“How are we supposed to prove it?” Prince Alaric asks, looking confused.
I pat the grass beside me. “Lay down with me.”
Prince Lucien crosses his arms in front of his chest. “No.”
“Why not?”
“Because we’re out here, completely exposed. We could be attacked at any moment. We need to be on-guard. We need to be prepared for danger.”
My heart stills. “Is that really how you see the world?”
“It’s how the world is.”
I look at Prince Lucien’s brothers. “Do you see the world like that too?”
After a moment’s hesitation, they nod.
Prince Alaric crouches down, so we’re almost face-to-face. Those deep brown eyes of his are saying things that I’m sure he could never speak aloud. “Harper, we’re soldiers. When we’re not in battle at Gore Rock, we’re home preparing ourselves to be better warriors. If we don’t, we could die out there.”
For some reason, I want to touch his face. I want to do something to ease the suffering I can see just below his surface. “I understand that. I mean, as much as someone who has never been to war can. Being a healer, we go to war too, just in a different way. Every injury, every disease, is a battlefield. Our victories aren’t measured in dead enemies, but in breaths, in pulses, in lives pulled back from the edge of death. We just fight for life instead of against it, but you can’t live your whole life constantly fighting. Sometimes you have to stop and enjoy the fruits of your labor, because it’s not safe to be in fight mode all the time. It isn't healthy mind body or soul.”
He shakes his head, his short brown hair dancing in the wind as he does so. “We don’t… just enjoy things. I wouldn’t even know how to begin.”
I smile. “Begin by laying next to me.”
I would’ve never thought something so simple would create a war within this man, but it does. I see it, and my whole chest aches at the sight of it. This man who claims not to be afraid of anything is afraid of this. Of just trying to be something other than a soldier for a moment. Of trying to be just a man, rather than a warrior.
“Okay,” he finally says, “only for a moment though.”
His brothers don’t look happy as Prince Alaric climbs onto the ground and lays down beside me, but I finally understand something about these three men. There’s nothing they fear more than vulnerability, and, for some reason, I make them feel vulnerable.
Prince Alaric’s hands bounce on his chest, clenching and unclenching, fidgeting. There’s tension in his body, and I realize that there might always be tension in his body. I just didn’t realize it until now.
Rolling onto my side, I pluck a honeysuckle flower growing between us, pluck off the green end, and offer him the nectar on the end of the stamen. Prince Alaric watches me carefully as I slowly lean over and offer it to his lips. Like the good boy he is, he opens for me, and I place the flower inside. He shuts his lips, looks surprised, and starts to suck on the petals. But his hands keep fidgeting. I lay back down and reach across the space between us. I take his hand in mine, entwining our fingers, which finally seems to calm him.
“This is ridiculous!” Prince Lucien says, his eyes narrowed.
“Afraid to try?” I challenge him.
Surprise flashes across his face, and he uncrosses his arms. He seems to debate for half a second before he goes to my other side and lays down. He snatches a flower from beside him and stuffs it into his mouth, sucking angrily, like doing so will prove to me that he can relax better than the rest of us.
I glance up at Prince Gareth and lift a brow.
“But–” he begins, then paces around. “This is just–” He continues to pace some more.
I can stand guard with the females while you and your men relax. All of you will be safe. Dragons know both how to enjoy life and how to be on guard.
Thank you!
“Ebron says that he and your dragons will watch over us, so there’s really no excusenotto relax.”
Finally, almost comically, he squares his shoulders, marches over, and flops himself down next to Prince Alaric. Grabbing a honeysuckle flower, I lean over Prince Alaric and offer it to Prince Gareth. To my surprise, his mouth opens, and I slip theflower in as our eyes hold. A shiver rolls down my spine, and I realize that this offering of honeysuckle feels oddly intimate.
I’m about to pull back when Prince Alaric slips a hand around my waist. I look down at him in surprise, but he looks just as caught off-guard as I do. It’s like he didn’t realize he was going to touch me like this until he did it. I’m practically half-way on top of him, so I slowly pull back, and his hand drops away.
Laying back in my spot, I see Prince Lucien watching us, and I look away. I don’t know what it is about these men. It’s like when we get close, something tangible pulls between us.
It must be our connection to our dragons.
