Page 168 of To Fight and To Fold

"You're okay," Thea cooed to her, more for her own sanity than anything else. "I've got you."

"I know," she said, already slipping back under. "I've got you too."

35

AWAKE

Aaryn was burning up, magic flaring beneath her skin, like… She didn't have a big enough scope of the world to know how to describe it.

In between the spike of fevers, it felt somewhat like a restlessness, a jitter after too much tea. She felt an awareness of Starspark, somewhere out there, burning off his own energy on one of the isles.

In the height of the fever, it swelled until it felt like her skin would burst, and a whine would slip past her lips and then⁠—

Thea was there. With a cold cloth or a drink of water.

Or—better.

Her mouth, her fingers, drawing the magic from her in waves of pleasure. There was an entire ocean in her veins begging for escape, for release. With Thea between her legs, she found it. Again and again.

Aaryn was ascending once more, moans filling the room as Thea gripped at her thighs, fingers leaving bruises to accompany the ones already painting her skin.

"Thea," Aaryn whined. "Please, please⁠—"

Thea couldn't speak because her mouth was busy, and Aaryn chanted her name. It was so hot. Sweat beaded on her skin and pooled in the dip of her collarbones and it was so slick wherever Thea touched.

Then she felt it, the tightening of the Hoard, and suddenly—coolness. Filling her whole body, easing the heat of the awakening for just a moment.

"There," Thea said, finally lifting with a breath and a smile, hands squeezing once. "Better?"

Aaryn melted into the bed, a slow breath finally settling in her lungs, the crazed need lessening briefly. "Yes."

But the pleasure still lingered and she wanted, and her gaze fell to Thea, whose hair was wild and tangled about her horns, the back of it flattened and curling just below her ear in the most endearing way.

Aaryn reached up and smoothed a thumb over Thea's cheek, over the shine on her lips. "Thank you for taking such good care of me."

Thea blinked softly at her, and Aaryn's chest swelled with affection—not the heat of the awakening.

Aaryn sucked her thumb clean, and bit down on a smile at Thea's dazed look.

Aaryn sat up and took charge of the space Thea relinquished, pressing her back into the bed and sitting atop her thighs.

Aaryn roamed her touch from Thea’s shoulders to her wrists and over her belly, up the center of her chest. She planted one hand in the bed and stroked that cute little curl behind her ear. She kissed the freckle on her jaw.

The battle came back to her in flashes, and mostly she was distracted by the pleasure, by the heat and desperation and magic in her body. But now in this brief respite, she ached.

She ached for the Thea who hadn't survived the battle. She ached for the Aaryn who had lost her Thea. She ached for Carissa, who had lost Rolim.

"Baby," Thea murmured. A frown tugged at her lips and she reached up to cup Aaryn’s face. "What's wrong?"

The words got caught in Aaryn's throat. "I can't tell you right now," she answered. "I—I want a clearer head."

Thea gazed at her as if she already knew the secrets Aaryn held. Aaryn knew that couldn't possibly be true, because if she knew, then Thea wouldn't be here. Thea might hate her. Thea might never forgive her.

So Thea didn't know. Not yet. And Aaryn could selfishly live in this limbo for just a bit longer.

Here and now, in this tiny little corner of paradise they'd carved out for themselves, with fading moon blooms on the windowsill beside them, nothing was wrong because Thea was here, where she belonged.

With Aaryn.