Promise me.
She asked him so much in those two little words.
Every day he felt haunted by the what-if’s that hounded his heels from the children he’d never know and the lovers he’d never see again. He remembered his sister had once told him their father had loved the mare Vita Nova, but their relationship had fallen to pieces and been irreparable when he abandoned her in Tinuvel to save his daughters.
Maybe not so irreparable, though? Zevulun thought of his youngest sister, Tavas, the last child his father had likely ever given the world.
“I want to promise you I won’t…” He exhaled a warm breath of conflict across her skin, his troubled light-blue eyes finding their way to her dainty, pretty dark face surrounded by silver-white hair. “It’s just… so hard not to.”
How could he enjoy himself again? How could he laugh and live freely among the Prairie grass without feeling the aching pain of what if? What if he’d never left? What could he have done for Sabela? For Ysabel?
Zevulun looked quietly at his late-night Falls companion and sighed. Of all the pain she’d endured, she did not focus on her sorrow, but looked to relieve him of his. She rejected his offer to involve himself with getting her away from the stallion she lived under, but Zevulun took no offense to it. As much as he wished she would let him sweep her away, he understood.
“But… I’ll try.” He took a breath and flicked his pink-lined, light ears toward her and met her eyes again. “I’ll try to forgive myself, for you.” He would, too. They weren’t empty words. It was an honest promise that from that day forward, Zevulun would try to find his peace and part ways with the grief and guilt of his past.
She had offered to promise him something in return.
“Come to me.” He said the three words in a hushed voice at first, as though softly laying the proposal before her rather than pressing for it demandingly. Zevulun watched her, then stretched his neck to slowly reach out and place his pink velvet lips on her dark cheek. He smelled the water of the Falls but mostly, he smelled her. With a soft kiss given, Zevulun tucked his head back and repeated, “Come to me. When you need someone who knows what you’ve gone through. Someone to stand with you in this place. Someone who understands. Come to me in the Prairie.” He took a small, low breath. “Don’t worry over what comes after or anything else. I won’t keep you with me if you don’t want to stay, you can return wherever you need to go once you feel able. But, if you find yourself in this place again, promise me you’ll come to me. Don’t go through this alone anymore. And - if you change your mind. If you want to be freed. All you have to do is say the word. I’ll fight for you.”
Then, after his warm words filled the air between them, Zevulun gave her a slight grin. “Oh, and I’m Zevulun, by the way. Since you already know every piece of my heart, you may as well know what name to remember me by.”
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