"I thought I'd find you up here," I said, closing the door behind me with a soft click. I hid my hands behind my back, keeping what I was holding from his view.
Thomas looked at me over his shoulder and offered me a friendly smile. "You know me so well."
I crossed the length of the library to join him. His arms were resting on the metal top rail as he leaned against it. The wind was rather strong, blowing Thomas's hair back into the room. He lifted his chin to receive it, closing his eyes and smiling widely to himself.
"How're you feeling?" I asked as I placed my arms against the metal too, mirroring his position. It didn't feel like it was enough to say, but I couldn't think of anything else.
"Ehh, still hurts a little bit when I walk, but I'll live. I've suffered through worse you know. What about you?"
"I'm not the one who got stabbed with a sword."
"Yeah, but you were still affected by it."
I laughed, though I didn't feel like it, and rested my chin on my hands. "I don't know. Still kinda worried I guess? But it doesn't matter."
"Matters to me."
I focused on the waving branch of a tree far away to keep the tears from my eyes.
Thomas touched my arm gently. When I looked up at him, he smiled. I couldn't help but return it.
"Oh!" I quickly exclaimed, remembering myself. "This is for you!" I thrusted the rose towards him, warmth pooling in my face.
Thomas stopped for a moment, apparently confused. "Alex," he said softly. "That's so sweet of you. Where did you find this?"
"Earth."
"You went back to Earth?"
"Yeah. Philip and I went this morning. I saw this and I thought you'd like it." I didn't disclose to him that the rose was the reason I had gone to Earth in the first place.
"Thank you Alexander," he murmured, accepting the rose and running his fingers gently down the petals. My heart leaped at the absolute sincerity in his voice. He looked back up at me and his smile widened before turning back to the open sky.
Was it enough?
I took a step closer to him as discreetly as possible. "Didn't you say once that you could read the stars?"
Thomas sighed deeply. "I was waiting for that to come up. Yes, Avions learn the stars like a second language."
"How does that work?"
"One thing that separates Avionerra from the other regions is our belief that the stars were the first beings that Divinity created as opposed to Peritum. Long story short, Divinity sent them to the sky because they were too powerful and she's a bitch and—"
"Thomas!" I exclaimed, taken by surprise. "Isn't she your god?"
"She's not real Alexander. Anyway, apparently when Divinity created them, the stars had the ability to see the future. When you reach out to them, they can tell you what's going to happen. It's bullshit though—excuse my language."
"Why do you say that?"
"Because there's no such thing as fate or destiny. What's the point of life if you're just forced to follow a path that anyone could walk down? Life's about choosing, about writing your own future. Plus, the stars only give you vague cryptic stuff that belong in fortune cookies."
"Oh," I said, following it with silence. "Well, what does that one say?" I pointed to a nearby star.
"That's Vega, right?"
"I guess?"
Thomas laughed. "I love the human thing of naming stars. It's so sweet."
"You know the human names for stars? Why?"
"You know I waited four hundred years for you? I had to do something. Anyway, if you really wanna find out, I guess I could try and see what it says." He closed his eyes and stood up straight. Minutes passed of nothing before he finally let out a long breath and relaxed once more.
"Well?" I prompted.
He shook his head and took a few steps back to sit on the couch. "Like I said, fortune cookie."
"What did it say?"
"'Something in your life is sure to change soon'. How useless, right? Don't tell me what's going to change, just that it is." He pulled his legs closer to his body and patted the space next to him.
I complied with his invitation and joined him. I leaned back. The tranquility of the night washed over me.
"Does it take a lot of energy?"
"Yeah, and it's never worth it." Thomas bit down on his lip and grabbed the throw pillow that was to his side. I found it cute how he played with it.
After a moment, I decided to talk to him about something that had been on my mind quite frequently in the past few months. "How much do you know about sirens?"
"Well, I mean, there's not much to know about them. They're a form of Tenebrie that show you what you want most in the world. It's not always a person, as you know."
Confused for a second before remembering my lie, I nodded.
"And if it is a person, it's not always a romantic interest thing. Like if you saw a friend who was dead, it could be them coming back to life."
I held my breath as I considered. Part of me hoped that it was as he said, not a romantic interest thing. But then I glanced at Thomas's soft smiled expression that he had whenever he was explaining something that mattered to him and the thought was quickly chased away.
"But they're nothing more than illusionists trying to bait and trap you so they can drag you away and eat you. I'm really proud of you for not falling for it. I don't know if I'd be able to resist it."
"Mind if I ask you what you would have seen?"
Thomas's expression turned dark, and he quickly looked elsewhere. "I don't know. My father or something? It isn't important."
"I'm sorry," I said softly, drawing away from him slightly. I felt like I had overstepped a boundary that wasn't clearly etched in the sand.
The look vanished and Thomas grinned. "Hey! No, don't worry about it!"
I dropped my gaze to the couch. "What happened to him? Your father?"
"King George killed him. He says he was trying to kill my mother, but that doesn't really make it any better, does it?"
"How?"
"He poisoned my father's water. We were at a dinner together, you know? Because of the whole... betrothed thing?" He did not say it too fondly. "And well, that's really it. I joined the rebellion and yeah. It's really a selfish reason though. I guess that's one of the things I always secretly admired about you? Some people always criticized you, saying that the only reason you ever fought was because you saw it as a chance to gain an advantage, but I silently disagreed with them."
I bit down on my lip.
"I always thought that you joined because you believed in it. And you... died for it in a way. You always kinda proved people wrong. That someone who came from nothing could be someone great."
Thomas looked up at me, and a horrified expression swept over his face.
"I'm so sorry, that sounded really mean, didn't it? That's not what I meant, I didn't—"
"It's okay," I said. I was smiling at him, and every part of my body felt it. I reached forwards and found the warm skin of the back of his hand. "Thank you."
He accepted my offer and moved our hands to where they were in front of both of us. It seemed like he was admiring them.
"You wouldn't mind if I asked you a personal question, would you?"
"Depends. How personal? You know what, just ask. What harm could it do?"
"The siren wasn't trying to convince you to move back to New York, was it?"
My heart fall to my feet. His eyes didn't meet mine, choosing to instead stare at our hands.
"No," I admitted, following suit.
"You saw a person didn't you?"
"Yeah."
"Was it Eliza?"
Before I could even begin to question him, he pulled gently away, taking his hand with him. "It's okay, you know. I'm not gonna tell anyone. And even if I did, they wouldn't be surprised or upset about it. You two are technically still married."
Did I imagine the complete nothingness in his voice? It was like a robot relaying a recorded message, flat and emotionless. Almost like it was something he drilled into his mind until he got it absolutely perfect.
"I could even help you, if you wanted. To talk to her? Or not, I mean, if you don't want me to."
"Why wouldn't I want that?"
Thomas winced and retreated behind his iron defenses. "I didn't want to bring it up, but ever since I came out of my coma, you kinda seemed to be avoiding me? It isn't important and I could entirely be reading into things too much and—you didn't see Eliza, did you?"
The change was so quick and unexpected, it threw me off guard. One moment, he was rambling on about something I didn't understand, and the next, his words cut sharply through the air.
"I—" I sighed. "No."
"Alexander?"
"Yeah?"
He hugged his body. He was afraid to ask, I could tell, but I knew exactly what he was going to say and he didn't have to say it.
"Did you... did you see me?"
"Yeah."
There was a pause. And in that pause, something flashed through his face. Something I've never seen before.
"Look," I began slowly, choking on my own words. "I can... I can explain, alright?"
But before I could, I was startled by the gentle touch of his hand pressed against my cheek.
"You don't have to."
It was over before I had even known what was happening, but the taste, the feel, the warmth lingered.
His lips tasted sweet, like honeydew. It wasn't an overpowering sweet; it was just the perfect amount of sweet. He smelled like the forest after rain when the peaceful sense of renewal washes through the trees. Even as he moved away seconds later, the scent stayed.
It was better than anything I've ever experienced before, simply because it was so... well, just that. Simple. No strong overpowering perfume or lips that tasted sweeter than candy.
It was perfect because it was so imperfect.
He was perfect because he was so imperfect.
I sat there for a moment, completely starstruck by what had just happened. My fingers moved to my lips on their own will, touching where he had been just seconds before.
"Alex?" Thomas asked.
There were hundreds of millions of ways I could have responded, and each more delicate and romantic and careful than the last.
But I did the simplest of them.
I leaned forwards and kissed Thomas again, hungrier for him than a starved man for food.
He pulled me closer to him and slid himself against the back of the couch. I pushed him against the armrest, cupping his face with a hand on each cheek.
Seconds fleeted by before I pulled away from him so we could catch our breaths.
There was a moment before Thomas laughed, sliding his hand to his mouth.
"Finally," he breathed, humor and pure joy highlighting every word, "do you know how rude it is to keep a lord waiting?"
"I—what?"
"Did you really not know that I liked you?"
"No! You couldn't have, like, said that loud and clearly?"
Thomas laughed again. His eyes were alight with pure and utter happiness. "You kissed me Alexander. Before, I mean."
I looked away. "I was thinking it would wake you up. Like Sleeping Beauty. I don't know. I was thinking true love's kiss or something?"
He showed me the rose, which he was still holding.
I had no explanation for that.
Thomas beamed at me before pulling me close to him again.
We fell asleep pressed together with the gentle breeze blowing in the room.