My Darling Katherina

Chapter Thirty-Four

Katherina imagened the morning to come as a fairytale bliss. The sheets where she slept bundle up like a cocoon around her and her companion. The sun's rays would peek through the curtains illuminating the room gold. Caldor would twist until his arm was around her waist and wings covered them like an extra blanket. He'd whisper in her ear sweet nothings and she'd probably make a sly comment to which he'd wacked her with his wing.

The cabin was filled with the smell of hot chocolate and freshly baked bread with Thea and Sahar quietly setting the table in a comforting silence, sneaking certain looks to the other oblivious to the company around them.

Hemera would stumble to the table, her eyes still barely open but it wouldn't stop her from scooping up a spoon full of whatever breakfast her sister and Sahar cooked before gulping it all down until she slumped over the couch.

They'd laugh and giggle over this moment of paradise but it wasn't what happened. When she awoke, Caldor's side was cold. There was no warmth or gentle morning sun, no hot chocolate burning in the kitchen. Sahar and Thea weren't dancing around each other, and Hemera never came.

Instead, it had been days since then. Those moments of just peace and living in the oblivious moment without worrying about reality knock at the door.

Or in her case, Rhysand sending letter after letter since winter has passed.

He had missed her, he wrote. Nyx would ask about her and wonder why she had gone. They wanted her back. But she didn't want to go.

She was content here and it wasn't because she wasn't happy there, it was just this illusion she built here was her paradise and Katherina decided she deserved it.

She deserves this life...right?

But she wasn't cruel and they had been so caring that she wasn't about to disappear, so she wrote back in soft words with a hopefully convincing story on why it may take her a while more to return but that she will. She promises.

When they had reached the Spring court,it was just like she imagined. The road was hard but it was exhilarating to say the least that they all got to see the beauty of flowers blooming and grass like sheets.

She breathed in the sweet scent of euphoria before letting the biggest grin on her face. The others were laying in the grass beside her and they laid there which made her shed tears.

She couldn't describe what Spring did to her, with the peaceful feeling of Life slipping away and living in the divine consciousness. Where everything just made sense, everything here was right.

She couldn't understand how Feyre could destroy this world.

Her eyes drifted to the sky but she couldn't see the ocean's reflection of them. It was just...blue. With clouds and sun. Just colors of colors and grass.

She couldn't take in this gorgeous moment to keep in memory. Eventually they'd have to send them back home. Sahar to Dawn, Hemera and Thea to Day and she and Caldor back to Night.

But it could never be the same as it once was.

They would eventually have to go back, and simply move on as if this had never happened.

Don't rush this, Katherina.

She felt the air still for a moment when nobody looked.

Time is still on your side, take advantage of it. Live in this moment and all those after. They aren't going away anytime soon.

And it was so easy to fall into his words and lose yourself. She supposes it was his doing; a monster sings lullabies in her ear, spilling sweet nothings and she'll fall right into his trap.