Slam!

A hand came down. But it did not land on her body, or face or beak. Rather it landed by her head, hitting the wall, palm flat. She now looked right at him, right into his eyes and stood perfectly still as he stepped close to her. Suddenly she was reminded of when she had first woken up from finding out she was immortal, and her emotions had been so erratic that she had mistakenly harmed someone. Quite literally she had been chained to the headboard of a bed to stop herself from harming anyone else. And herself. Or just so he could control her as he gave her the news of eternity.

His body came within inches of hers. Over her he stood, so she was forced to look up into his eyes. They were still ice blue, but held a darkness in them that was terrifying, a growing personal fear deep within him. She could only imagine the poisonous thoughts in his mind that had drive him to despair, to three weeks of endlessly wandering and now - now he was back without her. Stare knew he would have done everything within his power to try to find Ventrua.

“You,” he whispered, and his voice was suddenly not angry. Instead it was full of sorrow, deeply connected to terror and desperation, “are not leaving my sight. Not until our world has restored order, until Raevin is better, until - until -”

He breathed out, narrowing his eyes, curling a hand around her shoulder.

“Do you understand, Stare? You are to go nowhere without my express permission. Everything - your friends, your work, your life - is put on hiatus. No unexplained trips, definitely not like the one you just had.” She felt a twinge of guilt at that, knowing that it was going to be mentioned. “Which, was completely inappropriate. Call this a punishment if you want for that, I do not care.” He paused, “Actually, it is, damn you.”

He lifted his hand from her shoulder, as his voice slipped back to one more of anger. “You put both yourself and Zulon in a state of unnecessary risk, and broke my trust. I told you to remain within the watch of him, and you did not.” He raised his hand from her shoulder and cupped the underside of my beak. His face came closer to hers and she felt light headed.

“You are mine, Stare,” he murmured to hers, “no one else’s. Do you-”

“Oh my … fuck …”

Both their gazes snapped around.

Sable was standing at the curve of the corridor, eyes wide. Behind her was a guard, awkwardly pausing as the young woman fluttered her hand up to her mouth. Vitruvion removed only his hand from the underside of Stare’s beak, leaning away from her slightly as he narrowed his eyes at Sable.

“What are you doing here?”

“It explains everything,” Sable whispered. “Every-fucking-thing. I didn’t realise, because who the hells thought it was possibly but, oh my Galatirion …”

“Leave that bastard out of this,” Vitruvion snapped.

“Sure, if you pray to another but …” Sable shook her head. “But that still means … fuck …”

Stare felt woozy, with all this sudden change in action. She slid her eyes closed and leant back against the wall, wishing Sable would just leave so Vitruvion could finish his rant. So, he wanted to keep her by his side constantly, that was the next plan to keep her safe. It was crazy, really, nothing had happened to her yet but she supposed …

“You’re actually in love with her.”