I reached out a hand to touch Aster’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, I’m sure I can find a way to fix it. I- I just need to talk to Shade once we get back, and-”

His eyes flashed open, and he grinned like a madman. “Look, I did it.” He held up his hand to reveal a little flame dancing in his palm. “Isn’t it great?”

“Great?” I swallowed the lump in my throat. “How is this great?”

“In case you haven’t noticed, we’re in the middle of the Arctic on an alien planet, and now I can make fire with my hands. What’s not to like about it?” 

“The longer we wait to fix it, the harder it’ll be. It seems like all fun and games now, but back home…”

Shaking his head, he cupped my chin in his hand. “I know, Mars. I also know what you just said—that this makes it so you can’t burn me. I don’t want to have to worry every time we kiss, and I doubt you do either. This is for the best.”

“You say that now, but what if you slip up and use magic in front of someone else? Or- or what if we don’t work out? Would it really be worth the risk then?”

“Planning our breakup already?” He pursed his lips. “It’s a bit soon for that, don’t you think?”

I rolled my eyes. “I’m not planning anything. I just don’t want you to be stuck as a freak if everything goes to hell in a hand basket.”

Brows furrowed, he paused and extinguished the flame in his hand. After what seemed like an age, he asked, “Do you think you’re a freak?”

I sighed. “Yeah, I am, but you don’t have to be.”

“I thought dragons were a whole species of their own. Even if you’re the last of them, that wouldn’t make you a freak, just unique. Special.” 

My cheeks burned, and I could almost feel my magic itching to start another fire. What was with me all of a sudden? I’d barely been able to sit up minutes ago, and now I was full to the brim with magic. The only thing that’d happened was bonding with Aster, but that couldn’t have done it. Could it? No, he didn’t have any magic to give me. I must’ve had more magic in my second heart than I’d thought, and it’d just taken a little spark of emotion to get it flowing. 

“Mars,” Aster said, taking my hand in his, “you don’t freak me out or scare me. You’re pretty as a human, but when you’re yourself, you’re gorgeous. Nothing about you is freaky.” He chuckled. “And if becoming more like you is what it takes to be with you, I’ll gladly do it. I’m not afraid of changing for you.”

That wasn’t entirely true. In my halfway form, I could better pick up his racing heart and the faint musk of nervousness. He was afraid, even if he wouldn’t admit it. 

“Are you sure it’s worth it? I wouldn’t blame you if you wanted to pretend the last ten minutes never happened. You’d still be my friend, even if-”

He kissed me, a brief touch that nonetheless fried my brain in an instant. “There’s a problem with your plan—I don’t want to be just your friend, not anymore. I was happy to be your friend as long as you wanted, but you’re the one who kissed me first. Don’t tell me you haven’t wanted to do that for a while. You were way too into it for this to be a new thing.”

I shrugged one shoulder, trying my best to be nonchalant. “Well, yeah. It’s been a while.” If I had to put a date on it, I would’ve said that I’d had a crush on him since… well, since the day we’d met. Of course, I hadn’t liked him as a person then, just as a cute face, but a summer of awkwardly stalking him around the estate had turned into a proper friendship. 

Aster ran his fingers over mine, tracing every digit in the same direction that my feathers ran. “Why didn’t you ever say anything? You’re so brave, I never thought for a moment that you would’ve been afraid to say something like that.” 

“There’s a big difference between being brave in the woods and brave in the romance department. I mean, I’m fit, but I’m not exactly good-looking.” Even though he’d said I was pretty, it was such an obvious lie that I couldn’t pretend it was true. 

“Who said you’re not good-looking?” He raised his eyebrows and wiggled his fingers to make little flames spurt from them. “Tell me who, and I’ll fight them.”

I giggled. “No one to my face, just- I have your body, you know?” That didn’t sound right. 

“Ouch, that’s a roundabout way to call me ugly.” Miming a dagger to the heart, he grunted in mock-pain. “I’m afraid you’ve mortally wounded my ego.”

I playfully punched him in the arm. “It looks good on a guy, the whole fit and lanky thing, but I’m not a guy.”

“Yeah, I noticed, but you rock the fit and lanky look. The feathers don’t hurt, either; they make you look like an otherworldly goddess. Or the tooth fairy from that one animated movie. I used to have a thing for her as a kid, but you’re real, which makes you a hundred times better than the tooth fairy.” He flashed a dazzling smile wide enough to show off his perfectly straight teeth—and his oddly sharp incisors. Had they always been that sharp? I’d never paid much attention to them before, so they probably had. It was probably nothing; I shouldn’t jump to worrisome conclusions. 

My stomach grumbled, interrupting my worries. I didn’t feel comfortable eating a basket of raw meat in front of Aster. However, my stomach didn’t care one iota about decorum, something he seemed to notice when it grumbled again. 

He gestured at the basket. “Go ahead, we can talk in a minute.”

Unable to imagine myself eating raw meat in a humanoid form, I shifted fully to my draconic form before digging in. The meat was more gamey than I was used to, and it had definitely been kept frozen in snow, but I didn’t really care. I scarfed half the basket in minutes. 

Aster crept up beside me and moved like he was going to take a little piece of meat that had fallen on the rim of the basket. I held out my arm to stop him. 

“It’s raw. You’ll get sick.”

“You’re eating it.”

“Yeah, but I’ve got a literal fire going on in my stomach. I’ll burn away any germs before I can get sick. You-”

He summoned his little palm flame and grinned. “I can cook it with this.”

“You’ll be at it for hours. If you really want to eat this meat, let me cook it.” I pinched the little piece between my claws and blew flame on it for a few seconds. Pausing to check out how much I’d cooked it, I scowled at the piece of charcoal in my hand. 

Aster’s smile drooped. “Uh, thanks.” He reached for the charcoal, but I ate it and shook my head. 

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to make you eat that. Let me try again.” I sliced off another piece and held it at arm’s length before roasting it for less time than before. It smelled like it was cooking, but I couldn’t be sure it was fully cooked, so I ate it. It wasn’t fully cooked. 

I turned back to the plate to see Aster crouching over it like a gremlin, cheeks full of what I could only assume was raw meat. 

“You did not just eat that.” I squinted at him. “The doctors here won’t have a clue what to do if an Earth human gets food poisoning. Spit it out.”

“But I’m hungry,” he mumbled. 

I scowled. “You are a grown man. You can wait for your food to cook properly.”

He reluctantly spit out the half-chewed meat, effectively eliminating my appetite. I wasn’t sure if you could get sick from licking raw meat rather than eating it, but I doubted this would end well. Earth food poisoning was bad, but getting sick off germs you’d never been exposed to was liable to kill you, even if it was something relatively harmless to the natives. 

Aster coughed and gagged, spitting again. “What the- I don’t know what just came over me.” He dry-heaved and spit again. Clutching his stomach, he scrunched his face at me. “You don’t think this has something to do with your magic?”

I’d hoped not, but it definitely seemed like it did have to do with that. I groaned. “See, this is what I’m telling you. If you’re really set on keeping magic, you’ve got to be careful. Just because you feel like a dragon doesn’t make you one.”

He glanced at the chewed meat and ran out of the tent, doubled over. The distinctive sounds of puking made me wince. At least this way, he might be able to purge the germs before they settled in. Well, I hoped he might. I’d never been the greatest at science. I burned the remaining pieces of meat to charcoal so looking at them wouldn’t make him sick again when he came back. 

After the barfing sounds stopped, I waited for him to come back. I heard footsteps and voices, but they sounded more like the borin doing their daily chores. Maybe Aster had just left. If I were him, I couldn’t have marched back in here knowing I would have to tell the dragon I liked that we couldn’t be together because I’d realized how insane it was for a human to like a dragon.