Love’s Eternal Fire

Chapter 6: I Found You

Kesiray's POV

I stood there staring into Solaris' hazel blue eyes. Telling him to keep space between us was so hard once I laid eyes on him. I had practiced many times today, but getting the words out was a struggle. Time had been good to him; his round eyes showed how hurt he was that I didn't want to be close to him, but that was far from the truth. I wanted to be closer to him than anyone before; that was the problem. I knew the mate bond would prevent me from thinking clearly if he was too close to me.

“You look really good,” I finally breathed, breaking the strange silence between us. What did you say to someone after eighteen years of silence?

“Thanks,” he chuckled, looking down at the front of himself.

“I guess you don’t look so bad yourself,” he winked, making me blush.

“How’s your family? Do they know what happened yesterday?” I asked, wondering if it had gotten back to anyone that he didn’t kill me.

“Everyone is good, but I think they know that I met you in the woods from what my parents said,” he told me.

“I know we’re adults now, but I’m assuming your clan's views on fairies haven’t changed,” I said.

“No, my dad said he wants me to take over my clan instead of my older brother, Ryse. He doesn’t trust he’ll be able to make the right decisions because of his temper. I’m not sure I want to take over,” he told me. “He reminded me I needed to adhere to our clan's laws.”

“Including the one where you don’t associate with fairies,” I mumbled, looking at the ground.

“I don’t want that, though,” he said, making me look up. We stared into each other’s eyes, and I could feel the longing come off him.

"Do you think he's only making that decision because he knows we could be mates?" I questioned.

"I don't know, but it's possible," he replied. “I never forgot about you; I want you to know that."

“You didn’t?” I asked, feeling slightly guilty my memory had not served me the same.

“Never, I even came back here when I could for a few weeks. Part of me expected you to show up, but you never did,” Solaris explained, a pained expression on his face.

“I’m sorry, I wanted to, but I was always being watched. After a while, I guess I forgot that I should,” I told him, avoiding his eye.

“That’s okay; I didn’t expect you to remember me after all these,” he said.

“But I did remember,” I told him. “The second I saw your eyes, I remembered everything—all our adventures, making our ship, eating raspberries and chocolate together in our hideaway. The last day we spent together, everything. I think I tried to block it out because knowing I would never see you again was too painful. I cried myself to sleep for days.”

“I’m so sorry,” he told me. I didn’t know what he was apologizing for; it wasn’t his fault that our parents caught us.

“I even kept this,” I said, reaching into the pocket of my dress and pulling out the small paper he had written on.

“I kept my word,” Solaris smiled, making my heart skip a beat.

“What word?” I stammered, my mouth becoming increasingly dryer.

“I told you I would find you again one day,” he replied.

“I don’t know what to do,” I whispered after another prolonged silence between us.

“What do you mean?” he asked, tilting his head to the side.

“About this, us and the mate bond,” I responded.

“I think you know exactly what you want to do,” he growled seductively. Solaris wasn’t wrong about that, my body and heart were telling me to run at him, throw my arms around his neck and never let go. Leaving my tribe was something I had always wanted to do, but now that the opportunity had presented itself, it seemed like a tall order. Leaving to venture out on my own was one thing, but if I left with Solaris, I would never be able to speak to my family again. Solaris was walking towards me now, desire in his eyes. I didn’t move, frozen under his gaze.

He became closer and closer, and his scent hit me like a ton of bricks, invading every corner of my mind. He touched my arm when he was only a few inches from me. The contact sent instant electric tingles shooting up my arms. Solaris trailed his fingers up the outside of my arms, breathing heavily as the sensation affected him, too. My breath caught in my throat when his hands got closer and closer to my shoulders.

When his fingers began trailing up my neck, I closed my eyes, and an involuntary shudder ran through me. Solaris cupped either side of my face in his large hands. Opening my eyes, I saw that his face was millimeters from mine; I could clearly see the swirls of blue in his eyes. A small smile played on his lips, and he pulled my face toward his. I didn’t fight him; it felt right with his hands all over me. Solaris brushed his lips to mine, and I thought my head might explode in shock and desire. My lips molded perfectly to his, and I touched his waist, moaning into the kiss.

Standing in the middle of no man’s land, I experienced my first kiss with my mate. It was not the first kiss in my life since my parents had tried many times to get me to take a chosen mate growing up. I think they feared this exact thing right here, Solaris being my mate. We broke our kiss and placed our foreheads together, panting from the intensity our kiss had ignited.

“I don’t think I can live without you now that I’ve found you again,” Solaris told me. “Please don’t reject me.”

“Solaris…” I breathed as he took my hands in his.

“We swore we would be mates one day; we promised to live happily together away from here,” he reminded me.

"I know, but we were kids back then. We have responsibilities now," I told him.

"Fu*k responsibility," he told me, lifting my chin up and making me look at him. "Tell me you don't want to be my mate." I couldn't; all I could do was look into his amazing eyes.

"I did swear that you would take me away from here," I smiled, thinking back to our promise while sitting in the tree behind us. Solaris smiled, turning my legs into jelly. "How am I supposed to leave my family? I need some time to think about this, and you should too, especially with your dad asking you to take over the clan; that's a huge responsibility to give up."

"I never wanted to lead those people anyway," he told me. "Ryse will just have to take a mate and do it himself."

"Like I said, we should each take some time to stop and think about what being mates would mean," I said. "Leaving everything we've known behind, we have to make sure it's worth it."

"Of course, it's worth it; you've always been worth it," he said. "You were always the woman I wanted; I've been in love with you since I saw you in the woods picking flowers." If I hadn't been trying to think reasonably, I would have flown away with him here and now, forgetting anything else. He was the first man to tell me that he loved me.

"I do have to go," I told him reluctantly. "I'm supposed to be helping my friend with her class today."

"Okay, I've probably been away too long as it is. My next combat class will be starting soon," Solaris said. "Will you meet me here at the same time tomorrow? It's my day off from teaching, and we could spend a little more time together."

"Alright," I told him.

"I'm so happy I found you again," Solaris said, gently pressing his lips to mine. With difficulty, I pulled myself away from him, smiling as I spread my wings and took off, showing off a little for him on the way up. Flying through the sky, I felt as light as ever, riding the high of our kiss until I had flown into fairy territory. I saw my sister walking with my two nieces, and my heart fell. Being with Solaris would mean I would never be able to see them again; although Thazel and I had repaired our relationship, it was never the same after what she did to me.

On the other hand, my nieces were two of the most important things in my life. Was I really about to leave and never see them again? They were so young; they wouldn't understand what happened. Maybe Solaris and I could be the bridge between our two worlds, showing them that being together is a good thing and stopping all the wars and attacks for good.

"There you are," Gwena said when I landed beside her in a small clearing near the pond where she taught the water fairies. Her bright blue eyes sparkled in the afternoon sun, and a headband pulled back her shoulder-length blonde hair.

"Sorry, I got distracted," I told her.

"By what?" she asked, eyeing me suspiciously. Apart from my parents and the few warriors my parents had sworn to secrecy, Gwena was the only one who knew about Solaris, but she didn't know I'd encountered him again.

"I'll explain later," I told her, seeing a sea of young fairies with blue eyes approaching us. It would be nice if Solaris and I had a way to communicate with one another when we weren't together. Fairies couldn't mind link like wolves, but we could communicate within our tribe through the different elements.

"Yeah, we're gonna talk about it later," she winked.