Love’s Eternal Fire

Chapter 2: Caught

Kesiray's POV

It was afternoon, the usual time I was supposed to meet with Solaris, and I was late. My chores ran longer than normal, and the fairy Queen came to talk to my parents. I knew I had to wait until she left. I ran at full speed in the forest, leaving the stone path and weaving around trees and boulders; a bundled-up old cotton blanket I had taken from our attic was in my arms. It was another bright, warm day, the sky clear, blue, and cloudless, perfect for an adventure in our secret hideaway. We had been sneaking away to play every day for over a month. Skidding to a halt, I saw Solaris leaning against a tree, waiting for me.

"Kesi, there you are," he exclaimed, coming over to where I was standing, panting. "I thought you weren't coming."

"Sorry, I had to finish my chores, and my sister wouldn't leave me alone today. I had to wait until she got distracted, plus the fairy Queen came to my house," I explained.

"Does she do that often?" he questioned.

"About once a month to talk with all the elemental leaders," I explained.

"What are you carrying?" he asked, looking at the blanket in my arms.

"Oh, I thought this would make the perfect sail for our ship!" I told him excitedly, letting the blanket fall to reveal a white ship sail, or at least it would be. A smile spread across Solaris' face.

"It's perfect!" He took the blanket from me, and we walked further to where we had been playing in no man's land. Heading for the base of a large oak tree, I jumped and caught the lowest branch with ease, skillfully climbing to the largest branch that was doubling as our ship.

"Toss me the sail!" I told Solaris, who was still at the bottom. Balling up the blanket, he threw it hard. I caught it and began to open it up, examining how best to fasten it to the tree.

"We still have some twine left in the hole," Solaris called, beginning to make his clumsy way up into the tree. He wasn't nearly as skilled at climbing as I was. He said the phoenix didn't spend much time climbing trees or out in nature; they had better and more important things to do, at least that's what his older brother, Ryse, told him. For a fairy, we were outside in the wild from the second we were born. I was raised climbing trees, swimming in rivers, running through fields, anything to be closer to where we drew our powers from.

Solaris was straddling the branch like I was, holding the blanket while I stuck my hand into an old hollowed hole to find what I wanted. I pulled a small ball of twine and some scissors from the hole. We had been hiding things and bringing them here for us to use, anything we thought might be helpful for our adventures. Cutting a few pieces, Solaris broke off a small stick protruding from the larger branch; he used that to poke holes into the blanket so we could tie it around the tree. Sitting back to examine our work after a few minutes, we smiled.

"That looks great," I told him. "Now, we only need a platform and a steering wheel!"

"Oh, I almost forgot," Solaris said, reaching into the small pouch tied to his leg. He pulled out what looked like a folded cloth napkin. When he unfolded it, a bunch of raspberries and small pieces of chocolate were inside. "I know you said the other day these were your favorite."

"You remembered?" I asked, smiling at him as he looked sheepishly at me.

"You can have the first one," he told me. Taking a raspberry and a piece of chocolate, I popped them both into my mouth. Solaris did the same and sighed. "This is a good combination."

"I told you!"

The two of us sat on the branch, the breeze running through the trees, making the leaves and branches shake slightly. We were so comfortable with one another that we didn't need to talk to know how happy the other was. The time we met up each day was the thing I looked forward to the most.

"When we get older, you're going to be my mate," Solaris said quickly, making me stop chewing.

"Our kinds are mortal enemies," I reminded him. "How are we supposed to be mates? We don't know who our mate will be; we're only ten."

"It doesn't matter to me if we're only ten or if our families are fighting; I know you will be my mate when I get older. Only if you want to," he added.

"I want to," I blushed, looking down at the branch.

"Will you swear it?" he asked, and when I looked up at him, his eyes were looking into mine so intensely that it made me uncomfortable, but not in a wrong way.

"You first," I said.

"I, Solaris Icarus, swear that you, Kesiray Willowbead, will be my mate one day. We will live happily together far away from here in a new land that we make our own," Solaris said in as proud and distinguished a voice as he could muster. "Your turn."

"I, Kesiray Willowbead, swear that you, Solaris Icarus, will be my mate one day. You'll take me away from all the fighting, and we'll live alone and happy," I told him. Solaris held out his hand, and I shook it, sealing our promise. We exchanged no more words but sat in awkward silence, eating the rest of the raspberries and chocolate. There was a rustling and a gasp that caught both of our attention. Looking over the branch, I stared into the green eyes and pale face of my older sister, Thazel, on the ground, looking up at us.

"Oh my..." she breathed, looking from my face to Solaris.

"Thazel!" I yelled, sliding down quickly from our perch. She backed away a few steps after Solaris followed me.

"You, Ray, are you... He's a phoenix..." Thazel whispered the last word like it was dirty.

"I know, but it's not what you think," I explained.

"Not what I think? You're breaking every rule the fairies have!" her voice was getting higher, and I was worried someone might catch it on the breeze.

"But he's different; he's my friend," I told her, looking back at Solaris. "How did you even know where we were?"

"I saw you going into the woods with that old ore dad threw out last week. I knew you were up to something," she explained.

"So you followed me?" I asked.

"Yes, and this is what I find! We're going home!" Thazel commanded.

"I don't wanna go home," I told her. Thazel was only a year older than me but was already preparing to take over for our parents, giving orders to anyone she could, which was pretty much only me and anyone younger.

"Then I'm telling Mom and Dad!" she told me, hands on her hips.

"Okay, fine," I huffed, turning around to Solaris. "I'm sorry, I have to go." Thazel turned and stomped back into the trees, me following closely behind her. "Thazel, slow down!" I had to jog to keep up with her she was walking so fast.

"How long have you been seeing him?" Thazel asked.

"Only a month or so," I told her.

"A month!? You've been lying to everyone for over a month?" she exclaimed, giving me a fiery look as we walked.

"It's not a big deal. He's very kind and not what we've been taught," I told her.

"That's how they all are. They're nice to get you to trust them, and then they kidnap you, and you never see your family again!" Thazel said, furrowing her brow. We fell silent for a couple of minutes.

"Are you going to tell mom and dad?" I asked. We finally made it back to the stone path leading us back into the fairy lands.

"I really should; you could have gotten yourself killed," Thazel huffed. I grabbed her arm to stop her from walking.

"Please, please don't tell them," I begged, giving her my best sad sorry eyes.

"Fine, I won't tell, but you have to swear you'll never see him again," Thazel replied.

"Okay, I swear," I smiled, holding up two fingers, although I had no intention of stopping. Thazel rolled her eyes but dropped her hard expression and smiled. Linking my arm with hers, we walked back to our house together, me doing my best to keep the topic away from Solaris. When we walked inside, my mom was busy in the kitchen cleaning some fiddlehead ferns for dinner.

"Ray, you're back early," she said, not looking up from her work.

"Yeah, I just didn't feel good," I lied, eyeing Thazel dangerously.

"Well, why don't you go lay down? I'd hate for you to miss your favorite dinner," she told me.

"Okay," I replied, staring at Thazel as I walked past her toward the spiral staircase. Opening my bedroom door, I face-planted onto my bed in my sea of pillows. Today had been a close call; maybe Solaris and I needed to wait a few days before we saw each other again and let my sister cool off. I wish we didn't have to hide our friendship, but I knew there would be no more visits if anyone else found out. This could start another war between our communities. Maybe being friends with him wasn't such a good idea, even if he wasn't the monster everyone tried to tell me his kind was.

Maybe our friendship could start a new beginning for our world. People from the other realms were allowed to coexist. The werewolf Queen's mate was an elf, and I think there were even a few humans in their pack. Maybe making friends with a human would have been a better idea. I knew there was no way I could stop being friends with Solaris; something was drawing me to him, something I had never felt before. Just being around him felt right and like we were meant to meet. We would have to be better about hiding it until we both got our powers and could finally leave our realms behind.