I counted my blessings, now I'll count this curse; oksana

[magnus]

you and I both know that the house is haunted
and you and I both know that the ghost is me

There is something between them that is bred from a shared sadness—a kinship that comes from having felt the same pain. He just returns her smile, returns her touch, and feels his stomach tighten with each passing moment knowing that this anguish she felt was in part due to his action. If Makai leaving hurt her, it was only because he had helped shape him into the stallion that he was now. Their entire family seemed to be in a perpetual state of agony, and all Magnus ever did was perpetuate it. It’s all he ever did.

“Maybe I like surrounding myself with kindred spirits,” is all he says when she accuses him of luring strays home, and the smile that folds the corners of his lips is very much genuine—the spark in his gold-flecked eyes all for her. “I have often felt like a stray.” Not entirely true, but true enough for him. How else could you describe a stallion who had lived in five kingdoms and held ranks in three of them? He had been a nomad throughout the decades, putting down roots only to pull them up whenever he left.

The jungle may be home of his heart, but he could never live there—could never resign himself to a life as a support system to the women who ran the kingdom. The Chamber was another story altogether—a kingdom that understood the darkest parts of his hearts a little too easily. It was a little to easy to accept the sins of his past; all she did was accentuate the worst parts of himself. The Dale had been a haven for him, and a welcome one, but that was all she had been to him. He appreciated her for everything she had done, but she was not home. The Falls had been nothing more than a place to catch his breath. And the Gates. The place he had called home time and time again. The place that he fit in the least, but the place he had pledged himself too regardless. He did not deserve her, but he would do right by her. He had to.

“I will keep an eye out for your daughters,” he says quietly, although in his mind, they are not just her daughters—they are his nieces. He would do everything he could to protect them. “The Chamber either claims you or it doesn’t.” He smiles down at her, expression smoothing on the edges. “Between you and me though, it is perhaps for the best that she hasn’t claimed you. She is not kind to those she calls to her.” He imagined she knew all about that—knew about the way the kingdom seemed to grow gleeful on creating loyal servants and then ripping everything from them. “The meadow though, she is a fine home.”

MAGNUS

once general. once lord. once king.