Eris sat in his favorite leather chair in front of the fireplace, a glass of whiskey in his hand. He’d bathed and then he’d laid in bed staring at the ceiling. When he realized that was futile he got dressed and poured himself a drink.
Sleep had been eluding him since their guest arrived – perhaps it was due to the pressure of having a strange being staying just down the hall from him or perhaps it was her inclination to suspiciously wander the hallways at night looking for trouble. He downed his glass in one gulp, the liquid burning his insides as it slid down. He felt the fire stretch in his veins, and wrap around his heart.
Eris rolled up the sleeves of his shirt and studied the tattoo on his forearm – tawny swirling vines that wrapped and tangled together. They seemed to ebb and flow as if they were the limbs of a living, breathing creature existing underneath his skin. That morning the swirls had been cold to the touch, he’d woken up with goosebumps on his skin, an unfamiliar feeling for one with fire in his veins. When they’d made camp the tendrils seemed to be stifling him – he’d felt hot and feverish despite the chill wind. Now the same aggravating beast was tugging at him, towards what he wasn’t sure. He got up and ran a hand through his hair in frustration.
The hallways were empty. The patrol had already passed by, Eris knew their schedule by heart. Considering the day they’ve just had, his brothers should be asleep. He too should have been asleep, but he was not. And there was someone else holding vigil. Faintly, he heard a melody like a whisper in the wind. The tug at his arm became stronger, more purposeful. He followed it towards the source of the sound.
A young man walked through the forest
With his quiver and hunting bow
He heard a young girl singing
And followed the sound below
There he found the maiden
Who lives in the willow
He called to her as she listened
From a ring of toadstools red
"Come with me, my maiden
Come from thy willow bed"
She looked at him serenely
And only shook her head
The voice was haunting and familiar and in his mind, he saw those uncanny emerald eyes that belonged to her, the golden whorls that ringed her irises. He felt goosebumps rise up his arms.
See me now, a ray of light in the moondance
See me now, I cannot leave this place
Hear me now, a strain of song in the forest
Don't ask me, to follow where you lead
The cold stone of the house should have echoed the song, but there was only the sound of his footsteps bouncing off the walls.
A young man walked through the forest
With a flower and coat of green
His love had hair like umber
Her eyes an emerald sheen
She wrapped herself in beauty
So young and so serene
He stood there under the willow
And he gave her the yellow bloom
"Girl, my heart you've captured
Oh, I would be your groom"
She said she'd wed him never
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Not near, nor far, nor soon
A memory from his youth resurfaced – the prince of Summer Court warning him to never follow the song of a female at night. “Sirens will hypnotize you and drag you down to the depths,” the prince had said. But there were no such creatures in the Autumn Court.
See me now, a ray of light in the moondance
See me now, I cannot leave this place
Hear me now, a strain of song in the forest
Don't ask me, to follow where you lead
Follow where you lead
Or were there? Would he be able to stop his feet if he wanted to? Did he want to?
His feet only carried him faster, further.
A young man walked through the forest
With an axe sharp as a knife
"I'll take the green-eyed faerie
And she shall be my wife
With her I'll raise my children
With her I'll live my life"
The maiden wept when she heard him
When he said he'd set her free
He took his axe and used it
To bring down her ancient tree
"Now your willow's fallen
Now you belong to me"
Ahead of him, moonlight danced on granite. The wind was whistling, the fountain murmured in the night, and leaves rustled in the apple trees. It was as if nature itself joined in song.
See me now, a ray of light in the moondance
See me now, I cannot leave this place
Hear me now, a strain of song in the forest
Don't ask me, to follow where you lead'
Vel sat on the bench where the two of them had been just a day before. She was still wearing the fur he’d given her. The fire within him flared at the sight. Her delicate fingers were deftly plucking at the strings of an ornate lyre. He recognized the instrument from his mother’s music room. He approached slowly so as to not startle her, but the tug at his core was so strong now that he had to fight not to stumble. He sat down next to her, the granite feeling incredibly cold against his warm skin. If she’d noticed him, she gave no sign but the song became slower, sadder.
She followed him out the forest
And collapsed upon the earth
Her feet had walked but a distance
From the green land of her birth
She faded into a flower
That would bloom for one bright eve
He could not take from the forest
What was never meant to leave
The silence was deafening, nature was still once again.
“I wasn’t expecting an audience.” She didn’t look at him, instead, she raised her face to the sky. The moon bathed her bare face in a gentle glow and her skin seemed to shimmer in answer. He wanted to touch her, to run his fingers over her pink cheeks. She felt so alien to him. Or maybe it was these unfamiliar urges that made him feel strange in her presence.
“It would have been difficult not to hear your song. I followed it all the way from my room.” She looked at him then, her green eyes boring into his soul as if probing for lies. He wouldn’t have been able to look away from her even if he’d wanted to. Eris’s mind once again drifted to thoughts of sirens and hypnotism and he checked up on his still-intact mind shield.
“That’s strange … I had a shield up to hide the sound.” Her voice was laced with suspicion and Eris felt outrage bubbling up in his heart. How dare she be suspicious of him when she was the one sneaking around in the middle of the night? When she was the one hiding secrets from him? He had wanted to word the bargain differently, to force her to tell him everything. But he knew she would never have agreed to that. From the moment he saw that owl staring at him with those same green eyes, he’d felt his blood thrum and call to her. And then Nyoka had said she could light fires with the snap of her fingers. Was she even an Oracle? Or was she a child of Autumn? And what was her connection to the Night Court? He didn’t know where the secrets ended and the lies began. But as she stared at him, and he at her, he noted the furrow in her brow, the dark circles under her eyes. And he realized he didn’t want to pick a fight with her tonight, there was time enough for that another day. So instead he reached out for her hand – soft but cold once again despite the heavy wolf fur – and he brushed his thumb over her knuckles.
“It was a beautiful song,” he said softly, his voice barely above a whisper. When her full lips curved into a smile, he knew he’d made the right choice.
He placed his other hand on her cheek and stroked the freckles there – the tattoo on his arm seemed to purr in response. The gold in her eyes was still swirling, but slower and less vividly than he remembered. He wished he’d had the power to probe her thoughts, to know her feelings. The things he’d seen in her heart for that brief moment had been so strange and wondrous.
Eris leaned down slowly, tentatively, to give her the chance to withdraw, and, when she didn’t, he placed his lips on hers. She tasted metallic and earthy like the air after a rain. He felt her free hand on his chest and he wondered if she’d push him away, but she didn’t. Instead, she bunched his shirt in her fist and pulled him in closer, deeper. He felt like falling, tumbling into an abyss of desire, where everything else blurred, and the world ceased to exist outside the intensity of that stolen moment. He felt a primal hunger he’d never experienced in his life – like a starved beast gnawing at the iron bars of its enclosure, about to taste freedom for the first time in its life. But it was only a moment for she did pull back then, blushing and heavy-lidded and Eris felt the absence of her like a fading dream slipping through his grasp.
“Stay with me tonight,” he said, his voice gravelly enough that he barely recognized those words as coming out of his mouth.
But her eyes turned sad again and he knew what was coming. “I can’t.”
She busied herself smoothing some invisible fold in her robe. A moment turned into two and three and the sky above the Autumn Court became lighter. She stood up wordlessly and started towards the hallway. A slight hesitation. “Perhaps in another life, Eris Vanserra, you and I could have been something. But we are stuck with this life where the threads of fate lead us down different paths.” She pulled her hood down to once again cover her face and disappeared into the Forest House.