Can You Feel That
"The pin is a precaution, to keep you from being scried on… again."
Aaryn processed Thea's words slowly, blinking. Then she glanced at the nearby barrier, shimmering softly in the night. "Don't the barriers block magic like that already?"
"Yes," Thea agreed, nodding too quickly. "If you're inside the barrier, which you aren't all the time."
"Like when I was at Skymore?" Her eyes narrowed, stomach sinking. It was the only other time she'd left since she'd arrived. "Why do I need to be protected against scrying?"
Thea's fingers tangled together in front of her, clasped awkwardly. "One of the healers can read magic residue, and recognized that type of magic on you. We…" She released a breath. "Vaelen and I think it was the prince, and that he cast the spell to find you in Skymore."
A shiver went up Aaryn’s spine, and not the fun, magical kind she'd so been looking forward to. "Scrying? On my location?"
"Yes. It works better depending on how well the caster knows the target. And it helps accuracy if the caster has something physical. Hair, saliva. Blood."
Aaryn's nails dug into her palm, an echo of that day in the library, when Aaryn had pierced her own skin at just the idea of something happening to her scar, her brand.
She recalled the smudge of blood on the back of the prince's hands, the embarrassment she'd felt as he'd retrieved the kerchief and wiped it away, tucked it back in his pocket.
She suddenly felt sick. "How does a scry work?
" she asked, heart beginning to race. "I mean, is it like, a thing that he does once, and it sticks, and then…
?" What? Aaryn didn't know how magic worked yet.
"A—a bell goes off, like a customer walking into a store?
Hey prince, ding ding ding, Aaryn's right here! "
Thea's eyes were a little too sad as she shook her head. "A scry only works for a short period of time."
Aaryn slowly sank to the ground, and Starspark was there, behind her. "So what are you saying? How did he know to cast it?"
"Because he knew that if he made a big enough problem, we would send everyone we could to help."
"Why would he assume Vaelen would trust me so much to—to fly with Starspark? I feel like—there's no way, right? It would make no sense to attack Skymore just for—" Aaryn's heart sank at the idea that the prince would do something so… so evil. Hurt so many innocent people for—for what? Me?
"He knows me?" Thea offered quietly, and there she was, in front of Aaryn, on her knees in the grass, within reaching distance.
"That I'm from Skymore. So maybe he assumed you would be there because he knew I would.
" Because he knows we're something, Aaryn filled in. "Maybe it's just as much my fault."
Aaryn scoffed. "Because you were born there?"
"Because I took you from him," Thea said, something a little braver in the words than Aaryn had heard from her in days.
And suddenly it all made a sickening kind of sense, the twisted web finally connecting into a truth that wrenched her heart. Evergale hadn't bothered to return, because it wasn’t really about Skymore. It was fodder.
"How could he do something like that?" Aaryn asked softly, not expecting an answer unless the Great Dragon himself wanted to come down and tell her.
Had there been signs, and Aaryn had simply overlooked them?
In the library, so full of secrets and hatred when he’d described the druids.
At the ball, so tightlipped and tense and quick to cut her off when she’d brought them up.
In Skymore, hands blackened from the rot of the magic he’d been wielding.
The idea that the prince had burned an entire city with dragon's breath, just to lure Aaryn out? Using her to possibly find the druids? No one in their right mind would do something so careless—except for a prince gone mad in his bid to uncover the druids who had "taken" his sister.
"He's gone mad," Aaryn realized. "That's the only explanation."
"I'm glad you don't blame yourself. I should've known—" Thea shook her head. "You're so much smarter than that. I'm sorry I lied. Please, keep the pin on."
"I won't take it off," Aaryn promised, and tilted her head, studying Thea. "Is that why you've been so weird lately? Pulling away?"
Thea flushed, nodded, and glanced away. "Yeah. I didn't want to—it didn't feel right to—"
"Kiss me? Flirt?" Aaryn asked. Thea was ten shades of purple. "You didn't seem to have a problem with flirting in Evergale, and you were lying then."
Months ago, when Thea had worn a false crest and Aaryn had believed so many lies.
"That was different," Thea argued, brow furrowing with her conviction.
"I know," Aaryn agreed, something fluttery taking flight in her chest. They were different then. They were different now. "And that's exactly why I forgive you."
Aaryn had spent far too long trapped in a web of lies. Finally, someone was telling her the truth.
Thea's lips parted, then closed in confusion, in awe, with understanding.
"Thea?" Aaryn prompted, leaning closer, tapping into that tension between them. It felt clearer this time, freer. There were no more secrets in the way.
Thea's eyes widened at her sudden proximity. Aaryn could count her freckles if she wanted to. "Yeah?" Thea whispered.
"Tell me one thing you can taste."
Then Aaryn closed the distance between them, pressing their mouths together.
"That was supposed to be my line," Thea murmured, their lips brushing with every word.
"Should've said it then," Aaryn teased. From inches away, she watched Thea's gaze darken, and the dragon in Aaryn's belly flared its wings.
Then there was a hand in her hair, tangling at the nape of her neck and tilting her head back. The second kiss was deeper, and Aaryn parted her lips to welcome her before Thea even asked for entry.
Aaryn had missed this, missed feeling Thea so close, her weight pressing Aaryn into the surface beneath them—whether it was the stuffed mattress or this soft clover.
She'd missed hearing Thea's little breaths, and feeling them skate across her cheek when they parted for air.
She'd missed the feel of her beneath Aaryn's hands, ever curious and still with so much Thea to explore.
Like now, with Thea laying atop her, the weight of her so grounding and perfect. Her hands framed Thea's hips, and she wished the layers of their clothes weren't in the way, wished she could feel Thea's skin beneath her hands, wished—
Thea scratched her nails down the back of Aaryn's neck and she hiccupped a breath into the kiss, shivers dancing down her spine.
"I love how reactive you are," Thea murmured into the corner of her mouth before sliding kisses down her jaw, onto her throat.
Aaryn was delightfully ticklish there, and resisted the urge to giggle as Thea ghosted her lips and nosed down the length of her neck. Her hands tightened on Thea's waist to keep the urge at bay.
"It makes me want to see you in the throes of the Hoard's touch."
A gasp slipped out and the threat of a giggle faded beneath the press of Thea's teeth, the pull of her lips as she planted a mark there. Aaryn felt her pulse in it when Thea moved on.
Aaryn tilted her head to the side to give her more space and caught sight of Starspark slinking away between the shrubs, flowers swaying in his wake.
"What will it be like?" she asked.
Thea paused, lips hovering over Aaryn's skin, and she swallowed a whine. It was unfair that she had to trade Thea's kisses for information.
"I only know what I've heard. I've never experienced it firsthand," she said. Thea slid to the side, propped her head on her hand, and stared down at Aaryn.
Her face felt hot beneath the undivided attention.
Thea’s arm laid across Aaryn's waist, fingers stroking playfully along her side, threatening to slip under the fabric with every shift.
"And what have you heard?" Even to her own ears Aaryn sounded breathy, affected.
"That it feels… good," Thea began, cheeks flushing a deeper purple. Her fingers tightened around Aaryn's waist for a brief moment, pulling her closer, her hand sliding past the hem of her shirt, onto bare skin. Her palm was hot.
Aaryn reached up, curled her fingers around the collar of Thea's vest, and tugged her lower.
"In what way?"
They were so close Aaryn heard Thea swallow before she spoke, each word honeyed with the same desire pooling in her own core.
Her gaze locked onto Aaryn's lips. "It's a gathering," she explained slowly, hand sliding to rest over Aaryn's stomach.
"And a release." A pause. "Of magic, yes.
" Her fingers danced low enough to make Aaryn's breath catch.
She lifted her hips slightly, as if to encourage Thea to keep going. "But of other things too."
Her exploration paused.
"It can be overwhelming," Thea warned softly.
Aaryn had heard as such. "That's why I'll have you, right?" Aaryn asked.
Thea blinked down at her, chest expanding with an inhale before she kissed her.
Aaryn gasped and slid her hands into Thea's hair, avoiding her horns as she tried to eliminate the concept of distance.
Their tongues twined and each of Thea's fingertips were pressing into Aaryn's skin just above her waistband.
"Yes," Thea breathed into the kiss. "You'll have me, baby."
Aaryn did not have the vocabulary to describe what exactly those words did to her. Something flared and tightened and swelled all at once and she couldn't take it anymore. "And what if I want you now?" she asked, tangling her fingers further into Thea's hair so she couldn't escape.
Not that Aaryn had to worry about such a thing, because Thea groaned and fell atop her. "You can have me whenever you want," she murmured, voice deep as Aaryn had ever heard it. One hand pressed into the grass beside Aaryn's head, and the other—the other finally slid south.
Aaryn’s thighs parted beneath Thea's blissfully seeking touch, her body arching into her instinctively. Pleasure jolted through her, lips parting on a shallow breath as Thea dragged a finger between her folds.