silverchain.

chapter thirteen: a confession interrupted

Anonymous - thank you so much! you're definitely right about consistency, and please let me know if i ever end up developing errors with that in this story.

Dazzling sunlight poured into the room, and Karis felt her heart lift as she sat up and stretched. Brushing her hair, she sidled into the sitting room, which was, to her surprise, mostly empty. Glancing outside, her brow furrowed. It was certainly past time for everybody to be up, but perhaps they were outside. Slipping into the bright day, she shielded her face with a hand.

As she squinted, the sudden sense of a presence behind her made her jump. Twisting around, she found herself staring up at Matthew's troubled blue eyes. "Where's Amiti?" she asked, a creeping feeling tingling throughout her body.

He merely gestured. On the hill, a sillhouette, clad in robes that were no less than blinding in the brilliance of the morning. Karis found her feet moving towards the figure, and she wondered vaguely when this had begun.

Reaching out an arm, her fingers brushed the soft material slung around his body. She swallowed. He turned, and before she knew what was happening, her face was buried in the sweet-smelling fabric keeping their skin from touching directly. The warmth of his arms around her was almost too much to bear, but she was even afraid to sweat.

"Why are you leaving?"

He didn't ask how she knew. In fact, Amiti did not say anything at all, but merely caressed her hair briefly. Closing his fingers and letting the green locks fall through them, he finally answered. "They need me."

Karis's eyes must have been completely blank.

"There has been...a disaster," he elaborated, voice still soft and silky, reminding her of the cloth she was still clutching. She released him, rather embarrassed.

"What happened?"

The young king sighed. "To be honest, I am not entirely sure. I received a letter, and I knew I needed to depart immediately."

"Amiti," she began, but he squeezed her hand before releasing it. Dizzy from the shocks, she wondered when exactly their hands had become linked.

"I have to go, but I will try my best to return." Already, she felt her composure spinning away from her. Would he really return? She somehow doubted it, considering the way that she had acted in the past few days. If he had been interested in her in that way, she was sure she had ruined her chances. Feeling tears springing to her eyes, but resolutely holding them back, she gripped his arm with both of her hands, realizing how ridiculous she looked but finding it impossible to care.

"Please, stay," she found herself pleading, and when he patiently shook his head, her blood began to boil. He calmed her with a brush of his cool hand against her steaming forehead.

"I love you," he told her as seriously and yet as easily as someone who had anticipated a situation long in coming. "I will be back, but I cannot be sure when. When I return...I am going to ask you to marry me, whether or not Ivan has yet approved."

Karis nodded feverishly, but it was only after Amiti had disappeared over the winding road and she had fallen to her knees in prayer that she fully realized what he had told her.

He loved her. He planned to marry her. As she sat on the warm ground, considering these matters, she realized that the tears she had so willfully held back were now streaming down her face, but only as an expression of the joy she now felt. A smile began to overtake her face, and she whooped for joy. "He loves me!"

"Hey, what, are you jealous or something?" Tyrell asked jokingly, shoving Matthew as they turned away from Amiti and Karis's intimate display. Trying to smile, the Venus Adept shook his head.

"Look...I should tell you. I was planning to propose to Sveta..."

"Yeah, Karis told me," his best friend cut him off.

Matthew stared blankly. "Why?"

Rolling his eyes, the redhead explained, "Well, she was catching me up on how she loves Amiti but you love Sveta and she thought that Amiti was proposing to Sveta because she read your mind, but when you guys talked she forgot whose mind and so now you think that Amiti's after your girl when, in fact, he completely loves Karis."

In response to the dumbstruck expression on the other young man's face, Tyrell added, "I'm not that oblivious, ya know."

"Only because Karis tells you stuff," Matthew grumbled good-naturedly.

"Please! Like you'd know anything if she didn't talk to you." The two boys-at-heart grinned at each other for a moment. "So, uh, when are you gonna propose to Sveta?"

"Whenever Eoleo gets his butt over here, that's when," Matthew said, and Tyrell laughed boomingly at him.

"Hey!" The young woman ran over to them, and for a second both of the male Adepts froze at the sight of the tears on her cheeks. Karis was beaming brightly, however, and quickly shouted excitedly, "Guess what? He loves me!"

"Yeah, and?" Matthew asked, making a face at her, and she ruffled his hair.

"Oh, Matthew! Tyrell and I were talking last night, and we realized that—"

"Yeah, yeah, you read my mind, not Amiti's, and so you thought he was proposing to Sveta. I figured that out when he was all but carrying you off in his arms."

The words hardly seemed to reach Karis; she was off in another world, but the pressure of a hand on her shoulder bolted her back to reality. She turned, clearly hoping that Amiti would have changed his mind.

Instead, her father's face, worn and with a few more wrinkles since the last time she had seen it, greeted her. They embraced briefly. "You're back!" she said breathlessly, smiling at him. He afforded her a short look before turning to Matthew and Tyrell.

"Hello, boys. Where are your parents?"

"Think they're at my house," Tyrell replied casually. "Hey, where'd you go...?"

Ivan was already making his way through the streets. The three young Adepts watched him with a mixture of excitement and concern, as the blond man disappeared from view. After a minute, Karis said in a strangely subdued tone, "I'm going to follow him. Don't wait up for me."

A chill ran through the air.