Chapter Text
“And you never noticed?” Oro said incredulously for the 4th time, and for the 4th time I sighed and spun around.
“No, I never noticed. Yes, I wore it every day. Yes, I tried every other thing in the castle including my hand and no, I didn’t think about the possibility of it needing some magical signature. If you ask me one more time I’m going to lock you out and you won’t get to see what I uncovered.” Oro smirked.
“Seeing as I have Wildling powers same as you, you’d be hard pressed to lock me out for long.” I rolled my eyes and turned to continue marching forward through the palace gardens.
“Keep making comments like that and you won’t have access to them for very long,” I said, though my cheeks burned at the idea of what caused the sharing in the first place. No privacy in feeling for a monarch of a realm- although after our curse, perhaps my people would welcome a relationship out in the open. I doubted Oro’s people would feel the same way- especially with a Wildling. I shook my head as Oro spoke.
“I used to think you were being deliberately obtuse in not acknowledging my feelings for you, as some sort of kindness- now I see that you’re merely unobservant. No wonder the search for the heart took so long.”
“I seem to remember it being me who figured out the riddle and the location of the heart, my king,” I said with gritted teeth. “And forgive me for being too distracted by my imminent death to realize that exposing my biggest secret to my biggest enemies was your fucked up way of flirting.” Oro caught up to me, grabbed my hand, and turned me to face him. His face was soft and open in a way that made my heart ache after so many weeks of cold stone.
“Hey,” he said quietly, folding my hand between his own and bringing it to rest on his chest. The heat of his skin seeped through his clothes and I melted into his warmth. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean…” he trailed off, shaking his head before trying again. “I don’t know how to do this, Isla. I’ve spent my entire life avoiding this very thing. I was terrified of it. I thought you were seducing me, then sparing me your rejection, and then with Grim… you don’t know how relieved I was to watch the vines pull you out of the brink, not just because they saved your life but because, selfishly, it meant…” his voice grew to a whisper and he looked down at his feet. I brought the hand not currently held in his up to cup his face. He nuzzled into my hand and I resisted the urge to laugh as the image of a large, golden cat flashed in my mind.
“I don’t know how to do this either,” I said softly. “I spent my entire life avoiding this too, locked away for years because of it. I hated my mother for dooming me into powerlessness, dooming my kingdom into ashes all because she was selfish enough to fall in love. I didn’t even realize I’d followed in her footsteps until-” I broke off, the memory of Celeste- Aurora- and the events of her betrayal still too painful to think about. “I never thought I’d fall in love. Never thought I’d get the chance.”
“You did, though,” he said quietly, and I knew he wasn’t referring to himself. I felt anger burn through me at the reminder- yet another thing Grim had stolen from me.
“I can’t imagine what kind of love I could feel for someone willing to wipe my memories and hide the betrayal of my best friend, but whatever it was can’t have been anything like this.” I said fiercely, willing Oro to see the truth in it. Deep amber eyes bored into mine and held- and softened, at what they found there.
“You’ve never said it,” he said instead. I blinked, then laughed when I realized what he meant.
“Neither have you,” I pointed out, smiling. He shifted his hands from where they cradled mine to wrap around me, one settling around my waist and the other tipping my chin up to meet his eyes. It was an assured hold, possessive and protective but gentle, and I felt my breath stutter in my chest.
“I love you, Isla Crown.” He said, quietly but clear.
“I love you too, Oro Rey,” I said breathlessly. His eyes flickered to my lips then back up to mine again. I forgot how to breathe.
“I’d like to kiss you now, if that’s alright.” Oro said, still staring into me with golden eyes.
“Ok,” I breathed out. My hands rested on his chest, feeling the solid heartbeat below it. I had a fleeting thought that he must be able to hear mine, loud as it was in my own ears, before his lips were on mine and I could no longer think of anything else.
The kiss was soft, chaste- barely a brush before Oro pulled back to look into my eyes again. This was nothing like the frantic, desperate kisses between me and Grim, where every time he looked at me he seemed to be searching desperately for something he never found. Oro smiled as he looked at me, apparently satisfied with whatever he saw there, and as he bent to kiss me again more assuredly his body seemed to warm even further against mine.
Every shift of his lips, every brush of his fingers against my waist fluttered in my chest until I could feel myself shaking in his arms. He smiled against my lips, then moved his hand from where it held my chin to instead cup the back of my neck, twining in my hair and tilting my head to deepen the kiss. I inhaled sharply at the feeling of his tongue tracing my lips, but before I could open he pulled back, resting his forehead on mine. He was so much taller than me, even on tiptoes- and when had I done that? I opened my eyes to see him watching me, gaze even warmer than his skin.
“I want to take my time with you,” he said quietly and I felt myself melt even further against him. “I’ve had trysts with women- cold and contractual by design- but none of them meant a thing. I won’t have that be us, my rose,” he promised, tightening his arm around me and moving his hand from my hair to cup my face. “You are worth taking the time for.”
“Rose?” I asked softly. Oro smiled so brilliantly that I wondered how I could ever forget he was the Sunling king.
“Loving you, Isla, is like watching a rose bloom. Soft, and precious, and fragile, and so, so beautiful- no less so for the thorns.”
“I think I first started loving you when you pulled me out of the rose bush,” I whispered. I hadn’t even realized that I’d known when I first fell for him, but the memory of gentle hands and soft words while I ripped the spines from my back came unbidden. “And you let me pull them myself.” Oro’s eyebrows drew together, and I knew he was seeing a different side in his mind’s eye- blood dripping down as he knitted skin together with his Moonling power. With my Moonling power, if I could ever figure out how to use it.
“I don’t let you do anything, my rose, and never have. You would’ve made it just fine without me, because that is who you are.” Hot, embarrassing tears came to my eyes at that- at the simple acknowledgment of my strength. I blinked them back while Oro continued. “But I should teach you how to heal yourself- I don’t want to worry about the next time if I’m not there.”
”Once I master the Wildling power it won’t,” I pointed out. Oro grimaced, pulling back slightly.
“We might be figuring that one out together. The others were intuitive, like reaching out with my own hand. But catching you with the vines was like rowing against the tide- perhaps there is something about nature that rebels against anyone trying to control it.” I wrapped my hands around his upper arms, not willing to pull away from him yet.
“Maybe that’s the nature of the shared powers. I certainly haven’t been able to access them,” I snorted, but Oro shook his head.
“You have no training and no experience drawing on your own powers to compare it to- I would expect it to take you far longer. Can you even use your own yet?” I raised an eyebrow and stepped back, shaking out my hands and planting my feet firmly on the ground. I reached out into the earth as I breathed in and felt it race to me.
Hello, I thought, and felt the thorned vines beneath my feet curl around my ankles- not to strangle, but to caress, ready to do whatever I asked. I breathed out, opened my eyes, and swept my hands out in front of me. The vines wrapped themselves around Oro instead, snaking up his legs and down his arms to anchor him to the ground.
“Point taken,” he said, laughing. “Can you release me now?”
“Can you?” I challenged. He grimaced, then closed his eyes. Slowly the vines retracted, sinking back into the earth to settle restlessly there. He opened his eyes, staring down at his arms with a frown- tiny pinpricks littered his skin where the thorns had dug in. I gasped, grabbing his hand. “Oro, I’m so so sorry-“
“It wasn’t you,” he shook his head, waving my concern away with his free hand. “It was me, when I tried to release them I accidentally pulled them tighter. It’s so… unintuitive, like writing from right to left.” I concentrated hard on the cuts in his hand, trying to pull on whatever it was I’d pulled on to make the vines move.
“Not like that,” Oro said softly so as to not break my concentration. “It’s not the same as your Wildling power, so don’t go about it in the same way. Moonling powers respond to Moonling ways- as do all of the others.” I switched tactics, instead imagining a rush of cool water washing over his arms, carrying with it the blood and leaving soft skin in its wake. Oro winced and I opened my eyes.
“Sorry,” he said. “Your hands were suddenly like ice.” But he looked down and his eyebrows shot up, so I followed his gaze to see whole, smooth skin. “Well, it’s not the most comfortable procedure in the world. But it’s certainly effective.”
“Sorry,” I said again, dropping his arms. “Guess I need practice.”
“Practice can be arranged, my rose. Now, did you want to show me this room?”
“Oh yes,” I said, caught off guard by the reminder- between our kiss and the rush of my power, I’d completely forgotten it. “Do you want to fly, or…” Oro shook his head, glancing up at the cloudless sky and tilting his face toward the sun. In the light, his golden hair shone almost brighter than his crown.
“If you don’t mind it, I’d rather walk. I’ve… missed the sunlight.” My heart twisted in my chest- my golden king, locked out of the light for so long. I laced my fingers through his and tugged him forward, out of the grounds and into the light.
“A walk sounds perfect.”