Rhys

20

Rhys wants to cry at the thought of her mother showing up again. Now he truly has no desire for food. 

How the hell is he supposed to do what Lia wants him to? Just the thought makes him sick, but he promised and if all goes well the supers will be as free as the humans that aren't controlled by the Fates.

Rhys wipes away his tears. To free his people he must do his part. That Lia will forgive him if he does makes it even better. He knows that Lia has forgiven him somewhat or she wouldn't have let him mark her or touch her for that matter.

The thought that she might be carrying his child right now makes him want to protect her from this crazy scheme, but he can't. She's the only one that can do this. Not even her mother can do it.

Thoughts of her mother make him sick once more.

Rhys concentrates on thoughts of his child, he's not sure, but he's going with the thought that the child is his, and it settles him. For his child, for Lia, he can do anything. He doesn't want his children to be puppets of the Fates like Lia and him were/are.

Rhys takes out the jeweler's box and looks at the necklace. At least he'll be able to give this to her before...

The necklace is white gold. The pendant is white gold encrusted with diamond dust. There are several diamonds of uniform size forming a circle. The circle is broken by a diamond acting like a shooting star. His symbol, done in white gold and diamonds.

He hopes that she'll wear it always, since his symbol will be gone from her after tonight. The thought of her leaving makes him fall to his knees.

"You look beautiful," Rhys says coming into the room. He purposely didn't knock. Ginny gives him a nervous look and scurries out once Lia gives her a nod.

"Rhys, I thought we fixed that problem of you coming in without knocking?" Lia mock growls.

Rhys gives her a kiss along her neck. Lia moans in pleasure. "You'll be leaving me, Lia. I need one more time with you."

Lia turns in his arms. She was going to deny him but when she sees his look of devastation she can't. She needs this too. "You'll have to be careful, Ginny doesn't have time to redo my hair. This is stupid, dress up all the time for dinner."

Rhys doesn't answer he's too busy kissing her and soon she's too lost to talk.

"Thank you, Lia. I have another gift for you." Rhys tells her after they are both redressed.

Lia looks at him. "You don't need to give me things, Rhys. It's your love that I want, not things."

"You will be leaving me, my mark gone. I need you to take this and wear it. I don't know how else I'm going to survive this, I need you to do this for me."

Lia opens the box and gasps, "It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. There's no way I'll be able to leave this behind."

"I had a witch enspell the necklace. It won't be seen unless you want it seen and the chain won't break. I will be the only one to be able to take it off you once I place it on you." Rhys waits for her to okay it before placing it on her.

Lia smiles, "Then I'll be able to wear it always and not have to worry about it being seen. Go ahead, Rhys. I'll miss you."

"This is going to damn near kill me, Lia." Rhys gets a text notification. He looks at the text, "William is five minutes out. I'll send him up here to talk. I'll be in the front room waiting for you."

"Thank you for sacrificing so much, Rhys. I know you are trusting me a great deal, I promise you won't be disappointed." Lia says with tears in her own eyes.

"None of that, or we'll both be in tears." Rhys tells her and wipes her eyes.

"I wouldn't do this..."

"If there was a different way I have no doubt you'd have done that. I trust you, Lia, you and William both. I think you two are the only ones that I do fully trust." With that Rhys turns to leave. He needs to put some space between them or he won't be able to do his part.

Just before he leaves, "I love you, Lia, more than life. Just know that."

 Then he leaves as he hears her whisper, "I do."

Lia is fighting her tears when William knocks at her door some few minutes later. She moves to the door slowly like an old woman and opens it. William can tell something is wrong, but doesn't know what. "Did Rhys hurt you again?" He demands even as he enfolds her in his arms.

"Not this time." Lia soaks his love up and pulls him into her room.

William goes in willingly, but looks at her. He doesn't think she wants sex. "I need to talk to you. I would have told you earlier but you were gone. I tried texting you but you never responded."

"I got into a fight at the palace, with the King's guards." William says more than a little sheepishly. Lia looks at him in alarm. This could ruin everything.

"I had witnesses, several, that the guards rushed me without provocation. The king had no choice but to not do anything against me." William is quick to reassure her.

Only then does Lia notice the cuts in his clothes and smell the dried blood. Fire ignites in her eyes. "What the hell happened and don't lie to me William."

"One of the guards pulled out a knife and tried to gut me. I ended up killing both guards, Lia. I did my best not too, but I had no choice if I wanted to live." William doesn't like the look in her eyes and so says hesitantly, "They were following the king's orders, but because of the witnesses he had to let me go free. He wasn't happy."

"I'm going to enjoy it when he dies." Lia hisses angrily.

"He was more than a little shocked to see my mark." William says smugly.

"Good, that might be enough to warn him off."

"The princess was livid." William has his own devilment in his eyes.

"But that isn't the reason Rhys sent me here and is doing his best to get drunk."

"No." Lia says and looks down. She's a few steps away from William at this time and isn't sure how to say this now that the time is here.

She takes a deep breath, looks up at William and spits it out. "I'm pregnant. I would have told you earlier..."

"But my phone was broken in the fight and I had to get a new one on the way home." William is smiling at first but then he realizes that the tears Lia has in her eyes aren't ones of happiness.

He steps towards her and she tells him the plan.

He has a hard time holding back his own tears. He agrees to it, but they are going to be living in hell for an unknown length of time.