Lydia the Siren's Arc

Chapter 27 of 37

The fire had burned low by the time Bastion finished with her arm. He tied off the last strip of cloth and sat back on his heels. Lydia looked at the neat wrap, at his steady hands, at the sword resting by the door. Without him, the grove would have taken her. She knew that plain fact now, and it sat in her chest like a stone. "Thank you," she said. The words came out small. Bastion shrugged. "You're welcome." "No." She caught his wrist before he could rise. "I mean it. I would be dead. I couldn't have gotten out. Not without you." He went still. "You'd have found a way." "I wouldn't." Her voice shook. "I called and nothing came. My voice did nothing." She let go of his wrist and pressed her bandaged arm to her chest. "I never needed anyone. Not once. I fed myself. I healed myself. I never waited for a hand." The truth of it frightened her more than the roots had. For a year she had hunted. She had killed men and felt nothing but hunger. She had ruled the places that now wanted her dead. And here she sat, wrapped in cloth a man had cut for her, alive only because he came. Her breath came fast. She stared at the floor and could not make it slow. She had built her whole life on needing no one. That life was gone. The stone was gone, the song was gone, the wings were gone. What was left of her needed this man to walk into the woods. Bastion watched her. He did not tell her to calm down. He picked up the poker and stirred the fire until it climbed again. "When I took the arrow," he said, "the princess held my face and cried. I didn't want it. I didn't know what to do with someone needing me back." He set the poker down. "You learn it. That's all." Lydia looked up at him. His plain brown eyes gave nothing back but patience. The panic in her did not leave, but it changed shape. She was still afraid. She still hated how much she needed him. And under the fear, she was glad. Glad it was him. Glad he had come. She made a choice. She reached out and pulled him toward her and held on. Her arms went around his shoulders and gripped. She pressed her face against the cold plate of his armor. Bastion did not pull back. He did not know where to put his hands. After a moment he set one on her back, light, and let her hold him. "You're mine now," Lydia said into his shoulder. "My human. I decided." "That so," Bastion said. "That's so." In that moment Bastion grabbed and kissed Lydia and it felt magical. Like the whole world was ending, and they were the only ones left