Ever After (The Prince and the Pretender)

Selfishness

Chapter 13: Selfishness

White Light Coven, Outskirts of Gilead

Carmina pouted.

It was supposed to be a beautiful sunrise when she was about to go to the clearing to pick up some thyme, but the moment she went out of her cottage, she saw them; the boy of her dreams and the girl that made them a nightmare.

They had been inseparable since she woke up yesterday afternoon and Carmina hadn't had a single chance of talking to him since he arrived. Quietly sneaking behind the huge elm tree, she tried her best to listen to the couple's conversation as they sat under its shade. This act of espionage is clearly way out of her values. The only thing that pushed her from doing it is her curiosity of course and what Georgette had told her before she left for Gilead.

That girl is not what she claims to be Carmina. There's a huge chance that Cart could be in danger if she stays with him. Promise me that you shall keep an eye on them. She could still hear Georgette's warning ringing in her ears like a horrible omen.

"I don't know how this happened." Parrot spoke in her usual sweet voice, but now infused with fear. She wanted to look at Cart but she had been avoiding his eyes ever since hers opened inside his room. She wanted to leave the moment she was able to sit up straight. She wanted to run back to the blooming forest but her body was too drained of energy for her to even stand up. She knows what really happened but she didn't have the courage to even admit it to herself; that after almost a century she had found true love.

"You know you can stay here with me." He spoke, gazing at her creamy, peach blushed face. He had offered her to stay more times that he had cared to count. Cart wanted her to stay. He knows how dangerous the woods could be for a girl to travel alone. But it's not just that, it had been hard for him to admit at first but ever since he was carrying her unconscious body in the woods, he had somehow felt attached to her presence.

"You know I can't." Her answer was the same thing that she has been answering every time he begged her to stay.

"I'm absolutely positive this conversation had already happened before." He said and chuckled, making Parrot turn to his face and have a glimpse at the source of the beautiful sound. This time she lost it. Her peachy cheeks flustered scarlet just like her robe that now hung in the laundry line to dry. "You know how dangerous the forest is for a girl like you."

"You know I'm more than that." She answered, eyes back to the rising sun above the Misty Mountains. She hated how she felt so weak and powerless.

"And you're still more than that." He mumbled, making Parrot even redder. "But you're human now. Your powers can't protect you anymore." He said as he held the small hand that rested against his mother's shabby dress. Parrot still fought the urge to look at him but she lost the battle with his next statement. "So please let me." He said with a voice infused with pleading as their eyes met.

Carmina saw how she looked at him and she hated how she could look like a wounded animal that seemed to beg for protection. But Carmina also saw how he looked at her. It was the same way she looked at him, with eyes filled with admiration, concern and love. It hurt her to see that the boy she loved for more than three years had been taken away by some random girl he met on one journey. Carmina was about to leave for she had enough of hurting herself like a masochist would approve of but she heard her reply.

"You don't understand Cart. I'm dangerous and I can't afford to even think about the possibility of hurting you when I choose to stay. I'd rather be back in the Blossoms alone than stay here and hurt you." She said as Carmina leaned closer, brows knitted together and back pressed on the other side of the elm.