Elaris Ashwyn's Arc

Chapter 6 of 12

They walked hard for two days, and now the crossing lay one night away. Elaris made camp under a low ridge. Ren sat across the fire, quieter than usual. She had spent her name to keep him. She had freed a sprite, tricked him, trusted him. But she realized she had never once asked what he wanted for himself. "When the crossing is behind us," she said, "where do you go?" Ren poked the fire. "I've never thought that far. I do jobs. I obey. That's all I've had." "That's not what I asked." She leaned toward him. "What do you want, Ren?" He went still. The question seemed to hurt him more than the mark on his chest. "No one has asked me that," he said. "Not once." His icy eyes met hers. "I want to choose one thing that's mine. I want to stop being a blade someone else swings." Elaris looked at him and felt something shift in her chest. It scared her more than the king's hunt. She looked away first. They slept. In her dream, Ren stood in the dark trees. The mark on his chest glowed white. He turned and walked away from her, pulled by an invisible hand. She ran after him. She grabbed his arm. It was cold as stone. When she spun him around, his icy eyes were empty, and he did not know her name or his own. "Ren," she screamed. He said nothing. The dark swallowed him. Elaris woke with her hand out, reaching. The fire had burned to coals. Ren sat awake, watching her. "You called my name," he said softly. "In your sleep." Her heart pounded. She could lie. She had lied to him before. But she had traded lies for trust, and trust was the only thing that had ever kept her safe. "I dreamed the contract took you," she said. "You forgot who you were. You forgot me." Her voice caught. "I didn't just want to keep an ally, Ren. I don't want to lose you." The words hung between them. She had never said such a thing to anyone. Ren crossed to her side of the fire. He took her hand, the one that had reached for him in the dark. "You broke his hold on me," he said. "No one has ever fought for me before. I won't forget you. I don't care what the ink does." She let herself lean into him. For one moment she was not a hidden princess or a scared runaway. She was just a girl who had let someone in. Then the coals hissed. Far off, a horn sounded through the trees. Low. Hunting. Ren's head snapped up. "That's his rider," he said. "He tracked the scent faster than I thought." Elaris stood, her hand still in his. She had let herself love him. Now the king was one night behind, and she had more to lose than ever.