The Prince's Songbird Slave ✔️

Reunited

Evelyn froze for a moment as her blue eyes met mine before swiftly turning on her heels and fleeing towards the large oak doors she had flung open and stormed through less than a minute ago.

Before she could reach them though the doors slammed shut of their own accord, magic buzzed silently across the wood, and when Evelyn tried to pull the doors open they didn't budge.

"Evel-"

"Both of you, sit." Freya demanded, cutting across me and looking at us over the desk like we were children throwing a tantrum. "Indeed you are not children, you are responsible for yourselves," she said with a pointed look towards me. "And I will be damned if I must be the match maker for every royal couple I come across, royal pains in the ass more like," she muttered the last part but my attention wasn't on her, Evelyn was still trembling and I took a small step towards her.

She took a step back.

My heart ached, I didn't speak or try to take her in my arms, even after all this time, a year and a half, I still knew Evelyn and could understand her body language without words. She was scared, struggling, but had something she want to convey, although now she could say it rather than write it down or wait for someone to understand.

She hesitated for a moment, her eyes darting between me and Freya. She opened her mouth and paused, looking at Freya before her eyes settled on me.

"You... You'd said that-, that he'd... that Nate had been... in an accident." She spoke softly to Freya, but her eyes wandered slowly over me, checking I was safe and unharmed, and perhaps that I was real and not just a phantom standing in front of her.

"I had to get you out of that tiny seaside village which you'd locked yourself away in. Anything less than what I said wouldn't have gotten you to come here," Freys said smoothly. " and I know for sure that if I'd said Nate was here alive and well you would have continued to hide out there convincing yourself that he was doing better without you. Now then, I ain't going to spoonfeed you two any longer; I'm going to walk out my office door and leave you two to talk it out. And I know it's a reunion, but if you guys try and do anything on my desk I will throw a fit," she muttered like it had happened before and walked past us both and through the doors before we could properly process what she'd said.

I snuck another look at Evelyn, something I don't think I'd ever get tired of doing. She looked well. Her complexion not quite as pale as it used to be, and I would swear that she was an inch taller than she had been the last time I'd seen her.

"Evelyn..." I said softly and she looked up at me nervously through her eyelashes before glancing away to study the stone lion beside the entrance.

"Evelyn please," I almost whispered as I close the gap between us, standing only a foot away from her and lifting my hand slowly to brush the back of my fingers up along her cheek, a pink blush rising where I'd touched as her blue eyes lifted to meet mine. "I don't want you to leave again, I don't want you to disappear, I don't want to spend another day away from you, and there's no way I could manage another year and a half without going mad."

"Y-you're not mad?" she asked me and I shook my head slightly. " not for what I am? What I did? How I left you with no warning?"

"Not at all... I was sad, sure, I was lonely, I wondered if you were safe, where you were, and I was mad with myself... But never with you," I said and brushed a stray strand of her dark hair back from her face.

"That sounds foolish..."

I gave her a small lopsided smile, "love is foolish, but that doesn't mean we can control or stop it." My grin faded, I looked away from her as I realised I was getting ahead of myself. "Well... That's how I feel about you... I love you. I don't know– I don't know if you feel the same way about me."

My mind went back to the night she disappeared, it seems so long ago back at The Gaithering, but I still remembered what she'd said. She'd told me she didn't hate me and my family, but not hating someone is not the same as loving someone.

My eyes were drawn back to hers as she said my name softly to get my attention and I found myself wanting to hear her say it again and again.

"Nate," she reached one of her small hands up to frame the side of my face, the other following a moment later. one hand wasn't enough and she needed both to make sure that I wasn't going to vanish. "Nate I love you too," she said, the voice shaking, "but I'm scared..."

"So am I," I said simply. "I feel as if love is actually quite scary thing, but if I am to be scared I want to be scared with you..." I frowned slightly as I realised that might not of been the best argument to present.

Evelyn laughed softly, the sound like music, and stretched up onto her tiptoes, pressing her lips ever so gently to mine, making my arms wrap around her and bring her closer to me on instinct. It wasn't a deep passionate kiss but the light, yet warm, feeling of that touch conveyed more emotions then I would've believed possible.

"We may be scared together, but I'm sure it would be a good kind of scared," she whispered, looking up at me as I held her in my arms.

"Evelyn, will you come home?" I asked and she nodded shyly. I felt myself smile knowing I would've had a very hard time letting her go had she said no. "Do you have many things you'd want to get to take back?"

She shook her head, "everything I have where I've been staying are just items, the only thing I really need with me wherever I go is you."

I felt my cheeks flush at her confession and I buried my face in her neck to hide it, pressing a gentle kiss to her shoulder. She shivered slightly.

"Evelyn?" I whispered.

"Yes Nate?"

"I love you."