Sweet boy, she nearly breathes into his ear. She wants to hold him closely, to have his warmth spread across her like a blanket. Although she won’t admit it to him, she’s afraid. Beqanna has shifted and the kingdoms have been destroyed. Everything she has ever known is gone and there is no one reeling her into the safety of their arms.
But to the boy she must look brave even as her heart patters against her chest.
There is sanctuary in her embrace, she wants to say, but the way he beams up at her melts away the need for words. Everything inside her bursts and she draws in a sweetened breath as though the world didn’t just collapse around them. It’s just them underneath the dull, winter sun but even as the naked trees groan all Cerva sees is beauty and feels the beginnings of love. The warmth dives into her soul and branches through her veins like liquid fire. ”Dovev,” she tastes his name and smiles with eyes like a butterfly’s gorgeous wings, drinking him in and forever memorizing the sharp edges of his face. ”It is a pleasure to meet you,” a euphoria swallows her when she looks at him and repeats his name to herself like a lost lover she has finally found.
”The mountain,” her voice lowers to a murmur and her chiseled head turns to look up at the jagged peaks towering high above. Dark clouds tumble and try to hide the sapphire skies behind. There is a war, a great dispute, but she has not yet seen what lies at the end of that winding path. She has witnessed many others making a long trek toward the sierra, but her feet have remained rooted here. Ignorance is bliss, she confides, but after a thoughtful lick of her lips she funnels her attention on Dovev again. Butterflies spring to life in her stomach. ”What made you leave the mountain to come here?” In a dreamy haze she fabricates her own tale that settles the pain in her heart, if only temporary. ”It was simply meant to be,” her voice is a whisper now, her breath warm on his skin as she inches closer, realizing how his question is guiding them down a path she never imagined.
”Yes, I want to be a mother,” but she doesn’t realize the way he sees her, the way he quietly claims her as his own.
Cerva