Page 25 of Shadows of Air and Earth (Remnant Archives)

H is lips on mine felt like bitter salvation.

Riley Dragoon was my freedom and my captivity.

One was by choice, the other taken. Anger burned through me for seeking out more of his touch, my hands wrapping up into his hair, my body crawling into his lap.

Our lips smashed together, both in fury and in need while hot tears still fell traitorously down my face.

Riley said he loved me. But he also owned me.

I screamed in agony, ripping away and shoving him from me with disgust. At myself, at him.

I didn’t even care that it sent him sprawling back onto the jungle floor.

Furious, I commanded the stone, snapping it around his arms and legs, spreading him like the phoenix wings tattooed across his body.

I hated my hesitation as I looked down upon him with mouthwatering need.

Waving my hand, I relished the sound of him grunting while I jerked his body into position, bitterly enjoying his look of shock and fury.

That beautiful andalusite color of browns speckled with muted greens. The color of enraged earth—my earth.

Well fucking good. He should know how this feels, to still want even while betrayed, to still love even when deceived.

Both our chests heaved with exertion and pent-up frustration.

The weight of the collar around my neck became more obvious with each precious expansion of my lungs—it only served to aggravate me all the goddess damn more.

Signaling to the earth beneath Riley, I raised him upright, a sacrifice on an altar and watched as he strained painfully against the restraints.

"I want answers, Dragoon." I forced a step back, keeping myself distant, knowing if I touched him again I would not be able to stop.

His jaw clenched and his eyes glared before a small smile played across his lips, desire mixing with the anger in his eyes. "Then take them from me, Chin."

Narrowing my gaze, I manipulated the stone slab again, stretching his arms higher, smiling back as he winced.

"You are clearly not in a position to demand anything, air elemental," I snarled, hooking my fingers under the collar so that his gaze fell on his daming choice—a choice that could very well destroy everything about us.

Riley’s nostrils flared and I did not fail to notice that his eyes lingered heatedly on the metal around my neck. "I gave you the one answer that matters the most. I love you."

"Riley this isn't a game! Love does not imprison, it frees!" I shouted.

He shook his head, his smile saddened, not quite reaching his eyes, the sparkle in them gone. "The next move is yours, Xi Lanora Chin."

"How did you hide the collar?" I snapped, denying him the words he wanted to hear.

I never even whispered them inside my mind before today, let alone allowed the truth to be spoken out loud.

Love was something that could be fractured, abused…

manipulated. Ever since I escaped my parent's cruel prison, I had decided that I would never allow myself to be so vulnerable again and yet here I was.

Riley sighed, twirling his fingertips in the restraint, and I felt his air brush against the side of my cheek wiping away the trail of tears he saw there before gently swiping back my hair like he always did.

"There's blood in your hair," he murmured distractedly, staring at the strands, fear flashing in his eyes before looking up at me.

"I can enchant the collar so that no one can see it.

You saw the collar my uncle uses because he is a demented soul and relishes the power he has over others. "

I licked at my lips, I wasn't sure if knowing the collar could be hidden made me feel any better, ignorance and denial were never a good recipe for a future, if there even was one for us now. "And the leash I saw?"

The darkening of his face told me all I needed, but he answered me anyway, his voice low and dark.

"He deserves the darkest pits of Sheol for that.

I would never fucking leash you, Xi. I never wanted to possess you in the first place, why in the goddess would I do that to you willingly, and why would you ever believe me capable? "

I pursed my lips, I never truly did, but I needed to hear it out loud, said truthfully in the words of the fae. "What is this power called? How does it work exactly?"

More of his air drew around me and I allowed him to pull me closer before I commanded the earth to anchor me to the ground, stopping just inches from him, close enough to feel his warm breath on my face.

His gaze trailed over it as if to memorize details. "You are the most beautiful creature I have ever seen and I hate the air for keeping the space between us," he whispered as if to himself, words that he never meant to say out loud.

Biting at my lip, I raised my chin, goddess how this fae undid me. But I needed answers.

He sighed again, his familiar breath pleasantly washing over my face, a smell of mint and fresh mountain wind.

"My power is called possession. My mother and father had it, as does my uncle.

When used correctly it can allow the exchange of energy to amplify one anothers equally.

" He shook his head, "But the power always designates a possessor and a host and it can be easily tainted.

It can be used to force another to do whatever the will of the possessor has. It can be used as an enthrallment."

"Like your uncle," I breathed.

He nodded, watching me carefully. "Like my uncle."

“Why keep me bound, why not release me after I was healed?” I hissed through clenched teeth.

His head bowed and his voice wavered, the truth like a broken prayer escaping his soul.

“Fear, shame, guilt, avoidance. Fear because to release you, would also leave you vulnerable not only to our world but also to my uncle. You are a very powerful and cultivated fae, Xi. Leaving you unprotected was something I was not willing to risk ever again.” He shook his head.

“Shame and guilt because then you would have also known what I had done.” His eyes trailed back up to me, studying the kaleidoscope of emotions shimmering across my face.

“Avoidance because I never wanted to experience this exact moment, where you look at me like I am a monster—just like my uncle.”

Inhaling sharply, I studied the immeasurable agony in his eyes. It was more than just the fucked up situation we were in, the truth of it was deeper than that. "There is something you're still not telling me."

Pain etched into his features as he looked away and swallowed hard, his green hair plastered to his face.

"As you know, my uncle was my father's brother,” he began slowly, “and he always obsessively coveted my mother. To an extent that was borderline madness. Due to this, he was never welcomed in our home.” He paused, swallowing again, “One night, my uncle visited our family unexpectedly while my father was away. You see, my father was a fae that enjoyed helping others. He’d stop anything and everything to lend a hand, and a town nearby had suffered from an abnormal storm. My mother did not wish to go that night so he left me in charge. My uncle saw that as an opportunity—I fully believe that he orchestrated the whole thing, from the storm to knowing my father’s weakness to assist others.

We should have known he would have stopped at nothing to feed his monstrous desire to possess my mother. "

Horror ran through my body like a ghostly chill. "Stop. You do not need to speak of the rest."

Riley's sad hazel gaze snapped back to mine full of resolve.

"No, I do. You need to understand that my decision to possess you was never taken lightly.

I have not told a single soul this story although I suspect the General knows—but you deserve the whole truth no matter what it may cost me. I owe you that much at least."

My brows pulled together, nodding, my ill-timed humor easing the discomfort we were both in. "We did agree that it was safe to say she knows all."

He snorted half-heartedly before beginning again.

"My uncle he…he forced his power on my mother, he was strong and skilled, I was young and untried. He overcame us both and when he possessed her, he was impossible to stop. He used her power to keep me restrained.” Riley gritted his teeth, his nostrils flaring with anger.

“I have wished so many times that my parents would have used the possession on each other, then he would have never been able to take her and he would have never come.

It is mostly the reason why I kept you bound to me—my fear of him taking from me again, something I will not allow.

That fucking bastard would have to kill me and extinguish my soul from eternal life before I would ever allow him to take you. "

“Ri,” I whispered.

His eyes roamed my face and I felt his air smooth out the wrinkles of horror I knew were etched there.

It’s whispered caress trailed down my face to the tension in my muscles, kneading them until they relaxed.

“I’m okay, terrella,” he whispered back before his air fell away and he continued the last of his story through graveled words.

"My uncle forced me to watch while he controlled her, compelled her to—I could do nothing, not with her power added to his. "

My hands reached up to cup Riley's face. "No more, you don't need to say anymore, Ri."

Riley's mouth turned into my hand and kissed it softly.

"I need to." His warm breath tickled against my palm.

"When my father returned the damage had already been done. After finally getting what he had craved for so long, my uncle cared not to keep my mother. You see you can only possess one fae at a time, and he enjoys the hunt and power of domination, but he is also a fucking coward. He fled before my father could exact retribution and my mother was so broken afterwards, my father didn’t dare leave her side.

" His eyes shuttered closed then, lost in the painful memories.

I pulled his face towards me, kissing his lips softly, giving him the strength he needed to say the rest. "What happened to them Ri? To you?"

His eyes opened and wracked my soul, penetrating it so thoroughly I inhaled sharply.

"They made me vow to never use this power on another, and then they fell on each other’s swords.

Killing one another. The pain and damage my uncle had caused was too much for my mother to bear.

They were soulmates, Xi. My father felt everything she had gone through, her pain, her shame…

he could not live without her and she no longer wanted to live.

The fae cannot take their own lives but they sure as fuck can take it from one another and that's exactly what they did. "

"Riley—" I stammered brokenly, the choices he made to save me so blindingly clear that my eyes burned and the proverbial weight of the collar lifted. It no longer felt like chains but an adornment of a broken, scarred love.

"Release me, terrella," Ri said, his strong voice fracturing even more, his eyes blazing with torment and devotion. "You are right, this is not a game and I no longer want to play."