A forbidden love

Chapter 10 : Silent promises

"Took you long enough." The fae watched me as I sat down on the floor next to his cell, he was obviously expecting me. I kept silent for a while, not sure where to start. I was relieved when he broke the silence first, "You are my soulmate." 

Everything was quiet for a little while longer. I looked at him, I saw what seemed to be sorrow in his eyes, "Say something." I didn't know much about soulmates, but I knew enough to know that rejection was a different kind of pain. Physical pain would go away, but rejection is hard to get through. "Elves don't have soulmates." 

"I thought so too, until I met an elvish princess in an enchanted forest." I began to grow curious, I couldn't help it. "How do you know you have a  soulmate? What's it like?" He looked at me like I was joking, "you really know nothing about it do you?" I shook my head. "It's different for everyone, some times you just know it. But every time you're close to your soulmate, you dream about them. When you find them, you feel complete, like you've found something you haven't even been looking for." 

"Is that how you found me?"  He looked away, was he shy? I laughed at his embarrassment. "We were camping out a few miles away from the forest border, spying on a small nymph village. That's when I started dreaming... about you." I was surprised to see he was already so open with me. "What's a fae prince doing camping near a nymph village?" He smiled, "What's an elvish princess doing in the middle of the forest?" I was reminded of the time we met in the forest. I remember stabbing him with my arrow, I suddenly felt really guilty for doing that. "I...I'm sorry. For hurting you." 

"We heal quickly, there's hardly even a scratch there." I breathed a sigh of relief. We sat in a comfortable silence as I continued to think about what happened, "You shot an arrow at me!" I sat right up as I remembered. If he was my soulmate, why did he attack me? "I didn't recognize you until you stood in front of me aiming that arrow at my shoulder. We can't sniff out our soulmates like werewolves, we recognize them from our dreams." 

I started thinking about all the things he could have dreamt about, I couldn't stop the question from leaving my lips, "What did you see about me in your dreams?" He was quiet, he seemed to have been thinking long and hard on how to answer me. Did he see something embarrassing? Like when he saw me with Soren? Ugh, this was humiliating, I internally cringed at the thought. 

"I saw you with your sister, your mother...you all seemed so happy." He paused for a moment, "and I saw you with that...guy." He spat at the thought of Soren, I laughed, "are you jealous?" He looked away trying to hide his face. "Soren's my-" He cut me off, "I know, your lovemate." The fae looked hurt as he said those words. We were probably both thinking of the time Soren and I almost made love. "I'm sorry you had to see that." 

The silence started getting a little awkward as we shifted in silence. I watched as he looked at me, taking in each of our complexions.  I couldn't deny that he was rather attractive, but how much more he would be if I could see him in the light. I can't believe I was already beginning to fall for this mysterious man. I watched as his eyebrows furrowed in confusion, "didn't I tell you to wear the bloody necklace? What part of 'wear the necklace' do you not understand?"

"Look prince, I don-" I was rudely cut off, "Aanan, I told you my name is Aanan." I blushed hearing his name. "Aanan... I don't need you telling me what to do." My blush deepened as his name rolled off my tongue like honey, I wanted to say it over and over again. "That necklace is the only thing that will keep you safe when I'm not around to protect you." 

"I can take care of myself! I don't need you to protect me." How many more people did I have to remind of my independence? "I know very well that you can Arya, you've fought me before as well." I was surprised to hear him say my name. Hearing it come from his lips felt so right, I wanted him to say it again. My eyes subconsciously traveled down his jawline, to his lips. I felt this sudden urge to kiss them. No Arya, stay focused.

"I know you can defend yourself, but please...just trust me. I just found you, if anything were to happen to you, I couldn't forgive myself." I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I was always told fae were heartless and cruel creatures. The image fit perfectly with the first time I saw him, he looked like some make-shift demon, but he seemed to be very soft-hearted. Unless he was just like this towards me. Did he perhaps already develop feelings for me? How often did he think about me when I wasn't there? I wanted to know so much more.

We spoke for what seemed to feel like hours. He told me about his life and what it was like in his kingdom.  He had two other brothers, a younger one, Jordan and an older one, Collin. His mother died during childbirth to Jordan. He told me what his father was like. They didn't have the best relationship like my mother and I, he was cruel...to everyone. He told me how his older brother, Collin lost his soulmate. The orcs kidn*pped her from her chambers and slaughtered her in front of him. 

He said our two kingdoms were very different. His looked morbid and sad, even the sun shone cold in the summers. There were few plants that grew in their kingdom, and you had to travel far to get to open land that grew green grass. "Your kingdom is nothing like ours, the few people I saw all looked so... happy." He didn't seem too familiar with the word happy. All he knew was...sad I guess. 

He kept quiet for a moment after telling me about himself, his eyes had to much pain and sorrow in them. I wanted to hold him, and convince him that everything was alright. However it really wasn't. He was seen as the outsider, he didn't belong here. All the more reason for us not to be together. "Aanan, you know we can't be together right? Our kinds hate each other, there can never be peace between us."

He took my hand in his, and I felt a tingle travel through my fingers. For the first time I really wanted him. "We can be together, we can go some place where we can be safe. There is so much of the world we haven't seen, we can see it together." The idea seemed perfect, a bit too perfect. I wriggled my hand out of his hold, "I can't run away, I have a responsibility here, to my people and to my family."  Aanan looked at me with hurt, but then quickly tried to hide it by looking away. 

"Then we can be the first to try reuniting our kinds. We can restore the peace again." He begged. "You're the first person I've ever met who was so optimistic about peace." I reached out to him and placed my hand on him cheek, it was cold. "Aanan, there is something I must tell you." In the distance I heard the dungeon door opening and harshly slamming shut, I was running out of time. "Tell them everything they want to know." Arya! It was Soren, "if you don't, they'll make a public example out of you, I don't know if I can stop it." 

I turned around and saw an angry Soren walking towards me, in that moment, I was scared for my life. "Arya! What did I tell you?" He grabbed me by the wrist and pulled me to my feet, "We're going, now!" I looked back at Aanan, begging him to listen to what I asked him. "Let go of her!" Soren stopped dead in his tracks. He turned around, glaring at Aanan like he was ready to murder him. "What did you say?"

"I said; let go." Soren let go of me and walked to the cell and grabbed Aanan by the collar of his shirt, violenlty pulling him against the iron bars with a clang. "How dare you tell me what to do you piece of s**t. I should have you punished for even looking at her." I was scared for Aanan, although I only just met him, I felt closer to him than I did with my own sister, what's more is that I wanted to be with him. "Soren, let him go. Mother told me to come here, she needed me to ask Aanan questions." 

He looked at me with hate as I said his name, "Aanan? You exchanged pleasantries with this creature?" "He's not just some creature Soren! He's our equal, so treat him like one." I don't care if Soren didn't like Aanan, but there had to be some level of respect. "He's also our enemy, have you forgotten that Arya? You need to wake up! We can't care for everyone."

There was a sudden silence, this was the first time Soren and I fought, and it felt like for once we were being honest with each other. I realized that he really wasn't the person I thought I'd fallen in love with. We were two opposite people who learned to get along at a young age, smitten by our looks and status. He doesn't care about people like I did, if you were his enemy, he'd treat you like one. "Now you've done it." We both looked at Aanan who seemed to be enjoying this, watching us argue, he had a wide smirk plastered across his face. "Shut up, fae." 

We were quiet for a few more moments, and then Evelyn came in. "Arya, mother's looking for you." She turned to see Soren and Aanan giving each other the death stare, "What happened here?" Soren and I looked at each other, he had a hint of guilt in his eyes as he looked at me. "Nothing, I was just leaving." I looked at Aanan once more, hoping he'd remembered what I told him, he had to come clean, I couldn't watch as my mother had guards beat him like a slave in front of hundreds of people, laughing as it happened. 

I turned around to look at Evelyn, "Let's go then."