Page 20 of To Fight and To Fold

She wished she could come up with something better than wow.

Aaryn stayed. She didn’t know what she expected the royals to talk about at their breakfast table, but she was surprised to find it was easy, personal conversation. Thankfully they paid her little mind, so she was able to… sit. Listen. Focus her thoughts elsewhere for a bit.

Prince Jarrick asked a guard how his mother was. Another how they were faring after the previous day’s events. How they’d all slept. There was no talk of battles or the day ahead or the days behind.

Mundane. Could it be the royals were just people, too?

Something about that was especially charming.

When she returned to her room, she was uncertain of what she was supposed to do. Now that Starspark was gone…

Aaryn had no duties to tend to. Her days were usually filled with… Starspark. On the occasion he was taken out by a knight, Aaryn was equally lost.

But this time was different, because she didn’t know where Starspark had gone, if he would return, or who was taking care of him.

Aaryn stalked to the window and gazed down below. The debris from the evening before had already been removed, and the crew of local stonelayers had made great progress. They were being closely watched by a group of guards. Beyond them, the Tethered were just disappearing into their respective caves to care for their dragons, some leading the beasts into the sunshine.

She should be down there with them, walking into the dragons’ cubby, Starspark greeting her with an affectionate huff, his breath blowing her long pink hair back.

With a mournful sigh, she turned away from the window and trailed to her bed, which she’d made that morning. Aaryn kept her room up with pride, considering she hadn’t had a room to herself at all until she’d become Tethered. So she found it a little odd that there was a dip in the blankets, nearest the window.

Aaryn frowned and sat down in the spot, filling the dimple in the mattress, retracing her steps from that morning. Her gaze trailed around her walls, and gratitude bubbled in her, appreciation still visceral even after the three years she’d spent here.

An envelope on the floor caught her eye.

It wasn’t addressed to a single person, but she opened it and—sank down onto the bed in the same dip.

Thea’s messy scrawl filled only a third of the page. A short letter.

I’m sorry I started something I never intended to finish. He is safer than he ever would have been in the hands of the crown. I’m sorry you were caught in the middle.

That was it. Three sentences.

She read the words over and over again, maybe hoping some hidden message would reveal itself. But there were no lines to read between. Thea had taken Starspark, and from the sound of it, she did not intend to return him.

“Starspark was perfectly safe here,” she hissed. “Under my care! He was… adored!”

Scales, how she wished to see Thea just one more time so Aaryn could⁠—

Could finish what she started?

“What does she even mean by that?” Aaryn muttered bitterly, despite the color in her cheeks.

She’d baited Aaryn with one letter while leaving her another? When? Had she returned—this morning? Aaryn stood, staring at the bed, the dip she'd so comfortably sank into.

Aaryn groaned and… after memorizing each line, stuffed the note into her pocket. She should hand it over to the investigator as soon as she was introduced. Any help she could offer in the effort to find Thea…

Then, Thea would tell them where Starspark was, and Aaryn could bring him home.

A knock on her door interrupted her thoughts and Aaryn patted the note in her pocket, making sure it was hidden, just before it burst open.

Rose spilled into the room with a delighted, wickedly nosy smile on her lips and closed the door behind her. Then she practically dove for the bed and bounced on its surface as she stared up at Aaryn, unaware of who exactly had occupied that bed, if only for a moment.

"Aaryn. What the tear was all of that about?"

Her interest made Aaryn's cheeks flush. "What do you mean?"

"I mean—breakfast with the prince! At his side! What was it like?"