“You really should stay in bed.”
I turned to face the Huntsman, hand on my heard. He was sitting in the green stuffed chair that sat in the back corner of the room, basking in the glow of the mid-morning sun. He looked tired, as if he hadn’t slept in days. His beard had grown out slightly, being more than just a simple morning shadow. His clothes were wrinkled, as if he had been sleeping in them.
“What are you doing here?” I asked finally, once I had recovered my voice, and my heart steadied to a regular rhythm.
He ran a hand over his face, and I noticed the purplish blue bags under his eyes. He definitely had not been sleeping well. “You fainted when you were on your way to town a few days ago. I wanted to make sure that you were alright.”
“A few days?” I wondered how long I had been out. Surely it couldn’t have been a few days.
He nodded. “About a week ago, now. You were starting to worry us all. You were only waking up for a few minutes at a time, barely long enough for Ina to give you something to keep you from becoming malnourished.”
“A week?” I let myself fall on the bed. “It couldn’t have been a week. I would have known…I would have…”
“Your body needed to rest. You went through a lot of pain, and your body had to recover from it.”
I eyed him cautiously. “How did you know about the pain? I didn’t tell anyone.”
He sighed, kneeling in front of me. “I went through it too. When you were asking me if I was alright that day at breakfast, I was trying my hardest to keep from touching you, keep from somehow getting too close to you. When you left with Ina….”
I couldn’t help but feel bad for him. I studied his face, taking in the bags under his eyes and the paleness of his skin, realizing then that he truly was suffering as much, if not more, than I was.
I felt a slow burn start to make its way from the center of my chest, branching out to fill all of it before moving down my ribs to my stomach. Being this close to him and not touching him was killing me. I needed to feel him, even in the most innocent of ways. Carefully, I laid my palm on the side of his face, sighing in contentment as he leaned into my hand, covering it with his.
“Why do we feel this way?” My voice was barely a whisper, as I allowed the fire to die down inside of me.
He sighed again. “Have you ever heard of Perfects?”
I nodded. “My parents were Perfects. At least, that’s what my mother told me.”
“What else did she say?”
I tried to recall the memories of my conversations with my mother. “The Fates brought them together by chance, that they went to the Queens to be sure.”
He nodded. “I spoke with Wolfsbane. He said that this, these things that we are feeling, it’s the Bonding. We’re not sure how it began, especially since we’ve only been near each other for a weeks time, but it happened.”
“The more intense the fire becomes, the closer it is to the end.” I recited from memory, the words that my mother spoke to me just before she passed away.
“Exactly.” He took both my hands in his, interlacing our fingers. “I haven’t left this room since you were brought back from town. Being away, the burn is so bad. I can’t stand it. Though I haven’t touched you, being near you quenches the pain enough that I can stand it.”
I shook my head, tears pricking my eyes. “I’m sorry that I’ve caused you so much pain. I didn’t know what was happening, I didn’t know that I could stop it.”
He wiped the tears from my eyes. “It wasn’t your fault. Neither of us knew what was happening. There was no way that we could have prepared for it.”
“What do we do now? To complete the Bond.”
He was silent for some time. When I looked up, I found him staring at my lips, an unusual expression on his face. When he finally spoke, his voice was raspy and rough. “There is one last thing to do,” he brushed the pad of his thumb across my bottom lip. “But, we won’t think of that until you’re ready.”
I knew what he was saying. The final kiss was such an innocent task, and yet it brought a heavy weight with it. There were two choices that I could pick from, and yet it was a choice that I didn’t want to make. I could wait for the kiss, and let us both live in agonizing pain when we’re apart, or I could have the kiss now, and run the risk of not being ready to be Bonded, or for the Huntsman not being the One like we thought.
“I think that we should talk to the Queens,” I said finally. “And then we’ll decide.”
He nodded, squeezing my hands a little. “I agree. We should see what they say, and then you can make your choice.”
“No,” I said firmly, shaking my head. “I’m not going to be the only one who decides this. We will decide. Together.”
Chapter 10
Lara
I could feel him watching me.
After our meeting with the Queens, he said that he had a surprise for me.
I was never one for surprises.
I huffed as he tied the strip of dark fabric around my eyes. Crossing my arms over my chest.
“Something, wrong?” He asked, feigning ignorance.
“I don’t understand why this is necessary,” I replied, pausing when a strand of my hair got stuck in the knot he was tying. “Ow!”
“Sorry, love.” He murmured, quickly releasing the hair from the knot.
“Anyways, you know that I don’t like surprises.”
“And I will never understand why.”
I thought about that for a moment. “Well, what if I don’t end up liking whatever the surprise is. Then, I’ll have to pretend to like it.”
He chuckled slightly. “And, why would you have to pretend? Why can’t you just be honest and tell me that you don’t like it?”
“Because, that would hurt your feelings.”
“How do you know that it would hurt my feelings?”
I raised an eyebrow under the fabric covering my eyes. “Why do you keep asking me questions?”
“Why are you answering my questions with questions?”
I sighed, letting my arms fall to my sides. “You’re not going to stop until I agree to this, are you?”
“Well, you already have the blindfold on, so you don’t really have a choice but to go with it.”
I put my hand out. “Lead the way.”
We walked for a few minutes, stopping occasionally so he could help me cross a small stream or a fallen log. Sooner than I expected, though, we stopped walking entirely. He took both my hands in his, standing in front of me. I expected him to take off the blindfold as soon as we got to wherever it was that we were, and was a little surprised when he didn’t.
“Do you remember the day that I took you?” I nodded silently, but he went on as if he hadn’t seen my acknowledgement. “You had said that you loved the clearing, that it was one of the last things that you had left of your mother.”
“So? What does that have to do with the surprise?” I didn’t mean for my words to come up as harsh as they did, but I wasn’t prepared for the onslaught of emotions that I had felt when he brought up my mother.
“I’ve felt….horrible….since the day that I took you from the castle. Since then, I’ve been wracking my brain, trying to figure out a way that I could give you the clearing back.”
“You don’t have to feel bad,” I tried to reassure him. “I understand why you had to do what you did.”
“It doesn’t matter why I had to do it.” I imagined him shaking his head then, as he usually did when I disagreed with him. He moved behind me. “Anyways, I hope this makes up for it.”
When the fabric was finally moved away from my eyes, I gasped as what surrounded me.
A large circular area of the woods had been cleared, nothing left of the trees and shrubs I’m sure had been there besides a few stool-height stumps scattered around the patch. There was thick, braided rope hung from tree to tree, just above head-level, jar-like lanterns hanging from them. The lighting was mimicked at ground level also, th
e smaller jars being hung by thick twine strung from the branches of the shrubs, bushes, and saplings. The light from the candles in the lanterns cast eerily romantic shadows along the ground, seemingly dancing in the breeze.
I turned to him, finding him watching me, gauging my reaction. If the gesture itself wasn’t enough, his hesitancy would have done me in. I hadn’t realized that I was crying until he quickly brushed away a few stray tears from my face, concern and sadness covering his features.
“Do you not like it? I’m sorry, I can change it. Just tell me what you want, and I’ll find it.” He quickly rushed through his anxious apology, tripping over his words a bit.
I took his face in my hands, silencing him instantly. “I’m not crying because I don’t like it.”
Confusion became prominent on his face. I almost laughed when his thick eyebrows furrowed. “Then, why are you crying?”
“Because I like it.”
He gave me a blank stare. “I’m confused.”
I laughed a little, wiping away a few more tears that had escaped. “No one has ever put this much effort into….anything….for me. I love it, because you put so much thought into it. It’s beautiful, and it’s perfect.”
“So, you really like it?” I nodded. “You’re not just saying that you like it to spare my feelings?”
I shook my head. “No, I’m not. I truly like it.”
He breathed a sigh of relief as a smile took over his face. “Good. Tomorrow, when the sun is out, I’ll show you how to get here from the house. That way, if you ever want to escape for a bit, you can.”
It was my turn for confusion. “But, I’m staying at Wolfsbane and Ina’s. The walk from there to your home is over an hour.”
His smile got bigger. “This was only part one of the surprise.”
He took my hand, and without another word we were making our way back to his hut. I felt giddy inside, excited. I didn’t understand why he suddenly cared so much about me, or why he was doing nice things for me, like surprising me with the new clearing. But, to say that I wasn’t enjoying it would be a lie. He had been so cold towards me, and now that he was showing some emotion, I was enjoying it.
When we got to the house, he stopped just outside the front door, turning to me. “You don’t need the blindfold for this one, but you have to keep your eyes closed.”
I rolled my eyes. “Nothing is ever easy with you, is it?”
He stood there, not saying anything, waiting patiently. With a sigh, I not only closed my eyes, but put my hands over them too. I heard him walk behind me before he covered my hands with his own, pulling me slightly closer to him.
“My hands weren’t good enough?” I asked jokingly.
I felt him shrug. “This ensures no peeking. Are you ready?”
I nodded, and he nudged me forward. It was a straight shot from the door to where we were going, which was strange because his living room wasn’t as big as it felt walking through it. When we stopped, he uncovered my eyes. In front of me was a door I didn’t recognize, the brass handle still shiny from only being used a few times.
I looked at him, and he smiled. “Go ahead, open it.”
Chapter 11
Huntsman
I held my breath as she turned the handle at a pace that felt agonizingly slow.
She had bewitched me, this simple little princess, in just a few weeks’ time. I wasn’t sure how she managed to get through my ever-hardening heart. Perhaps it was her meekness, her shy character that was as humble as could be. Or, it could have been her outward beauty, her long hair and glimmering eyes. Those eyes. They seemed to entrap me from the moment I first looked into them.
I was never one for love, I didn’t care for those stories in our history books. The ones of the Perfects meeting and, somehow, righting the wrongs of our world. And yet, they never seemed to be able to fix all of them, and never seemed to care. As long as they fixed just enough, they were content. They lived their lives on, seemingly with a happy ever after.
But, I knew better. I knew that nothing was ever as easy as it seemed in the books. Those books, though they were our history, were full of fluff, of things made to make it seem more glamourous than it really was. They were full of romance, of all of the wars that we had won. But, they failed to include the couples that weren’t Perfects, that weren’t able to complete the bond. They didn’t include the wars and battles that we had lost, the hundreds of brave creatures and people that had died.
I knew better than to believe what I read in books.
When she walked into the room, she gasped, and I thought she didn’t like it. I worried that she would be furious at me for making the room for her, that she wouldn’t want to stay with me. Even the small amount of work we’ve made, I still worried that she would think that I was moving too fast.
When she turned to me, she had a smile on her face and tears in her eyes. She gave me a tight, lingering hug, her tears wetting my tunic. “Thank you,” she whispered.
I glanced at the room over her head, proud myself for bringing her happiness. The room was small, there’s no doubt about that. But, with the princess’s presence, it made even the smallest hole in the wall feel like a castle.
There was nothing in the room except for a plain, wooden bed with a matching night table, an oil lamp, a bookshelf, and a small armoire. I wish I could give her more, because she deserved so much more. But, she didn’t seem to mind the meagerness of it.
“I’m glad that you like it. I was afraid that you wouldn’t have.”
“It’s perfect, I love it.”
I smiled and gestured to the bookshelf. “Ina knows a good bookstore in town. She said she’ll take you one day. No one can ever have enough books, or so she says.”
She laughed. “That’s true, I do like a good book every now and then.”
I sighed, wrapping my arms back around her. “So, do you like it? Really like it?”
She laid her head on my shoulder. “I really do. I wouldn’t lie to you.”
I tightened my hold on her. “I have one last surprise for you, but you can’t have it until tonight.”
I felt her stiffen a little, and I laughed. “Not that kind of surprise, my dear. We just have to wait until the sun sets.”
She relaxed and laughed a little herself. “You always seem to know what I’m thinking. It’s like a gift or something.”
“It is a gift. I can’t hear your thoughts, but I can feel your emotions. It’s part of the bond.”
I felt her head against my chest as she nodded. “I’d forgotten about that.”
We stood there for some time, her head on my chest, my arms wrapped around her. Neither of us seemed to notice as the room slowly turned darker as the day passed us by. Just being there with each other, holding each other as lovers would, felt like a million stars had just aligned and created an arrow pointing straight at us.
I moved my arms, panicking when the princess started to slip. Quickly, I tightened my arms back around her as she jolted awake, clasping her hands tight around my arms as to brace herself. I laughed once she was upright. She slapped my arm playfully, crossing her own across her chest.
“I don’t know what you find so funny.” She said curtly, going to the mirror hanging above her dresser to fix her hair.
“Just you, Princess. You seem to amuse me in ways I can’t describe.”
“Well, if you weren’t so comfortable, I wouldn’t have fallen asleep.”
I chuckled again as I glanced out the window by her bed. “Finish getting ready, we’ll leave in a bit.”
She nodded, and I made my way to my room. Throwing myself on the bed, I ran a hand down my face, wondering how far I would fall before I was completely lost in the girl that should have been dead.
Unlike any girl I’d ever seen, she was like a painting by a master, kept from the world. Her laughter was contagious, reaching all the way to her eyes as the melody slowly captured the air of any room. Her smile made me, of all people, weak at the knees.
Her hair fell down her back in the softest curls, curls that I wanted to run my fingers through all day.
This girl, this princess, she had to know magic. She must have trained under the chief wizards to have bewitched me as she had. She had taken over my thoughts, my emotions. I leave her at night counting down the minutes until I see her again, savoring every moment we’re together. I knew that it was the incomplete bond that was causing such strong feelings. But, those feelings would’ve had to be there in the beginning in order for the bond to intensify them, would they not?
When she knocked on the door, I realized how much time I had wasted in my thoughts. Changing my shirt and combing my hair, I met her outside our home. Smiling and taking her hand, she laid her head on my shoulder as we walked out into the night.
Chapter 12
Lara
Walking down the dark path with the Huntsman, I felt something that I hadn’t since my mother died.
I didn’t worry for my safety. I didn’t watch where I went, checking behind every rounded corner for someone with a knife or a sword. I didn’t second-guess the loyalty of those who were supposed to protect me. I didn’t wonder if the love of my family was true. I didn’t feel fear daily.
I felt safe.
Yes, the Huntsman was supposed to kill me, but he didn’t. He chose to keep me alive, for whatever reason. I didn’t understand his choice, I didn’t try too. But, I was thankful for it. He gave me a second chance at life. A life of happiness, of friendship.
A life of love.
It was undoubtedly clear to me now that I was, in fact, in love with the Huntsman. Everyone who knew us could see it. He saw it, even if he didn’t voice it. And, it was clear that he felt the same way towards me as I did him.
I wanted to finish the Bond, but wasn’t sure how. He had begun to explain it to me on many occasions before, but had always been interrupted by one thing or another. I had decided to get a book on the Bonding when I was out with Ina, and what I read caused me to worry. Hidden between the pages of love and ceremonies was a very detailed section about what happens if the Bond isn’t supposed to happen.
Huntsman: Love Will Find a Way Page 5