8. Asking
ASKING
With the taste of forbidden magic still on her tongue, and the ghost of Thea's palm against her cheeks, her words ringing in her ears, Aaryn retreated to her room.
She knew she should speak to the prince, tell him about Thea's appearance and what she'd said and the magic she'd used… but Aaryn needed just a moment. To herself. To her thoughts.
The sun cast dim rays over the field below, where Tethered saw to their dragons, or simply napped with them in the setting sun.
She wanted to trade places with any one of them. To laze on the grass next to Starspark once more, to feel the warmth of his scales beneath her cheek, his affectionate huff disturbing her hair. Her throat constricted, knowing that Thea had slipped through her fingers again.
Not that you tried to hold on very tightly.
A groan built in her throat but before she could release it and fall dramatically onto her bed, there was a knock at the door.
Aaryn steeled herself and answered.
Rose was on the other side, glancing down the hallway before she slipped into Aaryn's room.
"Hi," she said softly, quietly.
"Hello." Aaryn dragged the word out in a questioning manner. "Everything alright?"
"Well. I wanted to check in. You missed brunch."
Aaryn blinked. "I did? With the other Tethered?"
Rose nodded, her gaze tracking up and down Aaryn's form. "It's not like you to miss brunch."
Beneath her shrewd attention, Aaryn resisted the urge to… what? Cover herself? Why did she even feel the need to hide? What did she have to hide?
"I went for a walk to clear my head," Aaryn said, which wasn't a lie. However, she'd returned with muddier thoughts than when she'd left.
Rose hummed and perched on the edge of her bed. "Did it help?"
An unsure noise gurgled in Aaryn's throat and she sat beside her. Rose pulled her in and Aaryn laid her head on Rose's shoulder, her hand patting her arm softly. "What's wrong?"
"Besides the obvious?" Aaryn asked, possibly pouting.
Rose cooed. "Any progress on the investigation?"
"No," she answered, and now she was definitely pouting.
With a soft chuckle, Rose rocked her back and forth. "Tell me what's wrong."
"Can't," Aaryn said, and it was true. She was… afraid. Thea had found her in the orchard, and for a brief moment it occurred to her that she might not even be afraid for herself, just… for Thea. She wanted Thea to be trustworthy. But how could she be? Aaryn was so torn.
Rose pulled back, and her eyes had that curious light in them. "If you tell me what's going on, I'll tell you what happened to the last Tethered who went missing."
Aaryn sat up, taking the bait. "Okay, fine."
Rose pulled her knees up on the bed and they faced one another, girlish and excited to share secrets.
Aaryn would have never guessed treason would look and feel so casual.
"I haven't even told the prince yet, so you can't tell anyone what I'm about to divulge, okay?" Aaryn prefaced.
"Don't worry, he won't hear it from me," Rose said. "You're the one with the connection there."
"We are nothing," Aaryn told her, then stalled.
Sometimes Aaryn still felt that the world was big and strange.
"So?" Rose leaned forward. "Tell me."
Aaryn ducked her head, took in a deep breath, and peered up at Rose. "Thea found me," she whispered, barely offering volume to the confession.
Rose gasped and sat straight up, taking Aaryn by the shoulders. "Holy scales, Aaryn, did you have a forbidden tryst?" Her eyes were far too bright in their delight, and it… lightened the heaviness in Aaryn's chest at the subject.
"It wasn't a… tryst," she denied, though the blush on her cheeks raged.
"Was it at the orchard?"
Aaryn nodded and Rose squealed, holding a hand to her mouth to muffle the sound. "Did you kiss?"
"No!" Aaryn cried, a little too loudly, and lowered her voice to a hiss. "No. She tried to convince me to go with her. And I tried to convince her to bring Starspark back to me."
Rose pouted. "You didn't get a kiss?"
For a moment, Aaryn was transported back to the orchard, Thea's hand over her lips, the way her gaze had dipped to Aaryn's mouth. The way Aaryn felt herself drawn to her. No, they hadn't kissed. But it was a near thing.
Aaryn threw her hands up, shaking her head. "Rose, focus, please! She has my dragon."
"She hasn't… hurt Starspark though, right?" Rose asked, drawing a circle on her blankets with a finger.
"No," Aaryn said with confidence, because of her dream.
"You sound so sure," Rose said with a narrowed gaze.
"I am sure. I know. Starspark is safe. Just not where he belongs."
"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?
“So what do we do now?” Aaryn asked, because she was at a loss.
The prince nodded gravely and stepped back behind his desk. “First of all, I’m putting a guard on you at all times.”
Aaryn blinked, then laughed in disbelief. “That’s hardly necessary. I mean, Thea wouldn’t—”
“I don’t believe that for a second," he interrupted. "But if Thea doesn’t worry you, the people she’s working with should.”
Her awkward chuckle faded, as well as her strained, polite smile. “What do you mean?”
He sighed and scratched a hand through his hair, mussing it. Her mother would want her to reach out and push the strand back into place, and remembered the countless times she'd done the same for Thea. Now, though, she couldn't bring herself to move her hand.
“There’s something you should know,” Jarrick said. His brow was furrowed and he looked… nervous. An emotion she’d never seen on the prince before. “It just—If something happened to you, and I could have prevented it…” He sighed. “You have to know what we’re up against. Who took Starspark from you.”
“We know who took Starspark. Thea,” she answered slowly.