Elder
1559 Words
----Elder----
***Lanie's POV***
The morning sun crept through the curtains as I cracked open my eyes, bleary-eyed.
Looking around, I recognized the unfamiliar fabric on the bed and the layout of the bed.
"It wasn't a dream…" My voice wasn't much higher than a whisper but it held so much heartbreak.
"Miss Lockhearte?"
A thin woman entered my room after she knocked. I could sense a hint of pity in her eyes. I’m guessing the whole guild knew I was brought here against my will now.
"The elder wishes to see you."
“Tell him he can take his cane and go shove it up where the sun doesn’t shine.” I growled, rolling over and away from the girl.
I heard a sharp gasp from the girl as the door closed. I may be a prisoner here, but I will not make it easy. They had me and had what they wanted. I was going to show them that while they had won, I wasn’t going to be pushed around.
I expected a very angry elder at my door shortly and smirked. He could come and scream all he wanted. I didn’t even care anymore. I was like an animal, caged and attacking anything or anyone that came near.
Instead, Blaze’s voice sounded from the door.
“Lanie, you can’t really tell my father to go shove it if you don’t want him to retaliate against your family or…” He couldn’t even finish the sentence, I’m guessing. He knew I loved Alec and that my heart would never be whole without him.
Alec was the air I breathed. The pain in his eyes haunted me as I broke his heart. I wished for his arms, his warmth. I wished for him.
“I may be a prisoner here, but I’m not going to bend over to your father’s whims. He can go back to whatever throne he thinks he has and go boss his other people around.” I quipped, rolling over in my bed to glare sharply at Blaze as he entered the room.
Blaze sighed as he sat on the edge of the bed, his eyes reminded me of a wounded animal.
“Lanie, please… just play the part for now. Give him what he wants and…” Blaze trailed off, looking down sadly.
“And what, Blaze? Marry you and just forget about Alec? That’s not happening.” My eyes narrowed, my lips forming a tight scowl.
“Lanie, I love you. I’ve loved you ever since we were little. You were the only one to even treat me like just another person. I love you enough to try to find a way to get you back to Alec… but for now, I need you to play the part. Play my fiancee and I promise to try to find a way. Your happiness is more important to me than making my father happy.”
My eyes widened in shock as they immediately scanned Blaze’s features to see if he was lying to me. Besides a profound sadness in his eyes, I couldn’t sense any disingenuity in his words or eyes.
“You’d really do that for me, Blaze?” My eyebrows knitted in confusion at his suggestion. He would do that for me? Why?
“Yes. I love you enough to let you go to be truly happy. I just ask that you play along for now.”
“Okay, Blaze.” Getting out of bed, I went to the bathroom to change into a dress and brush my hair before coming out.
“Let’s go, then.”
Blaze got up and offered the crook of his arm while I weaved my arm into his.
“This is just an act. This is just to get your father to believe the charade.” I reiterated but felt a pang in my heart, knowing that he felt this strongly about me to do this. This must be killing himself inside.
Walking to the foyer, the elder was sitting there and seemed pleased at the fact our arms were linked.
“My son and his beautiful wife to be! It is so refreshing to see you both getting along already. Now, what I wouldn’t give to see you kiss!” The elder clasped his hands together happily but the look in his eyes seemed to challenge us into proving it to him.
“Father, Lanie and I have spoken at length and wish for our relationship to progress naturally. I wouldn’t want to share our first kiss together until we felt like it was the right time.” Blaze interjected which caused the elder to raise an eyebrow.
“No matter. You both will kiss in front of all our brethren at your wedding in a month!”
“A MONTH?!” We both gasped in unison, looking at each other in pure shock.
“Of course, I wanted to have your wedding in a few days, but the guild wants to give you both a proper wedding so we are using a month to prepare. I’ve also taken the liberty to set up a date for you both today to get you both used to each other.” The elder grinned, much like a bully putting a magnifying glass over ants to burn them with the sun. He enjoyed watching me suffer; to be his puppet on a string.
Tears once again threatened my eyes but I swallowed them down quickly to keep my composure. A month and I wouldn’t be able to be with Alec if Blaze couldn’t get me out of the guild. It wasn’t a lot of time, would we be able to make it work?
“Thank you for the opportunity, father. I am sure that Lanie and I will make best use of the time.” Blaze kept a very even voice as he addressed the Elder.
“Wonderful! I wasn’t sure what you kids did these days. I figured there is a… what do you call them… a club? I think that’s what they are called. We rented the whole thing out for our guild, you and Lanie to dance your heart’s content out tonight. Consider it your engagement gift from me.”
A whole club, emptied and rented by only us? By the guild? It didn’t seem like somewhere they would rent out as the witches tend to keep to themselves. Something felt extremely off.
“That’s such a great present! Thank you so much, Elder.” I smiled as genuinely as I could without giving away the fact that I wanted to run a knife right through him.
“Great! The group will leave tonight at five o’clock. Make sure to wear your best dancing gear to boogie or whatever you young ones call it.” The elder laughed.
A groan escaped Blaze’s lips. “Father, you know I don’t know how to dance! Why would you do this?”
“I figured Lanie could take the rest of the morning to teach you.” An evil glint shined brightly in the Elder’s eyes.
“Come on, babe. I’ll give you some lessons.” I said hastily, using ‘babe’ as a way to coddle the elder for a bit.
“Please excuse us, Elder.” I bowed before practically dragging Blaze out of the room and into a meeting hall.
“Looks like your father knew all of this and set it up so we can spend time together to learn to dance to prove that we are getting closer.” Sighing, I pinched the bridge of my nose.
“I know how to dance. The elder knew that since I took dance in school before I left. We can spend some time together doing that.”
I found a sound system and turned the music on. Upbeat and quick beats came on as I went over to him.
“Now, quick songs, we can kind of cheat by swaying out bodies back and forth as we hold each other.” Confidentally, I put my arms around his neck as he placed his around my waist. Swaying my body to the beat, he did the same to match my rhythm.
“See! You’re doing okay already! We can just do this, maybe add some hand gestures here and there with fist pumps or something. Now we just need to turn a little as we do this. Usually the man leads and the woman follows, try it.”
With that, Blaze took a step and I followed.
“See, that was easy!” I smiled happily towards him as a blush crept onto his cheeks.
The song had turned into a slow song as I pulled him close to me, our bodies touching, with his cheeks looking like they were on fire. Truthfully, being in his arms like this felt nice and also wrong at the same time.
“N-Now, we just move slowly in a circle with you leading.” I stammered.
“O-okay.” Blaze started to take a few steps and I followed before he stumbled.
“Blaze!” I felt myself falling with him as he quickly gripped me close to his chest. His back hit the wooden flooring with a large thud that knocked the wind out of him.
“Are you okay?” I lifted my head up to check on him and our lips were inches apart. I felt frozen in place. Why was this happening to me? I loved Alec! What are these feelings that I get when I am so close to Blaze?
We lay frozen in time until Blaze quickly moved his head up and our lips met each other’s in a gentle kiss.
- Writer
