Starlight (Book 1)

Chapter Fifteen

Arik gave Ro a sideways glance, "Your hope will soon be met with disappointment."

Ro was riding beside Arik now. She turned her head to look into the woods around her. She looked between the trees at the flowers and the glitter that shined and twinkled in the sunlight. The beauty seemed to almost be mocking her. On the inside she felt damp and cold and dark, but the forest was alive with light and sparkle. Ro had to look away. She could feel tears brimming her eyes, but she didn't want to cry. She blinked them away. Arik told her that tears had no effect on him and she believe that to be true for all the Fae creatures. No one would feel sorry for her. Arik didn't give a damn about her or her grandmother. All he cared about was getting her back to the Tempest Court and whatever unfortunate monster that he was paid to kill along the way.

"I wish that I didn't care." Ro told Arik, but was mostly said it to herself. "I wish that I could just accept the fact that I'm trapped here, but I can't. I just can't give up hope that I can get back to her. It has been the only thing that has gotten me this far."

Arik shrugged his shoulders, "Time will be your only ally."

Ro narrowed her eyes at Arik, "No amount of time will help me to forget her. I know that you are incapable of love, but when you love someone you can't forget about them. It's impossible."

Ro noticed Arik's body as it tensed up. What she said had sparked something in him. She knew then that he did love someone. She looked at his face and saw him clench his jaw. She knew that he was holding back words.

"Or are you?" Ro asked the Halfling.

Arik just gave her a sideways glance and said nothing.

"Who is it?" Ro tried not to sound eager, but she wanted to know.

Arik pulled back the reins of the stallion, "What does it matter to you?"

"I just want to know that you are capable of actually giving a damn about someone other than yourself. That a Fae is capable of compassion."

Arik cocked his head, "Was it not a Fairy who saved your life? Did Alston and his wife not send you away to protect you?"

Ro nodded, "Yes, but that was only to repay a debt to the woman that I look like. Repaying a debt is not compassion, but..." Ro stopped herself for a moment before continuing, "But saving a human girl from a wolf is. And so is telling the same girl about a healer."

Arik shook his head, "I am not the malevolent beast that you claim me to be."

There it was. Ro had finally lifted part of the wall that Arik was shielding his true self behind. Ro wanted to smile, but kept a straight face, "Then why? Why do you act so cruel?"

"I have dedicated myself to my Court and not to my human emotions. Fairies are not supposed to show weakness." Arik said his last words as if he had said them a thousand times; over and over again in his mind. It made Ro sad to realize that Arik had been training himself to hold back the human part of himself. He wanted to be accepted as a Fairy and not a half human. He seemed to be embarrassed by what he was.

"But you're not a Fairy. You're a Halfling." Ro stated.

Arik's eyes looked fiercely into hers, "How nice it is to be reminded yet again." He kicked and horse and the stallion began to move again.

Ro didn't follow Arik right away. Instead she sat back on the mare and watched as he rode away. He was a Halfling. Half human and half Fairy. Ro hadn't realized it before. I am just as deadly as a pure blood, do not be fooled by my human traits. I am far from human. Ro placed her hand on the back of her head as she remember Arik pulling her hair in the aviary after the hawk was found dead in its cage. Ro thought that he was threatening her, but more than anything Arik had been reminding himself of what he was. Ro kicked her mare and she began to trot. Arik wasn't a human or a Fairy. He was something different. Something that wasn't easy for him to accept.