“And you were going tomarryher?”
Caspian pushed a hand through his hair. He understood how this must look. Taking Priscilla as his wife was one thing, buttying knots bound the fates of two people forever. It was a union of souls undertaken only by those who wanted the deepest of connections. When the ceremony was over, you would be closer to that person than any other, their happiness your own. He’d always dreamed of having a bond so deep with another…
“You were gone for years, Keira. Everyone was pressuring me to get married,” he tried to explain. “I have lands now and people to take care of. If I don’t have an heir then-”
“Awhat?” Keira’s voice sliced through the air, echoing off the stone walls. She shook her head, backing away from him to grab her coat from the cave floor.
“Keira, I was trying to do the right thing for-”
“The right thing!” She shot up, emerald eyes wide and burning. “The right thing would have been to tell me!” Keira shoved her arms through the sleeves.
“I did,” Caspian said- and instantly regretted it.
Rage flashed across her features. Keira raised her hand and a cloud of ice conjured in her palm. She launched the icy mote at him. The snow hit his bare skin, freezing.
She hurled another and another.
“Keira, stop!”
Her hand stilled, her chest heaving with anger. Worse was the wound that was obvious in her eyes.
“Please, just listen.”
Keira shook her head, biting her lip as tears filled her eyes. Before him, her form melted away until he was looking at an eagle with brilliant green eyes.
“Don’t go,” Caspian said, “please.”
The eagle screeched at him before taking wing and flying out of the cave.
“Keira!” he shouted after her.
She was gone, disappearing into the night.
Caspian kicked his discarded shirt, frustration burning under his skin too furiously to be contained. What was he supposed to have done? She had been gone for so long, and he had no way of knowing she would ever come back. Of course he’d break off the engagement now, if that’s what she wanted… Caspian leaned against the wall, sliding to the ground. He hadn’t lied to her. He’d told her as soon as… as soon as he knew he couldn’t go any farther.
He hung his head. He’d let her go pretty far without saying a thing. All he’d wanted was to pick up where they’d left off, as if the last three years had never happened. But the past couldn’t be so easily rewritten, and the present not so easily ignored.
Keira
There was something about the skin of a bear that brought Keira comfort, the feeling of her massive body lumbering slowly through the woods. Covered in thick rugged fur, the snow was hardly a bother. Subtle scents of the forest floor were so much clearer, especially with her nose so near the ground. Most of all, bears had very little to worry about. Hardly anyone approaches a bear, not even the other animals. Which meant that Keira was left on her own to think and generally feel sorry for herself for as long as she pleased.
Keira wandered the woods for a few hours this way until she found a comfortably sheltered cave where she could curl into a great lump of fat and fur. There she planned to pass the night.
At first she had been angry with Caspian for keeping his secrets, for humiliating her, but that did not last for long. It was overcome by melancholy images of Caspian in a castle, being called m’lord and eating at a rich table. It was strange enough to picture him in such a life, but herself? Where would she fit? So naturally, there was another by his side. The Lady Priscilla. Of course, Keira had never seen her, but her mind was a cruel thing, and so of course Priscilla was lovely and benevolent and people adored her and eventually Caspian would too.
That’s what killed her, the undeniable fact that He’d moved on. His engagement proved it. Maybe he didn’t love this girl, not yet, but he’d agreed to marry her… to tie knots. She knew theimplications. Whatever he’d felt for her in the past would have paled in comparison to the devotion he would have for his new wife.
Keira had spent years watching Lilith and Rhea, how Lilith looked at her like she was the only one in the world, how Rhea doted on her, even put herself in harm’s way to keep her safe. Every time, all Keira had been able to think of was how much she wanted that for herself… And Caspian was the only person she had ever considered making such a connection with. To know that he had been so close to tying himself to another was agony.
Caspian had let her go.
It had been three years,she tried to console herself. Would she have had him love a ghost forever? Perhaps not… but it still cut deep. He’d been dead to her for just as long, and though she’d sought out others for comfort, she’d never truly opened herself to another person. Not in her heart.
As Keira was floating in the depths between despair and sleep when she heard Caspian calling out her name. She roused, collecting her wits to be sure that she had truly heard his voice in the wood and it had not been only the beginnings of a dream. His voice echoed again through the pines, unmistakable this time.
Night had fallen, and though she could see well enough with her bear’s sight, Caspian would be wandering by torchlight. He was going to get himself hurt, or lost, or eaten. Keira stood and shook out her thick fur. She’d been in a heap so long an inch of snow had settled over her coat.
“Keira!” Caspian’s voice sounded again. He was getting farther away.
