Author’s Note: Only the prologue is this romantic/sappy.  The main story isn’t focused on the love story part anyway.  (That’s why I didn’t put this in the romance genre).

Prologue

The wind was his enemy as he staggered against it. His cheeks were rosy from the cold, his eyes cloudy with fatigue. He’d been climbing the stairs for what seemed like ages, but he was only halfway up, and the dark shape of the castle loomed threateningly above him. The sky still had a long time to go before it would reach midnight black, however, and the only reason for the shadows was the irritated clouds thundering above. Everything was gray.

The signs warned him to turn back; apprehension dripped down his neck in a cold sweat.

Yet he climbed on.

Until he paused.

He stood on one step, staring dismally upwards, squinting against the bright gray hues of the sky. A voice floated down to him.

“I told you not to come.”

He looked away, then started up the stairs again.

“I hold to my warning. Do not step any further; go back the way you came.”

He sighed and stopped his climb, hesitating for a moment to glare defeatedly up at the figure. With a grunt, he collapsed on the stone steps and looked out at the landscape.

The stairs carved into a muddy hillside, which was otherwise too steep and slippery for travel. The hill was a small bump on the plateau of a large mountain, which loomed up at the end of a valley. The plateau was not very high up compared to the height of the mountain, and the stairs he climbed led only to a cave entrance that eventually took one to the castle perched on the mountaintop. The figure stood at the top of the stairs, which ended at the mouth of the cave. After a moments silence, which seemed like an eternity to the man – no, he was a boy really – climbing the stairs, the figure – it was a she – sat down beside him.

“I’ve missed you so much,” he whispered. She leaned against him, resting her head on his shoulder. “And when I finally get to see you again, you…”

“I have no choice. This is my duty.”

“No, it’s not, you do have a choice, you don’t have to…”

“Look,” her voice was suddenly hard and angry, “you have your obligations and I have mine. I can’t tell you my reasons, and I don’t expect reasons from you. I know we have our fates, and this is mine. I am here to warn you that what you are about to do is dangerous, it’s terrible and you could get hurt,” and her voice trembled to a weak whisper, “and you know that if anything happened to you, anything at all – you know I couldn’t take that pain. If you don’t care what happens to you, at least care that it would hurt me…”

He played with a strand of her hair. “Don’t make me have to choose.”

She pulled away from him and made eye contact. “I will. If it saves you, as hard as it is, then I’ll have no choice…”

“And what if you don’t like my choice?”

Her eyes glistened with tears; one escaped down her cheek. “You… you l-love me, don’t you?”

He looked away.

“Tell me you don’t love me,” she demanded, “Tell me you don’t love me to my face, look at me and say, ‘Aelan, I don’t love you,’ and I will let you go. You will never have to worry about me again, I will disappear and you will be left alone – left to your own miserable fate up there – and I won’t… I won’t… try to stop you.”

“Aelan, I…”

“Say it.”

“I… I don’t…”

She watched him. His eyes showed his grief, his confusion, and his ultimate weakness. He could not say he didn’t love her; it would be the worst sin he could imagine. And yet, it was completely necessary that he do so, because if he did not there was no other way of getting past her. And he had to. He had to get to the castle.

She sighed. “You’re so weak.” She glanced away, stared at the few trees and bushes growing in the mud. “But I would have believed you. Even if you lied, and you know you can’t lie to me.” She tried to smile, but her lips quivered and she let out a loud sob. “Damn it, the most important things are always the hardest!”

“Aelan, what good would it have done? Can’t there be some other way…?”

Her eyebrows furrowed, and even though her face was wrinkled in deep thought, tears leaked down her cheeks. He watched them splatter on the stones. “Always the optimist. I wish to God there was some other way. But I can’t think of one.”

“There’s supposed to be something good up there, isn’t that what the legend said? Why is it so bad to go up there?”

She bit her lip, which was still quivering. “There is a bad thing, too. And it will be the same worth of the good thing. Which means that added together they leave you neutral, they leave you with nothing. Isn’t apathy – no feeling – the worst fate imaginable? And so I consider whatever up there to be double the terribleness because of the fact that the good weighs equal to the bad.”

They were silent for some time, pondering the future. If they would see each other again. There was no question if he would finish his climb up the stairs; they both knew nothing would be able to stop him, not even his true love. A driving force urged him to the top; a force so strong and irresistible that he could not explain it, nor did he understand it’s nature – one thought penetrated his mind: he must get to the castle.

He took her chin and turned her face towards him, tilted it upwards. “If only I could live in this moment for ever.”

“If only wishes came true.”

“I love you.”

Her eyes closed. He noticed she was still crying, and brushed away the rivers of pain and sadness. “It’s true, I love you.”

“You weren’t supposed to tell me that,” she whispered, opening her eyes and staring at him in half amusement, half annoyance. “You were supposed to walk away leaving my heart broken. Broken hearts mend. But stolen ones leave an emptiness forever.”

“Then I promise I’ll bring it back.”

“You have,” she sniffled, “no place to go making promises.”

“Don’t you know me? I always keep my promises.”

Her dark, cloud-gray eyes gazed into his soft, sky blue ones. “You always have until now, but… everything ends sometime. Except… there’s one you haven’t kept yet.” The corner of her mouth lifted up slightly.

“No there’s – Oh…”

“You promised me that you would outlive me.”

“I haven’t broken that either.”

“You will.”

“Have some faith.”

“How can I – ”

He knew what she was going to say; she’d been insisting upon it for a month: ‘don’t go to the castle, you’ll die, how can I live if you’re dead…’. So he shut her up the only way he knew how.

He kissed her.

When they were done, he said, rather breathlessly, “I swear on that kiss that I will keep both promises.” And with that, he stood and hurried up the stairs before she could stop him. He heard her footsteps running up after him, let her cry pierce his heart but not halt his movement.

“I love you, too!”

That was the last thing he ever heard from her.