Chapter 424
The bathroom door closed behind Lucien when they reached their room and Elain turned toward the window. The fire they'd left burning in the hearth had heated the room to the point that it was a little uncomfortable, and she pushed aside the curtains to open the window. A cool breeze caressed her skin, blowing tendrils of her hair about her face, and Elain closed her eyes at the pleasure of it. After a moment, she stepped away, the curtain billowing around her in the cool night air and, as it caressed her skin gently, Elain's ears began to ring and her vision shifted. She gripped the windowsill, knowing that she was about to lose herself in a vision.
Lucien was pacing. Elain had seen him do this in visions before, but not like this. She glanced around, looking at the trees and flowers that surrounded him and instantly knew this to be the Spring Court. He made a frustrated sound, and she moved closer to better see his face. The expression across that handsome face was frustrated and Elain could read the depth of that frustration in both his russet eyes. He turned going back the other way as he lifted a hand to his shining ruby hair, running his fingers through it roughly.
Following him, Elain looked at the way that he held himself; shoulders tight, step rigid, and she noted the way that he kept a hand near the sword at his hip and continued to look over his shoulder every few moments. This was not too long after the events of her last vision, Elain realised. Lucien had not been in the Spring Court for long. Had his brothers come to kill him yet? Were two of them now dead? Lucien stopped walking and Elain caught up. She wondered if he had yet mourned Jesminda's death.
His clothing had changed. He now wore clothing similar to that she had seen Tamlin in, rather than what he had worn in the Autumn Court growing up. Evidently he had been here long enough for him to consider the Spring Court his home; he was trying to belong here. The way he moved, though, showed him to be restless and unsettled, and Elain wondered what had drawn him out into the forest and away from the grounds of Tamlin's estate. Wishing she could touch him, Elain moved closer, her eyes moving over him. He was still younger than when she had met him, and still unscarred by Amarantha. The longing she had used to see in him was present in his eyes, and a sadness she had not felt from him in a long time. Wanting to wrap her arms around him, Elain twisted her hands together in front of her, biting her lip.
"Ah, love…" she breathed, unable to take her eyes from him when he scrubbed his hands over his face, visibly shaking himself. He turned then and walked quickly. Elain followed, unable to do anything else, and she wasn't entirely sure that Lucien even knew where he was going. He continued to walk, seeming purposeful, and Elain continued to follow, one eye on the sky as a soft pink colour began to gather there. The afternoon was growing long.
When Lucien stepped out from the trees into a clearing, Elain only had to take one sweeping glance around to know where they were. He had walked into their glade, the one he had showed her in the Spring Court. A look of wonder was firmly planted on Lucien's face then when she looked to him. He stood still, his russet eyes looking around and his lips were parted. The look of frustration leeched from him and he took a small step forward, one hand coming out to trace through the purple flowers growing up a nearby tree.
"Sweet Mother…" he breathed, moving further into the glade. Elain followed him, watching as he sank down onto the grass near to where they had taken their own blanket back when they had visited the Spring Court together. The change in him was striking and Elain relaxed at the look on his face. It was as if this place had soothed him, and she supposed that it had. Hadn't he once told her that he had used to come here a lot when he lived with Tamlin. He had come here and dreamed about her, about the Mate he hoped he would one day find. This place had been a sanctuary for him, and Elain had known that he had needed it.
A delicate blue flower was in Lucien's hands, and Elain smiled as she looked at him playing with the Love-In-A-Mist bloom that he had picked. He lifted it to his nose, breathing it in, and she sank down nearby, wishing that he had known in this moment that he would one day have everything he had dreamed of. She wished that there was a way for him to know that he would be happy; he would have a family; a home. "You will find me." She told him, knowing that he could not hear her, did not know that she was there. "You will find me, and I will love you."
Lucien's only response to those words was to lay back into the grass, the Love-In-A-Mist still in his hand as he stared up at the sky. There was hope in him now, and she smiled, knowing that it would burn within him all the years until they found one another.
"Petal…?" Strong arms wound around Elain's waist and she leaned back into her mate as he bent over her, pressing a kiss to her cheek. "What are you doing, my love?"
Elain looked out the window to the garden she had built. It was showing the signs of growing well, of thriving in a way she knew would give her great pleasure in the coming weeks. Her home here was well and truly established and that in itself fuelled the hope within her. She turned in Lucien's arms, smiling as she looked up at him, wrapping her own arms around his neck as she held his gaze.