Page 113 of To Fight and To Fold

But this was fine.

Thea had survived worse.

25

THE RIGHT COURSE

Aaryn woke with a soft jerk from the memory of crazed green eyes, the scent of harsh fires and wet soot in her sinuses.

She blinked, and they faded. Because there was something else too, beneath the lingering scent of destruction. Mossy wood and honey and heather. The sweetness of overgrowth. It was startlingly refreshing, a little jarring, something welcome after the too-vivid memories of flames and smoke and loss. It was Thea.

Thea, whose neck Aaryn was shamelessly burrowed in. Aaryn was half atop her, right leg bent and resting over her bare thigh, arm slung across her torso, and head nuzzling into the space between her neck and shoulder, a curtain of dark hair obscuring her view.

Aaryn's breath caught at the smoothness of Thea's skin against her, at the arm resting across her back, hand loosely cupped around her hip.

"Okay?" Thea mumbled, word drenched in sleep, her chest steadily rising and falling beneath the weight of Aaryn. Not a dragon's whisker separated them.

Her tension would wake Thea, so she forced herself to relax.

It was easier than she expected, melting against Thea, because at least she was asleep, at least she wouldn't know⁠—

"Hey. There," Thea said, quietly, so quietly.

Well, scale.

Aaryn smoothly meant to slide away, but Thea's arm tightened, holding her in place. She gave up pretty quickly. "Bad dream?" Thea asked.

Aaryn's cheek pressed into Thea's shoulder, her heart giving a fateful thump. "Memories, I guess."

"I'm sorry," Thea murmured. Aaryn felt her shift and turn, then a soft pressure at the top of her head.

"Not your fault," Aaryn squeezed out.

This was sleepy and warm and so very lovely. But something itched beneath her skin. Excitement or dread, or maybe it was simply determination.

Thea read her like a book.

"Do you want to learn about magic today?" Thea asked, the morning seeping into them, and awareness more so of the events of yesterday, of what lay ahead.

"Does the sun rise with each morning?" Aaryn countered, lifting her head and finding herself far, far too close to Thea.

Dangerous, the way Aaryn's eyes dipped to her lips. Lingered. Better, preferable memories played in the forefront of her mind.

"Well?" Aaryn teased.

Thea was daring and exciting, leaping from dragon to dragon in the actual sky. Thea was also… this. Cute and hesitant and ever afraid of somehow offending Aaryn with her affections, because Thea didn't know the way this druid stirred dragons up in her belly.

"I suppose it does," Thea agreed.

And then kissed her.

Outside the bubble of Thea's home, all hands were on deck, and there was hardly anyone to spare a moment, let alone an entire afternoon to answer questions about magic. Instead, she could turn her energetic eagerness elsewhere.

"Where do you think they need us?"

"Well, Starspark is needed here," Thea mused quietly, and glanced down.

Starspark was curled around a small group of kids. One of them clutched a singed stuffed dragon, and from feet away their guardians watched on with soft expressions, tin bowls from one of the nearby kitchens clutched in their hands.