#let's celebrate the solatice

[divinemare]

⊹₊ ⋆ 𝔠𝔬𝔩𝔡 𝔰𝔱𝔞𝔯𝔩𝔦𝔤𝔥𝔱𝔰 ⋆₊ ⊹

┊⁀➷ nyx x oc

┊part six

-`,✎ once she looked at him, she finally saw him, saw everything he was, everything he never let her see of him. and she loved it. craved it. every last dark, troubled and mischievous bit of it.

-`, tw ➛ suggestive language, swearing, implied sex.

part five

☁︎·̩͙✧

"Cry no more, the one you've waited so long for," Elliot paused his speech to open the doors dramatically. "Has arrived."

Kardam instantly sighed and shook his head, whispering a prayer to the Mother. As Asterin beamed happily approaching the chestnut male and greeting him with a hug.

"I'll owe a life debt to whoever cuts out his tongue one day," Hollyver entered the small palace sighing and rolling her eyes.

Elliot gave her a dramatic offended gasp and put a hand to his chest, but before he could speak, he was interrupted and nearly knocked to the ground by two younglings who rushed in so fast neither had time to react.

"I choose room first!" shouted Asra.

"Asra, wait for me!" Inara pleaded as she ran after her.

When Asra wasn't training —or really, when she was spending time with Inara, who seemed to be the one that brought the real bright side of her—, she looked like a real young girl, without so much Valkyrie leather or desire to cut up her opponents. Demetria smiled at the girls, then turned in surprise at the sound of Nesta Archeron's voice.

"Seraphina! Don’t ru-" but the youngest of them all, little Seraphina, only 6 years old, broke free from her mother's arms to run after her sister and cousin.

"Cassian," the female looked at her mate with a sigh.

"I'll get her," the male dropped the bags on the ground and started running after his little girl.

Demetria remembered with a smile when Seraphina learned to walk. Once she got comfortable, there was no stopping the little one, she ran every time her little feet touched the ground. Then again when she learned to winnow, Demetria had never seen Nesta so constantly agitated.

Demetria and Blaze showed everyone to their rooms, Darya, along with her parents, Amren and Varian, arrived minutes later, finally, her mother and aunt Vanessa arrived accompanied by Morrigan and Emery, and everyone began to prepare for the incoming celebrations.

✧₊˚.

Demetria watched her people dance with a small smile on her lips, her chest full of warmth and happiness at the sight of so much joy dancing around her to the music of the Winter Court. She took a sip of wine and let out a chuckle. Every now and then, someone would approach her, shyly asking for a dance, and of course, Demetria, unable to ignore the smiles and blushes on the faces of her people, accepted each and every request. Now, feeling her feet ache, she promised herself that she was just taking a break before returning to the party. After all, it had been almost three days since the start of the celebrations and there were still two more to go. This was just a pre-celebration, before the day of the actual Solatice came.

She looked around the place again, there was a bonfire in the middle of everything and everyone was spread out around it, snow was slowly falling from the sky, just a few drops of white that made everything look as if stars were falling from the sky. People chatted, laughed and drank, those dipped into corners of the cold dark night, and some danced around the bonfire full of laughter and joy. Demetria spotted her friends; Kardam stood in a dark corner, trying to be absorbed by the shadows in order to stop his mother's scolding. The read-headed female was urging him to go and dance with the, apparently, twelve girl who had asked him to dance, and the twelve girl he had politely turned down, Gwyneth telling her son not to be a boomer like his father, while the male wrapped in shadows stood beside them raising an eyebrow at the accusing words his mate, but also trying not to laugh at his son's situation. Asterin for her part was visibly tipsy and dancing with any male that came near, just a few steps behind, her father was being held by her mother in what looked like an attempt to stop her mate from scaring the shit out of every single one of those poor males. Then there was Elliot, kissing with a female and a male, at the same time. Demetria made a face while quickly turning her eyes away from the scene. Darya and her mother were together, sipping wine and laughing at something —or someone, probably—. Hollyver was dancing with the little Seraphina while Inara and Asra where with Cassian making the poor male sweat trying to catch up with their mischief. Her own parents and her aunt were a few seats away from her, talking to their friends and members of the court. Her godmother Morrigan already so tipsy on wine Viviane held her friend close. Then she saw her brother, flirting graciously with a female who was looking at him like he was some sort of god and was completely fascinated by the sight of him. Demetria snorted, wrinkling her nose. Sometimes, her stupid brother reminded her why he was friends with the stupid Prince of the Night, they were made for each other.

Speaking of which... where the hell was he? But more importantly, why the hell was she looking for him now?

Demetria scanned the whole place once more, trying not to look too obvious as she searched for a dark head and greyish purple eyes.

"Looking for someone, sweetheart?" the tingle in her neck suddenly hit her, the arrogant voice made her suck in a sigh and she did her best not to let it out.

Demetria slowly looked up, meeting those violet-grey eyes, that raven-dark hair and that obnoxious, annoying smile. "Yeah, looking for someone interesting, I haven't had any luck yet."

In her lie, the smile on Nyx's face only grew bigger, making his face look even more annoying. She tensed her jaw and stopped looking at him in an attempt to quell the urge to punch that smirk off his face. After a moment of neither of them speaking, Demetria was growing increasingly annoyed at his arrogant presence alone, so when she reached the point where she felt her chest heaved, she turned to look at him again with daggers for eyes. "Do you need something? Or is it just that you haven't found a female drunk enough to-"

"Dance with me."

Those three words were enough to leave her completely and utterly dumbfounded.

She stared at him with her mouth partially open, unable to utter a word. She blinked a couple of times, trying to decide if she had imagined it or if it had really happened. Nyx was staring at her with an unreadable expression, whatever answer or explanation she expected to find in his eyes, she couldn't find it. Then he reached out his hand to her, and that's when she knew she hadn't imagined anything. She stared at him for a moment, her mind waging a violent war between taking his hand or rejecting him with a sarcastic remark.

She chose the more unpredictable of those two options, the one her body decided to go for, ignoring every reproachful cry in her mind. She took his hand, looking into his eyes and never taking her eyes from his for a moment. This time, Nyx didn't smile cheekily, his expressions didn't change at all, and as they walked towards the crowd of dancing Fae, not for a single moment did they stop looking at each other.

Just as they arrived at the dance floor, the musicians were playing one of her favorite songs, it was perfect for dancing, in fact, it was the song she always danced to with her brother, but now, while Blaze seemed too busy eating some random female's mouth, she was busy staring into the eyes of the male she hated the most as she danced in his arms.

When the choreography forced them to clasp hands and dance in half circles, she swore Nyx was closer than necessary, and when he tilted his head, she had to hold her breath when his lips brushed her ear. "You look beautiful tonight."

Four words. Four words that had made her heart stop in her throat.

What the hell was Nyx planning, what did he want? Those two questions played over and over in her head as she looked at him.

"Is this some new prank or something, what's the catch?" Demetria asked once they were face to face again.

"Make you blush."

"I’m not blushing."

He grabbed her waist and lowered her a little to the ground, making her have to hold onto his shoulders. Their faces inches apart.

“Then there’s no trick,” he lifted her again and spun her around.

When she stopped spinning, her back was pressed against him, and a quick, inevitable trip down memory lane took her back to the night in Velaris when they'd been in almost those exact same positions, with his mouth on her neck and his hands on her hips after she'd accidentally touched his wings.

"Relax, Demetria. For tonight, just for tonight," he murmured in her ear as they took a step forward and a step back.

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, was it... longing she heard in his voice? When she opened her eyes again, surprise struck her as she felt that same longing inside her. And for that reason, she didn't answer him, afraid that the feeling would be reflected in her voice. So she turned again and ended up facing him, her eyes told him everything her mouth could not at that moment. In that instant, the two of them loosened up as they had never done when they were together, and from then on, it was the music that drove them apart.

Asterin, who was also dancing, saw them and suddenly stopped with her mouth open. She then pushed away all the males around her and practically ran towards Kardam, who, miraculously, had been able to get away from his parents, condemning his father at suggesting to his mother that she also try to make her mate dance with her. Gwyneth had immediately looked at her mate and given Azriel no choice practically dragging him with her to the dance floor.

"Are you...?" Unable to continue the sentence, Asterin merely stared at the couple that were now dancing with less I-want-to-kill-you intensity.

"I am."

"Are they...?"

"They are."

"Holy freaking Cauldron."

"Holy freaking Cauldron indeed."

"Hey, have you seen Demetria? I was going to ask her if-" Elliot arrived, interrupting Asterin and Kardam's looks of astonishment, and when his eyes followed his cousins' gazes, the male smiled cluelessly. "Oh, there she is, I'm going to-"

"Don't you dare you big idiot!" But before he could take more than two steps, Asterin grabbed her cousin by the collar and pulled him back to drag him as far away from the now dancing couple as possible.

"Aste- Kardam!" Elliot shouted for help, but Kardam turned a deaf ear as he grinned broadly.

"Thank you, Great Mother, thank you."

✧₊˚.

Two songs later, everything seemed different. There was no snapping at each other, no dead stares, no tense jaws and shoulders or sarcastic retort for every word that came out of the other's mouth. For a moment, it was just them, dancing in the middle of the night with their eyes fixed on each other, at one point, they even smiled, Demetria laughing when Nyx couldn't keep up with some of the traditional winter court dances and slowed down so she could teach them to him. In that moment, she didn't feel angry or annoyed with him, it was almost as if they were the only ones dancing around the bonfire, they weren't, but they couldn't know that at the time. Focused only on each other, the rest of the world practically faded away.

When the third song ended and everyone around them stopped to applaud the musicians, they stopped too. Breathing heavily, the sound of applause snapped them back to reality. They kept looking into each other's eyes, but a thought, a memory, crossed Demetria's mind in time to bring her completely back to the ground. She tensed slightly again and swallowed hard, when Nyx noticed, his eyes flicked for a couple of seconds to her throat, then to her mouth as she licked her lips, then back to her eyes. Demetria’s heart tripped over the three points on which he had focused his gaze.

"Why did you do it? How?" The questions she'd been dying to ask him slipped out of her mouth as her eyes tried desperately to search for answers in his now stone cold expression.

Nyx came back to earth at that moment, too, tensing his shoulders and breathing a little too hard, he took a step back from her, the absence of his body pressed against her leaving her without a grounding presence. He had every intention of leaving her there alone, with a thousand questions and zero answers, but Demetria wouldn't allow it, wouldn't let him suddenly turn back into the big jerk he usually was. So, just as Nyx was about to take another step back, she grabbed his wrist, making him stop.

"Why?" She repeated again, this time with more demand.

Nyx sighed, looked down at the ground and caught his upper lip between his teeth for a couple of seconds before closing his eyes and letting out a sigh. Now he was the one grabbing her wrist and, before Demetria could start arguing or demanding an answer again, he began to drag her away.

"Where are we... Wait, Nyx, wait!" He didn't stop, and when Demetria realized he was looking for privacy, she took the lead instead, now dragging him into the woods.

Nyx didn't protest, didn't say anything at all as Demetria led them to a place she obviously knew perfectly well. Somewhere in the forest, the trees opened up again, and when they were close enough, he saw a crag overlooking a lake, and in the distance, the mountains stood proudly, it was a sight close to home, so similar to the mountains of Velaris, only this ones were fully covered in snow. Once they reached the crag, he was certain that the view was one of the most beautiful things he had ever seen in his life, and he lived in the freaking city of starlights.

The sky full of stars, the moon and the mountains reflected in the water, like a mirror, an upside-down world. The ground was completely covered with snow and so were the few spreading trees. He was so amazed that he didn't realize that Demetria had been holding his hand until she let go of it. Then Nyx looked up at her, her eyes were shining with a brightness he had never seen before, as if this place they were in was bliss itself.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" She asked, still focusing her astonished gaze on the landscape.

"Very."

When Demetria turned her head and found him looking directly at her, her chest heaved again and her neck and ears grew warm.

"What is this place?"

When he turned his eyes away from her she felt grateful, the hot spots on her skin cooled again, and swallowing hard, she found the words to answer. "It's my place. I thought, since I'd apparently found yours, it was only fair to show you mine," they hadn't spoken of the day they'd nearly drowned, and bringing up the subject again made the air rush out of them both.

"How you found me that day, by the way, I've never shown anyone the cliff before."

"When I'm stressed or confused or…pretty much feel out of place, I like to be somewhere cold. The coldness, the snow, all that relaxes me. I had gone to one of the mountains, where it usually snows, when I saw you. I was going to go back because I honestly didn't want to see you, you were the reason I needed a breath in the first place, but then, when I saw you jumping, I just..." she didn't continue, she just didn't know how to do so.

Silence fell between them. Demetria focused her gaze on the mountains in front of her, in an attempt to avoid his intense eyes on her. When he said nothing, just stared at her for a long moment, long enough to make her uncomfortable, she punched herself in her head and turned to him to say something to fill the silence. "I haven't shown this place to anyone either, not even Blaze. It's mine. And I know it sounds ridiculous because anyone could easily come here, but... I don't know, it just feels like mine."

"I know exactly what you mean. That cliff is mine too."

His eyes were so intensely on her, she had to swallow hard to deflect the tension. Silence came over them again. And, maybe it was her imagination, but she could have sworn Nyx was moving closer and closer to her. But then again, tonight, everything about Nyx could be her imagination.

"Why did you help me all those months ago, how did you do it?" No, he was definitely right, Nyx had moved closer to her, so much so that the clouds of mist coming out of their mouths melted into one.

It was his turn to swallow, and just when Demetria thought he would turn away again and not answer her question, Nyx looked her straight in the eye. "Because you were scared, nervous, and I couldn't stand the feeling of it."

His words caught her so by surprise that she froze. How could he feel that? Because she had felt that way, deep down, she had felt insecure about the whole situation, afraid that it would affect her family, afraid to let the flame inside her burst out and consume everything around her, including those she had no intention of hurting. Nyx had felt that, the quiet desperation well hidden in all those layers of ice.

He was so close that she had to tilt her head back to stare into his eyes. Every word spoken had been true, she saw it in his grey-violet eyes, no gift of vision needed.

Before she could respond, or simply move closer to him as she had no words to respond to that, the sky lit up with colours. Green, violet and deep pink lights illuminated the sky in divine waves of pure beauty. When he looked up, Nyx sighed in awe, the beauty of the aurora grabbed his full attention, turning away from Demetria to walk closer to the edge of the crag as if that would bring him closer to the lights, his face lit up with an amazed smile and the green and violet and deep pink lights reflected in his eyes. His gaze was so pure that Demetria couldn't contain a smile, like a child admiring the world for the first time. Walking down next to him, she closed her eyes for a second letting out a sigh and then took another deep breath, smelling the snow around them and how the air seemed to change in the presence of the northern lights.

"This is... wow..." the male next to her let out a sigh, she looked up at him, his eyes were fixed on the sky as if he had never seen anything more beautiful.

"I know," she smiled, looked up at the aurora and spoke again. "I come here every solstice, when everyone is drunk enough not to notice my absence, to see better, here everything is so quiet and peaceful, here you can fully see the lights, back there it's mere coloured light, but here...".

She didn't bother to explain further, with the way he was looking at her now, she knew he understood.

"I did," Nyx said suddenly, tearing her eyes away from the lights and fixing them on him, confused.

"What?

"Every year I'd see you sneak away from the bonfire and into the forest. The first time I tried to follow you, but then I saw that you wanted to be alone; you kept looking around, as if you felt I was following you, so I came back, and since then, I always notice when you leave," his voice was rough and low, but they were so close that it traveled to her very body like a sweat coated weave.

Suddenly, her mouth was completely dry, she had to swallow hard and run her tongue twice over her lips to get them wet. She stared at him for a second, taking in his words. Once again tonight, he hadn't failed to completely stun her with every word that came out of his mouth. The lights ceased to be her main interest and his eyes became it instead. Demetria remembered perfectly well the first night she had sneaked away from the party to see the lights, she had felt so nervous that she had thought she was being followed, she had glanced behind her every now and then on her way to the crag, and suddenly, when she had arrived, she had stopped feeling that way. At the time she had thought it was nerves about being caught, her parents wouldn't have liked to see her alone at night in the woods when she was little, but now she knew she had been followed, followed by Nyx.

"How?"

He didn't answer right away, his eyes looking troubled, as if he was thinking again whether to answer that honestly. After a moment, when they were close enough again that the mist coming out after their breathing mixed, he finally did.

"Because I always see you, Demetria, it can’t be dark enough, crowded enough, or I to be drunk enough for me not to see you. Because when I don't see you, I feel the need to look for you," he lifted a hand, and she was so breathless she didn't even think to turn away from his touch on her cheek, Nyx was looking at her as if trying to take in every detail so he would never forget the exact color of her lips, or the flush on her cheeks, or the sparkle on her different colored eyes, how they seemed to held snowflakes in them, or the way her eyebrows moved without even her knowing they did whenever she was confused, sad or angry.

Demetria wasn't sure if it was him or her who approached even more, but either way, the distance would now be enough for her to stand on her tiptoes to kiss him.

His hand moved from her cheek to her chin, and he tilted her head up slightly, brushing her lower lip with his thumb. It was then that the air escaped her lungs completely, and a sudden desire to have his lips on hers made her want to moan just thinking about it.

"I will always look for you," Nyx whispered against her mouth.

He made no other move to close the little distance that remained, so, taking matters into her own hands, she did. She felt him then, all of him. His lips were as soft as she knew they would be. They tasted of wine and cinnamon. He loved cinnamon rolls, she remembered then, his aunt Elain had been the one to blame for the obsession. She cooked the most delicious cinnamon rolls, and for as long as they were little kids, Elain would sneak them one or two when their parents weren’t looking. That combination, that taste, lulled her from thoughts. His body was warm and strong, much larger than hers, holding her perfectly in his arms. At first, it was the softest kiss she had ever given, as if they were both afraid of what might happen, of making it happen, because, after all, years of not getting along, and being a pain in each other’s asses were now confused in the taste of their mouths and the longing of their hearts.

"Please, just... tonight. Just tonight, pretend you don't hate me, please," Nyx stopped kissing her, sensing in her the same fear and instability he himself felt. He leaned his forehead against hers and cupped her face with both hands.

Hearing him beg her for something might have made her laugh hours ago. Now, it only left her feeling so hot that she feared she didn't know how to control the sensation. Demetria swallowed, then it came out of her mouth the words she never thought she would ever be saying.

"I don't hate you."

A mere whisper was all it took for what Nyx had been holding back to finally be unleashed. He grunted and pressed his lips against hers again, this time in a much more desperate, lust-filled kiss. Her body exploded with a new kind of heat. Now it wasn't just her cold fire bursting, but his as well. Both flames, one cold and made of ice, the other dark and made of night and fire, mingled and fought each other, combining into one. Like their fire, their mouths fought for the lead, desperate to encompass all that was the other. Within seconds, his mouth was no longer on hers, but on her cheeks, then her chin, her jaw, and so he worked his way down her throat, to her collarbone. She shuddered and gasped as his lips reached that point, as his tongue took the taste of her skin. Her body screamed in agony from the fire that threatened to consume her all.

"If I touch you right now, how wet would I find you, sweetheart?" He whispered against her ear with his lips.

Maybe it was because she hadn’t had se in quite some time, maybe it was the thrill of it all, the taste of something forbidden while kissing with her long-sworn nemesis. But Demetria was afraid to admit the answer to that question even to herself.

"Why don't you find out for yourself, if you're so curious?" Her voice was breathy, her heart hammering so hard in her chest she could barely hear her own words. Nyx breath out a laugh, so rough, low and almost animalistic that it made her knees feel weak. His hands trailed down her throat, towards her collarbone, and stoped at her rapid falling chest.

"Because if I touched you right now, I wouldn't be able to stop, and this rock isn't exactly the place I've been imagining fucking you in."

The confession only made her hotter, at this point, she was sure she could feel the wetness rolling down her thighs, that the very spot between her legs ached with the need for him, for his touch, for his words.

"How selfish of you to think only of your own desires."

"Oh, believe me, darling, once I finally touch you, you'll call me anything but selfish."

Then he bit her earlobe, drawing a low moan from her. Demetria was on the verge of despair, with his erection pressed against her and his breath on her neck, she was sure she would lose her mind at any moment.

Nyx grunted again, as if it pained him deeply how much he was truly holding back. To think that she was the reason he was on the verge of insanity made Demetria proud and hot at the same time.

“Make that noice again, and I’ll freaking melt this snow and fuck every little noice out of you right here,” he pressed his forehead against hers again, his jaw tightening.

She couldn't help the small laugh that escaped her and tilted her head slightly so she could see his troubled yet hungry eyes and mischievous grin.

"Don't tempt me, you know very well I'll do anything to tease you," Nyx laughed then too, licking his teeth and then fighting his own smirk, shaking his head and looking up at the lights that still painted the sky. When he looked at her again, it all happened so fast that she barely had time to take it in.

Violet-grey eyes, night, stars, fire, powers of inimaginable reach, everything he was, everything he let her see and everything he didn't let her see, a kind of darkness she'd never seen before in her life, so full of... love, hope, fear, despair, so beautiful she could cry, so fearful she wanted to hold her in her arms and soothe her until all traces of fear were gone, he was scared, of himself, of what he could do, what was expected of him, and fearful it all could never be enough, she saw the need to be like his parents, yet the insecurity he could never be like them. A force so protective, so possessive, so loving. Mischievous, bold, full of energy and adrenaline. Everything he was, everything she never thought he could be.

She was too stunned to speak, she had no idea what had just happened, how could she not know that her powers were about to open up? How could she not have felt them coming? Right now she didn't care to think about it, all she cared about was the feeling so deep it almost hurt in her chest. She had seen him, every part of him.

In awe, Demetria put a hand in his face, tracing soothing caresses against his skin as if like that she could soothe the darkness inside him. And smiled, truly, for the first time genuinely smiled at him.

"I see you too."