He doesn’t have to tell me this bird is his. I can feel it. The bond that connects us is alight within the bird’s presence—almost buoyant and airy. Freedom.I can feel it within him.
Wetness drips down my face, tears dropping unencumbered from the corners of my eyes.
Ever since I was a little girl, I have wished to know this feeling, the unimaginable flight of escape described in the stories of the library. And now, through this bond, I feel it: freedom. This one taste is not enough, though. I want it for myself. I want what Rivern has.
Not moving, I don’t say anything else. He quickly finishes his conversation with his bird friend, letting him take flight and moving back within my atmosphere.
“These are not tears of sadness.” I shake my head, wiping away the streaks dripping down my face, letting out a small chuckle at the absurdity of my current state.
I am crying over a bird.
Rivern pulls me towards him and tucks me into his chest, his front to my back, turning us to face his retreating intimate in the distance. “Solen is my intimate,” he begins. “Most intimates these turns are chosen from the many breeds we keep within the open air aviary within Terra, but Solen chose me on my first expedition outside the kingdom barriers.” He grips me a little tighter around the waist. “I was seventeen, and wanted to prove to myself and to my mother that I could make it outside of Terra. Instead, I found myself stuck between a rock and a hard place when a magnificent white creature found me. Solen.”
With this new insight into Rivern, I am becoming more intrigued by this male. I want to know more about him beyond our bond.
Untangling his arms from around me, he states, “Let me take care of this while I think.” He softly presses down my tangled mess of brown hair and begins to use his deft fingers to part it.
Working expertly, he quickly portions my hair and intertwines strands, all with a gentleness I’ve not experienced since before my time at the temple.
Closing my eyes to the rapidly rising suns in front of me, I find myself leaning towards Rivern’s touch as he completes the simple but heart-warming task.
“There,” he exclaims as he slides his fingers down my hair.
With my eyes now dry, I turn my face up to meet his.
Looking up at Rivern, the suns bouncing off his effervescent skin, I track the swirls down the sides of his face. “I have an idea,” he proclaims, dimples pronounced.
“Oh?” I question, admiring his godlike beauty.
And a word I never expected to hear slips from his lips—another impossibility. “Wisps.”
twenty-three
Gideon
Ican’t seem toforget her.
The songbird.
The way her emerald eyes lit up with fire. I couldn’t take my eyes off her.
I saw her fight and willpower. But I also saw her wounds, and I wasn’t going to contribute to them.
Haven is a failing kingdom, and she is better off with the fae. The only thing that greets her in this place isdeath.
Cardinal was no high priestess. She was a manipulator. She was the worst of all the high priestesses I had seen throughout the centuries because not only did she manipulate people to her own ends, but she preyed on the weak. Cardinal took from people who had nothing left to give. The king and his consort, the high priestess, had that in common, for they took and took until you were nothing but a shell of yourself. They sucked the life out of Haven and every life form within it.
I’ve slowly watched this kingdom crumble, cycle after cycle, ever since they bade us rid this place of all the fae. In the end, we won by brute strength and numbers.The humans numbered in the thousands as they came across the seas to land in Haven by way of…us—me and my brothers.
The fae were smarter, though. They had contingency plans in place so their kind would live on, and half managed to escape between the death and destruction.
And by the looks of the healthy fae male all over the songbird, they are thriving outside of Haven.
The songbird.
As I take my time walking through the corridors of the castle, my mind shifts to her scent, the sweet aroma of vanilla and honey with flora undertones. But she is not all sweet when her fire blazes bright, instead smelling like a caramel lolly the humans from centuries past used to make.
I could’ve taken a chunk out of her when I found her in that strange tree, dressed in that flimsy ivory robe.
