He jumped from tree top to tree top, moving with the grace of a lioness. His copper hair flowed behind him in a neat ponytail as he stretched his long limbs out, grabbing the branches easily, swinging quickly.
He could sense her before he could see her, her aura was strong, lustful and certain. He landed soundlessly on the window sill of her cell.
She looked at it just as he jumped into the shadows of her cell.
‘Valex, darling,’ a blonde haired beauty smiled into the darkness ‘You returned to me!’
Valex shut the window and descended from the darkness, ‘Always.’
He pulled his shoulders back and moved toward her, tilting his head up as he grew closer. Valex extended his hand up to the girl hanging above him and ran the back of his hand over her cheek, she pushed her face into his hand the best she could.
‘No, don’t move,’ He scolded her.
She pouted at him and he brushed a thumb over her pouted him, smirking lightly.
‘Let me down, my love,’
‘I,’ he pulled his hand away from her cheek, ‘I can’t,’ He turned unable to look at the face she would pull after he had said that.
‘But, darling...’ she started then noticed the long gash across his back, ‘did they do that to you?’
He turned away just as quick as the words came out of her mouth.
He looked at the girl in white suspended above the ground in chains too tight for her. Her arms, hair and legs pulled behind her back in agony. She was like their personal puppet and it made him sick.
He knew exactly what would happen if he let her down and he couldn’t let that happen, as selfish as that was, he couldn’t let her die, not yet.
He was pulled from his unwanted day dream by the force of Suna slamming into him, the chains had gave way and she had gotten out.
She punched him in the side of the head before pulling his hands down next to him and kneeling on them. Suna dug her knees into the pressure points in his hands and leant over him.
‘Suna?’ he blinked a few times taking in the sight above him. All her hair had fallen to one side of her head, her face was hard and her lips were pursed together in an angry pout. She looked beautiful.
‘Suna,’ He smiled as he attempted to sit up, for a second he thought he was going to lose his fingers with the amount of pain that shot through them.
She could see he had calmed down and it made her relax a little, she looked at him for a moment then let his hands out from underneath her knees. The instant she released him, he pulled her into a tight hug, snuggling his head into his neck and apologized.
‘I’m sorry.’ He barely whispered.
She froze like a deer in headlights until he let go.
‘What was all that about?’ Suna thought to herself as she looked away from the complicated man staring at her. She was about to ask what his problem was but was cut off by him.
‘I don’t have to explain myself to you Suna, but if you want this to work out, you are going to have to stop being so darn stubborn!’ His voice was back to normal now, strict. ‘You are not at your base anymore so you don’t punish yourself like you are. You have far more important things to be worrying about then obeying your rules, when you need to survive. You can get back into the retinue of abusing yourself once we are out, now show me you wrist!’
Valex spoke to her in such an authorized voice and it made Suna snap to attention. Suna presented her hand, wound upward. Valex yanked her hand toward him, pulling her against him and stared at it for an excessive amount of time.
He dropped her hand and turned, ‘It’s not too deep, it shouldn’t scar,’ her arm fell like dead weight next to her, swaying until she forced it to stop.
She looked at the back of him, his muscular frame was tensed. He must have felt her staring at him because he turned his head so she could see his side profile and side glanced at her.
He knew she was concerned but he refused to show any signs of weakness. He flicked his eyes over her small frame to see that her nipples where erect. Moving his hand up his arm he realized it was crisp in his chamber and glided over to the fire place.
He could feel her watching him and he knew she would question him later but right now, in this silence, he thought deep. They needed to talk.
Sitting around the fire, they sat in silence. Valex was sitting with his hands crossed in front of his face on the foot stool. Suna was curled up, head resting on her knees. She was watching the amber flame flicker untameably and the sparks disappearing into the chimney. The room no longer smelt of Valex’s musky sent but deeply of burning wood and rich English tea.
The warmth in the air was making Suna drowsy but the tension was still high and every time she thought of dosing off her stomach lurched at the idea of being defenceless. Something in this room was wrong but she couldn’t figure it out yet. Her eyes scanned slowly over the room, lingering on Valex’s strong jaw-line before continuing.
Valex noticed her lingering and tilted his head toward her, she turned her head back past the chimney and that’s when she saw it, the painting that wasn’t there earlier. Standing, she moved closer to observe it.
Inside the golden frame was a painting of a girl, no older then herself, swinging peacefully in the woods. Her blonde hair tailed out behind her and her eyes squinted shut, her mouth in large, laughing smile. She was in a long flowing peach dress but her feet are bare and only slightly muddy.
The woods were just as pretty as the girl, flowers sprouted randomly all over the grass. The many colours reminded her of the colourful fire sparks they would release into the sky at the end of every year to celebrate the growth and wellness of the clan.
Only when Suna moved in closer to admire the detail did she notice a figure in the tree, squatting, watching, and admiring the girl freely swinging. He was tall and strong built, dressed in all black with a dagger strapped to his waist. His copper hair was tide back and it was blowing in the wind. It was so long that it disappeared into the darkness of the shadow of the next tree.
His face was handsome with a strong jaw line. It was just so familiar.
A heavy slam on Suna’s shoulder tared her eyesight from the painting and on to the face of the figure that was now rooted behind her.
Looking from Valex’s face and the expression it held back to the painting, it suddenly dawned on her. That was him. That was Valex. Much younger, yes, but it was him.
She looked back up to Valex and was about to ask who she was when he opened his mouth.
‘She was my last mission before capture,’ His voice rough, ‘I was meant to protect her, care for her, but I did nothing but betray her. My loyalty didn’t lie with her, but to her Father, The King, and their horrid Price. The Prince was the adolescent one of the two and with his father on his death bed; he wanted nothing more then take place as King. But Princess Iylah was next to inheriting the throne.’
‘Iylah was kind and courteous. She wasn’t ill tempered and she wasn’t too harsh with her rules. She had a plan to bring in all the ill children off the streets and make them well enough to work in the rice mills. She had scripts written up of grand gesture plans that would fix this Kingdom and bring the great starvation to rest.’
The admiration in his voice was obvious and for a moment Suna had to look away from the picture of the girl, she felt was much prettier than her and compose herself.
‘But instead,’ his voice suddenly raw ‘She was framed for the murder of her Father, one I know she didn’t commit.’
Suna’s pity party shattered and he, once again, had her full attention.
‘How do you know she didn’t do it?’ Suna whispered
‘Because, Suna, I did it.’
Valex’s warm touch left her shoulder. She heard the gentle padding of his feet, followed by a slam of the door.
Suna was left alone again. But this time she was glad.
She knew he had killed people before, but why would he do such a thing?