Chapter Text
The rain had eased into a steady drizzle, soft against the stone spires of the ancient tower that pierced the grey sky. Sapphire moved through the winding halls of the spire with his usual quiet grace, boots making barely a sound on the dark stone floor slick with damp. The cold didn’t bother him, hadn’t in centuries. He had hoped the stillness would help clear his thoughts, but fate, it seemed, had other plans.
“Saaaappphire~!”
He stopped in his tracks, eyes slowly sliding shut as he exhaled through his nose. That voice was unmistakable.
He turned just in time to see Candy skipping toward him, her dark cloak trailing like spilled ink behind her. As always, mischief danced in her red eyes. Floating a few paces behind her was a shimmering winged figure cloaked in silk: Pavlova, smiling wide as if he lived in a world of constant spring.
Candy clapped her hands together. “Guess what? Did you know Pavlova is Cupid?” Her tone was mocking, but it was clear even she didn’t know what to do with the bizarre truth.
Sapphire gave her a blank stare. “Yeah, I’m sure he is.”
Pavlova was a sugar angel, a demonic creature disgised as an angelic being, however pavlova is unaware of this and truly believes he is an angel as do all the other sugar angels trapped in Eternal Sugar’s garden. His powers do relate to those of cupid however, he is able to look into someone’s heart and find their deepest desires which Sugar uses to her advantage gaining more sugar angels.
Sapphire made to walk past, hoping to preserve what little peace remained in his evening, but Pavlova hovered suddenly into his path, pink eyes glowing with anticipation. He had been watching Sapphire the entire time, like a sugar coated hawk waiting for the perfect moment to pounce.
“I know this is weird,” Pavlova started, voice light as spun sugar, “since your heart isn’t technically beating…”
Sapphire’s jaw tightened. “Get to the point.”
Pavlova paused, wings flapping a touch faster as if the truth itself stirred them. “Your heart… it sounds different than the last time I was here. It’s filled with curiosity.” He leaned forward slightly, smiling in that dreamy, innocent way that made Sapphire’s skin crawl. “And desire.”
Sapphire’s eyes narrowed, his voice dry. “Excuse me?”
Candy’s mouth popped open, eyebrows rising high. “Desire?” She gasped, grinning like a child unwrapping a secret. “Ohhh, this is gonna be good.”
“You’re mistaken,” Sapphire snapped, glaring at the angel. “My heart hasn’t beat in centuries. Whatever you think you heard, it wasn’t my heart. Probably some newly turned guards.”
Pavlova only smiled brighter. “Hearts don’t need to beat to speak,” he said, voice airy. “They still whisper. And yours is whispering about someone. Someone special.” His wings gave an excited flutter. “I can tell.”
Sapphire scoffed and stepped past him. “You’re delirious.”
But Pavlova called after him, floating backward with his arms outstretched: “Believe what you want… but your heart will always speak the truth~!”
He didn’t turn around. He didn’t have to. Candy’s voice shrieked behind him a second later.
“OH MY GOD! TELL ME MORE ABOUT HIS TRAGIC LOVE LIFE!”
“Drop dead,” he grumbled.
“Ugh, rude,” she replied.
He kept walking.
Sapphire’s chambers were silent and cold, as always. Heavy velvet curtains blocked the stormy daylight, casting the room in an ashen blue. He shrugged off his coat and dropped onto the edge of his bed, running a hand through his dark hair in frustration.
“Stupid angel,” he muttered. “Thinking he knows what he’s talking about.”
He fell backward into the pillows, one arm across his eyes. “It’s impossible. My heart no longer functions. How could he possibly hear it?”
He sat up abruptly. “It had to be someone else’s. Maybe a guard. Maybe a fae wandering too close to the border… maybe…” But even as he listed possibilities, they all felt like reaching.
Because he had felt something recently. A stir in his chest. A warmth that pooled when he looked into Silverbell’s eyes. He remembered the soft laughter from the dessert shop, the way Silverbell’s eyes creased when he smiled, how he looked with crumbs of strawberry cake on his lips…
Sapphire groaned and fell back into the mattress, dragging a pillow over his face.
You’re losing it, he told himself. You don’t feel things. You don’t have a heart anymore.
And yet…
“Your heart will always speak the truth.”
Sapphire clenched his jaw.
No. It couldn’t be.
He sat in silence for several minutes before grabbing the nearest pillow and launching it across the room.
Meanwhile, down in one of the Spire’s sugar gardens—a dangerous realm of sickly sweet mist and illusions spun by the goddess Sugar herself—Candy was lounging beneath a candied willow, one leg swinging over the other.
She licked a crimson lollipop absently and watched Pavlova twirl midair.
“You seriously heard his heart?”
Pavlova twirled midair. “Mmhm!”
Candy raised an eyebrow. “Even though it’s not beating?”
“I told you,” he said, glowing with sugary satisfaction, “hearts don’t need to beat to be heard. Especially when they’ve been quiet so long… the first whisper is so loud.”
“So, who is it?” she asked, grinning. “You got all that gooey stuff from Sapphire? I thought he didn’t have feelings.”
“He does,” Pavlova chirped. “They’re just buried deep. Under centuries of pain and denial and… brooding. Lots of brooding.”
Candy rolled her eyes. “No kidding. I live with him. I know.”
“He feels something. And it’s sweet. Bitter, too, but the kind of bitter that makes sweet things taste better.”
Candy tilted her head. “A vampire, in love… that’s tragic already.” Her grin widened. “Wait. Wait. I bet it’s a faerie.”
Pavlova gasped. “Oh my sugar, yes! A vampire and a fae? Think of the tension! The secrets! The moral dilemma!” He practically glittered with joy. “It’s so doomed! I love it.”
Candy narrowed her eyes. “You’re not helping my concern levels, but I am so invested now.”
“You have to find out who it is,” Pavlova pleaded, hovering close. “True love needs help! Especially tragic, slow-burn, forbidden, enemies-to-lovers love!”
“Okay, calm down,” Candy laughed. “You’re literally vibrating.”
“I can’t help it. It’s the drama!”
She smirked, eyes narrowing. “If it is a faerie, and I find out he’s hurting my idiot brother, I’ll drain him dry myself.”
Pavlova smiled serenely. “That’s what siblings are for.”
Back in his bed, Sapphire finally gave in and let himself close his eyes. Just for a moment.
And again, Silverbell crept into the darkness behind his eyelids.
Not with blood. Not with fire.
Just a laugh. A smile. A glance.
And suddenly, silence didn’t feel so comforting anymore.
Sapphire sighed into the pillow.
“…Stupid angel.”