Page 59 of The Ballad of a Bard

Fifty Eigh t

C rimson didn’t want to leave Cobalt after she’d just gotten him back. But she knew that he’d eventually be forced away from her, regardless of what she did to attempt to stop anyone that even dared to try. Whatever the boundaries of her new powers were, she wasn’t sure and she wasn’t in a secure enough place to test them out. Not with her brother in harm’s way. So she lowered her head to his, closed her eyes and held him again.

Every thrum of blood, every beat and pulse she could hear. They ran through her like wind in the grass and she tuned in time to none other than one. Not the one in front of her which she knew beat steadily, but the one to the side. The one that raced like it was sprinting for its life. The one that mustered her confidence and turned her blood into a roaring inferno.

“I love you, Blue. Don’t you ever forget it.” She squeezed his hands in hers and pressed a kiss to his forehead. Everyone was observing them but she didn’t care.

“I love you too. But…” Cobalt leaned cl ose and muttered into her ear, “ He loves you, Red. You’ve spent your entire life giving me everything. Don’t let him go.”

She let out a breath that snapped in two, pulling away and slowly opening her eyes as she turned to look at West. He found her, something shifting in his sapphire and star gaze that made her want to start crying all over again.

Crimson let go of her brother’s hands, “I love him.” Then she stood as Rook came forward, gently pushing him away as she brushed off her knees and inhaled sharply.

West didn’t take his eyes off of her as she looked to Altivar for permission to approach him. The Prince shallowly dipped his chin once, allowing her a brief moment with the Saint that had saved her. She could clearly make out the stress woven into the lines of his handsome face, the worry that made the muscle in his cheek jump. He was clean-shaven again, but his umber hair was messy and the lack of sleep was apparent by the bags under his eyes.

He didn’t lower his hands as she cautiously came closer, her heart rioting against her ribcage as she took him and all his gloriousness in. His grey shirt was low cut, tucked into high-waisted charcoal trousers that she swore she never saw off of him. Black boots folded over right before his knees and he wore no weapon or belt. Even in this plain state, she was utterly, devastatingly in love with him.

And before she died, he needed to know.

There was no denying it, not any more.

There was no point denying it.

Crimson stopped a couple of inches away from him, gazing up into his face. She swallowed and her mouth felt extremely dry as she tried to find the words to tell him everything.

“You’re okay.” He breathed, eyes softening to the point of pain that exploded inside her chest. Her lungs turned to lead. “Thank the Saints for that. I was so worried that he’d done something to you, that you’d perished in the cells.”

He hadn’t noticed the glow to her skin yet, the sheen of immortality in her eyes. Odd for him, who noticed everything but she pushed it aside for now.

“Other than forcing me to kiss him, he didn’t touch me.” Crimson replied, unsure of how to progress with the truth that burned her mouth, her gums, her tongue.

West’s head snapped towards the Prince in a jealous rage that made her own heart sing like a songbird. “He did what ?”

“West, I need to tell you something.” She lifted her hand to meet his, pulling it down as she came even closer. Until there was barely any space between them and he was looking down at her in that way that made her skin feel warm. Until the rage vanished and concerning care took over once more in his handsome features.

“Anything, Heartstrings.” He murmured and cupped her face. She leaned into it and savoured the way he said her nickname. Her full Saint title. “Whatever you want to tell me, I’ll listen.”

Cobalt remained off to the side with Rook, and there was no sign of Thalias or Damien. No sign of her father either.

Crimson took a steadying gulp of cool air, allowing it to sink into her lungs and steady her before she opened her mouth and said, “I love you. I have for some time now, and I’ve been pushing it away. Trying to deny it but I can’t anymore. I love you, Westley Saint.”

West went rigid and a crack spliced her open.

Glass crunched inside her chest, as her heart shuddered violently.

“Don’t say that.” He rasped, pushed her off of him but she didn’t let go of his hand .

“Why not?” She stuttered, “It’s the truth! I’ve been in love with you for a while now, and I know that you feel the same.” Her words vibrated as despair sank into her like a wire hook, ripping her to shreds as he tried to deny it for some Saints-damned reason.

“I can’t fall in love with you, Crimson.” He tried to argue, shaking his head. His russet skin was pale, paler than she’d ever seen it before.

“Why,” Crimson demanded. “ Why not?”

“Because if I fall in love with you, then I will die. And if I die, then who will be left to take care of your brother? ” He gritted his teeth, jaw flexing. His lapidary eyes were wild, frantic, fearful.

She didn’t back down.

Vexation curled in her like bleak smoke over a hearth, coming out in her voice as she said, “Don’t use some mortal phrases to avoid confronting your feelings about me. I’m not just a girl you brought into your life for the sake of finding Heartache. You can’t lie to me. Not when I know you so well, not when you know me so well.”

He spun around to face her, their audience forgotten in the moment. “Do you know how to kill a Saint?” He asked out of the blue in a harsh, clipping resonance.

Crimson blinked at him, letting go of his hand at last as she faltered back. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Oh it all connects, Heartstrings.” West tugged her closer, forcing her palm to spread flat and slammed it against his chest. She sensed that beat there, the one she called home, the one she’d come to love and cherish over the days. “There are two ways to kill a full Saint. one, with a weapon made by a Saint. ”

Crimson glared up at him. She knew that. Everyone knew that. Muse had been killed by her own blades. Even the obnoxious Rapscallion Voss had written a whole chapter on Saints and the weapons they’d created over the years, the ones that could kill the immortals. “I don’t understand why you’re bringing this up now.”

“Two,” He went on with an angry snarl that was rife with anguish and torment. “By heartbreak .”

Her breath hitched, her throat clogged.

“You are half a Saint. Eventually, you will die. And if I let myself love you, if I give into my feels and surrender my heart to you, then I will die too. When you die, it’ll be like someone tore my heart out and ripped it into shreds. So there you go, Crimson. That’s why I cannot let myself love you.”

He let go of her hand but she didn’t let it fall.

“Oh you stupid Saint.” Crimson muttered, shaking her head as relief soared through her at his initial reason for denial. “Don’t you see?”

“See what?” West asked.

“I’m not a lesser Saint anymore.” She gestured up and down her body. “My father stole Muse’s heart before he was dragged to the dungeons and he gave it to me.” Her throat bobbed as she struggled to tell him what she’d done. “I ate it and gained the full immortality of a full Saint.”

West gaped at her. “ What? ”

“So if that’s your only reason for not admitting it, if that was the only thing holding you back, then kiss me already, you fool. Besides, refusing to say the words isn’t going to spare you from heartbreak, West. Not when your actions, your emotions already have shown me, and you, that love isn’t something that you can try to force away, ignore. So stop saying that you can’t love me, because…” She stroked his chest, bringing it up to his face and cupping his cheek. He went rigid as she lifted herself onto her toes. “You already have .”

Crimson didn’t let him try to argue again as she closed the distance between them and kissed him. And this time he didn’t pull away.

Instead he lifted her up, huffing against her lips as he slammed his into hers, over and over again. She nearly wept at the moonlight and stardust taste of him, the scent that she sorely missed as he kissed her over and over again. His fingers firmed in her filthy shirt as his teeth scraped over hers.

“I love you.” He softly declared and then she was crying. He was too. “I have never let anyone love me, nor have I loved anyone but Saints- I wanted to love you from the start.”

“I love you,” She tangled her fingers into his dark brown hair as he surged forward and kissed her again.

He growled softly into her mouth. “That night that you said you wanted me, at the ball, I wanted nothing more than to take you to bed.”

“I know,” Crimson admitted. “The evidence was easy to feel.”

West laughed against her mouth and the sound was everything she ever wanted to hear. It was stardust that made her skin buzz with a new kind of light. It was the pale moon that graced overhead in an elegant glow. It was the stunning darkness that covered them as he lowered her back to the ground.

“When you survive this, win against them all,” He began, stroking her face and tucking a strand of red behind her ear as his touch lingered on her cheek. “I’ll give you everything you’ve ever wanted.”

Her core ignited with his sensual promise.

Crimson bit her bottom lip and he tracked it.

“ You’re everything I’ve ever wanted.” She swore to him, pressed a kiss to his warm palm.

“Enough.” Altivar interrupted and Satori wedged herself between them, forcing them apart. West fell back, a new sort of determination blazing like nebulas exploding in bleak shade in his night-cast gaze.

Utterly breathtaking.

“I’ll be here for you when you are victorious over them all, Heartstrings.” West declared to her and only her. “Show them what being a survivor means. Show those bastards who you really are. Not Red Lyric, not Heartstrings the Saint. But Crimson fucking Bard. A girl from the Bronze Gate who rose up from nothing.”

“I will,” She promised and let Satori lead her to the cart, helping her step up into it and taking her wrists as she locked them in the manacles. The metal was cold and biting but she didn’t tear her gaze away from him. “Take care of my brother for me, please.”

“Always.” West gently tugged Cobalt over to him, placing a protective hand on his shoulder. “He’s part of my family too.”

With the satisfaction of telling him the truth that rattled her to her core, and the safety of her brother, Crimson allowed Satori to shut the door of the cart and the horses were urged into action. As Crimson never took her eyes off her soulsaint, being led to her spectacle of an execution.