Rising, he ripped the covers off me before I could protest. As I tried desperately to cover myself, his eyes went wide.
“Goddess above, she was right—you are bleeding to death!” he exclaimed.
Looking down, I saw the spreading crimson stain that covered the white sheet and the bottom half of my nightshirt. Things were bad, all right—it was like my body was doing its level best to make up for the last six months when I hadn’t had my cycle by giving me six months of blood and pain all at once.
“How did this happen?” Ryse demanded, clearly horrified. “Did you stab yourself in the stomach? What did you do?”
He tried to lift my nightshirt to get a better look, and I did my best to push his hands away.
“No, stop it—I’m fine!” I groaned.
“Clearly, you’re not! Stop fighting me!” He growled. “You’re hurt—you’re bleeding!”
“BLEEDING! MY AURI IS BLEEDING!” L’eesha projected so loudly I couldn’t hear myself think. Her mental shouting was giving me a terrible headache that was almost as bad as the cramps!
“Fine, if you won’t tell me what happened, then I’m taking you to the Healer.”
Reaching down, Ryse started to scoop me up, presumably to carry me to the Healer.
“No—no Healer!” I gasped, terrified, as I pushed him away.
“YES, TAKE MY AURI TO THE HEALER!” L’eesha shouted.
It was too, too much. Feeling like I was going crazy, I glared up at Ryse.
“Fine—you want to know what’s wrong with me?” I demanded. “This—this is what’s wrong!”
And reaching for the Dragon Glass pendant at my neck, I gripped it and yanked.
I got a tingling feeling all over, like magic releasing its spell and knew I had been revealed. For a long moment there was complete silence in the room.
Ryse’s eyes went wide…then narrowed as he stared down at me.
“I knew it,” he said at last, frowning fiercely. “I knew I wasn’t imagining it!”
Then he turned on his heel and stalked out of the room.
53
AURORA
I had plenty of time to regret my hasty actions as I did my best to reassure my frightened golden dragon that I was not, in fact, dying. Since the cat was out of the bag with Ryse, I figured there was no longer any reason to hide my true identity from her.
“but of course, you’re a girl,” she said, when I was finally able to get her to settle down and explained that I was actually female and only masquerading as male at the Academy. “i would never let a boy ride me! i waited for you for so long in my shell, because i would never bond with a boy, either.”
“So, you knew all along?” I asked, dumbfounded.
“of course. but i still don’t understand why you are bleeding, my Auri.”
I did my best to explain the human female’s monthly cycle, which made L’eesha indignant on my behalf.
“every month? you have to bleed and feel like you are dying every month?” She demanded. “but why?”
“I don’t know—it’s just the way the God and Goddess created human women, I guess,” I said.
“then the God and Goddess need biting!” was L’eesha’s verdict. “if i ever see them, i will make them sorry for making you hurt and bleed, my Auri.”
I wanted to laugh but I was still in too much pain. And now my pain was emotional as well as physical.
