A Court of Shorts and Storys

The True Mate: Part 3

Part 3

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Bargaining 

Three days, for three days Elain stayed in the camp with the stranger. And everyday she hoped that Azriel would come back, or Feyre. Maybe they would send Lucien after her. She hated the thought of them doing that. Sending out that male... the stick she was using to move the fire with broke in half, falling into the fire and sending out embers that burned her hand. She screamed out pulling her hand closer, hissing at the burning skin. The male looked up at her, his green eyes worried.

"Are you okey?" He asked, moving closer to her. "Can I take a look?"

"Yes..." She said letting him take her hand. Her skin was dirty from the time in the forest, but not as dirty as his. It was with care he studied the burn, his fingers not touching the burn. Just moving around it. Elain held her breath. His touch was so warm, gentel.

"It is not so deep, it will heal quickly." The male said, hesitating before letting go of her hand. Elain just looked at him, he was beautiful, even with the dirt could she see that.

"Thank you..." She said, still holding her breath. "I still don't know your name..."

"You don't need to know it Clare." He said, Elain flinching at the sound of the fake name. "It is better if you don't know it."

"Why?" She asked.

"It is just better." The male got up, moving away from her. Elain got extremely aware of the space between them and the fantom touch form his fingers on her hand.

"That is no Answer." She said rising up and following him.

"But it is, you not knowing is better." He said, his voice so sad, almost just a whisper.

"I want to know..." She got closer, closing the emptiness between them. "What is your name." She got closer, her hand reaching his chest. Muscular, but not the bulk the Illyrians had. Elain like this more, it was almost more human, more men like.

"Clare..." The male said, his own hand moving up her neck and hair. Elain rose up on her toes, his lips was so close... It was the male that lend in and kissed her, making Elains world spin. It felt so.... Right... Not like the stolen moments she had taken from Azriel before he started to date Gwyn. Not like the small glanzes Lucien gave her, she hated those. This was... Right. The male moved closer his hands moved over her neck and back. More, Elain needed more. But the male moved away, his hands shaking.

"Why not tell me?" She said, also shaking.

"You will hate me if you knew." The male said, his hand moved her hair. The touch so gentle...

"Why are you so certain?" She said he had been nothing but nice to her, nothing but gentle, helpful. A friend almost.

"I know that your name is not Clare..." The male said.

"If you are worried abut my family, don't." She said "I don't want anything to do with them, I wanted to leave to be removed from them." She spoke quickly. The male tock her hand and they Winnioed. Landing in the high grass before a mansion. The facade was filed with roses, the windows gaped empty. She had seen thin place before. In a vision. Elain took a step forward. Around her Spring bloomed, a real spring, not like the one in Velaris.

"You are in my Court and territory..." The male said, and Elain recognized the voice. She waited for fear or anger, but nothing other then relief came over her.

"Tamlin." She said, still looking at the mansion. "Why did you let this place fall apart?" Elain was not mad, the High Lord looked so broken in the forest, not the same as the male that had watched as she god submerged in the cauldron. And haden't he been a part of her rescue from Hyberns camp?

"I... I got angry with myself after losing your sister Elain." Tamlin said. "I just couldn't stand it, coming back here after that..."

"Feyre is nothing you want..." Elain said, "She is so glad, and happy. Always wanting to FIX everything. Nothing can just be in her eyes, nothing can just exist." She was exaggerating, but to see this place. How had Feyre wanted the mountains and cold over this? Elain walked forward to the rose thorns climbing the facade. Breaking one of the flowers of. "The bedding is full of weeds, can you help me remove them?"

"Elain I am so sorry..." Tamlin started.

"Do you want to help me remove the weeds? Giving the Roses more room to grow?" She repeated. She didn't what his pitty. She had have to mutch of that already.

"Yes..." Tamlin said walking up to her, and side by side they started to dig in the soil, taking out roots of the weeds.

She laughed in his company, and her visions was gone. Elain could live, not just exist, she could live. Tamlin was so careful, not the animalistic male Feyre had described him as, not the monster she heard Nesta call him. Just a male, misplaced in this world. Like she had been. He had moved the camp to the courtyard, not wanting to go inside the mansion. But Elain didn't care, she could sleep anywhere with him around. They had not talked about the kiss, not moved any closer. But in her sleep, Elain wanted more. That was her secret as they made their way around the house. Removing the weeds, and clearing up the soil. Making the line between the grass and dirt clean and neet.

They finished with the beeding for the roses, and Elain started to remove the weeds in the pathway that leed towards the mansion. Tamlin helped her, and they talked. Talked about the last three years, Elain shared her unhappiness. The loing for the sun and spring after the dark winters. She complained about the darkness her sister seemed to like so much. And Tamlin told her about his family, now long dead. The brothers that teased and bullied him, his father and mother. He told her about there death.

"We were not innocent, not at all." He finished Elain had gone still during his story. "I am telling you this, for you should know me, all of me. Before you try to help me."

"I hate my sisters for having everything I wanted." Elain said back. Looking him in the eyes. "I hate Nesta for her love, she got everything I wanted in life, and Feyre for the powers..." Elain put her hands in her knee. "I was supposed to marry rich and happy. Instead they got that and I was left with nothing..."

"Lucien?..." Tamlin said.

"I don't want him, I have tried, and tried to reject the bond. But it is still there..." She moved her hand up to her heart. "I don't want anyone that looks at me like I am a sweet puppy that is so innocent. I am not."

"Because you don't deserve it?" He asked her, taking her hand in his.

"I saw Fyre diying in childbirth and almost laughed. Her perfect little world is not so perfect. But instead she got a second, second chance on life. And I... I got a male I don't want and visions keeping me up at night..." It was so easy for her to speak to him, to tell him all of this that was inside of her. To tell him about her deepest darkness.

"I heard a rumor about that..." Tamlin said. His hand still in hers. "And I felt the same. For just a moment. But... I have learned that it was that type of hate that made me lose her... That it was that type of hate in my heart that made her stab a dagger into it, and I survived." Tamlin moved his hand to her cheek, lifting it up.
"I don't see you as a sweet puppy, for you are one that know what you want. And you dig up roots with a animals force. I might no longer have a Court of my own, just a title and an empty mansion. But if I did, I would ask you to join it."

"And I would happily accept it." Elain said. Tamlin satt still at her side. "I mean it, I think your court is better for me then the Night Court is..." Tamlin kissed her, his hands formed around her cheeks. Elain moved closer to him. 

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/Mymymoon