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twenty-seven

Dove

T he comforting ease with which our bodies mould together on the journey should send alarm bells ringing through my being, but instead, a solace sets in. It is effortless in its beginnings. My whole body releases its rigidity. An unknown experience for my tired form.

Even in the sanctuary of my temple room, I kept my wits about me. I’d been unknowingly taught that my own kind were takers from the small actions they undertook each turn against me. The manipulations never got old, never sparing anything in return but an odd kindness like a smile or a word of encouragement for their benefit. Never truly mine.

The bond within me is unravelling at an unnerving rate.

If given the choice, I would curl under a tree and slip into slumber, hoping the moss and wisps take care of my soul. My body has already been stolen from me in many ways. Even this bond isn’t of my choosing, and it fills me with such confusion.

In some ways, I want it. I revere its comfort, its joy, its care, but it is another liar, and I am no fool.

Without this bond, Prince Rivern would not have feelings for me, and he would not be helping me. I would be like any other human to him—the people who had run his ancestors out of his kingdom.

A soothing hand rests on my thigh, giving it a squeeze. My mind shoots back to our conversation with Gideon, when this touch kept me grounded.

This small comfort destabilises me. Surely, Rivern can’t know me so well. He cannot understand my needs so soon. We have only known each for barely a turn of the darkness and light.

“You know, if we were fully bonded, we would be able to communicate without the need for speech.” I have a suspicious feeling he can already read my thoughts, or at least my body and the contradictions that wander through the bond, unbidden.

“Oh.” The sound can barely be heard off the tumbling breeze in the meadow we are traversing through, but he hears me. He always manages to hear me.

The hand on my breeches-covered thigh squeezes tighter. “Yes. In the stories, they say even your heartbeats become one.”

My heart jumbles erratically in my chest at the idea. “That actually sounds kind of scary.”

Amusement runs through our connection at my words.

“Yes, I can see how being tethered to me would be a hardship. You, on the other hand, Little Dove… I feast on the conception of our hearts becoming one.”

Everything within me slows. This news surprises me, especially since he has been so adamant about breaking this bond. I judge the still-rabid rhythm within my chest. My very shattered heart simmers and blends in a slow melting of acceptance. A knowing I must ignore for the greater good.

There’s nothing to say, so I gawk at the now-still trees before us, Mage’s feet moving through tall, willowy grass, the silhouette of Rivern’s front plastered to my back.

With the way he currently has our bodies glued together, he already thinks we are one.

Solen dives down before us. “Hello, friend,” Rivern says, close to my ear, addressing his intimate. His breath sends shivers down my spine in my seated position in front of him.

“Interesting,” he muses aloud, and the large bird flies off.

“What’s so interesting?” I try to turn my body to see his face, but I wobble, and my prince catches me around the waist, hugging me towards his body with his steely forearms.

“The wolf is still making his way down the mountain. He even took a rest at the top. It’s like…”

“What?” I ask, breathless for his next words. Goddess, Dove, if Wren were here, she would be telling you to turn the thirst down for sure . I miss the voice in my head something fierce. Who knows when things will calm down enough for her to return.

“He’s giving us time,” Rivern answers, sending sparks alight in my body at the unexpected news. “With everything we discussed in the wolf’s lair, it sounds like the king didn’t give exacting orders.”

Rivern is right. Gideon explained that, with the death of each ruling monarch, they lost the knowledge to fully control the dyre wolves. Is my beast giving us a head start?

“But why would he help us?” I ponder.

“Because he wants rid of his king just as much as you do?” Knowing I have someone out there with a similar goal to my own strikes me with new vigour. If I kill the king, I save the villagers of Haven and the wolves. Does Gideon want me to succeed? He showed no love for his oppressor.

“Can we go faster?” I grab Rivern’s right hand and pull at the reins firmly within his grasp.

“Alright, alright, Little Dove, slow down. We haven’t tried to gallop yet. Let’s ease into it.” He pushes his thighs against Mage and urges him forward with a soft motion of the reins.

My whole body jerks. With Rivern’s left arm now firmly placed around my waist, I meld further into his body for stability.

“A little warning,” I shriek.

The prince gives another of his mirthful chuckles, and we are gliding through the lush grass, a smile crossing my lips.

We are close to the freedom of flight but not quite there yet.

Twelve turns of the suns. That’s how long it will take us to get to Terra.

My whole body aches from my time squished against Rivern’s powerful body and the unyielding creature underneath us.

At our punishing speed, we barely have time to talk. I end up falling asleep as the adrenaline leaves my body, and Rivern lets me drift off in his arms. Apparently, fae do not require sleep like humans do. A shift of the moon is enough to regenerate Rivern’s energy for multiple turns.

Each new message from Solen brings similar news about my beast’s progression into the forest. He still has not changed into his wolf form, and he is simply strolling through the brush to reach us. We now know for certain he is giving us a head start.

When I wake from my latest nap, I find myself no longer atop a large stead but lying upon a soft bed of leaves. Rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I sit up, feeling muscles tense I never knew existed. “Goddess.” I complain to the trees surrounding me.

“Here.” Rivern hands over his flask and something yellow-orange in colour and round in shape.

I don’t hesitate, greedily sucking down fresh spring water. “Where did you find these?” I hold up the flask and some type of fuzzy fruit I’ve never seen before.

Rivern bites into his fruit, juice running down his chin. The temptation to go to him and lick it off his skin is too real as fluttering begins within my belly. “I asked the Goddess to guide us. She led me here.” He shrugs like the answer should be obvious, the unwavering connection to his Goddess a solid beacon for his kind.

The humans’ connection is a lie. She was never ours. A stolen God.

“Thank you,” I whisper to the Goddess who gifted me with her song and this bounty.

Taking a bite of the round fruit, I cannot help the sound that exits my lips on a moan. “Mmmmmm.” Juicy, sweet, mouth-watering; everything fruit used to taste like in my turns as a child.

Rivern raises his eyebrows, eyes sparkling, his blonde hair dancing in the breeze to frame his exquisite face. “We call them peaches. They grow throughout the forest in small patches.”

All I can do is shift my head up and down, enjoying this new delicacy too much.

“I also found some more of our little friends.” Puzzlement crosses my face, and he points up. Silken wisp hives litter the tree we rest under. The suns light the small treasures in a glowing symphony.

To think that I could’ve missed this beauty if I stayed within the temple my whole life.

I find it funny now, the unease and apprehension I had about leaving the temple. I put myself in my own exile. The thought of leaving the temple even last rotation was something I could not fathom. Once I ended up in the temple sanctuary as a child, that was it for me. I was a ward of the Goddess, given a priestess’s name but too damaged to complete the trials expected of the Goddess’s chosen.

I lean back on the lush earth, peach forgotten and close my eyes. I left.

I’ve done it!

My life is finally my own.

Well, not quite.

Here I am, chosen not by my own kind but by the fae Goddess. I sang to her, and she listened.

She put her confidence in me when no one else ever expected anything from me. The Goddess entrusts me with the most precious gift anyone can give another: faith.

Rivern is quiet across from me as I take it all in. The Goddess has gifted me her magic without expectation.

An awareness comes to me. It’s the perfect time.

Rising on my elbows, I open my eyes and gaze at the fae male before me. “Let us sing.”

Violet eyes go wide. “Us?”

“Yes, you will need to learn to teach the other fae.” I move onto my knees under the glittering canopy above.

“But you will teach the other fae.” Something in the prince’s eyes looks panicked, a feeling I have not felt from the fae male yet.

“Come here.” I hold out my hands for his. The cord connecting us pulls us tightly together, worry coursing through its strings from Rivern.

I grasp onto his smooth, great hands before me. Those same glittering lines that trail his neck and frame his face also wrap around his fingers and wrists, leaving me unable to look away. “I just think it would be a good idea for you to know the song as well.”

My statement does not seem to pacify the towering fae in front of me, and he goes into full-on brooding mode, lips pouting, eyes glassy.

He’s already too attached. The echo floats around me. Surely, he doesn’t know. He cannot read my thoughts.

“I will keep you safe so you can teach our people.” When he says “ our people ”, my heart skips a beat.

“Rivern, you can’t protect me from everything. We should both know the song, just in case. The Goddess would want all her children to remember it,” I respond, trying to provide him some reassurance.

His hands grip strongly onto mine, firm but not punishing. “I will learn it in Terra with everyone else.”

“But Rivern—” He rips his hands free of mine.

“Enough.” The word is a finality as it leaves him.

Silence surrounds us.

Rivern breathes shallowly and heavily, striding towards Mage.

I stay still in my spot under the shimmering hives. Now, the bond aches, as do my muscles . It cries for me to go to him, to comfort him, but I do not. The most logical course of action is to teach him the song now in case one of us doesn’t make it back to Terra—likely me. But he does not want to hear it.

Fine. I tried.

Pushing down on the digging shards within my chest, I raise my head and let the lyrics tumble through my lips, wondering if the intention of the song is more important than anything else.

I sing the Goddess’s song three times just so I can be sure Rivern hears it enough to go on without me.

Wisps are dancing and buzzing around my body. Some even land on my skin, tickling me, loosening the ache I feel. “Hello, little friends,” I laugh as some tease my hair. “That’s enough, you lot.” I try to sound firm, but it comes out jovially.

Rivern storms over and pushes his way through the barricade of small, iridescent wings. They easily part for him. Smoothing down my hair, he leans down and pushes his nose against mine, and my body feels things I refuse to name. “You will teach the fae in Terra, and you will do it as my princess .”

With his body so close to mine, giving me heart palpitations, I almost don’t believe what I’m hearing. “But—”

“I don’t want to hear it, Dove. You feel it. I feel it. Fuck, it hurts too much without you,” he declares all at once.

His eyes broach no room for argument. This fae prince. My bonded. He wants me to be his, and maybe… Maybe I want to be his.

In full-blown, brutish fae protector-style, Rivern lifts me up in his arms, holding me close to his chest. The bond sings so brightly that I set to explode. Surely, it’s too much. There’s no way another being can make me feel this way after a couple of turns of the suns.

The thoughts drift away as he takes me to Mage and settles me carefully on his back, tucking his cloak around me for warmth against the wind stirring up in the open field.

The wisps circle us until I ask them to kindly trail behind Mage until we need their assistance.

And not another word is shared, but the ringing of “ my princess ” as they run circles around us.