Oh great.
“You know there's no need to be jealous.” Erasmus greets me with a triumphant smirk. “I mean there's so many things you can do without a soulmate that I'm missing out on.”
“Then can we talk more aboutthatplease?”
“You can't just avoid talking about soulmates in this kind of kingdom, Amias. If I were you, I would-”
“But you're not me.” My body quivers. He can't tell me how to feel!
“I know, but the world isn't just gonna cater to your wants. You're soulmateless and that's okay. You just need to accept it.”
“I'm trying to.” I realize my foot is tapping from Erasmus's glance towards it and I force it down. “It's hard to come to terms with it.”
“It shouldn't be so hard to accept. Can't you just…accept it?” Erasmus chuckles like I’ve said something ridiculous. “I mean, people live happily single all the time. You're making this more difficult than it is.”
My fingers curl, desperately wanting to ball up and knock him in his chin. “You don't get to say shit when you've gotten everything handed to you.” I stand up tall, but not tall enough to be above his gaze. “It's so easy to say when you're praised and get all the achievements in everything! You have no idea what I go through just because I'm soulmateless and the frustration that comes with it! So no, I can't just forget about this andacceptit!”
Erasmus gets silent, his jaw slacked as he puts his hands up defensively. I stand rigid, my anger only dwindling slightly after each huff.
Erasmus sighs. “You're right. I don't know because you don’t talk to me anymore.”
My eyes widen. “Huh?”
“You haven't talked to me about anything since those rumors started. It's become worse now that I found Maya. I thought we were close growing up, but then you just kind of pulled away and started running.”
Warm drains from my face. What am I doing? I'm acting like a child!
“Maybe we can take a walk and discuss it.” Erasmus smiles softly. “Like we used to do. Just have a brotherly talk, you know?”
I struggle to keep eye contact, my gaze darting in different directions. Should I just talk to him? Or will I only look more foolish? I'm making a big deal out of nothing.
I can deal with being soulmateless, and I can deal with it alone. I don't need anyone's concern. I don't want it anyways. I'm not a kid anymore.
I should be content with what I have. I should be happy.
“Sorry…” I whisper, bowing my head and glancing away. My heart pulses painfully at my foolishness. “I’m sorry.”
“No, I don't need you to apologize.”
“No. I was being selfish and of course you have every right to talk about Maya and be happy about her. I think it's good that you're happy.”
“I was being an asshole too. I shouldn't have poked so hard if it's that important to you. I'm sorry-”
“You know what? Being alone is great! You're fine. I just need to figure things out on my own.” I offer him a grin; agesture my heart disagrees with. “I'll help out the kingdom as usual and adopt one day. Yeah. That should be fine.”
Erasmus’s brows scrunched together. “Of course. On your own.”
Crash!
I snap my head towards the mall down the street on the opposite side. On the outside, it looks like a white castle with four tower-like buildings, surrounded by a walkway of bricks. In the middle, there's a pristine glass dome with a silver heart on top.
Or rather there was a heart on top a second ago. Instead, there's creatures with panther-like bodies in the color of night, with horns between their ears.
Dreamscreechers.
There's a person running and screaming out the doors. Then there's another. Then another.
My muscles stiffen. What the…
