AWAKE
Aaryn was burning up, magic flaring beneath her skin, like… She didn't have a big enough scope of the world to know how to describe it.
In between the spike of fevers, it felt somewhat like a restlessness, a jitter after too much tea. She felt an awareness of Starspark, somewhere out there, burning off his own energy on one of the isles.
In the height of the fever, it swelled until it felt like her skin would burst, and a whine would slip past her lips and then—
Thea was there. With a cold cloth or a drink of water.
Or—better.
Her mouth, her fingers, drawing the magic from her in waves of pleasure. There was an entire ocean in her veins begging for escape, for release. With Thea between her legs, she found it. Again and again.
Aaryn was ascending once more, moans filling the room as Thea gripped at her thighs, fingers leaving bruises to accompany the ones already painting her skin.
"Thea," Aaryn whined. "Please, please—"
Thea couldn't speak because her mouth was busy, and Aaryn chanted her name. It was so hot. Sweat beaded on her skin and pooled in the dip of her collarbones and it was so slick wherever Thea touched.
Then she felt it, the tightening of the Hoard, and suddenly—coolness. Filling her whole body, easing the heat of the awakening for just a moment.
"There," Thea said, finally lifting with a breath and a smile, hands squeezing once. "Better?"
Aaryn melted into the bed, a slow breath finally settling in her lungs, the crazed need lessening briefly. "Yes."
But the pleasure still lingered and she wanted, and her gaze fell to Thea, whose hair was wild and tangled about her horns, the back of it flattened and curling just below her ear in the most endearing way.
Aaryn reached up and smoothed a thumb over Thea's cheek, over the shine on her lips. "Thank you for taking such good care of me."
Thea blinked softly at her, and Aaryn's chest swelled with affection—not the heat of the awakening.
Aaryn sucked her thumb clean, and bit down on a smile at Thea's dazed look.
Aaryn sat up and took charge of the space Thea relinquished, pressing her back into the bed and sitting atop her thighs.
Aaryn roamed her touch from Thea’s shoulders to her wrists and over her belly, up the center of her chest. She planted one hand in the bed and stroked that cute little curl behind her ear. She kissed the freckle on her jaw.
The battle came back to her in flashes, and mostly she was distracted by the pleasure, by the heat and desperation and magic in her body. But now in this brief respite, she ached.
She ached for the Thea who hadn't survived the battle. She ached for the Aaryn who had lost her Thea. She ached for Carissa, who had lost Rolim.
"Baby," Thea murmured. A frown tugged at her lips and she reached up to cup Aaryn’s face. "What's wrong?"
The words got caught in Aaryn's throat. "I can't tell you right now," she answered. "I—I want a clearer head."
Thea gazed at her as if she already knew the secrets Aaryn held. Aaryn knew that couldn't possibly be true, because if she knew, then Thea wouldn't be here. Thea might hate her. Thea might never forgive her.
So Thea didn't know. Not yet. And Aaryn could selfishly live in this limbo for just a bit longer.
Here and now, in this tiny little corner of paradise they'd carved out for themselves, with fading moon blooms on the windowsill beside them, nothing was wrong because Thea was here, where she belonged.
With Aaryn.
And she was none the wiser of how. Not yet.
She wrapped Thea in her arms and buried her face in her neck, her scent, her warmth, her touch—hugging her just as tightly—and her comfort.
They were pressed together from head to toe, and it still wouldn't ever be close enough for Aaryn. Not after she'd seen Thea almost—
There was something frantic in Aaryn, as if she was on the precipice of losing Thea all over again, and she clutched her firmly.
"I want you, forever. Like the way I'm tied to Starspark. I want that for us," she said, words clumsy but carrying her entire heart and depositing it into Thea's hands. "I don't ever want to lose you."
"You won't," Thea said, and cradled her close, her hand tangling in Aaryn's hair. "I'm right here."
"I could be inside you and it wouldn't be close enough," Aaryn pouted.
Aaryn felt the pause, the curl of Thea's lips against her cheek. "Well, you could certainly try."
The heaviness of the moment dissipated as they laughed, lips colliding with their giggles. Their comforting embrace turned to desire, dripping with something soft instead of desperate.
"What did you do? To make me feel better?" Aaryn asked.
Thea mumbled her response into Aaryn's throat.
"What?"
"I traced a rune into you."
"That's what you were doing down there?" Aaryn asked with a delighted laugh.
"It worked better than the cold cloth, didn't it?" Thea returned, equal parts smug and embarrassed.
Aaryn framed her face and squeezed just slightly until her lips pursed. She pecked a kiss there and tried to tame down the aggressive tenderness in her chest.
"What am I going to do with you?" Aaryn asked.
"Literally anything," Thea breathed. "I'm yours."
She said it like a profession, like a vow, with so much reverence in her voice.
Aaryn kissed her. And that kiss melted into the pleasure and passion they'd become intimate with in the last day. Aaryn traced her affection into Thea's skin with her lips and teeth and gentle touches until Thea was the one writhing beneath her and she was dragging shivers from Thea's limbs.
Aaryn tasted her as if she were parched, and while she may not be familiar enough with runes to trace one into her skin, she imagined she left her mark anyway with each muffled cry and twitch of Thea's body, with each pulse of her cunt around Aaryn's fingers.
Aaryn crooked them, and Thea jolted. Her moan urged Aaryn on, and it was while she was watching Thea fall apart beneath her that the rune wore off, that the magic within her burned through its seal and swelled again.
She directed it all into Thea, lowering her head and feasting upon her.
She tasted her pleasure and took it for herself because Aaryn discovered she was greedy.
She wanted the tremble of Thea's thighs around her shoulders, and the quake of her walls around her fingers, and the sound of her moans in her ear.
She wanted the tangled hands in her hair, tugging at the strands until delightful bursts of pleasure tickled down her spine, over her skin in waves.
But even more, she needed Thea. Just, all of her.
"Aaryn!" Thea cried out, and Aaryn felt her start to tremble. She pressed deeper, drawing Thea into her mouth, and worked her tongue. She gripped her thigh, holding her, making her still so the pleasure could find her, unavoidable.
Thea tensed, and her hands tightened, a gasp sounded and—she cried out as she came, high-pitched and relieved.
Aaryn eased her through it, slowing her thrusts, memorizing the way Thea clamped around her digits, her hips rocking in slow, agonized movements as they dared to drag it out until her thighs shook and went limp.
Aaryn nipped at her thigh and then drew a map up her body, disentangling them in one way only to wrap them back up in another.
Thea coaxed her to her lips. "Can I try another rune?"
Aaryn nodded, head already foggy with the magic, the need. "You can do whatever you want with me."
Thea closed her eyes and released a breath. "Dangerous words, Aaryn," she uttered.
"No, they aren't," she challenged. "You'll take care of me."
Thea shuddered and rolled Aaryn to her back. "Yes. I will."
Magic settled beneath her skin, somewhere deeper than Aaryn had the language for. After two days of the fever, she felt clearheaded. On her own, with no runes for assistance.
It was over.
Her thoughts were her own again, but as tangled as they were, she wished she could return to the comfort of the haze.
Her thoughts spun in circles, like what time meant to a dragon. Because dragons lived a long time, longer than humans. What was time to a druid, for that matter?
Time was… passage. Life.
What came after life but death? A cycle. Without one there was not the other.
Was what she'd done an interruption of such a sacred cycle? Was the magic she had so looked forward to wielding, to learning, abhorrent in the eyes of those she protected?
The wound in her hand throbbed, a reminder that it was real. That her vision had gone blank when she’d slashed her hand, but instead of darkness, greens and purples and pinks had molded into something incomprehensible.
And yet, she had comprehended.
She had known, for once, all the angles, all the facts, all the options and their outcomes. It all stretched out before her like constellations, connecting and showing her the possibilities, their consequences.
Aaryn was given the chance to change an outcome, and she had made a choice. Then Thea was whole again.
Aaryn had saved Thea, and she held her tightly as if afraid it was all a fevered dream.
She tried to think about this while she studied the bandage on her hand, as if she could see the new scar beneath it.
"Are you okay?" Thea asked.
Aaryn shook her head. Her eyes wouldn't close.
She was afraid if she did, Thea wouldn’t be there when she opened them. She buried her open eyes into Thea's back, her hand resting against her torso, expecting to feel blood seep between her fingers at any moment.
Without the distraction of the awakening, without a fever sending her into a fitful sleep, she couldn't seem to find rest after so much had happened.
She hadn't felt that rip in her reality since.
Not as the battle ended. Not as she had leaned against Thea and felt the throb of her wounds compete with the throb of magic in her veins.
Not as it swelled, thickened into a heat that boiled beneath her skin—a dragon's breath all on its own that only slipped out as a mere whimper.
Not as she'd reunited with Starspark, who sparkled from the magic he now had untethered access to.