Page 43 of Fated Flames: Volume Two
Oh no. Not now.
“Are you all right?” Soren asks. I haven’t moved in several seconds.
Think, Serah. Think.
“Ah, yes,” I say, glancing down the side of the dune for some semblance of privacy. “Sorry. I just need to relieve myself.” Maybe I’m wrong.
Freezing air gusts over me as Soren eases his wings open. “Of course,” he says, but as I try to stand, he grabs my wrist.
“Princess?”
I can already feel myself blushing. “Yes?”
His nose lifts. His head tilts.
“I smell blood,” he says.
I barely withhold my groan. Suddenly, my unexpected crying bout makes complete sense. How I never see this coming, I don’t know.
The bane of womankind has struck, and of course, it’s at the most inconvenient time possible.
Well, Mother taught us never to be ashamed of our bodies, and though I may be skirting around some of her lessons, this is one I refuse to.
No matter how mortifying it may be.
Turning about to face him, I draw myself up and say, “I’m afraid my monthly curse has come. We should probably make our way back.”
Soren blinks at me. Then he does so again.
“Curses aren’t real, Serah.”
I’m tempted to tell him this one is. “I know,” I say instead. “Um, perhaps you know it as the menses?”
A blank look is my answer.
“The red flower?”
The red flower, he mouths as if trying to decipher some ancient language.
Oh, for stars’ sake. I don’t know any other euphemisms.
“Soren,” I say, “please pardon my bluntness. I’m bleeding, and I need to return to the tent now.”
I have never seen anyone—or anything, really—move so fast.
In the span of a breath, the fur is thrown over me, I’m in Soren’s arms, and his wings are snapping open.
“Wait, Soren, I didn’t mean—”
The wind snatches the words from my mouth as we shoot into the sky with all the speed of a rock fired from a slingshot. I gasp at the sudden cold, at the sensation of my stomach plummeting to my toes.
“Soren,” I pant, “stop. I’m fine! This is normal!”
“Bleeding is not normal!” he roars, clutching me to him, and I see to my great alarm that I’ve frightened him.
Oh dear.
I try once more, to no avail, and however long it took us to reach our secluded dune, we’re somehow back at The Pit within moments. We drop from the sky like a meteorite, and I do scream this time as Soren hits the ground with enough force to crater the ground around him and send a tsunami of sand surging over the neighboring tents.
