in the whole, entire world. To me, my mother was the prettiest woman in all the lands, and my father was like a god. Having to understand and recognise that these people I saw as deities on land were hated was so hard. I only saw the best of them, never what the people saw," she paused for a moment as she took a deep breath, and looked over at Liam to gauge his reaction.

There was no doubt in her mind that Liam was not a fan of the monarchy. It was under her father's own orders that Liam had battled the wizard who had inflicted the Yamach on him that had haunted him for so long. His face was pulled into a grimace, but be showed no sign of hate or disgust.

"It must have been hard," Liam replied when a silence fell over them, and she nodded slightly with a sheepish look on her face.

"Liam I have to tell you something," Lyra bit her lip slightly, feeling herself becoming impulsive, "I have grown very fond of you. I think I may love you."

She looked away and blushed, her innocent statement fully expressing her feelings for Liam; over the whole journey she had found herself falling utterly and completely in love with him. There was nothing about him that she did not love, his flaws made him the person she wanted to spend every second with.

Liam sat in shock for a moment, and for the first time in those past few hours his mind was off Emma. He had expected that Lyra had developed a small, girlish crush on him but he had not expected that she felt such an intense and strong emotion towards him. He didn't know how to react, and sat in silence as his brain processed everything around him.

Since he was a child, he had believed that he would end up marrying Emma; at such a frivolous age he hadn't taken much thought of actual love, and had decided that he would much rather marry his best friend than anyone else. But Emma was gone, and he knew that she would never come back again.

Perhaps I could love her, Liam thought while staring at Lyra. There was no denying her beauty, but there was a softness to her character that he had seen that was endearing. The more he thought, the more his brain picked up every thing Lyra had done that was worthy of his love.

She cared about him, she hadn't ran away when he had told her about the Yamach, and she hadn't left him. She wanted to be in his presence as much as he did hers. Instead of speaking, he stroked the soft skin of her cheek that sparkled in the starlight.

Whether these intense feelings he was suddenly feeling towards Lyra were summoned by her words or they had been there all along didn't matter, because Liam came to the conclusion that he could feel the same way as she did. He had never known love, not the raw kind that he felt for Lyra. The love he felt for Emma was like the love between siblings- a warm, nostalgic kind of love.

Looking at his face, Lyra slowly traced the scars on his face and the stubble on his chin. Their eyes met and almost like telepathy they knew they were having the same thoughts. Their lips met with a passion unknown to either of them, and under the canopy of trees they shared their first kiss. She was tentative, he was careful. It was like they didn't want to break the silence around them, or break from the fantasy they were living in.