Page 54 of Caged

I gasp and run my hands over the items. They are absolutely beautiful and look like they were made for me.

“She’ll take everything,” Sylas says, offering over his credit chip.

“What?” Both me and Uron say at the same time.

“You like the clothing?” he asks.

“Yes, but…”

“Then it is yours,” he says, bluntly, pressing the chip into Uron’s hand. “Have Boran deliver them to our dwelling,” he says as she processes the payment.

I’m not sure what to say, so I say nothing as we leave the shop and are out in the fresh air.

“We need supplies,” Sylas says, and sets off in the direction of the market, and I follow with a knot in my stomach.

I want to accept what he has done, but this is different to escaping from Tatatunga. Sylas doesn’t need to buy me clothing which is far finer than anything I wore on Earth, let alone here on Trefa.

I very nearly walk into a wall of feathers. Sylas has come to a halt before we reach the stalls. He drops to one knee and takes my hand.

“I’m not a good mate, my Alex,” he says. “I don’t know what to give you to make you happy.”

“You don’t have to give me anything.” I stutter the words out. “I’m happy being with you. I’m happy if you’re happy. Are you happy?”

“I am content, little feather,” he rumbles. “Content with you.”

“Not the same as being happy.”

Sylas drops his head to his chest and takes in a deep breath.

“I want to be with you forever,eregri. But there is so much in here.” He punches himself on the side of the head. “So much I’m missing, I don’t understand. And the rage…” He spans his hand over his chest as if in pain. “It is…big.”

He fixes those beautiful, beautiful eyes on my face.

“I can’t ask you to deal with all of this. I am broken, torn to pieces by circumstance. I do not deserve a mate of any kind, let alone the most stunning creature in the entire universe.”

My heart stops dead in my chest. Screeching to a halt as if it has never beaten in my entire life.

This glorious, massive, strong, and brave creature thinks hedoesn’t deserve me.

“Sylas.” I’m struggling with the words. I cup his chin with my hand. “I don’t care what you were, I only care what’s in your heart. You deserve the best of everything, whether that’s me or another. It’s all I want for you.”

He rises in one smooth movement, towering over me, and for a second I’m not sure what he’s going to do until I’m tossed into a pair of strong arms and a pair of strong wings lifts us up over the settlement.

“It has always been you, Alex. Fate ensured we found each other, and I trust in fate to make this right. I would fight the rest of the galaxy until the end of my days for you,eregri, or if you wanted, I’d give you the sword and teach you to fight alongside me,” he says, wind whipping at his words.

“I’d like that, Sylas. I’d like that very much,” I say as I lean into him as he flies us back to our nest in the forest.

SYLAS

“The insects are loud tonight,” Alex says.

I mumble a reply which isn’t words as such, but I can’t be responsible for my inability to speak when I have my head in her lap, and she is doing things to the shoulder of my right wing which are causing my brain to shut down with pleasure.

“Especially the one which sounds like a mobile phone ring tone,” she adds.

“M-furn?” I attempt to lift an arm and fail.

“It’s a way humans contact each other,” Alex explains.

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