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And now he has her too.
Saera.
I loved her the moment I set eyes on her, and I knew I would never be able to have her.
She was brought to the castle by her parents and offered to my father as a peace-making gift – a way to forge an alliance between the Sunborne and the Desertborne fae.
My father said yes immediately without consulting Raylon or my mother.
Saera was given no choice, either.
I was there, in the shadows, watching as she stood with her head down, her eyes cast towards her pointed silver slippers, her hands clasped in front of her. She was pure innocence. A picture of beauty, and softness. Black hair, like the feathers of a raven, cascading down her back. Rose-red lips. And wings tipped with green; an earth fae.
She did not see me watching her, and I never revealed to her the way I felt that very first day she entered the castle. But Raylon knew.
When I stumbled back to our living quarters drunk that night and asked what he thought of his bride-to-be, he saw it in my face.
A look of recognition passed between us, and I saw his lip curl into a vicious smile.
He knew I loved her, and he knew he would do everything he could to flaunt her in front of me from that moment on.
Over the months that passed, I watched her from afar. Or, at least, I tried to. But it seemed as if, at every opportunity, she sought me out. She found me in the library, in the study, in the garden.
And then I started to seek her too.
She told me Raylon was not the sort of man she thought she would marry. “He’s funny,” she said, a note of hesitation in her voice. “But I don’t think he’s really interested in getting to know me.” She paused and knitted her hands together in her lap.
In front of us, as the sun began to set, the ocean glimmered like a blanket of flames were dancing on its surface. She looked down at her feet dangling above the water that trickled out from the castle moat towards the sea.
“He is arrogant,” she said, almost hesitantly, as if I might berate her for speaking badly of him.
I scoffed and rolled my eyes. “That’s putting it kindly,” I said. “But he has a right to be. He is powerful. More powerful than any other fae in the kingdom.”
“Even more powerful than your parents?” she asked, her wings fluttering uncomfortably.
“Oh, yes.” I nodded and leaned back onto my wings, using them like a cushion to allow me to relax backwards without falling. “Which is why they will give him anything he wants.” I glanced at her, hesitating before adding, “What he wants is you.”
A sigh swelled in her chest. “I know,” she whispered. “But I want another.”
And then our eyes met. The tip of her wing met mine. A shock like electricity ran through my entire body. Down my spine, through my limbs, into my fingers and toes.
My breath quivered in my chest.
I leaned towards her, already imagining the softness of her lips against mine.
And then I stopped.
I didn’t say a word.
I left her there, eyes closed, waiting for me to kiss her, and I flew away. Back to the castle where I drank myself into oblivion, and continued to drink myself into oblivion every day until their wedding. And after.
Now, watching him fly away from me, I wish with every breath in my body that I had not turned away from her.
Not because I think we were destined to be together or that I would have loved her for the rest of eternity; now I know her better, I know she is too meek for my tastes. But because I wanted her and he did not.
Because he only took her to stop me having her.
Because if I hadn’t let him see that glimmer of jealousy, he’d have discarded her and asked for someone else as a match.
