**ASH**
After putting my little peasant to sleep, I sit watching her for the next few minutes. My eyes trace over every curve, every softness, every inch of beauty that she has captured me with, and I commit them to my memory, burning them within my mind. But, even without the attempt, I'm sure it would be virtually impossible for anything beyond magic to steal the image of her from my mind. She is adorned there. Emblazoned. At home in every aspect of the word and try as I might, I cannot imagine her blood tipping the end of any holy blade in Faery.
Just the notion angers me.
*Stop this... you are a prince of the realms.*
*Fucking act like it!*
*But... what if I want her for my princess? What if I decide to say fuck everything else and keep her?*
*And doom my mother to an eternal sleep?*
There has to be some other way. Maybe I *should* return to the Mortal Realm to find another. One that Prince Hayden cannot say no to.
*It's her. He's almost as obsessed with her as I am. There will be no other. There isn't time.*
*Damn it.*
*.*
But nothing is set in stone yet. Who knows what awaits us at the end of this journey. The House of the Five Rivers is a mystical place. Not all are always permitted entry. Mortals? Almost never. So, I'm more than a little curious as to why that witch bid us travel there. And... why she insists she meet Daphne.
Just watching my sweet little peasant sleep is doing things to my body that I do not have time to indulge in at present. She fires up my blood, creating a longing in me with as little as her faint breaths in sleep and I admit... my desire for her is cresting on the edge of obsession, but I'm not sorry about it. At least... not yet.
I rise back above the stairs to manipulate the winds and guide our ship in the right direction. The night is dark and heavy with fog as we near the fork in the river. The sound of churning water is loud and rhythmic. White noise to drown out my fears of what truths may be revealed once we reach the House of the Five Rivers.
Tomorrow, I may find Daphne has in fact been lying to me. It might be shared that she carries Hayden's babe after all. The only other possibility is too far fetched for me to hope for.
And if the child is his... will I have the strength to sacrifice her?
Biting down and staring out at the river, I picture it. Daphne, her throat cut by my own blade, her life draining over my hands as she stares into my eyes, the sparkle of her green gaze fading into death... My blood boils with the image and my heart clenches in my chest. It nearly drops me to my knees, just the imagining of it.
"What's wrong?" Petra questions, sidling up next to me, her eyes alight with electric fire.
I smirk, thinking of the intoxicating taste of Daphne. The nectar of her sex like a delicious stain on my tongue. "Not a damn thing," I say smoothly, with a bite of my lip.
Petra giggles and then walks away to join Dionie near the bow of the ship.
Petra's magic is coming in nicely, I notice. More often than not, faeries who have spent most of their lives in the Mortal Realm, have a hard time adjusting to the steady return of power. It is almost painful for them, or so I've heard. The refurbishing of one's nature being exactly that. A reinvention of themselves. They are forced to learn how to control themselves and their powers in unbalanced amounts. Many have complained it's like burning fire in their blood. Aching to be released but not knowing how to be. But Petra appears well acclimated. Probably in large part due to the yearly visits home I insisted she take.
I traveled back and forth a lot more than she did as was necessary. Many nights Hayden thought me asleep in my bed, when in fact I was home strengthening my magic or checking on my mother. As a prince of Fae, I could not risk any loss of power.
"Tomorrow we shall be at the House of Five Rivers," Klyesque says, stepping down from the helm of the ship to whisper with me near the companionway. "I do hope you know what you're doing."
I scoff, "No more than you did when you gave her that blasted book against my wishes."
She grins, "What can I say? I'm a sucker for a pretty face, and hers is more dazzling than any human face I've ever seen. So beautiful is she, that I doubt her humanity at all."
"Careful," I breathe out. "Those claims you make are dangerous. Not only for her, but for me. Should I dare to hope for things that are hardly possible and come out on the losing end, I may become violent."
Klyesque leans in close, her lips an inch from my ears. "But if I am correct - and I'd bet my favorite blade that I am - she is no more human than you or I. And-"
"Stop," I hiss, my eyes whipping toward Finn. "Lest you forget all ears cannot be trusted."
Klyesque chuckles, "You might have qualms about spilling the blood of your cousin, my prince. But I would be more than happy to christen his very own blade with his very own life."
I realize now that I must make certain we are alone when Daphne drinks from the fountain. For if it is found that she has been lying to me, I must make certain no others witness her treachery. Should Klyesque find that she is in fact wrong about who she suspects Daphne to be, she may become so heartbroken that she takes the disappointment of it much too gravely.
Because Daphne has bespelled me. And each time I close my eyes I see her face.
Because the answer to my own question would be no...
No, I could not sacrifice her.
And I won't.
I will have her for mine no matter the child she carries. She is special. All can see it, save for Finn and he only hates her because he believes I am playing false in my affections for her. But I will straighten him out soon enough.
*Daphne will be mine.*
*Forever.*
*As far as the child... I will do what needs to be done when the time comes.*