Wildfire

Six

"You cannot be serious!" The hand gripping my shoulder is none too friendly as my Father stops me when I stand intent on introducing myself to the timid beauty still hiding his eyes from everyone tucked away at his table. 

"I assure you I am", Pulling away from Father's grip isn't easy, his fingers flexing to dig into my flesh just as I slip from his grasp, "The choice is mine and I've made it. I'm dancing with Rayne, and if his temperament is what I think it is we'll be engaged before we leave this room for the evening."

I cannot stop the words from flying out of my mouth, the look of horror on my Father's face sour enough to induce night terrors in even the calmest of children, his complexion turning an angry shade of red, his efforts to relieve his inner flames limited to venting his beasts steam through his flared nostrils. 

Father can be mad all he wants, but there is no denying that I feel drawn to the tender beauty that looks like he's doing his best just to keep his chin up in the face of the people who had been so unkind to him... To the people who had rejected him until my intervention this afternoon. 

Even just sitting there under my watchful eye while I descend upon the room intent with making my way to him he seems so nervous but in the calmest of ways... Like he knows that evening has just begun that its only a matter of time before I'm in front of him ready to sweep him off of his feet, an undertone of happy hopefulness brimming in his brilliant golden eyes.

...

Rayne

...

With my eldest sisters pairing off together for a spin around the floor to ensure that the hand-stitched dressing robes Mama had painstakingly overseen with our families tailor just for this occasion get their full appreciation and use, the middle sisters being lured off by each of my parents after Papa having given me his blessing to slip away as soon as I can do so unnoticed. 

Technically... He thinks I want to slip away because my stomach is upset, which isn't truly a lie... it is upset...but it isn't the reason I don't want to stay in this room filled to the brim with overbearing eyes and snarky comments as people bump themself purposely into the back of my chair to unsettle me.

I do my best to pay them no mind and keep my head down... Soon enough there will be enough traffic on the dance floor for me to slip away and then this night will finally be over... I won't have to ever see any of these people or hear their cruel words ever-

"Hello..."The greeting makes me jump, a gentle hand descending on my shoulder to steady me just as I look up only to find Prince Emrys himself staring back at me with a smile on his face that makes me so nauseated with fear that I fear I may spew bile onto his silken slipper clad feet. 

There shouldn't be a reason for him to greet me... There shouldn't be a reason for him to talk to me at all, and as the commotion in the room- including the music- ceases, I know that everyone else knows it as well. I can scarcely breathe under the weight of his palm and it is only once it is removed that I finish my tumble out of my chair, but this time purposefully to my knees in the deepest bow I can manage, a croaked, "Your Highness!" leaving my lips as the nervous trembles I had been trying so hard to suppress make their way to my surface and shiver their way down my spine.

...

Emrys

...

"That's hardly necessary, Little Cloud," Rayne's exaggerated kneeling bow to me is unexpected and gives me a long enough pause to let color fill my cheeks before I find myself pulling him back up to his feet by the softest set of hands I've ever had the pleasure of holding... The way he looks at me with such alarm once he's finally on his feet and able to brush off the parts of his robes that had been pressed into the floor is disconcerting, to say the least, "I daresay you wouldn't bow to any of your other suitors so thoroughly."

I don't think I've ever seen anyone's cheeks ever reach such a deepened rose-tone as when Rayne processes the words that have slipped away from me meant as a jest but letting my intention be known none the less. 

"I..I've got no suitors, Your Highness. I-If your here to tell me you've changed your mind about allowing my presence I shall leave immediately. I meant no offense-" His words are quiet, mumbled, and mixed with the sound of unshed tears as he tucks his delicate chin into the shoulder of his richly embroidered robes in an effort to keep his stunning eyes from meeting mine. 

...

Rayne

...

"You do have a suitor, and I have to say that it would quite defeat my purpose of asking you to dance if you were ordered to leave now." The words sound as if he's screaming them with how loudly they echo through the room, my heart ceasing to function in my chest as the edges of my vision start to swim. 

"Y-You want to dance with me?" I'm hardly the reasonable choice for his first turn around the floor... I'm not a reasonable choice for any of his turns around the floor... My presence here was meant to be jest at best... And yet here he is, offering me his palm with one of his elegant eyebrows raised in my direction with a nod that makes the very same heart he had shocked into stopping to flutter to life more delicately than a butterfly unraveling its wings and taking flight for the very first time. 

It is in a daze that I allow myself to be led to the middle of the ballroom's immense dance floor, a waving of the Prince's hand all it takes to stir the band into resuming their skillful melodies before it finds itself resting on my waist while my own hands find his shoulders and we start a slow winding around the room watched by entirely too many people... 

The gazes of which slowly start to feel less and less heavy as I let myself meet Prince Emrys's hypnotic hazel eyes, a small smile working its way on to my cheeks to match his own beaming expression.