Roseblood

🍃Five🍃

I can feel my brown cheeks getting so red; it's embarrassing, but not as much as Aura Argyris—the Aura Argyris of Caeli—smirking at me puking the last day and a half out. Nothing can ever erase this terrible feeling.

I let out a small squeak that Elang would be ashamed of and get up, wiping my mouth. Already, I can tell this girl is going to be terrible to be around. Her light skin just seems to glow every time she says something rude to me. Which has only been one sentence.

Pull yourself together, Elang instructs from a tree behind Aura. He's my voice of reason right now.

You're right, you're right. I just need to calm down after all I'd been through. If she doesn't get that, then that's fine. Or so I keep telling myself.

"How do you even know if I'm the Roseblood heir?" I ask before I can stop myself. Darn it. Guess who just won first place for the Dumbest Question Ever Awards?

To my surprise, Aura doesn't laugh or anything of the sort. Instead, she gives me a look of mock seriousness, and somehow that's a thousand times worse. She doesn't even answer my question right away. "I'm going to call you Rosy," she says instead. "That fine, Flower Child?"

I give her a long stare and try to stop shaking. From fright, anger, or weariness, I don't know.

At my lack of response, she continues, "Well, first off, you just gave yourself away. I never said anything about any heirs. And second, I probably know more people in your puny kingdom than you do yourself."

She's a handful, Elang says.

No kidding.

"Is it too much if I call you late?" the Airblood princess asks. "Because you are beyond late. Didn't your parents ever teach you to be on time?"

At that I get a little angry, fueled by some of Elang's disgust. "Don't talk like that," I bark, albeit a little soft. "And if you must know, I was ambushed on my way here." Speaking of that, I just now realize that my new somewhat-friends have left me.

Aura tosses her hair. A chill blows by my face. "Ambushed, is that right?"

"Ambushed?"

I manage to not jump six feet into the air, but still flinch at the new and deeper voice that came from behind me. I turn and come face-to-face with the Sparkblood heir, easy to track down with his dark brown skin and amber, sleeveless shirt. Everything about him screams that he's a fighter, from his thick arms and the disfigured patches of skin from burns, to the sword strapped across his back and the dull red armguards clamped around both of his lower arms like sleeves. He's Adam Megalos of Ignis, one of three princes and oldest heir to the Sparkblood throne. He's terrifying and intimidating to even look at.

"You said you were attacked," he says. "Where?"

"What's got your panties in a bunch?" Aura asks. "Rosy probably just saw a bear."

"If I saw a bear," I grumbled, "I would've gotten here a lot sooner."

"What was that?" Aura taunts. "Couldn't hear you."

"Enough," Adam interrupts, "both of you." He turns his attention to me. "Where were you when the attack happened?"

Over the coldness of the Sparkblood's voice and Aura's jeer, I'm too ashamed to tell them that I passed out. So I try my best to come up with an acceptable answer.

But the Airblood notices my pause. "Don't tell me you don't know," she groans. "Honestly, it wasn't like trying to hide in the middle of nowhere, cooped up in that cottage was bad enough. No, I have to get a stupid Flower Child with amnesia."