Larkspur | ONC 2023

Chapter 10

"Hey, Night Girl!" I tilt my head slightly. Ergun is standing beside me, a bag slung over one shoulder. The mellow evening light is gleaming off little brown highlights strewn all over his dark hair.

"Hey!" I turn my head back towards the sky. The sun is sinking steadily behind the luminescent orange clouds, leaving a beautiful afterglow. I breathe in the scene with my eyes.

"Nature lover?"

"I can count on you to punctuate silence with your questions, don't I?"

He chuckles. "Your mystery is worth unravelling."

I don't respond, but I can feel a smile tugging at the corner of my lips. "I grew up in the woods."

"Wow, so you're a lunar fairy then. No wonder you're so white like the moon."

"Is that the new pickup line in town?" I don't even bother to respond to the fairy part.

"No. You and I are like cookies and cream. Look." I feel a nudge against my hand resting on the terrace railing. He has placed his hand beside me. Almost touching, yet not. Gentleman! I can't not notice the difference between his gorgeous honeyed almond skin and my pale veiny hands. 

"The sun and the moon!" He shifts his little finger and gently brushes against my skin, almost as if I'm a fragile flower and he's brushing the petals. With any other man, I may have dragged away my hand and stormed off, but with him, I want that moment to last—even if it my last brush with humanly emotions, I want to feel every inch of it.

"Someone seems to have a poetic instinct buried inside him." I tease. 

"That someone is overwhelmed to find a beautiful lady all alone on the terrace watching the sunset." I turn my head slowly. He's looking at me with a soft, indulgent smile. 

Lark! The voice inside my head warns but I grab it and shove it inside some deep corner of my brain.

"What's your agenda now?" I hold his gaze like a challenge.

"A fortnight from now, we have the grand annual ball of Sundale."

"I know?" I narrow my eyes at him. Everyone knows about the grand ball. It occurs on the first full moon of spring, to signify the blooming of the moonflowers that are believed to keep magic alive in the kingdom. Emissaries from far and wide come to attend the gala affair. There's music and dances and food and merriment. The palace grounds are opened for the common fae-folk to come and gather while the royals and the courtesans have their own private party inside. Most importantly it's a party exclusively for the magical community and so all schools and universities are granted vacations so human kids just leave campus and the fae-kids can go celebrate with their parents.

"Yeah, obviously you know." He scratches the back of his neck. In the fading twilight, he looks so boyish, I almost feel like touching his cheeks. "I was wondering if—"

"Lark! There you are. I've been trying to find you all day." Hemlock is standing at the narrow door of the terrace. He strides towards us and stands beside me, almost protectively.

"Hemlock!" Ergun gives him a curt nod.

"Ergun!" Hemlock fixes him with a hostile look, turning towards me. "Where have you been?"

He was angry with me and so I have been deliberately avoiding him. "I—umm—"

"Give her some damn space, man!" Ergun cuts in. "You are suffocating her."

"I am not!" Hemlock growls, taking a step forward.

"Hem, chill!" I grab his arm and he relaxes automatically. "Ergun, he's just protective of me!"

"What is he to you anyway?" Ergun's voice is shaking, almost as if he's trying to hold in a lot emotions.

"I"—I look at Hemlock. Nobody has ever asked us what we are. We never needed to define our relationship. "I don't—"

"What's it to you?" Hemlock asks quietly.

"I see what's going on here." Ergun smiles but the smile is fake, it's a smile of contempt. "Okay guys, carry on." Ergun turns back and is out of the terrace door in a jiffy. 

"Hem, it's dark. Let's go in." I sigh, pulling his wrist. He doesn't budge.

"What?" I look at him. In the little light left from the gray blue sky, his eyes are shining with a kind of primal pain masked by years of practice.

"Hem." I touch his shoulder gently.

"What are we, Lark?" 

The accusation in his tone takes me aback. "I don't know. I—"

"We've had each other's back for over twenty years and when a random guy asks you who I am, you can't even." His voice breaks at the last word.

"Since when were you so bothered with what we are?" 

"I'm not." I can feel him hardening up, withdrawing into his shell, gathering the bits of his emotions and shrinking like a turtle.

"Hem, listen." I come closer and against my better sense, pull him into a hug. I can feel him inhale sharply, his body stiffening from my touch. But I don't let go. Hemlock has never received love or care. He was always the protector and it's time the roles we've created for ourselves are broken. We're equals and partners in this journey. "We don't have to define who we are. We just know we'll be there for each other always and that's enough for me." 

He pushes me away gently. "Yeah." There's no trace of the earlier vulnerability left in him. He's hardened up and locked away again. I don't push the matter and gesture for him to follow and he does.