I hesitated, my attention going to Micah. He was settled in at her other side. I couldn't see his face, buried in the pillows and her hair. Her long, black hair was fanned out around and above her, stretched out so its dampness would dry. She really did have a sprinkling of flower petals in her hair. Something dark. Like black or deep red roses, though I was quite unsure of where they would've been picked.

Finally, I found my voice. "You look like a radiant damsel plucked straight from a fairytale."

"Funny, I don't feel make believe. I feel very real. Too real." She winced a bit after I took her hand and she pulled to persuade me onto the blue silk.

"Your arm hurts?" I knelt on the mattress and moved closer next to her. I could see from this angle that Micah's eyes were open when I took Aurora's arm, extended it and began to inspect it. It was the right arm, the one I had healed. "It shouldn't be hurting. I quite thoroughly injected it with healing solution."

"It's more of an ache," she said. She bent her fingers for me when I asked her to do so. Micah lifted his head and ran a hand down her side, a gesture meant to soothe. "It didn't really pain me much until I pulled, not like the rest of me."

"How do you mean?"

She hesitated, appearing to think it over. "I just...ache. All over. And it's not even the pain that one gets from strenuous exercise. It's much deeper. Like bone deep. I wonder..."

She paused again and brought up both hands to look at them when I let go of her arm. Palms positioned face out, perhaps so she wouldn't have to see the gold marks. She studied the back of her hands. She touched the knuckles on the one, and made as if she was measuring the distance from one to the next.

"What is it? What do you see, little one?" Micah asked. His hand rubbing her side slowed, and he kissed her shoulder.

"It's minute but I'm sure." She curled her hands into fists, then extended them again and said, "My fingers are longer." She made a little sound that may have been a whimper, like something hurt when she next moved her one leg, lifting and bending it before settling it back on the bed. "I wonder," she whispered, and put a hand against Micah's cheek when he pressed lips to her temple, "I wonder if I've grown?"

I understood now. She suspected the bodily ache of being growing pains.

"I want to know," she insisted as she went to sit up and Micah tried to persuade her to be still.

"Rest. We'll measure you first thing when you're well enough."

But no, Aurora would have none of it. She wanted to stand next to the wall. She wanted to mark her height and have it measured. "It'll only take a minute," she insisted, and she looked to me because I hadn't said anything in protest. The girl had a stubborn streak, one that wasn't too unlike my younger sister.

I didn't object because, as she said, it'd only take but a minute. Her eyes seemed clear enough, focused, and a little less sleepy since she was stirred up about the growth question.

When Micah finally gave in, we got her up and sitting on the edge of the bed. Dislodged petals tumbled from her hair and fluttered to the marble floor about Micah's feet as he carried her to the nearest wall and stood her there. I marked the top of her head with a pen taken from the writing desk that sat near a window. Among its contents there was also a measuring tape.

Micah had her back in bed while I held the measuring tape to the mark.

"I'm five foot, three and one quarter inches," she stated matter-of-factly, head lifted as Micah fluffed a pillow.

Drawing in a breath, I read from the tape, "Five foot four and three-eights." Just over an inch taller.

"I thought maybe...wow that's fairly significant," Aurora said. She was looking at her hands again, this time the palms with their new gold markings. She stared at them for the longest moment and seemed unable to find her voice.

Micah put his arm above her on the pillow, curved around her head. I put the measuring tape away and returned to the bed. "I can check you over again," I offered. When she didn't respond, Micah met my gaze and gave a slight nod.

Not wanting to distress her further, I only scanned her legs, running palms the length of them, carefully going over each ankle and knee. Because she was so transfixed by her hands I checked those, too. Next, I went over the wrists methodically, examining the joints. Despite the overall growth, her hands seemed to bother her the most, small as the change there was.

"Your growth plates are fine. There's some stress on the joints due to the stretching. The deep tissue soreness you're experiencing will pass. We'll continue to keep you hydrated for a couple of days with a restorative mixture so the aches go away quicker."

Her head bobbed in agreement to this, so I knew she was listening.

Her fingers curled around my one hand, and she drew me down, bid me to lie with them, Micah at her back, me at her front when she turned over to face me. She reached to bring Micah's one arm over her waist, wrapping herself in the security of him while we held hands. The new gold that decorated her body, including her palms, had flaked away some around the edges. The markings appeared smaller now overall. I took note of this, especially the dots along her hairline when I sent a finger across her forehead to brush aside her bangs. The markings here were almost pinpricks in size, not visible enough to worry about covering. The centermost one, still the largest, was no bigger than a pencil eraser. She might touch it up with makeup, if it bothered her.

Swallowing hard, she finally spoke, "Micah tells me you did CPR on me."

"I did," I replied, remembering they were whispering when I first entered the room. He must have told her then.

"My heart had stopped."

"Yes."

"You had to revive me."

I nodded.

She quietly repeated the last part again, appearing to speak only to herself. Her hand in mine trembled. Again, she was staring at the gold mark on the other palm, her eyes a little too wide.

Micah felt the tremor go through her, too. His arm tightened on her waist, and he molded himself to her back and buried his face in her hair. He anticipated the breakdown to come, and I was only seconds behind in that realization.

Letting go of her hand, I wrapped myself around her front. She pressed herself to me and hid under my chin when the sobbing began.

We held her while she released everything that had built up during this eventful night. Her sobs were metal pressed against my tongue, and I understood she was projecting those pent-up emotions. Aurora was an olfactory empath. Just as she could get a flavor from our emotions, taste them from our lips and scent them in the air, so it seemed that we, too, could get the flavor of what she was feeling if she emoted strongly enough. This was the first time I was experiencing this from her and I wondered if it was something new? Something else gained along with the gold markings and the increase in height, all of which was amounting to things coming into being during a transformation. The incident with the sky devil had transformed her.

I was certain Micah was tasting the metal as well. During our movement to get a combined grip on her, hold her together, his neck had ended up pressed against my one forearm. He swallowed at about the same time I did, when the metal in my mouth became too much and I desperately needed to rid myself of it.

She was so incredibly upset, and neither of us could blame her. So we allowed her outpouring to overtake us all for as long as she needed until she finally spent herself. Her remaining energy collapsed inward, the body exhausted, the need to restore itself through sleep finally taking hold. But then she stirred.

It was as if the sleep that had been descending upon her hesitated, stopped by some thought or realization.

She moved again beneath the entanglement of Micah's and my limbs, and we two let ourselves slip away. We moved until all she was left with was one of our hands in each of hers, laying there on her back betwixt us with the pillow propping her.

I thought, Maybe we were crowding her?

Bending her knees to place her feet so she could push, slide herself up, Aurora was almost sitting when she brought our held hands up to her. She studied the arrangement as if it was something to be puzzled over—the three of us holding hands, both males at ease at her sides.

Eyes a little wide, she turned to Micah and gave him a look that I interpreted as questioning. With a tilt of his head, something passed between the two.

Lips parting, she took a noticeable breath, one that I'd come to recognize as her way of drawing in emotions to decipher them. Whatever flavor she got, the meaning behind that taste, made her eyes widen a touch more.

Aurora finally whispered, "Really?" so quietly it was but an exhale, almost going unheard.

"Really truly," was Micah's response.

She asked, "Are you sure?" a little louder.

"You know I am. You've sensed it in the air between us. But if you need it direct..." he leaned in and kissed her, a touch of lips, a gentle press until her mouth opened to his. A curling glimpse of her tongue slipping from him was visible when they parted. She had been tasting him.

Aurora smiled then, the thing that her lightning buck was trying to convince her of apparently confirmed.

Her hand left mine and she drew him to her, gave him a more substantial kiss, this one full of meaningful body language as they embraced, melting into one another.

Micah ended it with a soft growl and a nuzzling of his mouth on her forehead that became a tenderly placed kissed. He then turned her in his arms and they both looked at me, their full attention making me swallow. Something that was possibly nerves made my stomach flutter. I felt the expression on my face go questioning.

And the two of them there held the answer. Micah appearing oh so much akin to what one pictures fearsome arch angels to be, an embodiment of all things lofty on high, descended to walk upon the earth as so much smooth, muscled flesh, the birthing of polished stone. His halo of curly hair a golden ash which framed a look of total acceptance, or at least that is how I interpreted his gaze. He was no longer wrought with indecision, this was highly apparent.

And the young woman he held close? Our girl. An heiress of the earth. I could sense it in her, the very few occasions I'd had to hold this dark-haired petite. Nature didn't simply call upon her, no, it called through her. It beckoned to everything that held elemental breath and spirit in it—which was as much a bestowment as it was a horrendous curse.

Micah needs me to join him in his mission to tend to her wellbeing. I could do that. I wasn't sure there was any choice in the matter, for she had called to me. From the very beginning.

Micah held herbefore him like the softest of offerings, though she was no one's to give away.She was ready to receive. His arms loosened on her body and he placed one ofher hands in mine.

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Okay, everybody!  The finale to the prologue is coming up next!  Enjoy :)

Don't forget to add book two FIRE, WATER, BURN to your reading list, for when I begin posting new chapters.

So, without further delay, continue down to the last part of book 2's prologue: