"The Rose" by Helen ´Fallyn Raine´ Falls

Katryna stared out across the dark unforgiving landscape of the Kyalla Dominai. The lights of the poor quarter blurring as tears continued to cloud her vision, running down her cheeks like the gentle trace of faery fingers. She had cried a thousand rivers of sorrow during the past five years. Bitter rivers that she had hoped the monster that tortured her would drown in.

But that was over now, and the tears that fell from her emerald eyes now were no longer bitter, they were tears of hope. By some miracle her wish had finally come true. Shad had been returned to her.

She wiped her eyes, a soft laugh escaping her as a wonderful feeling of joy began to blossom in her heart. A fragile rose, growing from beneath bitter snow, its beauty lightening the dark wasteland her soul had become. Empty of any happiness expect that she gained from her children. Now perhaps there was hope of happiness for herself.

Or perhaps that was nothing but daydreams.

Katryna bit her lip, her eyes once more downcast as she considered this. Osiris had often told her that her thoughts of Shad had been nothing but fantasy. That the man she longed for did not exist except in her dreams. She wondered now if this was so.

But no, she knew she had not imagined the light she had seen within the darkness Shad surrounded himself in. The spark of a promise of something wonderful hidden in the shadows. She knew she had really seen past the masks, into his heart and what she had seen was what she wanted.

She shivered suddenly, and reached out to close the window. The night breeze suddenly cold on her bare shoulders. For an instant she felt almost like a small child again, wanting only to be held by someone. Tremors racked her slim form, too slim for she had lost too much weight and illness had long overtaken her.

Pain stabbed into her stomach without warning and she doubled over, unable to contain a cry of agony. The pains had been coming for some time now, nausea, dizziness, and terrible fever in their wake. She coughed, feeling the metallic taste of blood sting her throat, trickling from the corner of her mouth.

She reached out for the windowsill trying to keep her balance as a wave of dizziness hit, then she was falling backwards, darkness claiming her. But she did not hit the hard marble floor. Instead she was caught, held tightly in gentle arms. The darkness receded a little and she felt that she was being carried, then lay down on a soft bed.

Soothing blue mists surrounded her, driving away the darkness and the weakness that went with it. The pain began to dull, covered over like a parched beach by the gentle tides. Katryna found herself surrounded by sparkling light, magick alighting on her as drops of diamond dew.

She opened her eyes, at first blinded by the brightness of the healing wards that filled the air. Shad sat at her side, his eyes closed, wards streaming from him into her body through the hand he laid lightly on her fevered brow.

His hand was cool and his touch so comforting that she felt a tear of regret sting her eye as she took his hand away, the spell completed. He opened his eyes, looking down at her in concern. “Are you alright?”

Katryna smiled up at him. “I will be.” She said and for the first time in a long time she believed her own words. She would be well again, her strength would return in time. “Thank you.”

Shad looked embarrassed, a faint blush coming to his pale cheeks. Katryna knew he was trying to find something offhand to say about his act of kindness. He gave up, touching her cheek instead. There was anguish in his glacier blue eyes, so different from those of his father. “You’re so ill.” He whispered after a few moments of silence. “I’m sorry.”

Katryna felt his self hatred as if the feeling were her own and as always, its intensity sent fear through her. She reached out, placing a finger against his lips, trying to transfer her feelings to him through her touch as if they were wards.

“You have nothing to be sorry for.” She told him. “You’re what I’ve been waiting for.” She blinked back her tears, stroking his hair. “I know you can make it better.”

Shad’s eyes were suddenly over bright and he leant down to kiss her pale cheek. “I wish I could be what you want me to be.” He said, his voice barely audible.

Katryna trace her fingers across the back of his neck, feeling him shiver under her touch. “You are what I want.”

She leaned up and kissed him, feeling the red rose within her burst into a passionate flame. He returned her kiss, heat so long held back sparking between them like lightning. The kiss grew deeper and everything else dropped away becoming distance, echoes, nothing more.

A distant part of her expected her to feel afraid, but as his hands moved so gently over her body she only felt desire, coursing through her. Her head spun slightly as though she was drunk on his kisses and she ran her hands across the smooth skin of his back, his shirt lying forgotten on the floor. She relieved him of his trousers next, a wicked grin curving her red lips as she reached down to help him with her corset, which had been giving him some trouble.

She heard his sharp intake of breath when he saw how thin she had become and looked away thinking he would surely find her hideous. A small gasp escaped her as her gently caressed her stomach, wards of healing seeping into her skin chasing away the last of the ache inside her.

She looked up into his eyes, seeing love and longing evenly mixed. She felt again his wish to protect her, and although another woman from her world might take offence at such a feeling in a man, it made her smile. It was what she needed at this time.

She drew him close to her, feeling him tremble under the weight of emotions he did not understand. Emotions, she realised, he had probably never felt until now. Her eyes filled once more with tears, her soul lamenting his long life in which real love had been absent.

Adam entered her thoughts then, as she had known he would. For a second she battled her own confusion, the feeling of holding Shad in her arms melding with the memory of holding Adam. She wondered briefly if her soul mate had felt this same confusion in the arms of his wife. Then she let go of the memory, knowing deep within her soul at part of her heart would always be Adam’s, just as part of his would always belong to her.

She surrendered herself to her new love, sighing softly at his caress. He sat back briefly, a shinning blue ward forming at his fingers to speed across the door behind them, slamming it shut and locking it securely. Katryna laughed, drawing him into another kiss, feeling his soft hair as it came loose beneath her fingers.

He lay her back down, kissing her softly. For a moment she tensed, expecting the pain that had tortured her nights in a demon’s cold embrace, but there was nothing but peace and the simple pleasure of belonging. She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him closer still.

He inhaled sharply, tensing for a second, then she felt him relax. One by one his masks dropped away, until there was only himself. Only the light.

All sense of time was lost, moments becoming hours in which Katryna felt a depth of passion and ecstasy that eclipsed all else. When it was over she held him tight, soothing him into sleep with gentle fingers stroking his brow. For a long time she lay awake, lost in belonging and warmth until she too was claimed by dreams. Fears and questions could wait, they were together now, and nothing else mattered.