Out of the World

33. Broken Hearts

Nina

“Miss Nina?” a female voice attracted my gaze. Opening my eyes, I saw the woman who brought me here into this royal trap.

“King Avalon asked me to take a look at you. Here there is some water and this little crystal-candy. It will make you feel better,” she said, offering me a hand and showing me the glass of water in her hand. A pink candy was floating above it.

For a moment, I didn’t want to take her hand. I just wanted to drown in myself and let the tears fall and wash out all the numbness. Yet, I had to stand up and face it. Soon, Zorion would be looking for me and I couldn’t have him seeing me in that state.

Without the woman’s help, I stood up and took a lungful of air, anger storming in my system. How dare that stupid King? He was right, and I would do what he said, but how dare he!

“I don’t need his help or pity,” I shot with determination. Without sparing the woman another look, I headed to the bathroom to clean up the wet-mess my face was now.

Washing my face as well as I could, I tried to erase any sign of my tears. My face had to remain neutral and I had to swallow down the pain. Things had to be done tonight. I couldn’t sleep in his arms once again, knowing that in the next morning I would leave him — say goodbye forever.

Maybe I could find a solution, a way back to him. Stop it Nina! See where having hope took you, stop with it! Hope wouldn't fix my problems and make me live forever. That wasn’t how magic worked. Breathing deeply, I took a long look at my reflection in the mirror. I had to remain strong, and tell Zorion the words that would break my heart and his.

Swallowing another batch of tears, I put my hair and myself together. Hope would only make my pain linger and my heart break deeply. I was better without it. I should say goodbye both to Zorion and to any hopes.

As I went back to the main ballroom, all eyes were on me once again. I felt like the main attraction of a freaking show. A few hours ago, I didn’t bother about the stares and chattering, because I was happy and I had my mate. Yet, now that I was about to lose everything, the looks were disturbing me again and all I wanted was to make myself smaller, shrink and hide. I wanted to be invisible once again.

Well, the only way I knew to feel invisible, was by closing my eyes and pretending no one was there. Oh, and alcohol helped to pull whatever magic as well. So, I got a glass of that blue Fairy Wine and emptied it in a single gulp. Hell, I needed that! I was about to go for glass number two when a pair of strong hands on my waist made light tingles break through my skin and my heart break in my chest.

Zorion spun me around gently and cupped my face, “Here you are, Honey. I was looking for you. It wasn’t anything serious with Linus, only a drunk Pixie. According to Linus, we always have drunk Pixie issues in the Balls,” he told me, with a chuckle. But after taking a better look at my surely gloomy face, his forehead creased with lines of worry and his chuckles died down, “Are you alright, Honey? What happened?”

“Nothing, I was just on the balcony, getting some air. This place feels overcrowded with everyone looking at me.” I sighed.

“Let’s go home, Honey,” Zorion told me, pulling me against his chest and running his fingers down my hair. I inhaled a lungful of his scent, wishing that his smell could linger forever in my lungs. It was nonsense! His smell would go away with him, all would become memories, dreams and maybe paintings.

“I won’t say goodbye to the girls. If I do so, they might want to come with us and I know they are enjoying themselves, especially Lena. I can’t find her anywhere,” Zorion chuckled. Following his gaze, I saw Lola dancing with her Dad Laius. She had a sweet smile on her face.

“Good idea,” I nodded and, in a flash of light, Zorion and I were back to ours – or should I call it mine? Well, we went back to the bedroom.

“Zorion,” I sighed, trying to gather the courage to say the words that I loathed most. It was so hard to do it when his hands were on my waist, and he looked at me with so much love.

“What, Honey?”

“I’ve been thinking about us, about this world and my world. It doesn’t matter how much I try, insist or turn a blind eye to it. We won’t work. I am a mortal, you will live forever. You are a prince, I am just a girl. We belong to different worlds — literally,” I started, but all Zorion did was to pull me closer and press a kiss on the nape of my neck.

“What there is in common between us, all this love, urgency, desire is much bigger than any of the differences you mentioned,” he replied, caressing my ear with his nose and making unwelcome goosebumps surge across my shoulders.

“Zorion, we can’t even have s*x. We are incompatible. That won’t work. There is no point in insisting,” I told him, pulling away and doing what hurt most, looking into his eyes.

“Nina. We’ve already talked about it. Of course, there is a point in fighting for it, insisting and doing whatever it takes. I love you and I am certain you feel the same for me—” he started.

Biting my lips and breaking my own heart, I cut him off and said the last words I wanted, “That’s the thing, Zorion, I don’t love you. This was all a fun adventure, a little fairytale. But it must be over now.”

“What happened, Nina? Is that because people were staring at you at the Mating Ball? These people don’t matter, none of them–” he said, taking a few steps closer to me.

I forced my legs to walk back. Staying close to him would only make the little determination I had left fade away.

“No, Zorion. Didn’t you hear? I don’t love you. It was only a fling, a little trip and some fun. All flings are over after a couple of weeks,” I declared, picking my purse up and heading to the door.

“Nina, wait. You can’t keep running away!” Zorion protested, a frown on his face and disappointment in his eyes.

Hell, I hated to see him like this, to cause him any pain. But better a little heartache than an eternity of misery after the mating, marking and 'losing me' thing.

“I am not running away, I am leaving you. Going back to my real life. Don’t follow me, respect my decision this time” I told him, leaving the room and closing the door behind me. To my relief, he did what I asked for.

A deep sigh left me. Thank goodness he gave me some space. I didn’t know for how long I could contain my urge to jump in his arms and stop with the streams of bullsh!t that were leaving my lips.

After taking a glass of water, I headed to Lola’s room, in the hope she was already back. I couldn’t leave without saying goodbye. She wasn’t there and Lena was also too busy with a certain werewolf. I couldn’t stay in this house for much longer. If I did so, one of those things would happen: Zorion would look for me or I would give up.

My only option was to do the lame thing, write a goodbye letter. Looking for a piece of paper and a pen among Lola’s things, I wrote a few words.

With my gaze cast down and my heart falling on my chest, I headed to Avalon’s office. That was the best place to meet King-snob, right?

Another sigh of frustration left my lips when I realised he wasn’t there. I let my exhausted body crash into an armchair to wait for him.

A humourless chuckle left me when I looked down at myself and realised that I was still wearing the blue ball gown. I was like Cinderella the other way around, the one that broke all the crystals and became the pumpkin herself, right? Leaving the prince and the dreams behind before my midnight — the time of my inevitable death — would come. Among all the Fairies, Pixies, or whatever they had in this world, nothing could help me. I was making my choice and paving my own way, because even though I didn’t want to hope anymore, I still had one last hope: that Zorion would be happy and fine after I left.

After a bit more than one hour, Avalon entered his office in his regal clothes. Closing the door behind him, he looked at me and nodded.

“Very well, I will take you to the Human Realm. You are doing the right thing, Nina.”

“No. I don’t want you to take me anywhere. Give me the rune, spell or whatever, I need to go away on my own. That’s the only thing I will ever accept from you, Your Majesty,” I told him, standing up and composing myself.

Avalon took a small stone from his drawer and handed it to me, “That’s a powerful rune. You can use it only once, so do it right. Close your eyes and focus, then picture the place you want to go in your mind as you read the rune’s name, Raido,” he explained.

“I just have one thing to tell you before I go. I will do what you asked me for. I love Zorion. But don’t you ever forget what you are doing, the way you chose to do things. You are a cruel man, and no crown or magic can fix that! Zorion deserves much better than a father like you.” My eyes narrowed as I looked at his grey-green gaze. His eyes didn’t seem cold anymore, but rather filled with emotion. Well, I didn’t give a sh!t about him/those emotions.

“Thank you, Nina!” he murmured.

“Go to hell, Your Majesty!” I flared back before closing my eyes and picturing my destination in my mind, “Raido.”

*

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