Night Light (A Nessian Fic)
A scream. Cassian heard a scream. He couldn’t discern if where it came from but he just knew who it came from- Nesta.
Throwing aside the covers to his massive bed, Cassian raced down the hall until he found her. Her face was ashen and she had broken out in cold sweats while she grasped the sheets. And yet, she was utterly silent. Wasn’t she just screaming? Cassian thought.
Running a rough hand through his shoulder length hair, he blew a forced breath through his teeth. Moving to sit in the small chair in the corner of her room, he watched her. The way she trembled, the way her forehead creased. Was it so horrible to say she was beautiful? He knew she was having a nightmare and he also knew he should wake her up. But Cassian danced delicately around Nesta, ever since the war some dark place inside of her had snapped, and her spark had dulled. She wasn’t phased by his poking and prodding anymore, she just stared at him with that painstakingly beautiful face. He tried to search her eyes for some semblance of the woman he’d known before the war, but all he found was an empty shell.
Watching her now, he finally found the courage to rouse her from that nightmare she was living. He moved to her bedside when he heard that scream again. But the scream did not come from her mouth, no, that scream sounded deep within his mind. Mate, that scream seemed to say. Save me, it urged, twisting deeper into Cassian’s gut.
Without a second thought, his hands were on Nesta’s shoulders, shaking her. “Nesta!” He yelled, the walls reverberating in his wake. She stilled, the nightmare loosening its death grip on her body.
Kneeling, he came nose to nose with Nesta. Mate; that primal instinct resounding again. “Mate,” he said aloud, as if convincing himself of the new discovery. He decided he liked the taste of the word on his tongue, the way the puzzle pieces of his world seemed to finally click into place.
“Mates?” A surprisingly meek voice questioned.
His cheeks instantly flared red, the temperature in her bedroom rising by the second.
When Nesta didn’t receive and answer she tried the more assertive approach. “I asked you a question, Cassian.”
Clearing his throat rather loudly, he gestured to the bed in question to which she nodded tentatively. Sitting down he said, “I thought you were still asleep. You were having a nightmare.”
“I was,” she said without her normal conviction, instead she sounded hollow, pained. His heart broke in two when she turned to him. “I was reliving the moment Hybern broke your wings- broke you.” Her lip quivering, she reached for his hand.
“I’m lost Cassian.”
A single tear fell onto her beautiful cheek, and he followed the wet trail it left on her skin with his eyes. Daring to wipe it away, he found she did not back away from his touch that was thrumming with electricity.
Looking at her from under his lashes he said, “I’ll make you a deal Nesta Archeron, if you would allow me to, I will be your night light.” She did not need to ask what that meant.
Lacing her fingers through his, she said with new found confidence, “Deal.”
