Danielle is worth more to me than ever visiting my past in the effort of justice again.
She is worth more to me than the lies that have hurt me for centuries.
I no longer care if Cael and Pollux understand me, forgive me, or want me around…
For friendship, I have Alexios, and in some ways, I also have Zahra.
But Danielle is different.
I neither have her, nor don’t. Only one thing is sure—Ineedher.
Finding healing for my past pales compared to the desperation I have for a future with someone the universe promises will love me at a depth unimaginable. She is the proof that hope I thought I had long since abandoned remains.
“Does she feel anything toward me that I can’t sense?” I ask.
“She feels nothing but a numb will to exist,” Alexios provides. “Be careful with her, Castor. She will put on the airs you ask for, but they won’t be anything real. She’s hopeless, practically a husk with one foot in the grave.”
A broken laugh exits the cavern of my chest, pinching my heart on its way out. “Brilliant,” I hiss. “Of all people, how amImeant to draw anything back to life?”
Alexios pulls away as our meager fire slips into spare sparks. Tucking his hands in the pockets of his rabbit onesie, he says, “Welcome to the joys of having a soulmate, buddy. They come with more than you bargain for. Just remember, your only job is to love her and be yourself.”
“Not many people like me much when I’m ‘myself’.”
“All the more reason. She exists to love you, too. Don’t forget that and fall into the same trap that smothers her light. Offering only what you think she wants is assumption. And you know what they say about people who assume.”
I do not, actually, know what this mysterioustheysay on the matter of assumption.
I do, however, trust Alexios. Deeply.
As long as I have been alive, I have never seen a faerie paired with their soulmate as quickly as he was. After a millenia of believing unseelie were not gifted the unique pleasure, I learned it was possible when Cael received his soulmate in Alana, then Pollux found his in Kassandra.
The answer was clear: the universe blesses when a soul is ready to love. For the unseelie, it takes longer, because we are not born of light origins. Our hearts are not created pure. We come from the darkness and must claw our way out—if ever we manage to at all.
Alexios—despite his dark origin—had not existed a full year before he was deemed ready, and I can only conclude it is because his soul was born kind.
Unseelie or not, Alexios wasborngentle and good.
Since he is a creature formed from Alana’s depression, many may not see it on the surface, but selfless love crafts every inch of him.
He takes pain upon himself in an effort to spare others.
Beinghimselffor his soulmate had to be easy. He is beautiful and genuine and naturally considerate.
The problem is…I am no longer as arrogant as I once was.
So, I know—intrinsically—that my soulmate deserves so much better thanme.
Chapter8
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Having a soulmate could be worse.
“He’s not bad. He’s just…”Zahra rolling her eyes as she grabbed her phone off her nightstand and typed outan idiotburns in the back of my mind the entire time Castor is taking me back to the bird cage in his bedroom.
After showing me her phone, she shrugged.“Can’t vocally lie anymore,”she said, so…casually.
When I pressed for more information, she told me that two days ago, Alexios stole her humanity, turned her fully fae, made her completely anasteriai. Then because I seemed, understandably, shaken, she asked how I was doing.
