There was a crack as I slapped her on the cheek.
“Wha…” She gasped, confused, as I stared her down.
“I don’t care if you’re a dragon, or a Pact Mage, or whatever. I don’t care if you’ve got the whole church chasing you. You don’t get to just enter my life, then tell me to ditch when you’ve made me fall in love with…” I stopped as her cheeks were a soft glow of red, the war-like confidence completely flushed out of her cheeks. Oops.
“You…love me?”
It had the intended effect but now it was my turn to backpedal.
“Well, not exactly. I’m still sorting through my own feelings on the matter, but the point is that I care about you and…” I pressed my only good hand across the bridge of my nose. Why did I suck this badly at explaining such a basic concept? “Just fix my arm first, okay?”
I had her attention at least. Her glance had softened to a curious frown, her face lit up in a cute rosy tinge.
“Right. Let’s fix your arm first.”
* * * *
Now it was obvious what kind of books Aria had been reading the entire time. Medical texts. In fact, the one book she was reading over and over again was a field book for combat surgeons, with the fancy cover ripped off.
Right now, I was biting into a rag while she worked away at that bolt still lodged in my left arm.
A small fire had been set up to keep me from freezing while she worked.
She had medical supplies from three packs laid out, and a few prepared splints. I would normally be terrified with anyone performing surgery in the cold. Seeing as Aria was the only…dragon in existence whose fingers didn’t care about temperature, I could make an exception.
“Let’s not talk about the whole…you love me thing yet.” She gulped as she pulled her saw. “It’s not really surgery material.” I mumbled something painful as I felt the arrowback being sawed off. Knife wounds were potatoes compared to this.
“I wasn’t lying that I hear Cestra’s voice. I do. It’s just that I make the decisions.”
I could see that faint smile as the broad back snapped off from her saw. I let out another gasp of pain as she began to slowly move the arrow through my arm.
“I think deep down, I’m a really simple girl. I just want everyone to be happy, because that makes me happy.” With a plop, the arrow exited out the other end. Sweat ran down my neck as I let out a scream into the muffled rag.
“But when you’re the only dragon ever to not be born into the royal family, people hate you because of what you are.” In between the pain I could hear Aria let out a tired sigh. “My brother tried to kill me. The inquisitors tried to kill me. Now the inquisitors tried to kill me again.”
Her hands were swift as she poured a white-ish liquid over my open wound. I began to bite down hard as I felt it burning through my flesh. I was feeling light-headed now, but the sound of Aria’s voice kept me here. Then the bandages were quickly wrapping around my wound, faster than the blood seeping out of me.
“I hate the fact that every time I turn into a dragon, someone dies. Time and time again, it’s been those close to me. I’m just…I’m so tired of losing people close to me. Can I love someone when I’m so terrified that I’ll wake up, and they won’t be there? Or worse yet, they’ll try and kill me?” she asked as she repositioned my arm for the splinter, all the while I screamed my lungs out. Moving my arm almost hurt more.
“Charlotte…you’re not allowed to die after you told me you love me. I don’t care if it was as a joke or not. I don’t think I can take one more person close to me dying because of me, especially if I like you back.”
I winced as she tied the bandage around my arm, a sling tied against my back. I would’ve said something snarky and cute, but not while surgery was happening.
“There. Sorry about that little rant…” She sighed as she dumped the rest of the stuff back into Caen’s old pack.
I pulled out the spit-covered rag, tossing it into the fire where it belonged. I tested out the splint, and it was surprisingly well made. Blood was quickly soaking into it, but it should stop, soon enough.
“You deserve love. It’s not your fault…And look, I’m still getting used to the fact that you are secretly a dragon, and you don’t need my help for anything.” I let out a nervous laughter as Aria let out a hard-won smile for the first time today.
“I’ll admit, I felt really weird feelings for you when we first met, but I’m over that. If you want to just be friends, I don’t mind.” I lowered my one good hand to grasp hers, opening my hand for a handshake. Aria looked down at my open hand, then up at me again in confusion.
“You…sound like you’re proposing to me or something.” Aria’s smile was faint, coy, a little mischievous as I blurted out some combination of embarrassed and confused noises. I was expecting something else.
“You’ll have to teach me love as we go along…Oh, and you’re not allowed to die.”
I let my one good shoulder shrug. “Well…” I began before she turned back to me, a battle glare in her eyes. I reeled back in surprise. She looked like she was going to murder me, as her hands wrapped around my wrist. Hard.
“If you lead me down a path of growing attached to you and you get reckless and get yourself killed, I will fly over to the church in Mithil and burn it down, then murder every idiot who had the bright idea of sending inquisitors at us. If you get me attached to you and you decide to fuck off and break my heart, I will hunt down everyone that you love and send the entire town into a winter during the summer equinox for good measure.”
I blinked, stunned, trying to process the whiplash.
“Woah! We don’t begin a relationship with planning for what happens when the other person dies.” Then I looked over to Caen’s backpack. Never mind. I completely understand now. I felt her eyes drilling even deeper into my soul as I tried to put on my best smile for the dragon.
“Okay, okay! I won’t die,” I pleaded as Aria backed off, her eyes softening up again, her smile returning. Her other half was scary. Time to defuse things a little.
“So…does this mean we’re a couple?” I looked at her expectantly as it was her turn to let out a slew of embarrassed and confused noises.
“That’s such an embarrassing way to put it…it’s too soon.” She hid her face, forcing out the words one by one.
“But you love me back, right? Right?” I elbowed her with a stupid grin on my face, as she hid her blushing face more and more. “Come on. I already promised you that I wouldn’t die. You got to do something for me.”
“I love you…” she weakly whispered as I let out a giggle. I wanted to tease her more, but figuring out next steps was higher priority.
“Um…do you think it’s okay for two girls to be a couple? Do you care?” I shot the question out to Aria as she recovered from her fit of embarrassment. It went right past my mother’s head, and it was going to go right past my head too if Aria didn’t agree.
“Who cares? If they want to debate with me on the people I ought to love or not, they can debate it with me after I skewer them in half. Also, you too, if you decide to break my heart.” She crossed her arms, that aloof and cold half of her showing. She’s not wrong, but I really would’ve preferred a better answer. An answer with less murder.
“Yes! Yes, geez! I don’t think I can,” I retorted as she snickered knowingly. “You’re not allowed to threaten murder as a joke if you can actually murder me. You are sweet bean who is secretly a dragon. A dragon! That and I just got past the please-don’t-murder phase of that revelation!” I was cut off as the two of us were blasted by a fistful of snow. The fire beside us had flickered out of existence as the wind began to howl.
