Chapter 286: To Keep Skies (Ch.286)
"You fool...why is it so hard for you to understand anything?" Estelle grumbled beneath her breath.
Estelle wished Dante could see into her heart, that would have made things so much easier on her.
Then, she would not have to struggle to speak any words and end up swallowing then down for lack of courage.
Estelle was weary now, deeply exhausted and it was not even because of the High Maiden, the nymphs, the Black Network or anything...
It was just Dante, and the truth about him she had never dared admit even to herself.
A truth Estelle knew she would never admit to, if not now...in this mont when Dante waited and watched quietly and all she needed to do was speak.
But in speaking was where the trouble lay.
"What do I not understand?" Dante asked with a raised brow.
Estelle’s silence had dragged on for more than a mont now and Dante’s patience was waning.
"I...I..." Estelle stuttered, clenching and unclenching her fists as she tried to co up with the best way to convey what she felt at this mont.
Estelle had co to an unexpected realization in these past few days and she was all the more certain of it now.
Certain that all along, she had missed the obvious...or she had pushed it away because she simply did not want to believe it.
But now, after all that had just happened, there was no denying it anymore.
"Elle, for once in your life, can you just make things easy?" Dante asked in exasperation when Estelle still could not say anything.
It was another one of Estelle’s tantrums, at least that was what Dante believed.
Sowhere in Dante’s mind he expected that any mont now, Estelle would make an absurd decision like telling him she no longer wanted his company on her mission.
Dante braced himself for the cold, harsh words he knew Estelle would say. You see, whenever Estelle was hurt, throwing the hurt right back was always her backup plan.
"Just... just let
finish." Estelle said back with a shaky sigh.
Dante grunted beneath his breath but kept his silence and waited for Estelle to gather her thoughts and speak.
"The severing...it must have been so painful and terrifying for you." Estelle began in a tone thick with sadness.
Those words were completely unexpected and not at all the cold, harsh words Dante had expected.
Dante raised a brow at Estelle, she had never bothered to acknowledge what he had been through and if Dante was being honest, he had found it a relief.
For the past months, he had been on the receiving end of sympathy from his kin and it was ntally draining.
But when Estelle asked, there was no sympathy in her tone, instead what Dante sensed was pain and that made it easier for him to broach the topic.
"I woke up one day to realize the other half of my soul was... gone. And there was nothing I could do about it."
"I could not protect or save her, I could not run to her or even be by her side because I didn’t even know who she was or where in the world I could find her..."
"I felt a part of
die, Elle. My heart shattered piece by piece within ... Pain? That is an understatent." Dante replied with a quiet sigh.
Dante was not sure why he was being so honest, he did not find it easy to speak of his feelings with many people but with Estelle, even after a decade, it was still like impulse to Dante.
When a dragon placed his trust in soone, he could never take it back.
Estelle bit down on her lip, nodding in understanding.
"I know what I am about to say might anger you, but I have to be honest with myself this ti..." Estelle began again.
"When so ti has passed... I an even a decade or more... when it feels easier and not as devastating as it is now... even by just a little..." Estelle stuttered out.
"So what I’m trying to say is... when your heart is ready, would you let
try...to heal you? A new bond to replace the old..." Estelle asked quietly.
"I do not need your sympathy." Dante replied blankly, his brows furrowed in displeasure.
"That’s not it Dante... I know I was the one who turned down your father’s proposal, and that was stupid of ."
"I do not want to make the sa mistake I did a decade ago. I thought I would truly lose you this ti and it was... unbearable."
"I... I want to be more than a friend to you Dante, if you would allow it. It does not have to be anyti soon too... just, when you’re ready." Estelle replied, her tone still quiet.
Dante’s heart gave a sudden and unsteady beat for the first ti, an intense reaction for the first ti since the severing had passed.
The words Estelle said, Dante wondered if they were what he thought them to be or was his mind conjuring up a scene to make his life even more miserable than it already was?
"What do you an by the sa mistake?" Dante asked slowly.
Of all the words Estelle had said, those words caught Dante’s attention. He still could not understand just what had happened between them a decade ago.
"I...A decade ago, when you were in a slumber in our cave... I... I wanted to know for sure, if there was hope...so I checked. I touched your reversed scale... and nothing happened." Estelle finally admitted to a truth she had never said before.
"That was why you shut
out." Dante realized in surprise.
"It hurt too much to face the reality that you could never be mine. I believed it would be for the best if you were gone... so I never have to watch you find happiness with soone else."
"Now I feel like... I jinxed you... and I’m so so sorry. When I heard of the severing, I flared up..."
"I didn’t want to be just a replacent for the love you could never have...not when I had found myself a version of you that could actually be mine." Estelle sobbed quietly.
"Jason?" Dante asked after a mont of stunned silence.
"Did you never realize it? He sounds like you... and cares for
in the way you did." Estelle murmured.
"Oh, Elle..." Dante sighed, watching Estelle struggle to swallow down her sobs.
In the past few days, since the night at Fort Blazed, Dante had witnessed Estelle display such great strength over and over again.
The Estelle who had sohow been able to move forward after what happened with Fort Blazed, with her mission as her priority.
The Estelle who had just battled the High Maiden so fearlessly, instead of sitting and waiting for Dante to find her.
This was the Estelle Dante had known from his youth, the one she had buried beneath all that grief and despair till it was lost.
"I know it’s too much to ask, you... you don’t have to take
seriously... I just wanted you to know." Estelle assured, forcing a smile to her lips that did not hold.
For a mont, Dante just stared at Estelle, rendered speechless by her words.
"If you were going to replace
with soone...he should have been a bit taller." Dante finally blurted out, his response completely off topic.
"Dante!" Estelle exclaid in disbelief before she broke into laughter.
"Elle... a severing as strong as mine is known to be a death sentence. Why do you think I lived?" Dante asked as he covered the distance between he and Estelle.
"When I needed a precious mory to grasp onto...a reason to live, I thought of Estelle Starron... the woman I cherish the most." Dante said,
He placed a hand on Estelle’s cheek, wiping her tears with his thumb.
"So when so ti has passed... Certainly not another decade or more."
"But when it feels easier and not as devastating as it is now... even by just a little..." Dante repeated Estelle’s words from a mont ago, adjusting the parts that did not sit well with him.
"So what I’m trying to say is... when my heart is ready, I will entrust it to you. A new bond to replace the old." Dante finished with a small smile.
"Truly?" Estelle asked in surprise.
"I would not have it be any other." Dante assured.
Leaning down, he placed a soft kiss on Estelle’s forehead before he took her hand and lead her down the path till they found a larger space.
Dante took his dragon form, the massive maroon beast in all it’s wild beauty, a beauty that never ceased to amaze Estelle no matter how many tis she had witnessed the shift.
His large head turned to Estelle, nodding his permission.
Estelle walked over, climbing up to Dante’s back.
"To Keep Skies?" Estelle asked.
"To Keep Skies." Dante’s agreent echoed in Estelle’s mind as he took to the skies.
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