You Will Not Fall
(NOT A PR0MPT)
Nice to see you folks. It’s been a while, huh? :)
******
Villain was dying. If his scratchy and lazier-than-usual voice didn’t tell Lover that much, the twangy scent of iron seeping into her dress did.
“You have to stop the bleeding,” Lover pleaded. Her mind was fatigued with worry and panic. With her arms glued around Villain’s neck, there was nothing she could do but to be vocal.
“Oh hush.” Villain said, and gave a sharp inhale. Usually, Lover would have scolded Villain for letting him get this far, for taking those breaths his body could not afford rejecting. Now, she seemed to realize that it did not matter if his breaths were desperate so long as he was still taking them. In this very moment, neither were sure when Villain’s last measly breath would be. “Let me hold you like this one last time.”
“It does not have to be the last time!” Lover argued. “Let me save you. Let me run and get you help.”
“Why save me now just to save me again later?” Villain remained calm and reasonable as he noticed himself wheezing. “You know I cannot stay in their hold, and what will I do when they start chasing again? When they post guards at every inn, in every barn, and on every corner? I will always be hunted. I am a threat.”
Still in Villain’s arms, Lover continued to gripe. “They will realize,” she said. “I will testify to the bloody king on your behalf if I have to- tell everyone you are a good man.”
Villain laughed, and in doing so, he could feel Lover tensing despite his control over her- proof that he was loosing grip with reality, with life. “You really think they would give me a court case?” He smiled, cheeky, and had he not been focusing on Lover, she might have regained control of herself and smacked him on the cheek for giving a smirk at a time like this.
His smile fell before he cocked his head at Lover. “What would happen to you, huh? If you called to a teller and then fell back into my arms…the court might want to kill you. They would call you a witch for associating with me.”
“It would be a selfish move on your part to make me hold you like this if I did manage to call for someone.”
“Yet you have not managed.”
“You forced my arms into this embrace.”
“What a villain I truly am then, yes?” His chest did not raise as high as before. It barely moved- all of him barely moved. Villain blinked slowly, parted his lips slowly, and wetted them with a slow tongue…he was losing too much blood. “I have been losing my hold on you since I chuckled,” Villain told. “You could do whatever you wanted now. Call, leave, stay…it is all up to you.”
Lover tested his words herself, pulling her arms away, brushing them against his shoulders like a heavy snake. “I could not leave you.” One hand rested on Villain’s shoulder, while the other caressed his cheekbone.
“I would want you to.”
“Well, I would not,” she snapped.
Regaining a small piece of himself, Villain quipped, “This is it.” He coughed, but ultimately continued, “You can let me die- holding me or no- or you can make the call. But if you call, I will put every last ounce of my life into your stayed departure. You will not fall where I do, do you understand?”
The two were quiet for a moment- Villain’s arms laying uselessly beside him, but his eyes sparkling like he was watching his last sunset in Lover’s own eyes. “Leave me,” he begged. “Let me die. And you run- rid yourself of your blood-ridden dress. Let yourself live without the death sentence of an executioner’s axe or the scorch of a hot stake.”
Without a further moment’s notice, Lover’s hand slid away from Villain’s cheek, and she felt her stiff legs extending beneath her. “Villain, no. No! Let me stay with you!”
Her sudden tears almost instantaneously convinced Villain to release her, to let her sit back down if she so pleased, but he held his ground. Her weakened state of mind made it easier for him to control her, to make her face the woods which would lead her to her new home. “You will not fall here,” Villain promised, “but I must.”
“This is selfish!” she called over her shoulder, her voice cracking, and her legs continuously- and unwillingly- moving away. “I love you. I love you and I can save you. Let me!”
But Villain had already made up his mind. He would die here, in this bloody grass. He would no longer be chased. He would no longer hide. He would no longer jeopardize the only person who ever saw him for what he was- another passionate man, one so unfortunate to be gifted with a heightened mind, with powers only a god could possess.
“I love you,” Villain said, as loud as he could, “but you will forget me now, and you shall never find yourself familiar with my memory. My name is nothing, so as my hair and cheeks that you adore so much. Such features similar to mine will be thistles to your eyes, and a voice as melodic as you find mine will sound to you like two swords clashing in battle. You will hate me, Lover, and so you will let me die here without ever looking back.”
***
Lover was walking, to where she was not sure. Through the woods, over a hill, then through more woods until she stumbled into a town, one bustling with movement and childrens’ laughter. She was home. And home was not not a bleeding man in the woods.
******
(A/N) As much as I want this to be my big return, chances are it will not be. I post as I’m able to, and as I have the inspiration to do so. This semester has consisted of zero creative writing classes (which is my major), which means I truly have had no time dedicated to writing, except tiny drafts on Tumblr that I’m never able to finish. With that said, I miss this blog with all my heart, and I’m so happy to be posting something today. <3
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Chapters: 4/?
Fandom: A Court of Thorns and Roses Series - Sarah J. Maas
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Relationships: Nesta Archeron/Eris Vanserra, Lucien Vanserra/Jurian/Vassa, Helion/The Lady of the Autumn Court (ACoTaR), Elain Archeron/Emerie
Characters: Nesta Archeron, Gwyneth Berdara, Emerie (ACoTaR), Eris Vanserra, Lucien Vanserra, Jurian (ACoTaR), Merrill (ACoTaR), Clotho, Elain Archeron, Vanserra Brothers (ACoTaR), Beron, Keir (ACoTaR), Helion (ACoTaR), Rhysand (ACoTaR), Cassian (ACoTaR), Azriel (ACoTaR), Morrigan (ACoTaR)
Additional Tags: Canon fucked around, time to find out, BAMF Women, Fake Marriage, Real Marriage, The Autumn Court (ACoTaR), Politics and Magic, Not canon's Eris, Not that Eris, Not Redemption Eris, Just a whole new Eris shaped man, Rituals, Valkyries, Political Alliances, Nesta really gets her own family, and life, Vanserra family feels
Summary:
There were a hundred words, burning inside her, a thousand little brittle, pathetic, impassioned truths that Eris could have tasted had he tried.
Nesta had always, her entire life, known she would marry and wished for an equal.
Wished to never, ever, be trapped again and chose instead the walls she’d allow contain her. Nesta had absorbed, in the time of a single dance, just an echo of the rage and purpose that lived in Eris.
And wanted it.
Known it, as the same brutal thing that had kept her alive.
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