Sheflinches.
And that does more damage than any wound ever has.
“It’s going to be okay.” I rush to say. “We can figure this out. I can...I can try to burn off the energy again.”
Even as I say the words, a part of me whispers, “How?” The situation that caused it had been extreme, dire even. I was under full attack and injured, and only when I saw Aurora get pushed to the ground did it tip me over the edge into the change.
“You said that Dragons can burn out their fire,” Aurora points out.
Guilt and frustration clogs my every vein and artery. “It was a story I heard once. Most of what I know about my kind is via stories from other people and books from those who tried to study Dragons, not my actual people.” And I’ve never been more angry that I’ve been left on my own to figure it out. That I have no choice but to rely on anyone but Dragons to get information. I should have known not to take the bit of information seriously.In the same conversation it was dropped that Dragons have two dicks. I didn’t bother to correct them, but it should have given me an idea that they had no idea what they were talking about. But hope is hope, even if it’s born of nonsense.
“I thought we had time. I stupidly believed we had all the time in the world. I thought we couldbe together.” She breaks on those last words, and something inside me snaps clean in two.
“I can burn it off,” I say again, too quickly. Too desperately. “I’ll go now—I’ll push it out—I’ll find something, anything?—”
“Talon.” Her gentleness stops me. “No.”
My body turns numb. My fire hums low and traitorous under my skin. I’m alone again. I always knew I had to stay solitary but now truly knowing what the other side tastes like...
I will die if I can’t touch her again. I can’t go back to how it was. Watching her. Wanting her.
I can't.
I won’t.
“I can’t do it,” Aurora whispers. Then louder, more panicked. “Ican’t fucking do it!”
I turn back just in time to see her pacing the room like a trapped thing, one hand pulling at her hair, the other clenching and unclenching at her side.
“I can’t go back to feeding on strangers like an animal. I won’t!” she yells. “It was just going to be us. You and me. No more kills. No more damage. Just...you.”
Her eyes meet mine, and they’re wild, burning, devastated.
“Now what am I supposed to do?” she demands. “Go fuck some more randos and pray I don’t suck the life out of them? Is that how it has to be? Without you, I go back to being a monster.”
She’s spiraling so fast she doesn’t even realize her knees have hit the floor. Her hands cover her face, her whole body heaving with the force of her sobs. “Ifeltyou, Talon. I felt your loveand...and I wasfull.And now it’s gone, and I don’t know how to survive without it.”
I can’t hold her, I can’t reassure her, I can’t do anything.
Except the thing I’ve always done.
Protect her.
Even if that means we have to go back to being what we’ve always been.
I kneel in front of her slowly. Not touching.
Then I speak. Cold. Steady. Razor-edged truth.
“Pull yourself together, princess.”
She freezes.
“You’ll do what you have to do to survive. Just like you always have.” My voice is low, deliberate, slicing through the noise in her head. “You’re a Lost Girl now. You’re tough as hell. You fight. You get back up. You adapt. That’s who the fuck you are.”
Her watery gaze meets mine, but underneath, I watch the steel in her begin to reform.
“I don’t want anyone else,” she whispers.
