The Wings of the Beautifully Fallen

Chapter 13: Illiana

Chapter 13: Illiana

My brother still refused to look at me, his eyes glaring down at the ground, and I realized that he had not listened to anything that I had sung. He had no desire to right now. The anger and feeling of betrayal would not allow him to listen or to see reason. It was one of my brother's downfalls. My palm itched to be covered, for my nails to make contact and piercing the skin in frustration. It was something that I had done many times, things that I would do time and time again. Each of them was because of him. My brother who refused to listen.

I tore my gaze away, hoping to ignore the burning irritation in my stomach as I focused on the others around me, each of them applauding. All of them, except two. One of them did not surprise me as his dark emerald eyes glared over the proceedings, ignoring any who spoke to him. After all, Father was never very willing to be around people that he did not want to and would often attempt to hide in the corner, away from them all.

The other one did surprise me, but what surprised me more was the look in his eyes. Prince Reginald stared up at me with excitement, his eyes dancing with joy and his lips lifted in a blissful smile. He stepped up to me, his hand slipping into mine, squeezing it gently. "And you said that they did not exist." He muttered into my lips as his arm slid around me and turning me around. He walked towards the piano that the Queens stood by, none of them sitting in the stool, a look of knowledge on their face as their eyes glanced back and forth between the two of us.

He stepped forward, sitting at the stool in front of the piano and his hand finally slid away when I stood next to him. His fingers rose slowly to the keyboard, each of them taking their place in the exciting silence.

Then he played.

The song was gentle, soft and soothing, but not a ballad. It was more of a lullaby, like one would sing to a child. What that what he saw me as? A child that he could sing to sleep? Was I really that childish? My head shook violently, attempting to get the thought from my head.

His voice echoed in my ears and, almost instantly, my heart pounded as the words he sung surrounded me. An unexplained happiness filled me, the words that I could not understand seemed to dance their way through me. It was a feeling that I had never known and was unable to really explain. It was like happiness, pure happiness, with the confusion of not knowing why. It had a feeling of completeness, as if I had found something that was a part of me and, yet, had no idea what it was.

I tried to force myself to focus on the words that he sung, but I could not. The language he was singing in was one that I had never know, one that I had never even heard before. I had no idea what it was and, yet, I almost did not care as I slid back to the unexplainable happiness.

Slowly, I became aware of the warmth that spread through my limbs, from my head to the bottom of my feet. Like I was comfortable, complete, perfect. But this did not make any sense, how could I feel this way? How could I ever know what this feeling was, what it really meant, when it was something that I had never encountered before.

Then the feeling settled, leaving small traces of the happiness and I realized then that he had stopped singing. The laughters of the others echoed in my ears and, yet, I could barley comprehend it as I watched Prince Reginald lift himself from the bench and turned to me.

His hand slid around mine once more as he stepped closer, his arms enveloping me into a hug. "You felt it too, did you not? The happiness? The warmth?" I nodded into his chest and I could hear him chuckle loudly as he hugged me tighter. "Only one person can feel that way about another and only when someone sings." He emphasized the last world and that was when it hit me as the others echoed my thoughts.

"Oh they really are Singers!"

I stared blankly in front of me, unknowingly looking down at his shirt as I tried to understand what was happening but being unable to really understand. He was my Singer and I was his. The two of us were meant to be together, destined to live with one another for eternity. How did this happen? The whole point of this, of my singing, of my playing this game was to prove that I could not be anyone's wife. That I could be by myself because I had no true love.