Page 111 of To Fight and To Fold

"Actually, yeah," Thea said, lips twitching.

"She's taught you a lot," Aaryn mused, and the way she said it, the implication underneath made heat rush to her face and delight ooze around the barbs. "I'm glad we didn't lose her tonight. That you didn't."

"You didn't go to him," Thea blurted. And bit the inside of her cheek. What was she even saying? These were inside thoughts.

Aaryn glanced up, expecting to hear more, and maybe Thea was tired, too exhausted and raw from smoke and the friction of adrenaline, her usual walls worn away. "When you saw the prince. The way you ran—" The way Aaryn had shoved her away, and slipped off Starspark's neck, and Thea hadn't been able to do anything but watch as her mo—as the archdruid fell and this girl—this woman Thea wanted so badly to want to stay—escaped.

Only. She hadn't escaped. She'd done what Thea was too frozen to do. She'd saved Vaelen.

"For a second, I thought you were running. To him. But you didn't."

"Of course I didn't," Aaryn breathed. "Not now. But once…" Her frown turned severe. "Once, I might⁠—"

"You didn't know," Thea whispered.

Aaryn's gaze flickered where she focused it firmly on the floor. Then she dragged it over Thea's soot-covered socks, her ash-stained pants, the dusty scaled armor. Thea felt it like a weight every inch of the way. It stopped around her collarbones, not yet lifting, maybe unable to.

Aaryn's lip quivered as she said, "But I should have."

Thea's heart lurched as the welling tears began to spill over, and she moved before she really thought it through. She'd run off adrenaline and instincts the entire night, why stop now?

Aaryn’s breath hiccuped as Thea lifted a hand, smoothing a trail away from her cheek.

Finally, the last illusion of Evergale's innocence had burned away under stolen dragon's breath and rotten magic.

"You know now, and that's what matters." Thea let her words sink in, watched the tears drip down Aaryn’s cheeks, and brushed them away.

"I don't wanna cry about it," Aaryn groaned.

"Then don't," Thea told her, stepping back into familiar territory with a light tone. "Despite how pretty you are when you do it, I don't think it'll help very much."

Aaryn blinked up at her, dumbfounded, and Thea very much enjoyed the whirlwind of emotions so visible in her expression right then. Maybe it was wrong of her to find fond amusement in this vulnerable moment. Maybe that's just the distraction they both needed.

Thea lifted her other hand, thumbs in sync as she swiped them ever so carefully over Aaryn's round cheeks, cupping her jaw, pink hair tickling the backs of her fingers.

Aaryn's eyes softened at the return of something safe, the antagonistic banter they'd grown so familiar with.

They were close, inches apart, which meant Thea could see the resolve slide into place.

And Aaryn said, "I want to awaken my magic."

Thea's lips curled past her usual smirk and into a full smile. Dragon wings fluttered inside her belly with elation. "It's not just your magic. It's you," Thea said, tangling her fingers in Aaryn's hair gently, holding on tighter. "You really want it?"

For a split second, Thea's gaze dipped down from Aaryn's, flickering to—her lips. Distracted, for just a moment. This close, with so little space separating them, Thea could see every nuance to her expression, eyes slightly widening, as if she'd caught the direction of Thea's gaze. Thea heard the click of the scales as Aaryn’s fingers tightened on her own vest. As her gaze, too, went rogue, and fell Thea’s heart-shaped mouth. “Yes, I do want that," she responded.

Thea's horns went hot.

"We'll go tomorrow," Thea said, trying to hold onto a bit of sanity in the moment.

Aaryn blinked, lips parting.

"To see another Awakened, that is. To find the safest way to go about it."

"Right," Aaryn said.

She wants me to kiss her.

"Tomorrow we can do that."