Twenty

Kellen punched the wall into his knuckles began to bleed. He cursed as he wiped the blood on the kitchen towel.

Gone. I let her leave.

Tears began to burn in his eyes.

But what else was I supposed to do? She made me weak. It’s better for my empire that she left. But is it better for me?

He couldn’t answer that. He sunk to the ground and purposely hit his head against the cabinet. He didn’t know how long he was lying there, didn’t care, but when he heard Philip’s key slide into the lock he got a vague idea.

Philip watched him suffer on the ground and guessed, “She left.”

The hollow words hung limp in the air as he nodded, “She loves me.”

Philip crouched on the ground next to him and wrapped his arms around him. Kellen allowed himself to be held although he normally he refrained from such acts of affection that weren’t strictly sexual. 

Darby was the only exception.

“I’m sorry,” Philip mumbled.

“I wanted to. I wanted to love her so bad,” the tears finally escaped and he found that he didn’t care about the sign of weakness.

There’s nothing left to prove.

“There’s no way you could have,” Philip comforted, “you did all you good.”

“If she was one of mine she would’ve understood. She wouldn’t have left.”

“A lot would have happened if she was a dark faerie,” Philip agreed, “but she’s not,” he sighed, “you should’ve let her go when you found out she was Seth’s. Dark faeries can’t have serious relationships with light faeries, light fey need love.”

“I can’t change a damn thing. And I don’t care what I should have done, it doesn’t help now, and it won’t make a damn difference anyway.”

Philip helped him up and when he saw his bloody knuckles frowned, “Hurting yourself isn’t going to bring her back or make the pain go away.”

Kellen didn’t answer, only let his advisor drag him to the couch. He wouldn’t be able to take going back into his bed knowing that Darby wasn’t going to be laying beside him. He closed his eyes and before he forced himself into deep unconsciousness he  decided that he wasn’t going to care about anything anymore.

Without her, there’s nothing to care about anyway.

Seth closed the door of his room and went to go sleep on the couch. It was probably closer to morning than night but he was exhausted. He spent most of the night comforting and distracting Darby with meaningless talk until she drifted to sleep.

Anthony met him down the stairs, “We got the faeries to scatter, I didn’t want to have them wake Darby or you out,” he grinned, “you got her now, looks like Kellen’s out of the picture.”

“Right now I’m just trying to help her get back on her feet, she’s really distraught over this and as her king I need to make her feel better.”

“So that’s why you aren’t sleeping with her?”

“I haven’t even told her how I feel yet. And I’m not going to be like Kellen, if we do anything it will be because she wants to and wants to do it with me,” Seth explained.

“Did he lose interest in her?”

“No.”

In fact, it would almost be easier if he did.

“She loves him,” he went on, “ and I have to admit, I feel bad for him. He can’t help that he doesn’t love her, it makes it harder on all of us.”

“Don’t focus on that, the Dark King wouldn’t even think twice about that. It’s good for you and for your empire, besides with the Dark King in mourning you could easily attack if the mood strikes.”

“Anthony, I’m tired, can we please discuss this tomorrow?” Seth laid down on the couch and pulled a blanket over himself. 

He wasn’t about to start a war for no reason just because he could, it wasn’t his nature to destroy. Kicking Kellen when he’s down was not something he was comfortable with. He knew Anthony wouldn’t understand, so there was no use trying to explain himself.

“Alright, my king,” Anthony retreated from the room, switching off the main light as he went.

Seth closed his eyes.

She’s with me now. My empire will flourish. It’s all for the best.

And he believed in those words with all of his heart.

“Seth, wake up,” Darby’s voice penetrated through his sleep. He lifted his head and saw that she was crying, “I’m sorry,” she rushed, “I had a bad dream and was all alone when I woke up.”

He sat up and cradled her in his arms, “It’s okay,” he consoled, “I’m here and no one is going to hurt you,” he looked at the clock. Seven. He had only gotten an hour of sleep. He kissed the top of her head, “it was just a dream.”

“He didn’t want me,” she mumbled.

“He’s crazy,” Seth responded, rubbing her arm.

She looked up at him, “I’m sorry, tomorrow will be better, I promise.”

He rubbed his eyes, “Don’t worry about it.”

She snuggled against his chest, her sobs settling into normal breaths, “I’m also apologizing in advance for being such a pain. It’s going to be a rough couple of days,” she blushed and corrected herself, “I mean, you know, if you let me stay.”

He smiled, “You can stay here as long as you want.”

“Seth, you’re the best friend anyone could ever had, don’t you ever forget it.”

It’s to early to be anything more.

“The best?” He laughed, “Can I get that in writing?”

She smiled and closed her eyes, “What time is it?”

“It doesn’t matter, are you still tired?”

“I’m not going to get any more sleep, best to wake up now. But if you still want to sleep I won’t bother you,” but she didn’t move and he wasn’t about to ask her to.

Instead he asked, “Are you hungry?”

“I can feed myself. I’m old enough now.”

“When was the last you ate?”

“I don’t know,” she thought a moment, “the emotions around me weren’t anything I could or would want to taste. And I haven’t been hungry enough to care anyways.”

“You need to keep eating, if you don’t you’ll get weak. Kellen’s not worth losing you,” he told her.

“I know,” she sighed, “I’ll try harder. Maybe being around you will give me a better chance of eating.”

Being around me period would be better for her.

“Most likely, and it would be a good thing for you to hang around your empire, light faeries specifically.”

“I suppose you’re right,” she removed herself from his lap to stand up, “well, what does a typical light faerie do?”

He chuckled, “You aren’t exactly a typical light faerie.”

“Yeah, I’m insanely unlucky.”

Of course that’s the way she sees it.

“Your friends with me, I consider that to be lucky,” he joked, grinning.

She laughed, “Alright, you got me there. So, any idea on what I’m going to do when your gone?”

“Why don’t you just stay with me. Light faeries don’t normally enjoy being shut away, I wouldn’t want to do that to you.”

“Sounds good,” she smiled, and a hint of her old brightness illuminated through her guarded distrustful eyes.

Maybe it won’t take her so long to get her back to normal.