his flower queen (nikolai lantsov)

Truth

As Kaida healed her wounds, she saw the remaining members of the Second Army. 

Mal and Tolya were deep in conversation with a member of Nikolai's crew, helping to tie down ropes and maneuver a sail. Someone had found Mal a jacket as he was shirtless earlier, but he was still short a pair of boots. David was running his hands over the deck as if he were trying to disappear into it. The others were clustered into little groups: Genya was huddled with Nadia and the other Etherealki. Stigg had gotten stuck with Sergei, who slumped on the deck, his head buried in his hands. Tamar was seeing to Harshaw's wounds as Oncat dug her claws into his leg, her fur standing on end. The tabby obviously didn't enjoy flying. Then there was Alina talking to Nikolai, both looking very serious. 

Whenever she saw the two speaking to one another, her heart clenched as though a heartrender was slowing down her heart. She didn't like how much control Nikolai had over her feelings, but there was nothing she could do about it. He had her heart in his hands and it was up to him to either throw it away or coddle it, hopefully with warm hugs and tender kisses. 

She shook her head and focused on her leg. It wasn't an easy process. Her leg had been badly fractured for too long and using her healing powers terrified her the most. 

Starting with the most challenging bit, she tried to snap her bone back to one. As it slowly moved, she grabbed an arrow and bit down on the shaft to prevent herself from screaming. 

It was unlike any pain she ever experienced. Normally a broken bone takes a while to heal if the person doesn't want any pain. They'd put a cast around it to let the body heal on its own, even if there's a grisha healer there. Healers do have the ability to heal pretty much anything, but the matter lies in the hands of the person needing the healing. Do they need to heal quickly? If so, then they'd feel more pain fixing something than they did when they broke something or got sick. If the person's not in a rush, then all they might feel was a tickle or an itch. 

Kaida was certainly in a rush. 

Her teeth gritted harder and harder on the shaft, nearly breaking it in two just like her thigh. The world had black dots floating around now. Sweat dripped down onto her healing leg as her other leg bounced up and down. 

Before she blacked out, she stopped healing her leg and took a deep breath. She wasn't going to be able to heal completely at that moment, so she reduced the swelling, bruising and bleeding and wrapped her leg in bandages, sticking in an arrow in between the wraps to steady her leg. She cut the tip and the fletching to avoid slicing herself as well as the tickles. 

Once the world returned back to its usual state, she got up and walked over to one of Nikolai's men and asked for some water since she didn't know where anything was. Her throat was parched from all the running, sweating and crying. After she gulped the water down in mere seconds, to avoid the others she helped with the sails. 

"You never told me you two were already at the kissing stage," Tamar's voice was right behind Kaida who startled. It was after 30 minutes had past.

"Don't do that," Kaida responded. 

"Don't avoid the subject," Tamar crossed her arms. 

Kaida rolled her eyes at her, "We're not at any stage. I just kissed him on the cheek as a thank you. There was nothing romantic behind it." 

"How come I've never gotten a thank you kiss then?" Tamar pouted. 

"Because Nadia would beat the shit out of me if I did," Kaida smirked. 

Tamar flushed pink. "You think so?" 

"I know so. Her eyes always wander towards you, and her smile brightens way too much. She seems pretty comfortable around you too."