31 Only Me (2/2)

She shook her head.

”The flowers? What you did with me, you've done with someone else,” he said.

She nodded. I didn't want to, the shade took my body. She said there was too much power built up, that's why I fainted. Please don't be angry, she wrote.

”I'm not angry with you, little bird,” he said softly brushing her forehead with his lips. ”And it's my own fault for making you think that I would be. Still, there are too many things I don't understand. Something has happened, and you haven't explained it to me. Why were you in my father's halls? I told you to stay away from him.”

She bit her lip, I didn't want to trouble you.

”Trouble me? Isilla, it troubles me that you are in danger,” he replied. ”Your pet bringing you to me with blood dripping from your nose and you in a dead faint troubles me. You keeping things from me troubles me. Telling me what is causing these things so that I can help you does not trouble me.”

She looked up at him, still teary and shaken. He smiled down at her gently.

”Wash your face, Julen can bring us some tea to calm your nerves, and then you can explain to me what has happened today.”

She nodded and reluctantly slid from his arms. The dress, loose now that he had undone the laces, hung on her frame. She walked into the bathing room and shut the door, leaving Ilun whining on the other side.

”Oh!” she gasped at her reflection in the long mirror. She looked terrible, her dress askew and stained, her hair half undone by sleep, the makeup runny from her tears. Quickly she located a cloth and scrubbed off her face clean, removing the thick makeup. Next she pulled her hair down, running her fingers through it, massaging her scalp. This is just like our wedding night, she thought, blushing.

She attempted to tighten the dress but gave up, the laces were in the back and she couldn't reach them properly.

She walked back into the room as Arren just finished changing his shirt. She touched his hand and he turned to her, eyebrow raised as he reached for one of her curls, wrapping it around his fingers. ”This looks much better on you,” he said softly.

She smiled and pointed at her dress before turning.

He pulled the laces gently, tightening the dress so it would stay on.

Finished, she turned and smiled. He looked back at her nervously for a moment before the door opened and Julen entered. A look of deep concentration on his face as he slid the tray he carried onto the table and set up the cups for the tea.

”Isilla! You're alright!” the boy cried, his job complete, crossing the room and wrapping his arms around her waist. She returned the hug as he spoke, his words muffled in her long skirts. ”I was so worried when Ilun brought you here! I thought you were dead!”

She smiled down at the boy, pulling him gently from her body, to show that she was fine.

”I told you she would be fine. Take a cookie,” Arren said told him. ”And see that we are not disturbed. Even by members of the Council. You are to tell them that I am not receiving visitors today.”

Julen nodded solemnly as he picked up a brightly frosted cookie and began to eat it.

”I won't let anyone come in,” he said, a mouthful of crumbs, as he bounced away from the table.

”Take the beast to help you,” Arren said.

”Really?” Julen asked, excited at the prospect of playing with the animal.

”Go with him,” Arren ordered and Ilun turned to Isilla, questioning her.

She nodded and sat as Julen and Ilun left, closing the door behind them. Arren poured the tea and picked up a cookie of his own.

”Now, how did you end up in father's halls?”

I had lunch with him, she wrote, Elixabete planned it to try and take my place as your wife.

”My father wouldn't dissolve this marriage for that woman. She must be very desperate although I do not know why. It can't just be the child she carries, there must be something else. But why did she bring you?”

Isilla frowned at the page before confessing, She was brought on to be my lady in waiting.

”Lehan,” Arren growled. ”Why didn't you tell me sooner? Is she bothering you?”

I'm fine, she wrote.

”You're lying, little bird but it is fine. I can deal with that later. What did my father say to you?”

Not much, just what I already told you and that he could feel something about me, she replied.

Arren sat back and thought about this for a moment before shaking his head, deciding to leave it and move on. ”Did you faint while you were with him? Tell me what happened.”

She shook her head and wrote out the details of from when she fainted up until she woke up with the flowers.

”So now my father and brother both know that you are something other than what you've said,” he said slowly.

She nodded, guiltily.

”It's not your fault,” Arren said softly, ”Drink your tea.”

She picked up the cup and sipped at the hot liquid while he spoke.

”This secret was bound to get out before long but I had hoped to understand more about you, about this feeling.”

You feel it too, she asked, surprise.

”I don't know what it is. I feel something. It is not important right now. This thing, whatever it is, is dangerous for you and we need to stop it before it becomes too much.”

Are you upset, about your brother, she asked timidly.

His fingers flexed on the table for a moment before relaxing, his shadows darkening around him. ”I can't explain my feelings. I know that what happened was out of your control but it still feels like he has taken something of mine. Isn't that strange? You were, after all, intended to marry him.”

She looked down at her cup, the steam rising from it still.

”Isilla, from now on, just me, alright?” he asked, speaking quickly, the words rushing from his mouth as if he were afraid to stop speaking. ”Don't use this power with anyone else. If you need to come to me every night, then come to me every night until this is controlled. Make flowers or jewelry, or even more beasts if that's what you want but come only to me. Doing this with anyone else is too dangerous for you. If Lehan had woken up covered in flowers instead of you, what would have happened? So please, only me.”

He wouldn't meet her eyes, his focus on his own tea cup. What are you really asking me, she thought even as she answered, tapping his hand to draw his gaze back to her, a smile and slight nod signaling her agreement to his request.

That searching feeling stirred in her chest for a moment and she wondered if his body responded to it, could feel that sixth sense as well. But more than that, she wondered if the man who had claimed to love her all of those months ago would take this responsibility if offered to him.