I nodded again. "I was at the internment. The dead are composted so we can grow fungus for meals."
"Which means you eat our women too, in a sick way," Zasen grumbled.
"No," Saveah said, waving that off. "Do not put that on my sister!"
Those words made me look up. Saveah met my eyes and smiled. For a long moment, the pair of us simply looked at each other, letting the weight of that sink in.
I had a big sister. This woman was my friend, and now she was even more. She was my sister - well, half-sister. All this time, she'd been helping me learn how to exist in this new and amazing world. She'd been right here, just across the street, and she was my family.
Callah and Meri had been my only family. I wasn't even allowed to spend time with my little sister. Probably because the Moles hadn't wanted us to trade stories of our mother. If they kept the children isolated from each other, surrounded by nothing but the lessons of God and the evils of the surface, we'd never hear anything to make us wonder. To make us doubt what they were doing.
Because they had lied.
"Sister?" I finally said.
Saveah nodded, pushing herself away from the counter, and crossed the space to kneel before me. "Here. Keep the ring. I have her sign die, so you deserve this, Ayla. Sisters, but this means I get to be the nosey one who butts into your business and worries about keeping you safe, ok?"
"Sisters..." I could feel my eyes stinging as she pushed my mother's ring into my palm.
I let my fingers wrap around the metal, then tossed my arms around her neck and hugged. Maybe I didn't have the words to make her understand, but the gesture would be enough. Even better, Saveah hugged me back.
Seventy-SixAyla
Eventually, we had to leave. Outside, the streets were quiet. Last time, there had been wounded and dead scattered all over. This time, all of the bodies belonged to Moles. I let my eyes run over them, not caring about the gore.
I wanted to stamp my Phoenix into all of their skin, but it wouldn't matter. They wouldn't be seen by the people who needed the message. These men were all going to be dumped in the forest for the predators to dispose of - and so far as I cared, even that was too good for them.
"Ayla?" Zasen asked as we made our way off Saveah's front porch. "Are you okay? I still need to look at your hip."
"It's fine," I assured him. "Not even worth stitching."
"I'd still like to clean it," he said, stopping me in the middle of Saveah's yard as Kanik left the house. "It needs a bandage at the very least."
I nodded. "Okay."
And Zasen smiled at me. "Damn, you are a good Dragon. The best stupid decision I've ever made."
Before I knew what was happening, he'd palmed the side of my face and leaned in. His mouth found mine. His tongue flicked across my lips, and I gasped in shock.
That was all he needed. There, in the aftermath of a war that had turned everything I knew upside down, Zasen kissed me. He kissed me the way the men in those romance books did. He kissed me with his tongue, sliding it through my mouth to bump and tangle with my own.
I didn't pull away.
My entire body felt like it relaxed, making me lean into him. This felt good. It felt safe. It felt so right, so I tried to match him. My mouth moved. My tongue swirled. Lifting a hand, I pressed it against his chest to hold myself up.
And I gave in. Maybe this was improper, but it was what Dragons did. It was good, safe, and I knew this man wouldn't do more. He kissed me and I kissed back, feeling my pulse race and my breath catch. My stomach erupted with what had to be butterflies and my body felt like it was glowing.
Then he pulled away. "They say you're my gold, Ayla. Mine." His orange eyes shifted from one of mine to the other. "So I give you back to yourself. You came to us as a Mole, burned that to the ground, and now you are the Phoenix. No one will ever own you again. No one will send you away, because I will fight for you. All of us will." Then he glanced over at one of the corpses. "Because you, Ayla the Phoenix, saved all of Lorsa tonight. Never forget that. Even when you learn things that are horrible, like you have tonight, remember that one thing and let it keep driving you."
Letting go of my cheek, Zasen turned and marched towards the house. "I'll get the supplies to tend your wound."
Confused, I lifted a hand to touch my bruised lips. Zasen had just kissed me? But why? What did that mean?
I was still standing there when Kanik made his way over. "Ayla?" he asked, sounding worried.
My hand dropped and I turned to meet his eyes. "It didn't hurt."
"No," he agreed. "It shouldn't. I think that's why he did it."
I just pressed my lips together, trying to remember the feel of a real kiss. I wanted to burn it into my memories to replace the one of Mr. Saunders shoving his disgusting mouth against mine. That had been hard. It had been cold. Zasen's had been hot.
"I still don't want to get married," I said, trying to force a smile so Kanik would know it was a joke. Mostly a joke. A bad one, but the best I had to push away my embarrassment.
He chuckled. "You still don't have to, Ayla. You can also slap the shit out of Zasen when we get home, because he was a dick for doing that."
So I touched my lips again. "But it didn't hurt."
Gently, he reached up to push away a few strands of hair from my face. "And that doesn't either. People are made for touching, Ayla. Even Dragons."
"Especially Dragons," I decided, reaching down to trail my fingers across his arm.
And I kept going, across his elbow, down his forearm, and over his wrist. Then Kanik turned his palm up, spreading his fingers. I paused, but only for a fraction of a second, and then pushed mine into the gaps. When he curled his hand around mine, it made a smile break out on my lips.
"It shouldn't hurt," he said again. "I just hate that killing people is easier for you than holding someone's hand."
"But I have to keep this place safe," I reminded him.
"We're supposed to do that, Ayla. The people who live here, not the woman we dragged to Lorsa without asking."
