17.
~ Ariadne had found herself talking to Arthur, Dom and Eames well into the night. It seemed a relief to James and Phillipa as their father told them Ariadne knew the truth.
"At least now we don't have to call you by your first name anymore." James said patting his father on the back. James had a head full of silver, gray hair where Dom had none. It was strange to think the older man was really the son.
~ Summer had come over Blackwood Castle. In the little cemetery, Ariadne placed the last of the spring wild flowers and roses over Grace's grave. Eames had stayed at Blackwood, but complained daily he would go back to England or travel soon.
Ariadne had helped James and Phillipa convince Dom to put his wife into a nursing home. The staff thinking he was her youngest son or perhaps her grandson.
Arthur was waiting outside the cemetery with the horses. Not wanting to venture inside a place where he knew all the dead there.
Perseus seemed to be her horse now and he waited for her expectantly. She had become a much better rider these days. Arthur taking her for long rides over the grounds everyday.
She had stayed at Blackwood. Her old life suddenly seeming not so important anymore. She belonged here. One day had turned into two so easily and before she knew it, spring had been replaced with summer. Her time with Arthur was easy, and complicated, now that she knew the truth.
"Come here and put your hat on." He said once she had left the little cemetery and walked over to her gray. "Can't have Grace jumping out of her grave and yelling at us about sunburn."
"She won't yell at us, she'll yell at you." Ariadne teased.
"Oh, feisty!" Arthur said with a smile.
Ariadne gave him a curtsey and easily saddled herself on Perseus. The gray barely having to move to accommodate his rider these days.
She sat still as Arthur secured a wide, floppy hat on her head. He looked her over before leaning over his mount and kissing her sweetly on the lips. A simple kiss of hopeful new love.
She smiled back at him. Glad to have him happy again.
"So you can't get sunburned, catch a cold, drown or starve to death?" She asked still finding it hard to believe.
"Nope." He said cheerfully. "We can't get shot or blown up either. Trust me, I was in enough wars to prove it."
"You tried to kill yourself?" She asked worriedly as the horses trotted down the trail.
"We all did when we figured out what had happened. It took a few years to realize we weren't aging." Arthur said sadly. "We shot ourselves, tied chains to our bodies and tried to drown ourselves. Nothing worked. We had to send the servants away because they were noticing we looked the same after a while. It was easier after all the confusion of the Civil War. People forgot us for a while."
"Do you still want to die?" She asked. He turned and looked at her. His face sad but hopeful.
"One day." He said. His face broke into a smile. "But not today."
She smiled as he kicked the bay into a canter and she was made to chase after him.
~ "It's kind of strange you have to admit." Ariadne said as the sat on top of their waterfall.
"Of course it is." He agreed. "But what specifically do you mean?"
"Well, I mean you took care of me as a child. And now were like this." She said.
He turned to her and kissed her. They had made love by the falls. It had been as easy as anything she had ever done. Arthur showing he loved her over and over again. He was smiling much more these days, and finally seemed like the young man he was curse to be. She knew she had brought him a sense of peace and happiness.
A rare moment of warmth in a winter that lasted too long.
"Well, it's not what I planed on either, but I'll take it." He said kissing her again.
She smiled at him as they looked at the castle.
"Your going to send me away again, aren't you?" She asked, not looking at him.
He sighed. His face guilty.
"It's not fair to you. To bring you into this word. I'm trying to do the right thing." He explained with difficulty.
"Like when you sent me away the first time?" She asked.
"Yes." He said sadly. "It was the hardest thing I've ever done, but it was what was best for you. It would have been selfish if I had kept you."
"Arthur, it's alright to be selfish." She whispered.
"No it's not. You'll grow old while I stay young. You'll hate me for it. You'll resent it. I've seen it happen before." He said. A coldness in his voice.
"I don't want to go. I think I was destined to come back here. To be with you." She told him trying to catch his eye.
"I would love keep you here, with me, forever. But We don't have forever, I do. I would have to watch you grow old and leave me. Knowing I could never follow after you." He said. "I want to make you my wife, to have children with you. But It wouldn't be fair to you, or me."
She smiled to herself at some long forgotten memory.
"So Dom and Eames got married and had children, and you didn't?" She asked.
"No." He said simply. "I knew what our immortality meant. I couldn't bear to love someone and watch them leave this world without me."
"You never fell in love?" She asked.
"Oh, I loved someone once." He said looking towards the ocean. "But it was a long time ago. Before this life."
"What happened to her?" She asked, looking at him expectantly.
"It wasn't meant to be." He said sadly.
~ The watched the sun sink into the ocean. The air turning cool.
"We should head back." He said at last.
"Arthur." She said. He turned to her as she took a deep breath for courage. "Am I really the only girl you ever brought here?" She asked.
"Of course." He said with a laugh and immediately his face fell as her's darkened. Shadow passing over Ariadne's eyes.
Arthur stopped breathing as he saw her features change. The chimes of horrible memories making his bones rattle.
"I think we both know that's not true." She said in a voice not her own.