Bound by Devotion

Chapter One

Naiel wasn't one for touching. That was something she picked up on over her time there. Yet his fingers closed around her shoulders and he turned her. "Take as long as you need, Eve. What will happen will happen. Or it will wait." His eyes moved over her face. "It's so easy to forget that you were not brought up here. And I have done nothing but demand things from you." He smiled. "Heal. Rest. Come back to me when you are ready."

He let her go and she quickly brushed the tears off her face.

"Thank you."

He gave her a nod and she turned and left him looking at the scroll that ran her life.

~~~

Eve walked hallways aimlessly. Her vampires were asleep in rooms beneath the palace. Rooms that were created for them after she accepted the throne. It still boggled the mind to think that the palace was alive. But having seen it in action, there was no way to deny it. She had no idea where Kornae was. And that was fine. She wouldn't know what to say to him if she did see him. Things between them were... difficult and 'How about that weather' sounding lame to her own ears.

She wanted to curse Cora. They had just started to grow closer when she made her earth-shattering statement. Now, he was an ice-cube. Only speaking to her if she spoke first and anytime she mentioned anything remotely personal, those dark blue eyes froze over. The tension between them was thick enough to beat against, a solid invisible wall that kept him away from her.

Even though he still trained her in her magic abilities, he never once touched her. Yeah, there would be no baby from him.

She found herself staring at the statue of her mother and the determination of that life-like face shamed her. Naiel was right. She gave everything for the court. She gave her life and Eve couldn't be bothered to have a child.

Growing up, she used to fantasize about having a family. Of doing all the little things for her children that her mother did for her. Suffering endless sleepovers, cutting edges off sandwiches, tolerating Eve's outbursts as a young teen, the constant knowledge that she couldn't go home, because of Eve.

How was she supposed to raise a child when she didn't know who she was? How was she supposed to help her child through the angsty, angry teen years, when she was struggling through her adult years.

Ah, but that was human thinking, wasn't it.

There was that brief flare of anger at a hero of the Unseelie court. Her own hero.

She didn't lie when she told her mom she understood. She did. Got it completely. But what her actions did was give Eve a bad case of split personality. The Fae she was supposed to be versus the human she grew up thinking she was. The biggest battle was the one playing within her right now.

Yes, she felt the slipping of time. Yes, she wanted to complete the things Naiel needed her to do in order to finally be able to live her life. The innermost part of her wanted to help, wanted to bear a child that would help her home. A child that was part of her.

But her human heart and mind wailed at the thought of having a child out of duty and not love.

She moved to the opposite wall and leaned back between two other heroes of the Unseelie court. People that she didn't know, but would take the time to look up because they sheltered her while she fell apart. She slid to her bottom and pulled her knees to her chest, still watching her mother.

"Mom, I don't know what I'm doing here." Her voice was soft in the silence of the room. There was no one to bother, all of the figures surrounding the room having already passed on the wherever it was that souls went. But to yell, like she wanted, would be disrespectful. And her mother raised her better than that. "Naiel keeps telling me what to do, and I do it, but I can't with this. It's too much."