18. Take My Hand
TAKE MY HAND
She really is scared of me.
The utter truth of it was obvious when Aaryn gasped lightly and slammed her eyes shut as the magic took hold; when Aaryn squeezed Thea's hand until she thought her bones would pop; and when she carefully opened first one eye to survey the surroundings, then the other only once she realized Thea had not transported them to…
where had she even expected? The fires of the Great Dragon's belly?
Thea held in a scoff. As if.
Aaryn's grip on her hand eased, but they remained connected, and Thea tried to remember how her hands usually existed by her sides. Natural.
"I thought you said there would be no prison bars?" Aaryn said this carefully, and her hand went oddly still within Thea's.
Stone pillars surrounded them, with runes carved into their surface, emitting a soft glow. Beyond the pillars and trees in their vision was what Thea considered to be paradise. Home.
But Thea could see how she got the wrong idea.
"Don't lose your wit," Thea drawled. "This is just the teleportation area. But first—" Thea drew in a breath, treading unchartered territory. "There's something we have to do before I can take you in."
Aaryn squinted at her, and finally their hands parted as Aaryn stepped back to brace them on her hips, suspicion clear as moonlight on her face. It looked pretty there, with her flushed cheeks and rouged lips, even thinned in such a fierce line. "And what's that?"
Thea decided she liked this… spark in Aaryn that she'd never seen before, the one ready to flare at any moment.
They'd always carefully danced around one another when Thea had been falsely wearing Evergale's insignia. Maybe Thea had been fearful of offending her and ruining the mission.
Now she didn't have to hide anything, or treat Aaryn like such a… princess.
"I need to search you," Thea told her, and tried not to grin as Aaryn scoffed, as predicted.
"As if I could hide anything in this," she complained, and waved a hand at herself.
Thea crossed her arms and waited for permission. Aaryn stared at her, that stubborn streak flashing as their gazes met, tension taut between them.
"Fine!" Aaryn snapped, and held out her arms. The chain of jewels adorning her left hand rattled softly, emphasizing her scar and her vexation.
Thea bit down on a smirk and stepped toward her, ears perking when Aaryn began to mutter about truces and truths that should've been revealed before any agreements had been made.
"What, you're gonna let a few touches keep you from Starspark?" Thea teased, hands falling to Aaryn's waist, on the corset of her dress. The bold touch was almost a challenge, and yet embarrassment warmed Thea's face.
At first, Aaryn didn't rise to the occasion, head turned away, chin tilted. A "hmph" fell from her pouted lips. The moment stretched on and Thea selfishly stole the time to admire her.
Damn it all, she looked gorgeous. The soft pink of the dress only made her deeper hair color even more vibrant, and the cinched waist of the corset emphasized her shape.
The long skirt fluttered around the tops of her shoes, which were not grass-friendly material, dainty and most likely uncomfortable.
Thea knew she wasn't likely to find anything. After all, where would she even hide another weapon, or a magic scroll?
Would the prince have even trusted her with something like that?
He had certainly danced with her as if they were close.
A discordant twang struck in her chest at just the memory of his hands on her, and Thea shook it away, drawing in a breath to focus on the moment.
Unfortunately, that breath was laden with the scent of Aaryn. Florals and white amber.
"Well?" Aaryn drawled, and Thea came back to herself.
Her fingers drifted to the ritual dagger belted at her waist. Aaryn huffed and finally glanced down to watch Thea relieve her of its weight.
But now they were far too close, and if Thea just… looked up, their noses might bump, and she held her breath, slightly terrified. It reminded Thea of that night in Aaryn's room, the same tension threading between them, ready to snap.
Thea worked her fingers against the knot, digging the strip of fabric out of its bind. It went slack around Aaryn's waist, and Thea slid it into her own belt.
"Now…" she began, all bravado and smirky. Inside, she was rattling.
She placed her hands on Aaryn's sides, dragging them down firmly enough that she would feel a sheath or a hilt of a blade.
If Thea was more polite, perhaps she'd have volunteered the use of the backs of her hands.
But Polite Thea had been left behind, along with that atrociously shiny Evergale armor. Thea wasn't the knight Aaryn once knew.
She was a druid. And this was fun and daring and Aaryn's face was so red and her lips were parted just the smallest bit. It was the cutest thing in the entire world.
Thea liked flustering her. So she lowered her touch.
She skated her hands over the corset at Aaryn's stomach, then down her hips, to the top of her thighs. Thea knew the shape of Aaryn, had seen her in her work trousers for months on end.
Feeling her shape was entirely new, and something sharp pitched in Thea's stomach as her hands skirted over the fabric of her dress, over her knees and along her shins.
"See? It's not so bad," Thea managed to say, though her voice felt half stuck in her throat. "Turn around."
A little noise choked from her and Aaryn abruptly spun. The dress swished around her ankles, the fabric slapping at Thea's thighs.
Thea bit down on a delighted laugh.
She stood and rested her hands on Aaryn's shoulder blades, skating them south.
She bit the inside of her cheek as her hands ghosted over Aaryn's waist, her lower back. Thea's breath caught as Aaryn leaned into the touch—before snapping back into place, tension lining her.
Thea tried not to grin. Because just for a second…
Thea shamelessly continued her search over the globes of Aaryn’s backside and down her thighs, each touch haunting in a way that heated her blood. Her warmth was imprinted onto Thea's palms and she dared not shake it away.
"Nothing to find," Thea mused, voice almost normal, and patted Aaryn's hip as she got to her feet. "Good girl."
It slipped out by accident, a delicate taunt rather than anything sultry, but embarrassment coiled in her anyway as Aaryn—
Sputtered. "Oh, just—take me to Starspark already!"
Thea was entirely smitten. "I will—but the archdruid should be—"
"Who?"
"Did you hear that? An owl?" Thea snipped, and walked forward between the two widest pillars to reveal the most charming landscape, or what could be seen of it in the shadows of night.
Tall trees and pathways filled the spaces between buildings—raised from the earth, carved from rock or the very hillsides—and in the glimmer of the magic torches along them they could see the shine of scales, of lithe creatures blending right in, as much part of the scenery as they were the community.
"Holy dragons," Aaryn said, eyes wide as ever.
"Welcome to—"
"The druid circle," Aaryn breathed, awe in her voice.
She slowly spun to take it all in, head shaking slightly, as if she couldn't believe it.
Aaryn paused as she faced the teleportation area, the trees behind it a natural barrier.
And past that, a swirling shimmer protected them all from the blanket of clouds below, glowing with the light of the moon.
"But… how?" She took a step toward the treeline, eyes wide.
"Magic," Thea answered in a conspiratorial whisper. "Barriers and heightened levitation runes. This is the safest place, somewhere Evergale would never think to look despite their noses being lifted so high: the clouds."
"I didn't know—" Aaryn blinked rapidly, disbelieving. "I didn't know there was still this much magic left in the world." Her voice was barely a whisper. "I've never seen anything like this."
"Technically, it never left," Thea told her, as if she was speaking of the weather instead of contradicting Aaryn's entire idea of magic. "It was just… reallocated, thanks to Evergale. We knew better. So we use it, because it's ours to use."
Her mouth slipped open again, parted, pouted, and flattened. "That's… so much," she said, and Thea finally dragged her gaze away from her lips to, like, anywhere else.
"Well, it's about time you got here," a familiar—to Thea, anyway—voice said from behind them, rescuing her not for the first time. Bless that woman.
Aaryn startled, and together they spun to meet… the archdruid. Standing tall and commanding and elegant and tough and—Thea grinned. Skies, she loved it when Vaelen played scary.
The archdruid waited for them just ahead, trees framing her path. Behind her, a large dragon lazed, paws crossed as if not a care in the world. He made Starspark look like a hatchling.
The rings in Vaelen’s centered braid caught the light, practically glowing along with the runes on her deep brown skin. "Aaryn, I take it? We've been waiting for you."
Aaryn dragged her attention away from the large dragon, and nodded.
"It has taken us many attempts to convince you to join us. Shall I trust your intentions now that you're finally here?" she asked, brow lifted.
Aaryn flushed deeply—an appropriate response to coming face to face with such a force.
Vaelen was powerful not only because of her knowledge of magic and the ease with which she wielded it, but because she walked this earth with the confidence of someone who had helped give life to it, and knew every blade of grass and flower petal like an extension of her own body.
Someone who would go to great lengths to protect it.
Aaryn floundered for a moment beneath that gaze before she finally said, "I just want to see Starspark."
Aaryn won Vaelen over with that single line, but Vaelen was good at not showing it.
"You'll see him. We'll make sure of it," Vaelen said, nodding to Thea.
Thea nodded back, offering her deepest respect in front of Aaryn. Someone new. Someone Thea found herself wanting to impress.