The Queen of Golden Flame

1. Aurelia

The bitter wind nipped her skin like mosquitos on the hottest summer days, but Aurelia did not feel a thing. All that she cared about was the fear of losing her twin brother's hand, so she held on for dear life just as she always had.

"Just a little further," Oliver murmured in her ear as he dragged her along.

Aurelia's feet felt like lead underneath her and her vision grew foggy, distorting Toppan's cobbled streets until she could no longer determine which way was up. She tripped over the hem of her long dress, fumbling through the crowded streets without any idea where to go. Faintly she felt an arm wrap around her, keeping her upright, and she thankfully let it as she sank into its welcoming relief.

Oliver placed her down against a cool, brick wall. When she blinked away her blurry vision, she found him kneeling over her, worrying at his bottom lip. He looked left and right until he was assured that they were alone, his wings outstretched to act similarly to a shield.

The pain hit her so suddenly that she was almost certain she would lose the contents of her stomach on the pavement.

Up to her shoulders, down to her toes, searing hot pain like a burning fire stabbed her skin and made her lungs feel as if they would cave in on themselves with the effort it was taking her to remember how to breathe.

She pressed her hand against the wound, just above her right hip, flexing her fingers to keep her own sharp claws clear of the injury. Oliver reached out and with her free hand, she swatted him away, letting her head fall back against the wall as she suppressed a pitiful groan.

"Aurelia," he said in that brotherly tone he always used around her, and yet somehow she always felt comforted knowing that he was there to protect her. "You have to let me see it. You'll bleed out if you don't."

Aurelia nearly laughed, a delusional thing she knew, but winced when she attempted. "Please don't get morbid," she joked uncharacteristically and her brother flashed her a worried glance.
"Rey. Please. I need to see the damage or I can't help you."

She considered making another comment, but her flesh stung, and she doubled over with a loud groan. He placed a hand on her arm as if to comfort her. It wasn't until she managed to catch her breath that she sighed and pulled her bloodslicked hand away from the wound.

Oliver hissed at the sight, but she didn't have to look. Aurelia could already see the five deep slashes embedded into her skin and oozing with dark crimson blood in her mind's eye. She blinked away the tears that fought to surface.

"Don't cry," Oliver said panickedly, "Don't cry. It'll be okay, Rey. I'm going to fix this."

But the pain was not what made tears prick her eyes, but the fact that she had been hurt by one of her own kind.

"No," she replied miserably, blinking her heavy eyelids at him. She fought not to close them. "Not after last time."

"It's not going to be like last time," he assured, but he flinched as if he didn't believe it himself. Like he was remembering the agonizing screams ripped from a raw throat, as if they were trying to tear themselves apart from the inside...

Oliver paused and spoke in a much softer tone, "It won't be like last time. I promise."

She hesitated, but she knew that they had no other choice. They couldn't risk walking up to a healer and asking for help, and she was not about to be the one that made Oliver even consider that.
So with a heavy sigh, she nodded once and said with certainty, "Do it."

Oliver's brown eyes widened, but he nodded back and brushed his fingertips against the flesh wound. Even though he barely touched her skin it felt as if he had smacked her, but she didn't dare show her discomfort in fear of breaking his focus.
She'd watched her brother heal her multiple times throughout their childhood. The familiar pinch of his eyebrows and the glow that crossed his countenance. His arm outstretched and his eyes never leaving her wound, her skin itched horribly as it stitched itself back together, and after what felt like ages of waiting he finally pulled away, sweat trickling from his brow as he sat down hard on the uneven cobble, smiling tiredly as he caught his breath.