Swiftcurrent Creek [m] Fairy blue, it is only for you that I would crush the stars

not someone to protect, when reverie was not in her right mind half the time and her murderous brother could be stalking about even now! still lestan nodded, albeit with a numbness that crept into every corner of him.
he was not the one who needed to be protected.
"wanting to take care of you does not mean i don't see you as my equal," he said, but the words felt weak. 
and in reverie's own, he heard that she wished to leave. that he had been her second choice. and that stung, whether or not she meant it, whether or not he truly wanted her to do the things that she wished, outside of him.
"i am afraid you will feel trapped. like you have no choice," the mayfair said in allusion to this potential pregnancy.
he tried to conjure the name she had said, the one arric had given her. lestan would be lying if he said he felt any attachment to new life; he had only just begun to sort his to her, beyond the breathless near feral golding of all his veins when they were near one another. "not being able to — see the world, staying here with me, being — a mother." before she was ready. before she was willing to settle.
the right thing to do, then, was not to run the risk of tying her here to someone who still had not understood.
"ah," and his voice was guttural with misery. "i think — i think this is too fast." if he was overly protective of her now, lestan knew he would be neurotic about children. sorrow cloaked his tongue. "who is ashlar?"