i can't save the world if i'm not happy anymore.

Seeing her like that in such a state of confusion and pain and anger… It ate away viciously at the man. He had to fight to suppress the urge to hold her. That urge was almost instinct to him, after doing it for over a decade in the Guild. He had invented kindness, tenderness for her, completely for her. She was seven the first time they held each other, and it had been after her first night terror. The fear in her eyes when he answered her with panicked anger forced him to create an approach that he had only read about in books, but it worked. After that, it was impossible to stop. Even now, after years of not so much as speaking to each other, it was still second nature that he had to deny. He watched the lightning leave her, and a part of him was relieved, while the other part was worried. Kalt didn’t like the way it flickered out, leaving her with what looked like a hollow anguish that was eating her alive. Her fingers moved through her hair, and he watched her thoughts tossing in a storm inside her mind. As she turned away and took a few steps deeper into the cavern, Kalt kept their distance the same, following her without hesitation. ’I left you to die.’ He wanted to tell her that it wasn’t her fault, but he knew that it wouldn’t matter. She wasn’t in the frame of mind where anything he said to justify her actions would stay with her. If he knew her as well as he thought he did, anything positive he said to her would easily be twisted in some way, shape, or form to be directed against her. Ashe wasn’t good at dealing with her emotions, even less so when she was being forced to deal with them. She was right. She had left him to die in those dark, magic-suppressing cells in the dungeon of the castle. She had left him without an explanation, but when the word reached him that she had escaped, he made his escape. He caught up with her and confronted her, but still she didn’t explain. She threatened his life, he dared her to go through with it, but she hadn’t explained. He had needed answers that she wasn’t willing to give, so he followed her. He followed her to Northaven, watching from afar. Until he realized. His arrow in the eye of her father. The anger, the betrayal, the utter hatred for her that kept him moving and planning every single day was brutally ripped apart when he realized the truth, when he realized that she believed he had betrayed her. He couldn’t stay mad or hurt because she had every fucking right to feel the way she did. That didn’t make it any easier, though. She couldn’t look at him. Couldn’t or wouldn’t, he wasn’t sure. She turned to face him with her eyes lowered and her arms wrapped around her. ’When should I expect my end, Silver Wing?’ Her question rang in his ears. With a slow breath, Kalt flicked the hidden blade out of his bracer, taking a few short strides to close their distance. He would gradually, carefully put the silver knife beneath her chin, tilting her head upward to meet her eyes. The blade against her skin was flat so it wouldn’t cut her even if she was to jerk away. He flicked the knife back into his bracer, out of sight, and replaced it with his fingers beneath her chin, his thumb brushing just beneath her lower lip, as he smiled gently at her. ”I’ll never draw your blood again,” he said in almost a whisper. That promise didn’t stand for training. Now that she knew who he was, he was positive she would want to train with him once again, and he was excited to do so. Neither one of them ever used dulled weapons, so some spilled blood was inevitable. But he would never raise a blade or a hand to her maliciously ever again. Every time before had been at the command of their Master, that demon who held their puppet strings, but he was gone and no one could force his hand again. He would wrap his arm around her shoulders, pulling her into him if she allowed it. ”Told you you’d never be rid of me,” he muttered to her quietly. ”And Silver Wing isn’t my name, Ashe.” She was afraid to say his name, didn’t want to accept it, but he wasn’t going to allow her to feel that. He was here to stay. Ashetta kalt give into the night.