So I can be a bit of a book hipster sometimes. I'll find books I love that no one has heard of or read. Brightly Woven is a GREAT example. I wasn't at all shocked to see it didn't have a section on here. I don't expect this to get read by lots of people for this reason. All the same, if you do stumble upon it GREAT.

Hope you enjoy! :)

Wayland North fell back against the wall with a sigh. He held Sydelle against him gently, as though she were glass. As though she could shatter and break away from him and leave him on his own once more.

"That's my girl..." He whispered, resting his cheek against the top of her head. She'd really been remarkably brave, he thought. She'd very nearly died. If he hadn't been able to... no. There was no use thinking in 'if's. She was safe. That was what counted in the end.

It was useless, impossible and utterly useless, trying to explain the strong protectiveness that came over him in regards to the redhead still shaking in his arms. Even trying to explain it to himself. North had survived so many years on his own, with only a handful of friends and allies he hardly saw anyways. He liked to think he was protective of them as well - anyone who hurt Owain would have Hell to pay - but something about her pushed him over some sort of edge at the thought of her threatened. And it had nothing, nothing at all, to do with her blood. The very thing he'd stole her for. The reason, the main one at least, why he lied to her.

And it didn't matter to him at all now.

In all of that, when he'd stolen Sydelle Mirabil away from her desert home, he hadn't planned on her being so human. She was a jinx after all; everything everyone had ever written or read was that jinxes were out of control, like a rabid animal, they had to be put down before they caused more destruction. But there she was, full of life and fear and anger and wonder and curiosity and fierce love and protectiveness for the people who deserved it. North understood that. He hadn't planned on her being someone he understood, someone who might, just might, understand him.

His plan on what to do with Sydelle had been changing with his emotions. It was a month into their journey, when she ran away, that he knew he could never, ever, take her blood. From that moment until mere minutes ago, it had been that he would find a way to lock up her power, keep her from unintentionally harming anyone. After their mission was done, he'd take her where ever she wished to go, as promised, and leave her there, content that the lock would keep other wizards from harming her. He may visit her if he ever came through that place again, as he did with his other friends. That would be that.

However, now, as he held her and stroked her hair and calmed her - and himself - from her brush with death, North discovered that that he could not do either. Insane; she would be perfectly safe, he would see to that. But that wasn't it. It was the idea of being without her, traveling without her by his side, not seeing her blue eyes flash with irritation, or her lips tug with a grudging smile. That brief piercing fear had gripped him as he struggled to save her life... he never wanted to be without her. Not anymore. Impossible. In a month and a half of traveling he could no longer imagine his life without Sydelle in it.

Enough. The thoughts were only getting more and more troublesome and she was still shaking, no longer from pain but from fear. It was sinking in, what had nearly happened to her.

"Syd," He said. "You're alright now, I promise. You need to rest, though." He glanced around the dark room, the beds they'd been given were against the opposite wall. "Can you stand?" He asked.

There was a long pause and North wondered if she was, in fact, asleep. Then a quiet, hoarse whisper, "...I can try."

So like her, it was, not to give up without trying. But North saw her expression twist in pain as she attempted, even in the little light, and shook his head. Wordlessly, he scooped her up into his arms and carried her to her bed. She was obviously too exhausted to protest, or else he knew she would have.

On a much softer surface and with a promise she was alright, Sydelle was asleep nearly instantly. He turned to his own bed, wondering idly if he would actually be able to sleep.

"North..."

Sydelle's sleepy murmur of his name made him jump. He looked back at her; eyes closed and expression relaxed, there wasn't a chance she was awake. Still, tentatively he whispered, "Yes?"

A pause and she shifted a little, nestling her head against the cool pillow. Then, finally, "Thank... you.."

In that instant he loved her.

He sighed, mentally cursing the impossibility of it all. He waited a few minutes to see if Sydelle would speak again. When she didn't he shook his head, and brushed a curl off her face.

"Ah, Syd," He breathed. "Why do you have to make everything so complicated?"

Hope you liked it! Please review. It would make me happy! :)