Page 35 of To Fight and To Fold

"So if he's safe…" Rose said, and held up her fingers about an inch apart. "You could've gotten a little kiss."

"Rose!" Aaryn sputtered. "That's not what this is about."

"Aw, but it's kind of romantic, come on! Your knight in shining armor is cornering you at orchards." She gasped. "Did she push you up against a tree?"

Aaryn's flaming face was answer enough, and Rose cackled as she leaned back, kicking her feet in excitement. "Oh, this is amazing!"

Part of Aaryn wanted to give in to the glee in her chest, but she refused to lose sight of how this had all started. She’d been fooled once; she couldn’t fall for it again.

"Rose," she said softly. "Thea stole my dragon. Starspark is gone, and I don't know if I'll ever get him back. And if I don't, my life here will never be the same." Sudden fear struck through any excitement at all, and she stood. "No matter my feelings for Thea, she betrayed me, lied to me, all to get closer to my dragon, to take him away from me. Maybe it's easy for you to see the romance in this, because Moss is waiting for you down there." She waved a hand at the window, and her heart ached. "You should go to him."

"I'm sorry for being insensitive. I'll give you some space, but please come to me if you need anything. I'm here for you." The Tethered stood, and then Aaryn felt the comfort of a familiar touch on her shoulder.

"Thank you, Rose," Aaryn said, and stared at the blue sky and the green grass littered with dragons through a wave of tears.

The prince, when she located him, was seated behind a large desk, and the guards with him were practically lounging.

He smiled as she approached. “Tethered Aaryn, to what do I owe this pleasure?”

“Can I speak to you?” she asked, glancing dubiously at the guards. “Regarding… everything.”

Jarrick frowned. “These are my most trusted knights, I assure you⁠—“

Aaryn had spent the better part of an hour convincing herself to come here, and she was not going to let a few nosy guards get in her way. Not with the anger and leftover rawness of her conversation with Rose prickling in her chest. Fine.

“She came to me,” Aaryn said.

Jarrick stood upright, knocking a knee into the desk. “Leave us,” he told the guards.

Aaryn blinked, her annoyance fading at his immediate response, and waited as the guards filed out. Her anger cooled slightly as they rushed to leave the room. This was the prince. She did not have a right—a status worthy enough—to snap at him. “I’m sorry to interrupt. Should I have waited⁠—“

“I assume you meant Thea?” he asked, coming around his desk to lean against the front of it. He made quite the picture, in the royal colors of white and sky blue, with his pretty blond hair—though Aaryn had always preferred dark hair, like Thea's⁠—

She nodded, burying such thoughts deep into her mind.

“Then this is urgent. Where did she find you?”

Aaryn’s cheeks heated, and she glanced down to her dust-covered feet and the ruined hem of her dress. “In the orchard."

The prince dragged a hand down his face. “You went all the way out there? Alone?" He leaned forward, placing a palm on her shoulder. “Great Hoard, it’s a wonder you’re standing before me. What did she want? Are you alright?”

For a moment, the prince's worry threw Aaryn off balance, and with that surprise, she realized she had never felt threatened by Thea's presence. “She wanted me to come with her. To Starspark—who she assured me was safe," she added.

His gaze dipped from her head to her feet, pausing on her left hand midway. “She didn’t hurt you?”

The concern on Jarrick’s features was… kind, and genuine as his hand slipped from her shoulder. Her mother's words slid to the forefront of her mind. You must endear yourself to him. Make him fall in love with you.

Her stomach turned.

“No, she didn’t hurt me.” She told him of her disappearance into the trees, using magic that she had thought long dead, long gone from the lands of Rishika.

Jarrick sighed. “They take what isn’t theirs.”

And Thea was putting everyone at risk by doing so. By using magic that wasn’t theirs.

Jarrick’s expression was carefully blank. “Magic protects us, and every bit of it that isn’t directed toward doing so weakens our efforts.”

Skies, Thea, what are you doing?