Page 163 of To Fight and To Fold

His ever-sharp teeth gleamed in the light of morning, and a sharp pain lanced through Aaryn’s hand.

Starspark met her gaze and seemed to understand. He opened his mouth. An offering.

Aaryn scored her left palm against the sharpened tip of one giant fang.

34

I’VE GOT YOU

Getting stabbed hurt just as much the umpteenth time as it did the first.

It didn't usually bleed this much, though, Thea thought. She blinked at the pool of blood in her palm and then pressed it against the hole in her right side once again.

A heady cocktail of adrenaline and rage kept her going, and she lurched to her feet, stumbling, but with a staff in hand and vengeance on her mind.

Druids did not revel in death, nor being the cause of it. It was, however, a part of life's cycle. Where there was a beginning, there was an end. Balance. Thea wholeheartedly embraced this as she brought someone to their knees for a nearby dragon to finish off, completing the cycle anew.

She barely dodged an oncoming attack, swerving sloppily, and remembered the wound in her side as it twinged and tore and pain yanked at her senses with a clawed grip. She tilted, agony dragging her to the ground, and she tried to push past it, above it, and yet her body did not move like she wanted it to.

She had to protect Aaryn.

Aaryn, who was…

Where was she? Was she safe? Thea had to…

Then came a roar so loud it thundered the earth beneath her hands, which was quite an event considering they were suspended in the air on a magically floating isle. When had she quit putting pressure on her wound?

Thea found the dragon's cry just in time to see Aaryn's head snap back. Her eyes went completely dark, the whites replaced with the night sky. Blood dripped from her palm, which rested against Starspark's jaw, and dribbled down her wrist.

She couldn't decide if the vision would haunt her with its horror or its beauty.

Interestingly, she took a second to mourn the date she had already imagined in her head with Aaryn. Firelight, nature, a stream nearby. Coaching Aaryn through the intricacies of magic as they awakened it within her.

There was nothing gentle about the way the magic jolted her body now, about the scream that erupted from her throat. It sounded not pained, but… enraged. Thea had never heard such a sound come from her.

She slumped, unable to hold herself up, unable to look away from Aaryn even as her lids grew heavy.

That gaze turned toward Thea, eyes back to their normal green—no. It was just a flash of green amongst the marble of pinks and purples, the colors of the Tear.

It matched the gleaming ball of power in Starspark's throat. But his mouth did not open and it did not explode in a wave that could evaporate the crowd of innocents and traitors alike.

Thea's breath caught, and caught again, hitching somewhere it shouldn't. Aaryn's eyelids came down over the glowing orbs of her eyes. A blink. And then⁠—

Thea was on her feet, staff in hand, teeth gritted against the unfairness of Evergale's genius plan. Protect, defeat, slash, protect.

Then, as she shoved a bystander away, there was a man before her, sword aiming, stabbing, and Thea knew it was headed for her gut⁠—

It never arrived, because he fell to the ground with a pointed staff in his back, and on the other side of his falling body was Aaryn, chest heaving, a horrified desperation in her eyes as she yanked the weapon out of him.

Thea went to her. "Hey," Thea said softly, too softly to be heard, probably. Blood streaked down Aaryn’s wrist and Thea lifted it between them, gasping at the slash in her palm.

"You—when did you—just couldn't wait for me, huh?" she finally asked.

Aaryn blinked as if in disbelief that Thea was standing before her. She lifted her other hand and pressed it against Thea's right side.

"I'm sorry," Aaryn said. "I'm so sorry. It was you or him, I⁠—"

"It's okay," Thea said, and pulled her close. "It's okay." Thea didn't care about some random fucking asshole who had tried to stab her.