The Seven Sins

25. The Stars

Hi, everyone! I just wanted to thank you for reading, voting and commenting on this original story, it really means a lot to me. 

I just wanted to say that this is one of my favourite chapters from this book. I hope you will enjoy it as much as me.

xxx

Pride was gone for a long time. I watched the sun shift and lower in the sky. I pushed myself up from the ground with my stick and walked around the clearing for a bit. I hated how I felt for the prince. I want to hate him like I did for the past six months, but it was ebbing away faster than the tide. And other times, hate or anger flared up. At times he is caring and open, at others he is gruff and withdrawn. I just didn't know what to do with him, how to read him.

I leaned against a large tree and slid down. My leg protested a little until I shifted. I searched the sky for stars but since the first night I came to Ferri, none of them were seen. I looked to the fire when I saw movement. Pride had come back with wood for the fire and what appeared to be fish on the point of his sword. When he noticed me gone, he dropped his things and looked around. I wondered if it really was concern in his eyes or he just didn't want to lose me because I can break the curse. When he spotted me, his shoulders slumped down. He came over in large strides.

"Do you enjoy giving me a heart attack?" He asked as he stopped in front of me. I tilted my head slowly, blinking up at him.

"Do you enjoy giving half-ass answers, then storming away when you won't give it to me?" I raised an eyebrow. We stared at each other for a long moment. Silent minutes stretched out between us.

"Come on, it's almost dark." He leaned forward and wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me up. "It's going to cool quite a bit." He said, his grey eyes fixed on the night sky. "I got enough wood to last us through the night."

We were almost back to the fire when I asked. "The sky is pitch black. How can you know what's to come?"

"Ferri is my home. My brothers and I are all connected to it. Weather can be quite unpredictable out here." He put me down on the leaf covered ground. "I'll start dinner."

As Pride worked on the fish, I shuffled closer to the fire, a chill wind already covering the ground. I looked away when he gutted the fish.

"Still can't look at it?" I heard amusement in his voice.

"Not even in a hundred years." I said. I looked back at him, deliberately avoiding the fish in his hands, finding his stormy grey eyes.

"You think you'll still be here in a hundred years?" Something sparkled in his eyes.

I shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not. But even from my grave I wouldn't watch it."

The sparkle vanished like snow before a summer sun, he frowned before he looked at the fish. "Don't say that."

"Say what?" I asked confused.

"You, in a grave. Dead."

"I'm not talking about tomorrow. At least I hope not. Maybe in sixty years when I'm all grey and wrinkly. After a full life."

"A full life." He repeated, still not looking at me. "Full of love?"

"I should hope so." The moment my gaze was back to the fire, his shifted to me.

After dinner, I laid down on the leaf bed and pulled my cloak up to my shoulders. Pride threw more wood in the fire before he laid down behind me. His arm around my waist without hesitation and pulled me flush against his chest. I closed my eyes revelling in the warmth that radiated from me, but I couldn't find sleep. I turned on my back and gazed at the starless sky, Pride's arm still over my waist.