Chapter 442: The stone
"Look down, love," he whispered tenderly.
Belle lifted her head from his shoulder and peered down toward the source of the sound. Her eyes widened, and she gasped softly at the unexpected, breathtaking sight below them.
Rohan was standing at the top of a waterfall, on a large rock dividing the streaming water as it rushed down on both sides. What made the place so extraordinary and breathtaking was how the water sparkled like tiny diamonds under the moonlight as it hit the river below, sending ripples across its glowing surface. Despite it being night, the water shimmered in shades of blue and white, so vivid it looked like a scene painted by an artist. Belle had never seen anything so beautiful.
The rushing sound of water was so loud that she had to raise her voice to exclaim.
"Wow..." she breathed, gazing down and around. "It’s beautiful! I’ve never seen anything this fascinating."
"It’s a special place called the Nightblue Falls," Rohan explained, watching the light return to her eyes as she looked around. He had once read somewhere that water had its own way of healing people, especially the sound of it flowing. "The water only sparkles at night. During the day, it looks completely ordinary."
Belle’s eyes widened with delight, glowing like a little girl receiving a long-awaited gift. "Can we go down the waterfall? I want to see it from below," she said with a bright smile, unable to hide her excitement.
Rohan’s lips curved in amusement at how something so simple could lift his wife’s mood so easily. "We can do more than just go down. Do you want to feel the water pouring over your head?"
"Can we really do that?" she laughed, her voice filled with excitement at the thought.
"Of course, my love. Anything you wish." He smirked playfully and, without warning, plunged them both straight through the rushing waterfall. Belle screamed as the cold water poured over her head, clinging tightly to his neck and burying her face in the crook of it, squealing in shock.
Rohan laughed just before they dipped into the water below, the force of the fall pulling them deeper into the river. He didn’t swim them straight back to the surface but nudged her gently to look around. Belle, who had never been in a river before, clung to him for dear life and refused to move until he pried her arms away from his neck and urged her to open her eyes.
When she opened her eyes, she almost gasped, nearly drawing water into her lungs, but stopped herself when she saw what lay beneath the river. Too afraid of sinking any deeper, since she couldn’t swim, she clung tightly to her husband while looking around in awe and wonder.
The water glowed with sparkling blue light, as though stars had fallen and melted into it. Fish swam past them in quick flashes of silver and yellow, darting away once they noticed strangers in their home.
Belle had thought the waterfall was beautiful from above, but nothing compared to the dazzling sight beneath the surface. She could still hear the faint rumble of the waterfall even beneath the surface as it hit the river.
She wanted to look around more as this was her first time being underwater or in a river, but her lungs soon began to burn for air, and she fisted her fingers in Rohan’s shirt to signal that she needed to breathe.
Rohan didn’t take her back up to breath as they were too far below. Instead, he smirked and wrapped his arms around her waist before leaning in and pressing his mouth to hers, sharing his breath and giving her the air she needed without going back up.
He could hold his own breath for an hour being the creature that he was.
The water shimmered around them as they floated together in the glowing blue depths, sinking lower and lower, but neither cared as they shared their breath.
In that moment, they had each other, and nothing else mattered.
When Rohan finally pulled back, he kept her close and began to swim forward, guiding her to see more of the river’s wonders, the stones that lined the riverbed glowing like crystals under the water’s light.
Rohan swam toward one of the stones and picked up one of the white, sparkling ones, the water bubbling from his movement. He turned to show it to her and then placed it in her hand, gently closing her fingers around it. The stone was cold against her palm, and somehow, it soothed something deep inside her heart.
Hold on to that, my love. When things become too heavy, it shall calm your heart and give you peace, Rohan told her with his eyes.
Belle smiled, clenching her fingers around the stone like a precious gift from him.
Thank you for the way you love me, care for me, and hold on to me even when I’m at my lowest. For you, my husband, I would kill a thousand, she tried to say with her eyes.
Rohan moved closer to give her breath again. He kissed her softly and breathed air into her, holding her tightly against his body as the water surrounded them.
Many never wandered to this place because it was on the far side of a mountain in Nightbrook. His wings made it easy to reach. Rumors said the crystal stones beneath the surface could heal the heart and soul, that was why he gave her one.
I will never let them break you. I will always be the one to lift you up again when you fall. Because you are the best thing that has ever happened to me, Isabelle. Rohan didn’t speak the words, but the way he held her said it all.
Belle had never thought she would have another reason to smile after what she had done to that family, but Rohan gave her that reason that night before he took her home, her heart lighter than it had been in days.