Gemini|| #Wattys2019

Chapter 15

For the next hour and a half Atlas keeps preaching about civil disobedience, and the "corrupt New Sector", and peaceful Renegades, and "the Zodiac is utter nonsense".

I spend the hour and a half trying to decipher his body language and facial expressions and figure out exactly what he wants with me. If he doesn't believe in the Zodiac, why is he so worried about the taboo? Does he really love me? Am I just a pawn he needs for his cause?

"So what do I have to do with any of this?" I lift my eyes from the soggy dirt that I've been staring at for the last few minutes.

"I'm sorry?" His brows furrow in confusion but he manages to meet my gaze. The first time I met these eyes they were cold, unforgiving. Like a slab of hard stone. But now, I see them in an entirely new light. Gray eyes are only gray eyes until you really get to know them. Atlas' eyes aren't stone. They're soft and endearing.

If I star long enough I can imagine tiny, wispy clouds in a still lake's reflection drifting through those eyes.

"Aurelia?" I snap out of my daze.

"It's just, when you saved my life the first time and introduced yourself, you said something about having to protect me. Like you were told to do so." I trail off as I remember the reason we met. He hadn't taken interest in me, he was just following orders. And with the memory comes a pant of guilt as well. All this time, I'd barely thought of Franz. For all I know he could be dead. My head dips back to the ground.

"Relly, look at me—"

"No. No, I can't do that." The response is immediate. Too quick.

"Relly..." Atlas lifts my chin and leans in close, our faces mere millimeters apart.

Seconds before our lips connect, I turn my head and he misses.

"Atlas what do you want from me?" My question lingers in the air. A soft cry of pure emotion. A tear slips down my supple cheek and he brushes it away with a single calloused thumb.

"Aurelia, what I want is not something we can have." He whispers.

"Then quit playing with my emotions." My voice breaks and through his eyes I can see that something in him breaks as well.

"Aurelia, you're engaged!" Atlas throws his arm down in frustration. Before I can catch myself, a bitter chuckle escapes my lips.

"That didn't seem to stop you last night." He stands, expecting me to do the same but I don't have the energy. So I remain seated on a rotted log.

"You're a princess. The heir to the throne of Gemini. I'm a nobody. A street kid. A forest dweller. A renegade. Not to mention our signs are incompatible. Everything about this breaks the Taboo." He rambles but I stop him short.

"Since when do you care about the Zodiac or the Taboo?" I sound almost pathetic. Like I'm begging him. In my brain I know as well as he does how wrong this is but at this point I don't think my heart cares what my mind has to say.

I rise to my feet and close the distance between us. My hands grab hold of his collar and I pull him into me, planting my lips firmly on his.

Atlas instantly falls into our rhythm, battling for dominance over our lip lock. That is, until he rips away, leaving me breathless and disappointed. My lips tingle in the absence of his.

He tears his gaze away flings his hands up to his hair, gripping the blue strands in his fingers.

"Aurelia! We can't!" Atlas yells out. He won't even face me.

"What? So it's okay when you're trying to kiss me, but not the other way around?!"

Stop this Aurelia. He's right. This is wrong. I can't tell if the voice is mine or Castiel's. I pray it isn't Castiel's.