AN: I think this one was written pretty much straight after I had seen it at the cinema. I have written another one since reading the companion book of sorts. Just to be clear I am only mean to William because I think he has the personality of a wet mop. Sorry all you William fans out there.
Anyway it's clear that Snow & Eric are supposed to be together. This story was cut in to smaller chapters, but it sort of ruined the flow so its now a huge hunk of text.
Edit: The title comes from the Parachute song When Words Meet Heartbeats, which seemed to fit when I finally got around to publishing this, since it originally didn't have a title... like most of my stories.
Please enjoy xx.
She could feel it; his heart beat thrumming in her veins it was the sound of him that was keeping her alive. Before she was imprisoned she had always been told that true loves first kiss could break even the strongest and most perilous of magic and Snow had always believed if the day should come when she would need the whitest of magic to beat back the dark; that it would come from William. She had always thought that he would be the one.
That ideal she had to rescind as she addressed her men with the pledges and half truths pouring from her lips. It was because when she was younger she hadn't known any better.
She had taken William's hand as she walked out and could feel the beat of his heart through the pulse on his wrist and knew it wasn't William that had shone a light in the dark. When her eyes found his blue ones across the courtyard she knew in an instant. It was there in the way he held his breath, in the way he didn't seem to believe she was real and in the way her heart sped up, but it was more than that. Snow could still almost hear the broken words he spoke to her.
When she had been walking in the veil she could barely hear his voice; like she was six leagues under water, it rippled down like dappled sunlight through the boughs of trees. He had been saying something about not being worthy of either of the women in his life. She hadn't understood what he'd meant. Yes he had left her at the village, but he had come back. He was honest to a fault and kind, even when he was being blunt. If he had been like that when he had met his wife; she understood while Sara fell in love with him. Snow had to admit that even though he was rough and ready that it was hard not to fall for him. And as she stood there listening to the corral of men rally for battle the only voice she heard clear above the noise was his.
When the battle cry died out Duke Hammond approached her worry etched in to his features, before he spoke she knew what he was going to say.
"I have to do be the one to push cold steel through her heart." Snow bit out in a way that was out of character and took the Duke by surprise. "I know I have no formal training, which I know is your next question. I have been trapped in the north tower since you and William rode off all those years ago. However," She turned to look in to The Huntsman's eyes and smiled, "I know how to kill, if it becomes necessary." She placed her hand on the older man's arm trying to make him understand, "It has become necessary." She knew he could not rally against her, as she was the rightful heir and when he took a knee again placing her hand against his forehead, she knew that he would not argue no matter what the demand was. She sighed and pulled the older man to his feet. "We all need rest." She said and wrapped her arms around his neck whispering in to his ear, "Thank you for staying strong all these years. I am so sorry it took me so long."
"Princess," He mumbled quietly, "We would have fought even if you never escaped captivity."
"The words of a true warrior I think." A feral smile over her features, "Tomorrow we shall beat back the dark and take our kingdom out of undeserving hands; may God be forever at your back and your steel true!" She shouted to the gathered men and then turned back towards the church and left them. Her white shift and hair blowing in the raging winds as if they too were under her command.
"Snow?" A voice called out as she knelt before the altar; she would have known that voice anywhere it was William and he looked as unsure as his father had. It wasn't because he may not make it out of the palace tomorrow it was because he didn't think she could do it, beneath her skin she could feel her blood boil. Of all people she thought that William would have known that she would fight tooth and nail to free her people from the poison that had rotted her land to the core. "You have your freedom is that not enough?"
"My freedom means nothing if my people are not free." She spat, "You should know that, you were willing to join their rank to free me, why should it be any different if I join your rank to free everyone else from their hatred and misery. I saw it William the despair, the pain, the misery and the hope that was beneath the surface. I want them to find out their prayers are not in vain. I am the only one that can remove Ravenna. I am not saying these words to make me sound more courageous than I am. She told me as I lay in the snow; she didn't think I would survive."
"You were dead Snow," William said stating the obvious. "You shouldn't have survived, especially when true loves kiss did not break the spell." He looked sheepish and reached his hand out to her, she let him take it and twine their fingers together, but she felt nothing, just like in the woods. She thought she felt nothing then because it was Ravenna, but it wasn't that. She knew that now. "How did you survive? How did you come back to me?" He asked searching her eyes for answers, but she couldn't look at him. Snow feared that if she did he would know everything and that would break him. He had waited for her since they were children; he had never given up on the folly they shared. She knew she could not return his fervent infatuation which made her pity him, not that he wanted nor needed her pity.
"Her magic must be fading," she mumbled not looking at him, "She must know her end is close." William didn't question it, she was the heir to the throne after all and only an idiot would try to correct her. "I wanted to pray, did you want to join me?" she asked, but gratefully he declined and left her in the chapel in peace.
She could not remember the battle, she could not remember how they got to this position she was on the floor of Ravenna's chamber with the evil queen sat on her breast plate. She couldn't struggle and she couldn't breathe and through the archway she could hear William and The Huntsman fight just to survive. She could remember nothing of the morning on the hill except for his words so soft and low so only she would hear them as he broke ranks.
"You look good in mail." He had said simply and all she could do in response was stare; she didn't know how to respond, but also knew she didn't have to. He fell back in to line and then everything became a blur of steel on steel and the sound of hooves on the sand.
Now in what seemed no time at all she was pinned and helpless and she could tell that Ravenna was revelling in her discomfort. Once she had thought this woman the most beautiful and sweet tempered woman she had ever met, but now she felt sorry for the tortured soul that felt she needed to take revenge on every kingdom she passed to make all royalty pay for one misgiving in a war that no one now remembered. She pitied the trapped fourteen year old girl that had to watch the world go on and on and on and had no chance to be a child. If she hadn't killed her father and sent her kingdom in to ruin she could even forgive her for her misguided actions.
Snow White knew the only way to win was to empty herself of doubts and thoughts. She breathed in deep clearing her mind of all that clouded it, William, The Huntsman, Ravenna and even the pain. She became a blank slate and as the knife slid in to yielding flesh she was surprised that she was as scared as Ravenna.
"You cannot have my heart!" Snow White spat leaving the; "It belongs to another!" as a secret that only she would know. As the light left Ravenna's eyes Snow White realised that she did forgive her stepmother, because even though she had done everything in her power to ruin everything that Snow White had ever cared for the young princess knew that Ravenna was simply trying to survive in the only way she knew, but even forgiving her was not a comfort she could afford herself.
The battle through the archway seemed to have ended in a sound much like that of breaking glass, as she walked forward she could see that of the men who had followed her only two survived and when his arm came around her waist she felt as if she had come home.
"So princess what are you going to do now?" He asked her softly as they sat looking out over the ocean from the battlements, strewn across the sand were the bodies of the fallen that she would have collected and buried in the manner that befitted their bravery. The air still stung their lungs and tasted of bitter oil and flame, but the war was over. It had ended as soon as the light had left Ravenna's eyes as if a curse had been lifted from the very mortar of the palace. Brother held brother and the wounded from both sides were healed with an ease and agility as if neither side had ever been enemies.
"Rebuild." Snow white answered with a delicate wave of her hand, "I have a duty to this land that I must fulfil."
"All work and no play make the royalty very dull indeed." He commented with a smirk, she resisted the urge she had to punch him playfully on the arm, they had been through much together in the last week, but she knew that soon he would leave. There was nothing to keep him chained to the palace and she thought that after what he had been put through that he would spend the next eternity at the bottom of a bottle. Not that she could blame him. As she looked out at the water racing with white horses to shore a thought struck her and she had to bite down on the laugh that passed her lips. She did not want to disgrace the position she now held; but she wasn't fast enough.
"What is it Your Highness that amuses you?" he asked his voice as rough as aged oak.
"I was just thinking that after all the trouble I put you through I have not been given the name of my saviour. I was laughing that I couldn't even thank you without calling you Huntsman. That as far as I know is not a name, but a profession and at that, it is one that you no longer work at." She shook her head and her raven hair fell loose across her shoulders staining the battle toughened steel black as night.
"Eric." He supplied with no preamble.
"Thank you Eric." She said softly placing her hand on his, he lifted it to his lips and pressed them to her knuckles in a sign of homage,
"It was my pleasure Your Highness." He replied and left her on the battlements to return to the life he had once lived before the queen had summoned him to kill a girl he had never met.
She had to exert every ounce of her self-restraint she possessed to stay standing in front of the throne at the coronation when she saw him. She had given up hope that he would appear; she had sent out the invite, but had heard nothing. However he was there walking through the door as her people accepted her as their Queen; he stood there at the end of the aisle a smile on his lips that only she could see and she felt it again the thrumming of his heart beat in her chest; she felt dizzy and trapped, but all at once so very free. It almost didn't feel real.
As she passed him on her exit from the chapel she brushed her fingers lightly against his as she looked deep in to his eyes hoping that her bruised brown eyes would communicate to him what she had no words for. She thought she saw something shift in the blue eyes before her, but suddenly realised that he was not looking at her. She turned in the last second to follow his gaze and laid eyes on William whose jaw was clenched shut and his fists balled at his side as he walked ten paces behind her.
If she had any words they failed her as she left the chapel for her chambers without saying anything once more. Once again she had given in to fear. She hated herself for it. What good was it to be a royal when you couldn't fight for what you wanted? Even when what you wanted was something that you should never have in the first place.
Snow White was sat in her chamber later that day when there was knocking at the door, she allowed the guest entrance and saw William dressed in his court finest leaning on the lintel. He had been doing that a lot lately since he and his father had moved back to the palace.
"What is he doing here?" he asked with the haughty attitude that had followed his reappointment at Court.
"Of whom do you speak?" Snow White felt herself asking in response her hackles already up from William's bad attitude.
"The commoner Huntsman of course, I understand that he saved your life Princess and delivered you to my father, but he is not a courtier and you know best of all how the people talk. They think it is unbecoming to have such connections." Snow White felt the molten fury burn in her blood and rose from her chair closing her book slowly.
"I have no need to be affected by their prattle and you will do the wise thing and not mind it either. I invited Eric, because without him none of this would have been possible." She pointed out of her window across the land that she now governed that had been blooming once again since Ravenna's fall. William moved across the chamber to stand in front of her his eyes burning.
"Why him?" he asked his words soft murder on her ears. "Why is it him and not me?" he asked again clearer so that Snow would understand without a need for him to clarify. "I have loved you since we were children, you were the sunlight and starlight for me and I thought I was for you. Whatever happened to that?" William asked taking her wrist in his hand squeezing it until it hurt.
"We grew up William. I knew nothing of love as a child, and I know little of it now, but I know that you and I would never make each other happy. I want something else now. We may have been childhood sweethearts, but many things have happened since then; least of all my captivity in the North Tower." She took his hand from her arm and kissed his cheek lightly, "I'm so very sorry William, but people change."
"We don't change." William stated plainly, "We make a promise; a betrothal and we stick to it, come hell or high water."
"We," Snow said pointing between them, "We never had that understanding William, my father died before the deal could be struck." She turned from him. "As I said I am sorry, but I can no longer love you as I did as a child. You must forgive me." She heard William bark a laugh before he turned on his heel.
"If I knew you were alive I would have stormed the palace for you." He said bitterly at the door, "Would you have loved me then?" he asked his voice seething malice.
"No," Snow replied, "Because my heart would have known that there was someone else that it would be given to."
"Of course Your Majesty." William muttered as he closed the door. When she had heard the lock click Snow White collapsed in to her chair breathing hard, she never thought that telling William the truth if only in part of it would come at such a price. She thought he would understand, but she realised that he still saw her as the girl he once knew. The one that followed him everywhere asking for the apples he picked and then had to watch him eat it. He did not understand that she was no longer that girl. That girl was buried in the North Tower with her hand made dolls. That was a girl with no knowledge of what lay beyond the palace wall. That was a girl that she pitied as much as she had pitied Ravenna at the end.
Not long after William had knocked her ladies maid came in, it was Greta she smiled at her mistress her unruly but lovely strawberry blonde hair was twisted up at her neck and as she stepped over the threshold in her green velvet dress she curtsied low to her queen.
"I have been bid to give you a message Your Highness." She said in her sweet country voice.
"Please Greta sit with me; I could use a friend at the moment." Greta nodded understandingly,
"I saw Ser William. I can only imagine he finally asked you the words he had wanted to ask since he met you and your... saviour in the dark forest."
"You knew?" Snow White asked confused.
"It was hard not to, William's eyes follow you everywhere and when they fall upon the Huntsman they become ice cold. I think the young Lord is jealous of a common man." She sat down across from her mistress and watched her closely, "I also think he has a right to be." She smiled softly. "Just be careful with your heart Your Highness I would hate to see it broken." Snow White felt the colour rise in her cheeks and hoped that the blush on her features was not red enough to shame the rose. "However that is not why I am here. I have be told to tell you this message." She took in a deep breath, "Battlements on the west wall facing the beach in two hours just before sunset and the feast."
"By whom?" Snow asked hoping that her voice sounded as flat as she thought it did while her blood pulsed in excitement.
"That was not part of the deal I struck, you my Highness will have to find the answer for yourself." With that Greta stood and curtsied again before leaving her mistress in peace.
The hours passed achingly slowly, it was as if she were a prisoner again as the time stilled before her, but this time she was prisoner to her own soul. When the appointed hour arrived she slipped out of her chambers before any of her guards noticed and took the servants route to the battlements and as she rounded the corner she saw him and stopped in her tracks. He was stood on the battlements in the exact place they had last said goodbye. She cleared her throat and walked as steadily as she could towards him. His hair was pulled loosely back from his face and his clothes were clean for once as if he had made an effort after being invited to the coronation. Snow White looked down at herself and saw she was still dressed in her blood red gown and suddenly felt a little overdressed.
As she cleared her throat again he looked up and smiled at her the delight on his lips actually reaching his eyes.
"It would seem that royalty really suits you best." He said turning back to the view in front of him.
"Thank you for coming Eric. I was worried that you wouldn't come."
"I nearly didn't." He said without a hint of irony.
"Oh," was all she could say as she stood next to him, she had to admit that explained why he walked in at the last moment.
"Then I realised that we had unfinished business." With that he turned and captured her face delicately between his well callused hands and brought their lips together. Her kiss with the glamour of William had been awkward and naive; her kiss with Eric was anything but. Her lips moulded to his in an instant and the insatiable hunger that had been growing in her since she woke up bubbled over. As his hands skimmed down her frame to hold her waist hard enough to bruise she fisted her hands in to his shirt pulling him closer thinking that if they got closer they could become one like melding raindrops. He nipped at her lip and devoured her whole; he made her come completely undone and she didn't care, they were fire against fire and she was more than willing to burn. When they broke apart they were both breathing hard and as their brows touched Snow White could feel his skin was fever warm against hers and it made her sigh.
"It was always supposed to be you." She told him hoarsely. He looked at her puzzled as he caressed her lower lip with his thumb, the calluses on his skin sending shivers down Snow White's spine. "The one who could wake me if all else failed." She undid the tie in his hair and carded her hands through the silky strands at the nape of his neck. "I can only assume that William kissed me first." She said as more of a statement than a question and Eric nodded his head. "And it didn't wake me, it didn't reach me in the veil neither did his voice. He did speak to me didn't he?" she asked this time.
"Yes," Eric said roughly his blue eyes bright, "He pleaded that you stay with him."
"Yet it was you who never left my side." She said softly kissing his lips softly.
"I couldn't, you still needed protecting. William didn't trust me out in the compound." Snow chuckled at that and rested her head against his heart hearing his heartbeat through his clothes as well as in her own veins. Her blood was singing; here was her peace and sanctuary.
"If you had wanted to leave you would have." She murmured in to his chest. He embraced her with his hands clasped tightly around her back as he kissed the crown of her head. "Also never forget you were deserving of both our love." She said softly almost scared of how the words would affect him.
She felt him stiffen and their heartbeat increased, in the back of her throat she could taste his fear and something else, just as bitter. Horror? Anger? He pushed her back gently to look in to her eyes his brilliant blue eyes looked deep in to the brown depths of hers and she felt as if she were drowning.
"How could you know about that?" he asked his voice the harsh brash bark it had been when they first met. She stepped away and couldn't look at him; her mouth was set in look of grim determination.
"I could hear you, not all of it... since it was slurred. But I could hear enough. The pain in your heart... it beats in mine now, every scar you suffered is imprinted in my skin like an invisible brand. I can't explain it..." she stopped knowing that she sounded insane, but how else could she tell him. "You brought me back, your unconditional love... it broke the curse." At that the corner of his mouth lifted in an approximation of a smirk.
"Unconditional love eh?" he asked dragging her towards him sliding his hand around her neck and tilting her head until she looked him in the eyes again, "Princess there was nothing unconditional about it." He kissed her again, slowly, torturing her with his practised mouth as his fingers lay against the pulse point on her neck and tiptoed down her spine to rest at the small of her back. She broke away for a second, her eyes hard as she spoke to him.
"I am a princess no more Huntsman, I am Queen." Eric laughed and brought their lips back together, but before they touched he said words that Snow White would remember forever.
"And I am a Huntsman no longer; I am a gentleman." He kissed her softly and added, "So Your Highness you better get used to having me around."