(Leo)
***
"I didn't have a choice! Do you think I'd do that to you on my own accord?"
*Sinclair?*
Why were they and Algor arguing?
"Yes, yes, I do!" Algor yelled soon after, still at a distance from me so that his words faded under the still air. "You have every reason to act like that because you're selfish!"
I flew down the hallway to locate the room, hovering so that I wouldn't even disturb the dust on the mantlepieces. What the hell were they doing in there? I expected to find Sinclair alone and crying—not screaming at Algor.
"If I'm selfish, then you're sinful," Sinclair replied before choking on something.
That sentence continually grew in volume until I realized I was just outside an empty room like countless others in the castle. I made sure not to pass it because the curtain was open slightly, and I tamed my skirt to not blow past me. I could have easily been detected if I stepped just a little too far, but I was lucky I could see through it at such an angle that Algor and Sinclair were almost entirely visible.
My eyes widened once I understood their situation, and something painful tugged at my heart.
Sinclair's back was slammed against the wall, held there by the weight of Algor's body. It trapped them like they were in a birdcage, and two hands with protruding veins strangled their neck. The grip was not so hard that Sinclair could not breathe, but they grasped at Algor's wrists, seeking to ease the tension against their blood vessels and throat.
"Answer me this then: How guiltless is the person who betrays the man with whom they are in love? How guiltless is the person who breaks their promise and lies straight to that man's face?"
Scarcely had I seen an expression as intense and serious as Algor's. It made me recede further behind the curtain.
There was a pause, and Sinclair's face contorted with both sadness and fury, their lips trembling.
"I had to! I was threatened with my life! Do you think I feel no remorse?" They swallowed. "Though, maybe I don't any more! The way you're acting—who would even forgive you?"
Algor strengthened his grip, and Sinclair hacked. "I wouldn't forgive you either. Especially now you're admitting you played along with that puppet regime and took the king away from me."
"It's not as if he ever loved you! You kissed him that one time, and he told you to leave. You didn't listen to him, and you got the consequence you deserved when you were exiled. I even did as you said when you asked me to help the two of you get together. You used me, and I still did what you wanted because I was blind and in love!" They pushed Algor's torso as they said that, curling their fists into tight balls pressed against their sides.
"Right, right." Speaking with ironic spaces between his words, Algor's nostrils flared pompously. "You were the one who loved me right? You still do, don't you?"
Another silence ensued, and Sinclair's expression was unreadable as they heaved. I had trouble processing that previous statement, but it incited a sort of jealousy in me. Was I an idiot to believe I had a chance? But this didn't look like a good situation for Sinclair to be in regardless of how I felt…
"You'll be sorry to hear I fell out of love with you the moment you cut my wings off," Sinclair whispered with a twisted smile, still full of the malice that characterized the exchange.
Sinclair was thrown against the wall once more, but that did not prevent them from speaking their mind.
"And I knew you didn't love me after all the times I said I loved you, and you couldn't even say it a single time whenever we made love."
Gripping a piece of fabric on the messenger's chest, Algor dug his knuckles into their sternum. "Say that again after taking that bracelet off. Say it again!"
Sinclair, who was visibly uncomfortable, remained quiet, and their voice sounded defeated. "Why should I do as you say? You don't own me anymore."
Algor seized the opal from the piece of jewelry like it was a filthy crumb and smashed it on the floor. Unsuccessfully, Sinclair reached for it. Neither bothered to fix it.
"Because if you're truly mad at me, you'll take it off and go away."
"I don't have to take it off to tell you to leave me alone!" Sinclair shouted with a renewed vigor.
Algor turned Sinclair so that they faced the wall—their cheeks pressed harshly against it. Their features were distorted and puffy, and they tried resisting but to no avail.
The older fairy gripped Sinclair's shoulders before removing one hand to lift the back of their shirt as the front hung down to their navel. Sinclair made a hissing noise that grew in volume.
My jaw opened wide. On their back were two deep scars like lightning bolts where their wings *should* have been. They clearly were removed forcefully like during a rudimentary surgery, not kindly incised in the slightest.
I could barely look at the lines since I could not imagine the kind of pain Algor put Sinclair through in doing that. It made a bitter resentment towards the man grow in me, but I didn't want to make my presence known until the two were done arguing or the fighting escalated. Whichever came first. I would not be able to defend myself if I intervened, and I felt ever worse about my physical weakness obstructing my resolve again.
"Would you rather I freshen up these gashes—already so deep in your back that you'll never be able to have wings again?" Algor mused as he dragged his index finger through the canyons between the smaller valleys of Sinclair's muscles.
Sinclair nearly yelped in pain and tried moving somewhere—anywhere—only bringing themself impossibly closer to the brick and doing very little to fix their situation. Heavy, worried breaths bounced off the wall.
"Would you like the faded purple to burn a bright red and leak once more? Would it give you some kind of masochistic pleasure if I made them so deep that I could seize your heart and lungs through them—take your last breath and heartbeat? Is that what you want from me?"
Algor moved closer to their ear and trailed his hands along their back. Rows of goosebumps became prominent, and Sinclair trembled.
Through clenched teeth, he said, "You enjoy this, don't you? You can't let me go. Let me see it."
I hated that feeling of envy Algor gave me right then—I finally placed that ache—and I sank to the floor while my heart accelerated faster than explainable by gravity. This time, however, it brought me to the verge of collapse and not ecstasy. I was powerless—so fucking powerless—while Algor had enough strength to do whatever he wanted to Sinclair.
*So I'll apologize to myself for the fact I can't always protect you…*
Algor raised his hand, and the deep brown that characterized Sinclair's eyes shattered into thousands of particles until it ceased to glow and exist. Behind the neutral tone of their irises were eyes that pulsated several colors, shifting rapidly between shades.
At last, when Sinclair locked their eyes with Algor's, they shifted from a dark blue to a hot pink to a searing red, which evoked a wrenching of my heart.
There was something lustful and loving there—I saw it so clearly—that was overcome by anger as Sinclair spun around. Back against the perimeter of the room, they moved a hand upwards and punched Algor square in the jaw once, twice, until the fairy fell to the floor with bent wings. He rubbed his face—peering at Sinclair submissively, incredulously.
"Don't touch me ever again," Sinclair spat. "I want nothing to do with you anymore."
They turned away.
"I only dealt with you because I wanted to put our past relationship aside to help King Inei. Seeing as how we're at a dead end,"—they shook their head—"I don't see the need to play nice with you anymore."
Breathing in, they closed their eyes. "Get out of here, and don't let me ever see you again."
Sinclair muttered to themself as they stormed out of the room, "Fucking sadist."
Algor sat on the floor dumbly, frothing at the mouth in anger. He was rabid by then, but the shock neutralized his nerves like a sedative.
As Sinclair passed me, hiding their face from view, I mistakenly tripped them by grabbing their pant leg. They sharply inhaled, appearing surprised, but they knew to keep their mouth shut with me there. Their face was glistening and wet, and they seemed deeply troubled by the fight.
With the intense but broken gaze I gave them coupled with their pleading blue-gray eyes, they knew I wouldn't let them go until I got an explanation.
***
"Tell me what you've been hiding from me all this time," I said to them when we took refuge in the Galaxy Meadow—the only place over which I had complete sovereignty.
We sat across from each other. I held a goblet of water, and they brandished one half full of wine I stole from the king's cellar on our way out.
I was upset with them; I thought they trusted me completely, but my hunch that they concealed some kind of past relations with Algor unfortunately proved to be accurate. Though, I was still startled by the nature of that bond. It was like getting pushed into the deep end of a body of water without warning; it still sucked even if the person knew how to swim.
It was difficult to look Sinclair in the eyes—whether from anger or jealousy—but one of theirs turned crimson while another was as yellow as the Sun Kingdom. Their face mostly cleared up from before so that only neutrality remained.
That was the first time I felt any sort of animosity towards them, but I supposed all good things met roadblocks. There was nobody to whom I could bare so much of myself or tone down my confident persona around, yet I felt as if that trust was shattered. To take a sledgehammer to that sort of bond was to completely annihilate it, but I didn't think it was quite that irreparable—just a heap of glue and a lot of puzzle attempts were needed.
People had their various reasons not to talk about things or else the concept of a "secret" would not have existed (and it still hardly did to some). I decided to cut Sinclair some slack at that moment if they admitted to me everything I needed to hear.
Why were the two of them fighting? What happened with the king? Why was Sinclair forced to act against their will? Most importantly, what was the exact relationship between Sinclair and Algor?
I just had a hard time comprehending all that right then and could not act entirely rationally.
"Sinclair, tell me already, and stop keeping silent."