Every Rose Has It's Thorn

Every Rose Has It's Thorn Chapter 21

Word Count 1,445

Y/N had to see Colson there was no two ways about it. She needed him, she longed for him. 

She ran faster than she ever had before to the chambers where the king kept him prisoner.

Thus, with a gasp, I looked up.

Portals to a deep, blue, his piercing eyes met mine. Emotion suffocated me, unable to even think or speak with my mind and body so lost in those twisted blue labyrinths. They were watery and wide, fierce and yet so undeniably melancholy. 

My mouth was agape with the desire and need to tell him of how I longed for his embrace, his love and passionate words.  But Colson only stared, as if begging me not to break this silent barrier between us in fear of bursting with the raw longing coursing through our veins.

It was an unspoken plea to just allow him the small pleasure of holding me in his arms as we danced to the haunting, gradually discordant music as if it existed.

He was a god in every sense of the word. And to be this close to him...

Suddenly, the fingers on her shoulder burned through her skin like a flame. The hand on her waist made her shake with anticipation as its heat radiated through her core.

Faint redness surrounded the shine of his blue orbs. His ashen complexion appeared almost sickly, the dryness of his lips flaked with neglect. He looked just as he did in the night, when dreams of his love plagued my slumber until I would wake, gasping for his embrace, his eyes, his affection.

Colson held my stare. Fire blurred my vision at the sudden revelation that despite all that had transpired, I was here - in his arms, the crib of his love, and not anywhere else. A sudden swell of emotion brimmed at his eyes as he held me, dug his nails harshly into the flesh of my shoulder to keep from falling over the verge and losing control. The sting of pain struck ferocious but I endured, for every touch, every sensation burned into my memory and I was grateful. His tears glinted in the passing light while his mouth; wet and agape in unspeakable agony, grew numb with the hopelessness that ripped the voice from his constricted throat.

He was so... vulnerable. So tired.

I melted into his healing touch. I could not recall him ever using magic to soothe me, and yet... the sense rang familiar at the back of my mind.

Our movements grew more vigorous by the second, each touch of our palms and every mingled breath searing my flesh with passionate intensity. My chest heaved. Knees trembled. Arms grew in weight and I struggled to maintain the graceful lifts.

Then a high, sustaining note stole through the air and lingered; cue for the male to sweep his partner off her feet.

His hands were on my waist in an instant to bring me off from the floor, and I swear I could no longer register the fact that solid ground existed beneath me. His fingers pressed  beneath my golden belt through the satin of my dress, gently kneading the flesh of my hip in what was not supposed to be a sensual gesture - but still the heat shot through me as the icy contrast of his scalding palms possessed me like a vehement current.

Colson's gaze burned into my forehead; I could feel the jagged blues of his stare slicing at the skin, seeking refuge in my mind, so I gaze. Any course of action seemed more likely to result in a better outcome than meeting Colson's eyes.

Colson grasped my chin and wrestled my focus back to his eyes. His eyes, those watery, crazed depths, fueled with the desperation of a madman. For a second, I noticed the redness in his face. Now being the worst of times for me to realize this. His expression was tortured still, as was I when he continued to chant, "damn you! Damn you, I need you, I need you-"

His mouth was dry as cotton, words pushing against his lips till they grew numb from staying shut. The same words played over and over again in his mind.

I love her.

By the gods, I love her.

Y/N stay motionless, wrapped in his arms, like a dove burrowed deep into its nest for maximum comfort. No simple, slight smile graced her lips but serenity like a silent veil settling upon skin, soaking the flesh with the warmth and dull hum of peace.

Finally the doors to the cell closed without the slightest creak when she left. He wiped his sleeve furiously at his eyes but the tears did not cease to fall.

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Amidst a field of green snakes, I waded, in a frantic attempt to stay above the mass of sliding bodies. I felt the smooth caress of their sides against my ankles as they squirmed and slithered between the cracks of my toes and across my bare feet. The slipping serpents were like tubes of ice beneath my soles as I continued to traverse the sea of shifting clusters. The mass emulated a vast ocean from afar, rippling sage with each bending movement of the hectic ophidians.

My eyes, overwhelmed by flashes of bright green, scanned my surroundings... only to find that they were limited, without even a horizon to cast my focus upon. Never had I laid eyes on such a vivid scene which gripped at my soul and filled my heart so fully with hope. Patches of green, with shades varying from dark to light, begged me to cast a glance their way. As I yielded to their request, minuscule black eyes returned my stare by the millions. Each pair watched me intently, never concealed by their lids for they remained open without fault. It should have felt greatly unsettling for some and yet, as I peered into those beady, curious pools of black, something within me seemed to swell and grow magnificently. A feeling of renewal, of surging energy, reborn from grief, pushed against the confines of my innards as it shot through my body to the very tips of my fingers. 

Then out of nothing, a whisper. 

My name. 

I whipped my head round to the direction from which I reckoned the voice had come. I waited intently, ears perked for any noise apart from the curious hisses of the serpent crowd. 

I continued to look around until my eyes fell upon a slender, black form just a few feet away from where I stood. Another snake; similar in length to all the others but glossed with a coat of pitch lay in a motionless state, though I could tell it was anything but dormant as the surrounding reptiles visibly parted to reveal a grassy path on which the black snake rested. Like the still air, I waited - my breath suspended as the serpent slowly but surely lifted its head. A flicker of tongue darted from its mouth in a steady hiss. 

The stirs of impending danger wallowed in my stomach, and I was overwhelmed by a strong sense of unease. I stepped backwards instinctively, hoping to be rid of the suffocating distress that caged me. As soon as I did so I froze with regret. The grass crunched in disturbance beneath my foot, disrupting the silence that had unsettled and calmed me all at once before I'd moved. I could already feel, without a doubt, that the snake's attention was now undividedly on me. 

Inky pools, observing my every movement akin to a hawk monitoring its subject of prey. 

I heard my name being called again, this time as if someone were speaking it directly into my ear, briefly distracting me from the glinting fangs on either side of the serpent's jaw as it parted into a vicious grin.

A sudden energy surged through my veins, causing me to bolt awake in my bed. Frantically, my eyes searched the surrounds for some semblance of familiarity while my heart thumped against my rib cage in trepidation. No hints of green lay coiled in dim-lit corners, nor was the dark serpent anywhere to be found in the room that I gradually remembered to be my chambers. In fact there was no trace of those hues at all, for the space was draped in similar shades of scarlet and a rich, milky fabric, lined with artfully frayed gold thread. Never had it crossed my mind that this was by far my least favorable combination of colors, so why I'd been subjected to this excessive array of aggressive-looking decor was far beyond me.