Océane ran behind Corin, trying in vain to keep up and not tumble face first into the undergrowth. Rain obscured her vision an icy sting that made her flesh burn with the chill as the wind lashed against the countryside with a fury that threatened to tear up trees and snap them to kindling. What on earth had happened to make Laen so very angry? The idea that his emotions controlled the weather was extraordinary but now that she knew, it made a strange kind of sense to her. She accepted that this was how it should be - though she couldn’t fathom why. At least he couldn’t be angry with her. She wasn’t even in the castle so she couldn’t be the cause unless ...
She remembered the tone of his voice as his strong arms held her trapped against his chest, the tender look in his eyes, and the tension that had made it impossible to draw breath when Corin had walked in on them. Her heart was already hammering, her breath coming in gasps from running in the storm, but now as the possibility presented itself she felt a new burst of energy and began to laugh as she ran.
She was out of Laen’s sight with Corin and he just couldn’t stand it. It was driving him crazy.
He was jealous.
Lightening cracked and split the sky, illuminating the castle like some kind of Gothic nightmare against the purple horizon as they ran back through the gardens. She was cold and wet, her clothes soaked through and she didn’t care in the least. They ran in through the great doors of the massive building but this time she saw nothing of her surroundings. She was lost in thought, wondering about the strange, dangerous man who had brought her to this place. Trailing her hands over the dark grey, stone walls, she followed as Corin led her back to her room and watched the water drip from the heavy material of her dress, leaving a trail all the way to her bedroom door.
To her surprise Corin left her the moment they reached her room and she thought he seemed preoccupied. She had thanked him for a wonderful afternoon but he seemed anxious to be elsewhere. He didn’t even try to kiss her and once again she worried that somehow she had upset him as he didn’t usually pass up an opportunity.
Once he was gone she stripped off her wet clothes and hung them up to dry before taking a bath. The weather was certainly very different from when she’d arrived, she mused, sinking her chilled skin into the deliciously hot water. Thunder rattled the windows in their frames and the wind made a lonely keening sound as it tore past the castle walls, and Océane smiled and sank deeper into the water.
After her bath she spent some time investigating the dresses that Aleish had brought to her and for the first time in her life spent an age agonising over which one was best. She had washed and dried her hair so that it shone and fell in gentle waves over her shoulders and admired herself in the mirror. She was beginning to get used to dressing in such a way and had to admit that the new frock in a deep shade of chocolate brown was really rather becoming to her complexion. The colour matched her eyes almost perfectly and she wondered what Carla would have made of it. Talking of her time in the orphanage had brought her friend sharply to mind and she hoped she would be able to see her soon. They had been best friends since they were very small and Océane knew she would not have survived the dreadful place if her ever optimistic friend had not been there to keep her going.
Carla had always been on at her to make more of herself, nagging her to dress nicer, put on some make-up, go out into the world and live before it was too late, forever wagging her finger and intoning dire warnings that if she wasn’t careful she would end up becoming a recluse; old and alone with nothing but her pot plants for company. Thinking about Carla made her sombre though. She really did have to get back home as soon as she could. Carla needed her. She was probably worried sick wondering where she had got to, and that wasn’t good for her friend’s already fragile health.
A scream and clashing metal broke her from her thoughts, and she raced to the balcony. What she saw when she opened the glass doors brought her mind to a grinding halt.
Océane looked down at the scene below her and lost the ability to breathe. It took some moments for her mind to catch up with her eyes and register what she was watching. She had never seen a fight like this before except on the TV and she didn’t think anything that she’d seen there had captured the power, the primal violence or the sheer terror of it. She hoped to God it was just her inexperienced eye that made it look more frightening than it was and they were just letting off steam but she was pretty sure Corin and Laen were trying to kill each other. They were both stripped to the waist and what she had come to recognise as magic rose up from around them and made her skin burn, the hairs on the back of her neck standing on end as she held onto the balustrade with fear spreading like a sickness in her heart.
The scream, it appeared, had come from one of a group of servants from the laundry room who had been chatting in the courtyard when the fight had found its way there. Océane watched them drop everything and flee to safety, leaving baskets of washing where they fell, the clean linens dropped carelessly in dirty puddles that collected on the treacherously wet cobbled floor.
“Stop it!” she screamed and the wind ripped her words away but she repeated it anyway. “Stop it! Stop it, you stupid bastards!” But the wind howled around the courtyard still, plastering the men’s long wet hair to their heads and blowing the wayward baskets back and forth, the roar of thunder the only sound that could muffle the metallic clang of their blades.
The cacophony rang through her ears as the two friends fought, sword meeting sword in a relentless clash of power. She had been wrong to assume Laen would have the greatest advantage with his staggering size. Corin moved with the grace of a dancer, far quicker and more agile than the big man and seemed always to be just out of reach. It was in fact rather like some strange and violent dance as the two of them moved around each other, their eyes locked as though no one else existed on the earth.
Océane wondered if there was any way for her to climb over the balcony and scale the side of the building, but before she could try Corin stumbled over an empty basket of linens that the wind had blown in his path and she stilled. Laen took advantage of his momentary lapse and suddenly Océane could see a stream of blood running from a deep wound on Corin’s shoulder. She screamed uselessly but knew she had to put an end to this before one of them died.
Shocked into action, she ran to the door of her room and pounded on it, shouting at the guards to let her out. They opened the door to her and she tried in vain to run past them, to try to explain to them what was happening but they gave her stony looks and told her to get back in her room. She screamed and shouted to no avail and they were about to slam the door in her face when Aleish rounded the corner.
“What in the world ...”
“Oh thank God!” Océane wept. “It’s Laen and Corin ... outside ... They’re trying to kill each other.”
“Gods!” Aleish cursed, though she didn’t seem as surprised as Océane might have expected. “Well it wouldn’t be the first time. Come on.” She grabbed Océane by the hand and told the protesting guards to shut up and go and talk to her brother about it- that is if they dared interrupt him.
“Do they do this a lot?” Océane asked as they picked up their skirts and ran through the castle.
“No, but it has happened.”
They took the stairs two at a time, rushing towards the back of the building and the courtyard. “So this is normal?” she persisted. “They’re not really going to kill each other?”
Aleish gave Océane a look that made her heart sink. “I’ve never seen Laen as angry with Corin as when he returned today. No, this is not normal.”
They rushed out of the courtyard to find the two men still standing, much to Océane’s relief, though they both had the clear intention of remedying the situation one way or another. Corin had obviously got his own back for his injury as blood dripped freely from a wound on Laen’s arm. Both men were breathing heavily and their muscular bodies glistened with sweat and blood and the rain that continued to fall unabated. If she hadn’t been so frightened for them, Océane would have taken a moment to enjoy the spectacle as they were simply magnificent. They put her in mind of ancient gladiators and would have made a wonderful illustration for her book. All other thoughts fled, however, as she saw Laen lose his footing on the slippery cobbles. Corin allowed him the briefest second to right himself but Laen was in no mood for mercy and spun around with astonishing speed to hit Corin in the face with the hilt of his sword. Corin fell heavily and Laen raised his blade as though he would finish the job.
Before she had time to consider the wisdom of her actions, Océane screamed and covered the distance between them to throw herself in front of Corin, whose sword had fallen from his hand, too far away to reach.
Laen stopped in shock at the sight of Océane covering Corin to protect him, and lowered his sword.
“Stop it,” she screamed as hysteria turned to anger. “Stop it, you bloody mad man ... Do you really want to kill him? He’s supposed to be your friend!”
He looked at Corin and back to Océane and they could both see the words flickering under his skin.
“He is no friend of mine.” He turned in disgust and flung his sword to the other side of the courtyard before storming away.
“Laen!” Aleish called but he didn’t turn around, so she ran after him.
Océane watched them go before turning to Corin with shaking hands. “Are you OK? Did he hurt you?” she demanded.
He sat up with a groan. “My pride is a little dented but I will live ... thanks to you,” he replied and leaned forward, resting his head in his hands as his breathing calmed. “That was very brave, Océane, if very foolish.” He looked up and smiled at her, leaning forward to kiss her forehead. “Why did you do it?” he asked as he moved away, his eyes intent on her.
Océane put her hand to her mouth to stifle a sob. “I thought he meant to kill you.”
“For a moment there I thought so too,” Corin said, his voice rather shaky. She saw the sorrow in his eyes and felt angry at Laen all over again. He was an ungrateful bastard who didn’t deserve such a friend and yet ... her heart bled for him.
“I’m so glad he didn’t!” she sobbed, and threw her arms around him, her hands sliding on his slick skin.
Corin sighed and held her for a moment. “Well I find I am rather pleased about it myself but ... The thought would really trouble you, my dear?”
She hit him in annoyance and then felt guilty as he hissed with pain. “Of course it would trouble me, you idiot, you’re my friend!”
Corin snorted. “Ah yes,” he said, sounding weary. “Friends.”
Océane reflected on the words she had seen on Laen’s skin and finally realised why Corin had been so put out. But before she could make any comment her eye was taken by the steady stream of blood coursing down his chest.
“Oh, God. Corin, you’re bleeding!”
He looked down and grimaced. “It is merely a scratch,” he replied, and then grinned. “Do you know I’ve always wanted to say that to a woman? Isn’t that what the hero always says in your human films?” Océane laughed, knowing she sounded hysterical but he really was impossible. He groaned again as she helped him to his feet. “Unfortunately I rather feel I was cast as the villain in this one.”
“What are you on about?” she huffed. “Come on, you’d better come back to my room and I’ll clean you up.”
Five minutes later she had him sitting in her bathroom while she cursed and swore about idiot men and cleaned up the nasty cut on his shoulder along with a few other minor nicks and cuts up his arms.
“Laen is a bloody maniac, he should be locked up!” she said in fury as she inspected a cut on his wrist that had come perilously close to severing the vein.
“Don’t judge him too harshly, Océane.”
She looked up at him in astonishment. “He just tried to kill you!”
“Yes,” he said, golden eyes watching her every move. “And I’m afraid I asked for it.”
She frowned at him, kneeling at his feet. “What?”
Corin sighed and leant his head back against the chair, closing his eyes for a moment and once again she felt desperately sad for him. She had the strangest feeling that he was standing alone on the edge of a big black hole with nowhere else to go but down. “Océane, I knew how he felt about you right from the first moment I entered the library and saw you together, and I have done nothing but bait him and go out of my way to make him jealous. I have tried to tell myself that it was for the good of the land - my noble cause, but I’m afraid it was rather more base than that.”
Océane shook her head. “I don’t understand, what do you mean? I know you went out of your way to make him jealous, that was the whole point, but it isn’t as if he actually cares for me. He’s just a spoilt child and he thinks you’ve taken his new toy. If you didn’t have it, he wouldn’t give it a second thought.”
He smiled at her and reached forward, touching her hair with a gentle hand. “You are very wrong, my darling girl, which is just as well as I know you have feelings for him too.”
She opened her mouth to protest but Corin sat up and placed a finger to her lips to silence her.
“I have been foolish to try and stand in the way of you both. If I had been truly doing what I should, I would have found a way to bring you together sooner but ...”
She felt her eyes prickle as she saw again the longing and loneliness in his eyes. She moved to take his hand but he took it away before she could, looking away from her as he spoke.
“What were the words you saw on his face when he looked at me, my dear?”
Océane hesitated.
“It’s all right, I know you saw them,” he said with a sad smile.
“Desire, jealousy... love,” she whispered, and the expression in his eyes as he looked back at her made her heart twist. “Oh, Corin.”
“Oh gods, please don’t pity me, darling, or I shall be quite undone.” He got up out of the chair and walked away from her, out of the bathroom.
She gave him a moment before following back into the bedroom to find him standing, looking out of the window as the rain continued to lash the countryside although the thunder seemed to have burned itself out.
“You see how tormented he is?” He gestured to the wild scene before them and leaned his head on the glass. “He’s falling in love with you, Océane, and he’s scared to death.”
Océane gaped at him. “Don’t be so ridiculous.”
Corin sat down heavily on her bed looking exhausted. “Believe me I wish I was. I swear I will never meddle in other people’s love lives again, may the gods strike me down. I have caused nothing but trouble all around.” He pulled the band from his hair and shook it out, scratching the back of his neck irritably. Océane swallowed and looked away. He may not have affected her in the same way as Laen but he was astonishing in his beauty.
“Laen has never before met a woman like you. The females of our lands are very beautiful but they have been brought up in a manner that was lost to the human world many, many years ago, thank the gods. All here condescend to him as he is the Prince, and as far as the Fae are concerned that is equal to your Lord God Almighty. But Laen does not want or need to be worshipped.” He looked up at her and a smile that reached his eyes lit up his face. “You, my darling girl, have stood up to him, shouted at him and told him he’s a complete and utter bastard and, frankly, I think he needed to hear it. I think he wanted to hear it, from someone other than me that is. He wanted someone to stop him turning into a monster. He just never expected it to be you.”
“You’re wrong.” She shook her head. “It’s true there is ... something between us but it certainly isn’t love.”
Corin laughed, though it wasn’t an entirely happy sound. “My dear young woman, Laen has built his whole life upon a belief system that you are turning on its head. He believes the human race - the women in particular- are wicked, sly creatures that are the cause of all the evils in our land. Except now he sees that you are not like that in the slightest.” Corin stood and walked over to her, taking her hands. “Give him a chance, Océane. You have said you trust me, so trust me in this. He is one of the few people in the world I truly love. He is a good and honourable man. He would be everything you could want him to be if you will only let him. Give him a chance to show you who he really is, for all of our sakes.”
Océane shrugged. “If you say so.” The thought of Laen having any romantic feelings for her was so ridiculous she could laugh. Oh she had no doubt he would take her to bed in a heartbeat but that was all and as for him being a good man ... Well after the way she had seen him turn on the person he called his closest friend she remained to be convinced.
“What will you do?” she asked.
He shrugged. “I think I shall keep to my room and lick my wounds for a little while and then ... And then I shall go home.”
“Oh.” Océane was struck by just how much she wanted him to stay. The thought of being here alone without Corin’s cheerful presence was very depressing.
“My goodness that almost sounded heartfelt, my dear,” he teased, squeezing her hands.
“It was, you idiot. I don’t want you to go.” She looked up at him, feeling the tears brimming in her eyes, and saw the flicker of hope in his before he looked away.
“Oh, Océane, you don’t know how much I wish that were true.”
She laid her head on his shoulder. “It is true.”
He tilted her head up and smiled at her and she was struck all over again by those golden eyes. “Yes, my love, but not enough,” he said sadly. “May I ask a favour?” He looked at her and she raised her eyebrows as he appeared uncharacteristically unsure of himself.
“Of course,” she said in surprise. “Anything.”
“A kiss goodbye.”
Océane opened her mouth to reply but before she could, his mouth had claimed hers, his strong arms sweeping her into an embrace as his lips stole every coherent thought along with the breath from her lungs as he kissed her with everything he had. Finally he released her with evident regret, though he looked satisfied at the results as her cheeks were flushed and she breathed heavily.
“Thank the gods!” He chuckled. “I was beginning to fear I had entirely lost my touch.”
Océane shook her head, quite unable to process a sensible answer.
“Goodbye, my dear,” he said, and brushed his lips against her forehead before turning away and leaving her alone.