Staring up at the night sky, Lucas couldn’t help being amazed by the view. It was the same sky that he saw every night back home, and yet it looked so entirely different and alien to him at the same time.
Unlike how things were back home, there was next to no light pollution in Helstrum. There were some street lights that illuminated the streets of the town, but they weren’t nearly as bright or frequent as they would be back home. And with so little light pollution, the night sky was so much clearer. Laying out on his back, for a few moments, Lucas was just content, staring up at the dozens of stars that he could see shining in the darkness. The view was much better than the plain white ceiling of his room, at least.
Admittedly, it was a bit strange, seeing the night sky through the lens of his darkvision. The darkness was less of a pitch black and more of a soft grey, but he could still see the bright stars above shining in the sky and the moon casting its pale glow upon the world below as it slowly sank towards the horizon.
If only his reason for sitting out under the stars had actually been to gaze up at the night sky.
He'd been drained after a long day of practicing magic and training with Magnus. He'd pushed himself far that day and he'd made progress, but it wasn't enough. And unfortunately, his mind was still plenty capable of terrorizing him in his sleep. So when the nightmares inevitably came, Lucas knew he wasn't getting any more sleep that night.
It was painfully early in the morning, and sunrise was still hours away. He knew it was after midnight, at least, but Lucas wasn’t sure how long he’d been out in the backyard just staring at the sky. He’d woken up around one in the morning, but he had quickly lost track of time once he’d gotten outside.
“Lucas?”
Glancing to the side, Lucas was surprised to see Fay standing in the back door. Her hair was a bit messy and the girl had a blanket wrapped around her body as she stepped into the backyard. She looked half asleep, and Lucas had to imagine that she likely just woke up.
“What are you doing out here?” He asked, pushing himself up onto his elbows.
“I woke up and wanted to get a drink. Then I looked outside and saw you sitting out here. Do you know how late it is? It's not even two in the morning, Lucas,” She pointed out.
Well, that at least answered what time it was, and confirmed that he hadn't been out for too long.
“I just couldn't sleep. Figured I'd come out and see the stars,” He lied, looking back up at the dark skies above.
The soft crunch of grass underfoot alerted Lucas as Fay approached. And after a second, she sat down beside him, her blanket still wrapped around her.
“Was it the nightmares?”
Lucas’ head snapped towards the blonde, shocked and confused by her startlingly accurate guess. He thought that he'd been good at keeping his nightmares hidden, he'd even learned how to keep quiet when he was having one after the first couple nights at the house.
“How?”
“I remembered you having them when we were traveling in the woods,” Fay explained. “Each night, you looked like you were having some kind of nightmare. I was hoping they stopped when we got to Helstrum, but I'm guessing they never did.”
“No…” Lucas quietly confirmed. “They never did.”
A soft touch to his hand made Lucas look down, spotting Fay's hand gently resting on his. When he looked up, he saw the concerned look that the blonde was giving him. At that point, Lucas knew that he couldn’t really lie to her anymore.
“Do you want to talk about it?” She asked, moving a little closer and giving Lucas’ hand a comforting squeeze.
It was a long minute of silence as Lucas tried to figure out what to say, and if he would even say anything at all. He hated those nightmares and how much stress and fear they caused him, and talking about it wasn’t something that he wanted to do. But he cared about Fay, and the idea of lying to her again just felt deeply wrong to him.
“I can’t stop thinking about the wolves,” He quietly whispered.
“The Direwolves? Oh gods, Lucas, why didn’t you ever say anything?”
“I don’t know,” Lucas mumbled. “I didn’t want you to think that I was weak or useless. I didn’t want to be some scared kid in the woods.”
Fay’s hand gripped his tighter and the blonde glared at him.
“What are you talking about? You’re not weak at all, Lucas!”
“I couldn’t land a single hit against Sasha and even with my magic I still couldn’t even touch Magnus after a week of training,” He protested.
“Exactly!” Fay shifted, reaching out and grabbing Lucas’ shoulders as her emerald green eyes stared into his blues.
“You’ve been training for a week, Lucas. Hell, it hasn’t even been a full week yet since you started. Sasha has been training since she was like, twelve, and my dad was one of the best hunters that Helstrum’s Hunter’s Guild ever had. You’re not going to catch up to them in a single week, Lucas, I still can’t beat my dad and he’s been training me for two years!”
Though her rant was passionate and angry, Lucas could also see the concern shining in her eyes as she glared at him.
“But I only have a month…”
“Is that why you’ve been working so hard, training so much every single day since we arrived?” She asked.
Lucas’ silence was as much of an answer as it would have been if he’d said the words himself. And he could see Fay’s eyes widening as she realized it.
“Lucas… Oh gods, Lucas you can’t do that to yourself,” She said softly, the anger gone and replaced by pity and worry. “You’re not going to beat my dad in a month, Lucas, that’s just not going to happen.”
Deep down, Lucas had always known that he wouldn’t be able to get that good in only a month’s time, but he’d always pushed those concerns away and forced himself to keep training and practicing. Fay voicing those thoughts aloud was enough to make Lucas flinch and look away.
“You’ve been training for almost a whole week, and you haven’t taken a single real break the whole time. You can’t keep pushing yourself like this. If you do you’re going to crash.”
“I have to,” Lucas argued, or at least he tried to. Even to himself, the words sounded half-hearted and weak.
“Why?” Fay asked. “Why do you have to push yourself so hard every day?”
“Because I’m scared,” Lucas blurted out. “I’m scared of those Direwolves, I’m scared that I’m too weak, and I’m scared that I’m just going to hold you back.”
Fay looked visibly confused. “Hold me back? What are you talking about? How would you hold me back?”
Lucas glanced away, unable to meet the blonde’s eyes anymore at that point. “You’re this awesome badass and I’m just some average guy who got lucky. The only reason I’m even here is because you saved me. I’m not good enough to keep up with you, so you have to hold back or slow down whenever I’m around, everyone does.”
Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.
“Lucas…”
He couldn’t look at her. Lucas didn’t want to see the pity that he knew she would be looking at him with.
“Lucas, look at me.”
One of Fay’s hands gently pressed against Lucas’ cheek, and she pulled his gaze back towards her, forcing him to look her in the eye. Rather than the pity he’d expected, he was surprised to see that Fay almost looked amused.
“Lucas, you’re not weak. You’ve learned so much so fast and you’re already getting such a good grip on your magic. You’re strong, and I promise that you’re not holding me back, either. I slow down because it’s boring to leave everyone else behind,” She explained.
He didn’t look away, but Lucas let some of his concerns and uncertainty bubble up to the surface.
“How am I strong? I haven’t won a single fight or spar since I started training. I can’t even land a blow, I don’t think that sounds like I’m strong,” He pointed out.
“I can’t even land a blow against my dad, and I still struggle to keep up with Sasha. That doesn’t mean I’m weak, right?” Fay replied, throwing Lucas’ own logic back at him to silence his argument.
“I know how I can prove it to you. In a few days, you and I are going to head out to the woods again. I’m going to teach you how to hunt Direwolves and you’re going to kill one yourself. You’ll see that you’re already strong enough that they won’t even be a challenge soon.”
Lucas was stunned. He didn’t feel like he was ready at all, but Fay clearly thought otherwise. “I promise, you can do this. I know you can, and I’ll be there with you the whole time,” She vowed.
“… Ok.” He finally agreed, the word barely a whisper as it slipped past his lips.
He couldn’t fight her on that, not when he could see the genuine belief shining in the blonde’s passionate green eyes. She fully believed in him, that he was strong, and Lucas couldn’t muster the will to crush her beliefs.
For a minute, the two just sat in silence, enjoying the quiet night under the stars.
“Are you going to head back to bed?” Fay asked.
“Probably not,” Lucas replied as he fell back onto the soft grass. “I don’t really think I can fall back asleep tonight. I just figured I’d stay out and watch the stars.”
He didn’t see her, but he could hear Fay shuffling about as she got to her feet. He expected her to head back inside, but he was surprised when her hand came into view, reaching down for him to take.
“Come on, then. I know a way better spot for that than here.”
Growing curious, Lucas took Fay’s hand and let her pull him to his feet. She led him back toward the house and he wondered for a moment if she was just going to lead him back inside. But then she stopped right before the wall, looking up towards the slanted roof above.
Her hand slid into his and Lucas looked over to see Fay smiling at him. “Do you trust me?” She asked.
“Of course.”
The words came without any hesitation. How could he not trust her after everything that had happened so far.
“Then just follow my lead and get ready to jump on three, ok?” She replied.
Fay didn’t offer any further explanation and crouched slightly, looking like she was getting ready to jump to the roof. Now, Lucas knew that the magic they both had was reinforcing and strengthening their bodies, but he’d seen how high he could jump, and he knew it wasn’t enough to clear the more than ten-foot gap between the ground and the edge of the roof.
Then he felt the breeze pick up, and he looked down to a faintly luminescent spiral of wind gathering and swirling around his and Fay’s feet. He looked back to the blonde and her grin widened.
“One…”
Her legs tensed, and Lucas followed her lead.
“Two…”
She looked up towards the sky and the wind swirling around them intensified.
“Three!”
Lucas pushed off the ground in time with Fay, and the two went flying far higher than he ever expected. The wind beneath them pushed the two higher, launching them up a good few feet higher than the edge of the roof. For a moment, Lucas was worried about their landing, but he noticed how they were falling slower than they should have. Those same winds were still swirling around their feet, sending the blanket Fay had wrapped around her fluttering wildly in the breeze. Under Fay’s control, both she and Lucas landed softly on the soft incline of the Stella family’s roof a few seconds later.
“That was so cool! And you can just do that whenever?”
Fay giggled when she saw the awestruck look on Lucas’ face, but he was too focused on the display of magic from Fay. Already, his mind was racing with ideas and questions that he badly wanted to ask her. If she got good enough with her magic, would Fay potentially be able to leap over entire buildings like that?
He was pulled away from his own thoughts as Fay tugged his hand, leading him up towards the top of the roof.
“Yup. It’s one of the first steps to flying with Wind magic. Launching yourself and controlling your fall is the start, then you build from there.”
“You really do want to fly, don’t you?” Lucas asked as he thought back to when Fay had first told him about her affinities and her desire to soar through the air.
When they got to their destination at the top, Fay sat down atop the shingles, wrapping the blanket around her once more and patting the space next to her.
“I really, really do,” She confirmed, a wistful look on her face as she looked up at the sky above. “After I got my magic, this became my favorite place to go when I needed to think. The stars always look so pretty up here. And it was the highest place I could get to until I learned how to fly,”
“I can see why,” He mumbled as he sat down beside the blonde. “It’s so peaceful up here. And you can see so much.”
While the house wasn’t especially tall, the highest point of the roof was tall enough that the two teens could look out and see beyond the walls surrounding the town. But that height also meant that there weren’t any surrounding buildings to block the chilly evening breeze. As another strong gust washed over them, a shiver ran through Lucas’ body. Though the magic in his body made him a bit more resistant to hot and cold temperatures, it didn’t mean that a chilly night wouldn’t bother him.
Fay spotted him rubbing at his arms and she smiled. She shifted closer, opening the cocoon she had wrapped around herself and draped the soft blanket around Lucas’ shoulders as well.
“You really should bring a blanket out with you,” She teased.
“Maybe when I go up on the roof,” Lucas shot back, looking back at Fay.
The moonlight shining down on her made Fay’s eyes look like polished emeralds, and Lucas found himself getting lost in them as the two sat together shoulder to shoulder.
Eventually, one of them looked away, and the comfortable silence returned as they gazed up at the stars above.
“They really are beautiful,” Fay whispered.
“Yeah, they are,” Lucas agreed as he felt his cheeks heating up. It wasn’t the stars that he was thinking of, and it wasn’t the stars above that made his heart beat faster.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lucas awoke to the morning sun shining over the tops of the trees surrounding Helstrum, shining that soft, warm, cursed light straight into his eyes. He hissed and tried to bring his arm up to block the light, only to find his left arm pinned to his side. Thankfully, his right arm was free and he was able to get some cover between his eyes and the unyielding power of the sun.
Blinking his eyes a few times to clear away the spots, Lucas tried to take stock of where he was and why he couldn’t move his arm. It only took a second to realize that he was outside, and another second after that to remember that he was up on the roof. And with that realization, Lucas looked down and froze as he found Fay curled up against his side, pinning his left arm. She was still sound asleep, with her head resting against his chest and her arm wrapped around his waist.
He knew that they hadn’t done anything inappropriate, at least not that he remembered. The two had simply spent some time staring up at the stars, enjoying the peaceful time before the sun rose. At some point in the night, they both must have fallen asleep.
Lucas wasn’t sure what to do, though. He didn’t want to make the situation awkward, and he knew he should move or wake Fay up, but with the blanket wrapped around him and the warmth from the blonde laying with him, he felt comfortable and far more relaxed than he had in a while.
How long had it been since he’d had a decent night of sleep? A week? More? It was definitely before he’d come through the portal.
Lucas didn’t notice as Fay’s breathing quickened ever so slightly, but he did notice when the blonde moved, her head lifting from his chest so that she could look up at him.
“Morning,” She mumbled, blinking her eyes a few times.
“Morning,” Lucas parroted back.
Lucas could see the moment when Fay realized where she was and how she was laying. He watched her eyes widen for a split second, but rather than getting up or pulling away she stayed put and rested her head back on his chest.
“I think we fell asleep last night,” She said softly.
“Whatever made you think that?” Lucas reflexively snarked back.
Fay’s shoulders shook with suppressed laughter, but she didn’t pull away.
“No nightmares?” She suddenly asked.
“No… None,” Lucas replied, a small smile spreading across his lips as he gazed up at the morning sky.
“Good. I’m glad,” Fay whispered.
For a moment, the rooftop was silent, but after a minute, Lucas looked down at Fay, her silvery blonde hair shining in the soft glow of the sunlight.
“We should probably get down from up here,” He suggested.
“… Five more minutes.”
Lucas felt his cheeks heating up a bit as Fay snuggled in against his chest. He could feel her grip tighten around his waist as she got comfortable. He wouldn’t protest, though, not with how content he felt.
“Five minutes sounds good,” He agreed quietly, a comfortable silence falling over the pair again as the sun slowly climbed into the sky.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You can find it here if you want to check it out.
Would you prefer shoutouts be at the top of the chapter or at the bottom?
