i am nothing but a heart of satin,
nothing but rose petals in a cage of bones
nothing but rose petals in a cage of bones
There is a snap in the air like reality has slapped her; the tears threaten to spill over and her throat clenches with the effort it takes to seize the sobs from leaving her lips. Let’s finish this in your room. She swallows, heavy and loud, as he pushes past her. The brief touch of his skin against her wings sends a shiver through them; she feels them quiver long after he is gone. She still faces the door even as he takes up the space behind her, only letting it glide gently shut as he declares: I had to leave you.
She shakes her head, letting the curls fall loose from their binds. Her forehead presses against the doorframe, then, and she clamps her eyes shut so she doesn’t have to look at him. She will not cry. She will not cry because of him. But even as she says the words, feels the venom she wished would edge its way into her voice, she feels herself weakening. He had a way of prying her open, exposing the vulnerable parts of her she tried so hard to smother.
It was not my choice. I was told to go, and I was not always truthful about the crew I was a part of—there were… there were contracts I could not break.
“You should have told me. I would have understood. I would have…” But even as she says it she knows it wasn’t true; she would have begged him to stay, to be the only good thing she had left in her life. But that would have been selfish, and she knows he had to go. Contracts are contracts, afterall. She could understand that, she thinks, more than anyone.
I’m sorry that my leaving hurt you. I wish I could have stayed.
Does she wish he would have stayed, or that he cared enough to take her with him? He knew what her life was like, he knew why she was there. He knew, and yet, he had left her behind. He hadn’t even gone back to find her. He had come back to his home.
There is a pain in her chest when she realizes that she was not, is not, his home.
She straightens her shoulders, sets her jaw, clasps her wings tight to her sides. “You are a liar, Lyric, as well as an asshole.” She knew that he would eventually find his way beneath her newly resolved armor. She knew that she would give in to anything he asked of her, because, deep down, she was still the girl that loved him. And it hurt to know that it would never be the same.
I did not know you planned to become a soldier, Euphrosyne.
“My father told me once that women were not meant to be soldiers.” Once, her eyes were the soft blue of forget-me-not petals when she looked at him. They seemed to soften with just his presence. Now when she finally meets his gaze they are the same shade of lightning over the ocean.
@Lyr
