This fanfic was inspired by Arus' AU fanfic "Birthright." I'd like to thank her for letting me take her fic idea and run away with it. =) Read her fic first, otherwise this fic will not make sense! Anala, Alysson, Xue, Vallis, and Keith's special talent are all her brain-children – and the italicized excerpts are quoted directly from her story. I'm only envious that I didn't think of the wings myself. They make for very high romantic potential!
The rest of the characters belong to WEP. But the story, of course, belongs to me. I consider it a birthday gift from my muse to myself. =) Hope you all enjoy reading it! All your comments will be greatly appreciated.
This story was first published on the KAEX group in 2000 – I've uploaded here for posterity (until I can put all my fics together in my own site).
Secrets
a Voltron fanfic by CBear (Smartybear2)
Nights on Arus were always peaceful now. It was as if some benevolent deity cast her spell as the sun set, granting the special gift of tranquillity throughout the Arussian countryside. It was a gift that the people of Arus welcomed wholeheartedly after endless months of fearful vigilance. Since Voltron's reawakening, the people had gladly given the arduous task of keeping their planet safe to the able hands of the Voltron Force.
Even the inhabitants of the Castle of Lions were not exempted from this peace. The corridors of the Castle were still, as most of its inhabitants rested under the spell of healing slumber. Most - except the few people who were tasked to monitor Castle and Arus defenses. Most -except those with secrets that could only be revealed under the cover of this comforting quiet.
One of those few people was Keith.
Tonight he was once again at the observation deck on the eastern side of the Castle, using his security clearance to open the thick glass so he could step onto the wide ledge outside it.
Almost every night since he had returned from the Planet Vallis, he had made this part of his nightly ritual. Used to pushing himself to his limits, it was difficult for Keith to ignore the recently discovered gifts he had never known he was born with - gifts he had chosen to hide from the people who meant the most to him.
So he had to use these few hours before the dawn to harness his new talent and to practice his new skill - flying with his own wings.
Tensing his body in anticipation with a mental command, Keith's silver-white wings emerged from his back and spread out as he stepped off the ledge and took flight.
"No!"
Allura woke from the dream with a small cry, bolting upright in her bed and breathing rapidly in remembered fear.
It was a dream that had woken her more than once these past few weeks, she knew; but just like the other, the details remained on the fringes of her memory and out of reach. She could only recall the sensation of falling into a chasm from a great height and being held protectively against someone else falling with her.
Then she woke up.
There was another recurring dream that had begun to plague Allura around the same time as this did that was not as terrifying, but just as confusing. In that dream, she was being held in someone's arms - and they were flying. The wind rushing at her face prevented her from hearing her companion's voice, but there was something familiar about the man holding her. When she woke in the morning, she always came away from this dream with impressions of large, silky-soft silver-white wings enfolding her in the safe embrace of someone who looked remarkably like Keith.
Allura caught herself mid-smile. If she were to be completely honest with herself, she would admit that the dream was by no means the first one that she had had of Keith - but wings and Keith in the same dream? How on Arus did her subconscious mind link one to the other?
Moonlight streamed into her room through her glass windows and bathed it in an ethereal glow. A sudden flash of silver caught her eye on her bedside table. It was a glint from the mysterious white feather she had found one night as she was standing at the observation deck. It looked gossamer frail, but was remarkably strong. She didn't know where it had come from and what it had come from. She had tried her best to find out by using chunks of her precious spare time to research about Arussian birds and their plumage. In all her readings, she had not come across any flying bird native to Arus large enough to produce a feather this size.
She sat up and touched the feather. Its texture under her fingers once again reminded her of being enfolded safe in a cocoon of the same velvet softness. It felt more than mere images from a dream - it felt more like a memory. But how could it be a memory if it had never happened? If it had happened how could she possibly have forgotten such a wondrous experience? And why was it all her dreams of wings always seemed to lead back to Keith?
Although she had no way to answer the questions her dreams and the feather evoked, she knew from experience that lying back down again would only result in futile tossing and turning.
With a resigned sigh, she walked to her desk to get the book she had been reading earlier in the hopes that it would settle her mind and lull her back into sleep. She turned away from the desk and was already on her way back into bed when she saw the same glint of silver outside her window. It was there for just a moment and gone in a blink, but her natural curiosity summoned her to the large glass windows overlooking the valley anyway.
There it was again! A streak of silver shimmering in the moonlight, gliding above the valley, a bird - if it was a bird - whose likes of which she had never seen. From this distance she could only make out the large silver-white wings glinting in the moonlight, the downy feathers shimmering as the creature glided over the slumbering valley.
She stood at her window transfixed by the creature's graceful aerial dance, and suddenly she was assailed by a strange longing and the memory of the wings. The feeling overwhelmed her and she closed her eyes, only to find the vivid image of Keith brushing her lips with his under the canopy of silver white feathers. Stunned and confused, her eyes flew open after an endless moment to find the creature she had been watching had disappeared from view.
Feeling bereft and filled with the emotions churned up by the image of Keith's kiss, she turned away from her window to ponder what she had seen in her mind's eye. Before she could walk away, she saw the silver glint again on a ledge on the other side of the Castle.
The Observation Deck.
Heart pounding with anticipation, she pulled on her dressing gown and quickly strode out into the hallway, determined to find the answer to her mystery.
Keith balanced precariously on the window ledge, contemplating his next move.
He had mastered the skill of gliding the past few weeks, but his speed and control over sudden plunges and steep ascents still needed work. Diving was not just a test of speed and control - it was also a test of grit. It meant allowing gravity to pull him down at high speeds until he snatched himself from its grasp at the last minute; it meant believing that he could wrench himself free from his fall and have the strength to commence a steep vertical ascent at will. That didn't just take skill, it took a good amount of guts.
Or maybe I'm just insane to want to learn how to do this, Keith thought sheepishly, as he stretched his wings to prepare them. He'd had a lot of scary moments since he had
started practicing this skill - moments when he found himself just a hairsbreadth away from self-destructing on the hard ground hundreds of feet below him. He was not going to let fear keep him from mastering it though.
He looked at his wrist transmitter - his only access to the sliding windows' control panel and the only way he had of getting back into the Castle. If he came in now, at best he would only have four hours of sleep before breakfast was served. It was a good thing that they did not have Lion Practice the next day; he could sleep in. Although he was capable of being at his best with less sleeping time than that, he was not about to squander his chance to get enough sleep when he could. He had just enough time for one dive before he could finally turn in.
Challenging himself one final time, he punched the security access codes and set the sliding windows in motion. He planned to do a dive and take the hairpin turn and ascent
back to the window ledge within the time it took for the windows to fully open. His transmitter would blip to signal the windows fully open because as a security precaution they only stayed open for one minute before sliding down again, regardless of who had coded in an override. Since the windows took thirty seconds to fully open, he had exactly a minute and a half to complete his stunt.
Crossing his fingers for luck, he stepped off the ledge at the first creak of the glass, using his wings to angle himself head first then letting gravity have its way with him one last time for the night.
The Observation Deck's sliding doors opened silently at Allura's command, and she entered the room, breathless from her run to the other side of the Castle. Her exhaustion was forgotten as her eyes were quickly drawn to the wide glass windows where the creature she had watched from her bedroom window stood. She leaned against the wall, transfixed by the sight, hardly believing it was real.
It was not a bird at all, but a man - a man with huge white-silver wings shimmering in the moonlight covering his back. Slow and cautious, she made her way across the room, clutching her dressing gown about her, afraid that he would startle and fly away if he
heard her coming. She had never seen the like of him. What was he? Who was he? Why did he haunt her dreams? She couldn't see his face because he stood with his back to her, but there was something familiar about the way he stood - and about the way the night breeze whipped his raven black hair…
Then the glass windows began their inexorable slide upwards - and he stepped off the ledge and disappeared in a flash of silver.
Allura ran the rest of the way to window where she had seen him, made wary by their sudden opening. How had the creature gained the access codes to the Observation Deck windows? She had been so enthralled by the sight of object of her dreams, so determined to prove his existence that she had completely thrown caution to the winds. She didn't even have a weapon on her, no transmitter with which she could summon help. If the creature was her enemy and his intent was to access the Castle through the window, she had nothing to defend herself with.
She had to make sure that the glass panels were securely sealed before he decided to return.
The glass window was already halfway open, and she knew that once the glass was up, it would only stay that way for a minute before they slid down once more. But Allura felt that waiting for the automatic mechanism was a risk. She had to activate the manual override by using the keypad on the right side of the metal frame.
Securing her dressing gown around her, she clambered up the metal ledge and reached the keypad just above her head. The window was three quarters of the way up now, and she shivered at the cool night breeze whipping against her and her thin garments. Her hair, long and unbound, got in her eyes as she reached up to key in the code as quickly as she could, one number after another. The wind also reminded her that there was nothing between her and the steep drop but a footwide ledge.
Just as she stretched up to press the key on the upper corner of the keypad, a particularly strong gust of wind whipped her long golden hair viscously into her eyes. Responding on instinct, she tried to brush it away, but as she did so, lost her balance. With her eyes still stinging from the wind's assault, she couldn't see the floor beneath her - and instead placed her foot into the empty space beyond the ledge.
Allura's terrified scream was swallowed by the night wind as she fell headfirst from the fully open window in the nothingness below.
Her fall was abruptly cut short as something caught her mid-air. Strong arms held her close as the force of her weight dragged her and her rescuer down. She felt him fight against the pull of gravity valiantly, felt the rhythmic beat of his strong wings as they rose. As they ascended towards the window ledge, she cautiously opened her eyes to see what had saved her and thank him for her life.
The words stuck in her throat as her gaze took in his handsome features, his raven black hair, and those fathomless dark eyes she had dreamed about more than a few times since she had seen them.
Am I still dreaming? she wondered, not quite able to believe what she was seeing. How could this be real? How could he be real?
It was Keith who was carrying her - and he had wings.
Keith had already been on his ascent when he saw the figure falling out the Castle window. He heard the scream over the wind and realized that it was Alllura.
Acting on instinct, he increased his speed, positioned himself under her, and caught her in his arms.
The force of her weight coupled with the pull of gravity nearly brought them both into a dangerous tailspin, dragging them both down and almost wrenching her out of his arms. But he had fought for control and won - because to lose her was unthinkable.
As he lifted her back up to the ledge, he saw the look of stunned disbelief on her beautiful face that was almost comical if he had seen it in different circumstances.
As it was, his head was still reeling from the fact that he had almost lost her that all he could do was bend down to tenderly kiss her smooth white forehead, his own prayer of thanks for being at the right place at the right time.
She still didn't say anything.
He sat her gently on the window ledge, but he chose to stand mid-air in front of her, examining her with his eyes to make sure that she was all right. Her hair was in wild disarray, but other than that and her pallor, she looked fine. Her huge blue eyes dominated her face and the look of wonder in them took his breath away. Without warning, she reached out to touch one of his wings and felt the texture of the feathers between the pads of her fingers.
The realization that she now knew his secret finally struck him.
"Allura, are you all right?" he asked, reaching out to tip her face up towards his. He frowned at her, the enormity of what could have happened hitting him like a sucker punch. "What were you doing on the window ledge, Allura? You could have been killed when you fell."
She met his eyes, startled from her wondering exploration by the sound of his voice.
"Waiting for myself to wake up," she answered softly, meeting his eyes. "This has to be another one of my dreams. There's no explanation for it otherwise."
"You are awake, Princess."
"I can't be awake," she said matter-of-factly. "If I were awake, you wouldn't be standing in front of me with nothing under your feet. You wouldn't have…" She paused, her eyes shifting from his face back to the wondrous sight of his silver-white wings. "Wings."
Unable to help himself, Keith laughed. "Trust me, I felt the same way when I found out about them a few weeks ago," he said wryly, tucking a wayward strand of hair behind her ear. "But I've gotten used to them." He flew deftly unto the ledge, folded away his wings, and sat down beside her. "Now they're even more apart of me now than they did when…"
Keith trailed off with a shrug, suddenly aware that through his own doing, she didn't have any memory of the last time she had seen him with his wings unfurled.
He was the only one who remembered that last day before they left Vallis, when he had taken her in his arms and flown her to see the stark beauty of his home planet. He was the only one who remembered the child-like wonder on her face when she had first touched his feathers and the only one who remembered how it had felt to hold her. Maybe it would make his explanation easier if he gave her back those memories - for the moment. Making his decision, he took her hand and opened her mind.
"I am going to miss this planet," she said. "Even through all the strife, it seems to have a strength of its own."
"The people is what gives the planet strength," he pointed out. "And I think the people have been tormented long enough."
"I wish I could see more of it," she said. "We will have to leave shortly after the ceremony tomorrow."
He thought to himself for a brief moment, and catching her by surprise, he took her hand into his, slowly pulling her toward him. "Then there's no time like the present."
"What?" Before she could protest, he wrapped an arm around her waist, hopped up onto the rail of the balcony. "You aren't…?"
"Close your eyes," he said. "Trust me." Before she could nod, she once again found herself screaming as he leaped off the edge.
"By the Lion." Allura murmured suddenly, running her hands on his now ordinary back as he sat beside her. "I'd seen you do this before on the Planet
Vallis - when we saved…"
She paused, eyes wide as they saw the truth in his face. "They were your people. It wasn't a dream - it was a memory." She shook her head. "But if we were there, if this is true, why couldn't I remember it happening until now? And even now, there are so many chunks of the memory missing…"
"Because I didn't want you to," Keith said with a sigh. "I didn't want any of you to know until the time was right. I asked Xue to put a spell on you all and erase your memory of everything that had happened on Vallis. No one knows but my sister Anala, Lady Alysson, Xue, and Coran."
Her eyes, just moments ago made dark by her wonder, began to smolder in her building anger.
"We're your friends; how can you not want us to know something that's so important to you?" she asked, glaring at him. "You found your family and - oh my goodness." She stopped and stared at him. "You're Lady Alysson's son. Queen Anala's brother. You're a prince. And you can fly."
"I'm just plain old Keith, and it shouldn't matter dammit," Keith retorted, irritated by the wary expression that had come over her features. "I'm still the same person I was when I first came here, and I will be even if I happen to have two extra limbs."
"Wings," she corrected absently. "Why are you so angry?"
"Because of that expression on your face," he said with a shake of his head. "I didn't want any of you to treat me differently just because you finally knew the circumstances of my birth - it doesn't change anything about who I really am."
"Do you really think it would have made a difference to our reactions if you had just let us keep our memory of everything that had happened on Vallis rather than choose to tell us at your own time?" Allura asked, exasperated. "We would still need time to get used to the idea of you being what you are anyway."
"I understand that," he said. "But I don't you think I would need time to understand where these secrets fit into the scheme of my life?"
"We could have all done that together," she pointed out. She looked at him with an expression caught between disappointment and disapproval "And you should have trusted that we were friends enough to continue treating you in the same way despite your secrets."
"That wasn't the only reason why I kept my identity as secret. I also did it to protect you and Vallis from being hurt by your knowledge of where I really came from - because Lotor knew about it as well," Keith argued. "I didn't want to give Doom another means to get to me through my new planet or through you."
"I'm sorry if I wasn't ready to let any of you know," he admitted after a long pause. And he still wasn't ready, even if she had managed to find out his secret. He could do something about that later; till then, he was willing to make the most of this moment.
Allura sighed and sat in silence for a few beats, then nodded. "Fair enough."
"You still haven't answered my question of how you ended up coming her tonight."
"I woke up from a dream… of you. And when I looked out of my bedroom window, and I saw you gliding over the valley… I wanted to see if it was real – if you were real, " she confessed. "When I saw the windows opening, I realized that what I had been dreaming about would not necessarily be on our side, so I climbed on the ledge to key in the manual override. That's how I fell."
"You dreamed of me?" Keith asked, his lips quirking in amusement.
"Xue's spell didn't work completely - because I've been dreaming about what happened on Vallis." She flushed, realizing how he might take her words. "I mean, I dreamt of you with wings, flying with me and…"
"Yes, they were your memories," Keith said with full-blown a smile of understanding. "I guess Xue's spell doesn't work on your subconscious, and that's where the memories express themselves as dreams."
"But what were you doing out here in the first place?"
"I was, uh, practicing," Keith said, clearing his throat self-consciously. "Flying. I was pulling up from my dive when I saw you falling."
"That wasn't the first time, was it?" Allura asked. When Keith raised his eyebrows at her quizzically, she qualified, "That wasn't the first time you had saved my life by carrying me to safety. That wasn't the first time that you flew with me."
Keith nodded reluctantly. "No, it wasn't."
"I know because I dreamt of that, too," she said. On impulse, she touched her lips to his cheek softly. "Thank you."
His eyes pinned hers, dark and intense despite his smile. "There's no need to thank me for protecting something that's especially precious to me."
She blushed, touched speechless by his words. He got to his feet and helped her to hers, and they both looked out at the peaceful valley for long moments in silence.
"Would you like to fly with me?" he asked with a mischief-filled smile, extending his hand to hers.
And because she knew from her dreams he had done this before with her and had kept her safe, she put her hand in his. "I trust you," she said.
He surprised her by meeting her eyes as he placed a soft kiss on the back of her hand. "I know," he said with a smile. He put his arms protectively around her waist. "Hold on tight, Princess. Captain Keith airlines ready for take off." She laughed at his announcement even as the feel of his arms around her waist made her heart quicken in anticipation. "And take off!"
Allura put her life in his hands one more time, and they jumped off the ledge together.
He flew with her for the better part of two hours, pointing out unexpected pockets of beauty in the valley that she, in all her life of living so near it, had never seen before. Over the lake, whose surface was polished a mirror-like silver by the moonlight. He sat with her on a high plateau at the Great Arussian Divide overlooking the stark beauty of the dunes of the Southern Desert, where he left her briefly to take in the magnificent view. He came back with a bouquet of the beautiful white lilies that grew in the crevices of the cliffs and offered it to her as a gift.
She was never afraid that he would let her plummet to her death; she was never cold because he protected her from the night breeze in the cocoon of his embrace. And as he showed her planet to her in a way she had never seen it before, she realized just how much he must have come to love Arus to give up staying with his newfound family and taking his place as a prince of Vallis.
Or maybe another reason why he didn't want them to know his origins was because he had not yet decided what to do with his life now that this new opportunity had knocked on his door?
Her heart made heavy by the thought that there was a chance that he would leave them, she clutched the small bouquet close to her breast for comfort and remained silent for the rest of their flight back to the castle.
"Thank you for flying Captain Keith airlines," he said with a grin as he set her down on her feet on the ledge where they had begun their journey. He tipped his imaginary airline pilot's cap towards her as he stood in mid-air facing her. He gave her a playful bow. "We hope that you enjoyed your flight."
"I loved it, Keith. Thank you for taking me." Though the humor was lost on Allura because she had never experienced being on a commercial space or air flight, she was not proof to his boyish grin. "I'd always known that Arus was a beautiful planet, but I don't think I've ever appreciated that as much as I did tonight," she confessed, looking out into the valley now made more magical by their night flight.
"I'm glad you enjoyed it," Keith said with a smile, enjoying the wonder-filled expression on her face. "To be able to see the world with no walls surrounding me is one of the best perks of having my own wings." He grinned wryly. "I used to think that flying my ship was the best form of freedom there was but I was wrong. Flying on my own is a hundred times better."
"Definitely," Allura agreed with a nod, charmed by his joy. "Flight is a very special gift that you've come by through your Vallusian heritage - but definitely not the best. Now you have a family and a new home as well." She couldn't suppress a shiver as she began to feel the combined effects of the cool night breeze and her suddenly morose mood. She wrapped her arms around herself in a vain attempt to get warm. "It's getting colder."
"I know another use for wings," he said with a mysterious smile. He quickly stepped on the ledge. "May I have permission to show you?" He held out his arms.
"I've already trusted you once this night," she said smiling back.
She stepped into the circle of his arms, and as they closed around her, so did the silver-white down of his wings. The large, silky-soft silver-white feathers enfolded her in a warm cocoon as she stood Keith's safe embrace, and it felt so right to her. She leaned her cheek against his chest and was soothed by the beating of his heart under her ear. She remembered this, too. They stood that way for long moments, afraid to break the spell by speaking.
"You're right. It's warm," Allura finally ventured. She reluctantly pulled away from him so she could see his face, but stayed within the protective shelter of his wings. "Your family, your birthright is on Vallis. Why did you choose to come back with us to Arus?"
He frowned thoughtfully, weighing his response.
"I'm a lucky guy," he said after a long pause. "I'm a lucky guy because there are three planets I can call home. Terra, where I was born, raised, and where my dad came from. I already loved it long before I came here. Vallis, where my mother comes from and where my family is. And then - there's here… where I have my job, my team, and a
people and planet that needs me."
"Vallis needs you, too."
"Vallis has Anala, Xue, and my mother to take care of the day to day details of rebuilding what Kelar had destroyed. If they ever need me, all they need to do is call me. I've come to realize that home is where you find the things that matter most to you. Maybe someday my Vallusian heritage may require me to return there often; but if I were asked where my real home is, the answer would be Arus. I've built something good here on Arus, found family here in the team, Coran, and Nanny… and you."
Startled by his answer, she looked up and found him staring down at her with a half-smile playing on his lips. "What are you thinking?" she asked.
"That these wings suit you," he replied softly, framing her face with his hands. "Has anyone ever told you about angels?"
She nodded.
"All you need are these wings of mine," he said with a smile, kissing her forehead again. "You already have the face, the courage, and the heart of an angel." He paused, dropping his hands from her face. "Does this change things between us, Princess?"
She frowned, distracted by the tender brush of his lips on her forehead and the unexpectedly sweet words he had said about her.
"Wha-what does?"
"Knowing who I am, what I am," he asked, eyes solemn, studying her face intently.
She took her time answering, meeting his questing eyes with her honest blue ones. "Your being a prince can't make you more than the man you already are," she said. She took a deep breath for courage, knowing how revealing her answer would be. "Your courage, your strength, your wisdom, your integrity – everything that you are – were already a part of who you were even before you knew where you had come from. It never…" she trailed off, averting her gaze from his afraid of the feelings he would read there that she wasn't quite ready to reveal. "It never really mattered to me."
"I'm glad," he said quietly. "I'm glad because it never really mattered to me that you were a princess." Allura looked up and there was an expression of wry self-reproach on his face, as if he were enjoying an inside joke on himself. "I wanted it to matter. I always reminded myself of that huge gap between us. But I could never make it work, and by the time I realized that I couldn't do it, it was too late."
She searched his dark gaze for their truth and drowned in them as she did. Her heartbeat quickened when he tipped her face up towards his by holding her chin gently with the pads of his fingers.
His eyes shifted from hers to her lips, and she moistened them nervously. She saw him smile as his lips made the inexorable journey towards her own even as his fingers oh so gently traced the graceful line of her cheek.
"If you close your eyes," he said, when his lips just a kiss away from hers, softly stroking the side of her face, "If you close your eyes, Princess, I'll tell you my biggest secret of all."
She complied, not just to follow his command but also to hide the truths shining in her eyes from his searching gaze. But she was sure that the quick pace of her heart against his and the warm flush on her cheeks were telling him truths of their own.
"Why was it too late?" she asked breathlessly, waiting his answer and for the first touch of his lips on hers.
"Because I'd already fallen in love with you."
And as the reality of the words he had just said crashed over her in a wave of happiness, he gently claimed her lips with his.
"Close your eyes."
"What if I don't want to?"
"Don't force make me force you."
"Then tell me what you are doing."
"We are going to share our experiences together," he said. "Nothing more."
"And why in such a manner?"
"Do you question everything?"
"When I don't know exactly what it is I'll be involved in, I do."
He smiled as he leaned toward her, whispering in her ear so no one would be able to hear. "If you do this just for me, I'll tell you a little secret."
"And that is?" She pulled away slightly as she met his gaze. She found herself being lost in those dark eyes.
"That one day, when we are both ready, there wont be any misgivings
about the feelings between us."
Allura woke up with the sunlight streaming through her window bathing her face with its warmth. She sat up and stretched languorously, her smile lighting up her face. It was as if a huge bubble of happiness had grown within her during the night, and it was bursting to get out. She knew without knowing why that today was going to be an extraordinarily beautiful day.
She had had that dream again, where she was being held close in someone's arms – and they were flying. But this time her eyes had been wide open and in her mind's eye, she had seen the Arussian landscape in a way she had never seen before. Then the silky-soft silver-white wings were holding her within a shelter of their warmth – where she and her handsome archangel had shared their first kiss.
Only it wasn't a handsome archangel who was holding her… it was Keith. And he had told her that he was in love with her.
The sunlight made the silver-white feather on her bedside table glint and she took it and stroked it thoughtfully. It had been such a lovely dream… a dream that, if she were completely honest with herself, reflected the longings of her own heart. The odd thing was she had not gotten the chance to say she had fallen in love with him, too.
Maybe someday she would.
In the meantime, there was this wonderful day to look forward to.
Giddy with happiness, she jumped out of bed and impulsively twirled around her bedroom, waving the feather in the air gracefully. She continued her impromptu dance until the sight of something on her desk arrested her mid-twirl.
In her crystal vase, filled with water, were five of the most beautiful mountain lilies she had ever seen. She picked them up and breathed their wonderful scent, marvelling both at their extraordinary beauty and how they had gotten to her room in the first place.
If she had been looking towards her window, she would have seen the shimmer silver and her archangel's face looking at her through the glass. But she remained oblivious, transfixed by the beauty of the flowers and the strange happiness bursting inside her.
Someday, he promised. Someday soon all my secrets will belong to you, Princess… just as my heart already does.
And she never saw him smile tenderly at the sight she made, his heart in his eyes, before he quietly spread his wings and flew away.
- fin –