Page 136 of To Fight and To Fold

Because it wasn't just an unfortunate circumstance that Thea could not escape Aaryn when she most wanted to put distance between them. It was—well, something less severe than an order, but not something Thea would consider disobeying, either. Especially not because of a mess she'd gotten herself into.

So that new presence curled up behind her ribs and continued to swell and grow like a young dragon. It battled for space with the guilt, with the lie she kept having to swallow, only for it to steep and brew and become bitter with each passing minute.

So Thea took Starspark into the sky with Aaryn, tense and nervous, and placed her hands a safe distance away on the back of the saddle.

Thea tried to be polite, to keep proper inches between them, but Starspark was excitable, and his clumsy darting through the sky kept crashing them into each other.

It was safer just to hold on tight. Pressed shoulder to hip, thigh to thigh.

When their feet touched the ground again, the clay dragon might as well have been glaring.

Thea managed to evade her around meals, finding things to keep her busy—away from Aaryn.

But it was only a temporary relief until Thea stood in the grass across from her, teaching her new spells, which did not come to Aaryn as naturally as being in the air did.

After another failed attempt, Aaryn whined and leaned her head back with a pout, lips so cute and full and⁠—

"Why am I having such a hard time with this?"

"You'll get it. It's not easy."

"You make it look so easy!" Aaryn sighed and leaned in toward Thea. "Do you think it comes more naturally to you because you're part dragon?" Aaryn asked, and brushed a finger over Thea's left horn.

After the unfortunate discovery that Aaryn was flirting with her, Thea blushed, nose to toes, and stepped away with a sputter. "I—It’s not any easier for me. I mean, you have p-pink hair. There's dragon in you somewhere, too." Thea ruffled her hands through her hair to disperse the chills still running rampant across her scalp from the contact, and stepped away from Aaryn. She was embarrassingly thrown by the way heat had struck her, pointed and sharp, right in the belly at Aaryn's touch. "It's rumored everyone has a little dragon in them, you know."

“Oh.” Her head tilted to the side in that devastatingly cute way. “Maybe it just seemed that way because you’re the first person I’d ever seen use it.”

In the orchard, when she’d teleported away. Aaryn's anger had been visceral even from a safe distance, hidden in the trees. It had been hard to leave her there.

"That feels like a lifetime ago," Aaryn remarked.

From Evergale's marble prison to the thriving nature and glowing flowers around them.

“I think I like this lifetime better,” she added. Aaryn’s smile was knowing, and Thea was afraid to ask exactly what she knew.

Thea was so fucking… nervous, she realized.

Thea spent almost two years living a lie, and she'd been good at it, right? Or she wouldn't have gotten away with it. Crafting a backstory, living as a different person, and it had been… fine!

But now, suddenly, one tiny little white lie was making her stomach tight with nerves when faced with the one she was lying to.

"Let's go back to basics," Thea suggested. "The five senses."

"Okay. Teach me, wise one," Aaryn said, lips curled, eager and so stars-damned cute.

"Slow down, center yourself. What can you see? Tell me five things."

Aaryn's gaze flitted in every direction, speaking softly as she narrated, "The blue flowers, the tree trunk behind you, Starspark, the nearest lanterns, and—" Her attention locked in on Thea, a shock of green. "You."

Thea swallowed, the warmth of the evening seeping in, and took another step away. "Find four things you can feel."

Aaryn's smile slipped into something teasing and comfortable, and Thea felt a flush to her system not unlike the effects of alcohol, or the very moon bloom that surrounded them.

"The breeze," Aaryn murmured, and as if conjured, it tugged at tendrils of her hair, and Thea thought she looked unfairly pretty. "The flowers." She reached down and cupped the petals of one between her fingers oh-so-gently.

Aaryn really liked the flowers, and had once said they were the most mysterious thing in her visions with Starspark. She'd never seen them before, and her fascination at their glowing pollen made the dragon in Thea's chest swell.

Meanwhile, the one on Aaryn's chest stared back.