Emily walked downstairs in search of Zara. After the surprising conversation she'd just had with Cimmeris, she needed a distraction in the worst way. While she enjoyed being away from the stresses of her job, the fact that she had so much to think about concerning her personal life made the downtime she now had seem like a punishment.

Hours to do nothing but thinking isn't a positive for a hard-thinker like me, she thought wryly.

The sound of raised voices didn't register in Emily's mind until she was halfway down the stairs. She stopped and saw Zara and Narchis on the living room couch, both sitting with their arms folded, yelling at each other. Emily turned as quietly as she could and tried to run back up to her room, but it was too late.

"Em," Zara called, her voice exasperated. "Come sit."

Emily tapped her fingers on the bannister, trying to find a kind way to say that the last thing she wanted to do was spend an hour with an angry couple.

"Uh, no thanks. I thought I forgot something here, but I've just remembered where it is."

Narchis stood. "It's fine. I'm leaving. This conversation isn't getting anywhere."

Emily could feel the sadness emanating from Narchis as he brushed past her on the stairs. While she couldn't take sides in their disagreement, she did feel bad for Narchis and Zara in equal measure. Fighting with a loved one hurt bad enough, but it probably hurt on another level when the fight was with a lover.

Emily walked into the living room and sat on the couch. Zara greeted her with her hands thrown up in an "I give up" gesture.

"I already have an idea what's going on, but do you want to talk about it?"

"I'm starting to think that all this talking stuff is overrated," Zara said.

Emily smiled. "That's a bit of an insult to me, considering my job is all about talking."

Zara's eyes widened, and Emily chuckled, patting her hand. "It's okay. I'm just being cheeky."

"Well, it's refreshing. I swear Narchis is driving me crazy. He simply refuses to think that we could make the long-distance thing work for a couple of years."

"In all fairness, it is interplanetary," Emily joked. Zara rolled her eyes and gave her a fixed glare.

"I'm sorry. I guess I'm in a bit of a weird mood."

Zara leaned back and sighed. "I'd usually be down for it, but I'm tired."

"Look, Narchis loves you, and you love him. When you love someone, you fight for them and your relationship. In his heart, he's trying to keep the two of you together."

"While sacrificing what I need?" Zara asked, raising an eyebrow.

"It's complicated; I won't deny that. But, then again, I'm not the best with relationships, so take my advice with a pinch of salt."

Zara sat up, her eyes bright. "What about you and Cimmeris?"

Emily smiled coyly. "What about us?"

"Do you like him?"

"Do you think I do?"

"Emily," Zara whined, "stop teasing."

"I like Cimmeris, and he likes me, too."

Zara squealed and threw her arms around Emily in a tight hug. "I can't believe my two besties are going to be together."

Emily pulled away from the hug, her smile dropping. "We aren't together, and we may not ever be."

Zara cocked her head. "What do you mean? If you like each other, then what's the problem?"

Emily sighed, and Zara gasped. "Is it the arter? Do you have to go through that, too? If you're worried, don't be. I'm a half-breed, and I survived."

A large, deep, savoring breath filled Emily's chest, and she reached out and took Zara's hand. "You're the best, you know?"

Emily had friends. She had always had friends. But none of them ever cared about her the way that Zara did. She’d tried to push back the sad reality of her life by burying herself in work, but the fact that Zara, who she'd known for only a few weeks, sat beside her trying to figure out what Emily's worries were, moved her, sending a fluttering sensation through her stomach.

Her friends would never push further than the customary "How are you doing?" politeness. Emily thought that they respected her boundaries, but now she realized that it wasn't a matter of limits. They just didn't care all that much, preferring to dump all their problems on her, trusting that if she said she was fine, then she was okay.

Zara puffed out her chest. "Oh, I know I'm an awesome friend."

Emily chuckled. "That you are. I'm noble, but I'm not a dragon. So, the arter isn't a problem for Cimmeris and me."

"So, what is?"

"The lives we lead."

Zara held up a finger. "Wait, weren't you the one who just told me that love is all about fighting for your relationship?"

"I also told you that I'm no expert."

Zara raised an eyebrow in challenge, and Emily gave in. "Fine, you got me there. But things between Cimmeris and me are very complicated."

Zara turned her body towards Emily and crossed her legs. "Alright, let's break it down."

Emily had already done so several times on her own and found no solution, but she decided to indulge the younger woman. She imitated Zara's seating position.

"Well, first, there's my mother. My dad just died a couple of months ago, and I’ve already left her for far too long."

Zara's voice was laced with concern as she asked, "How is she coping?"

"She was fine last time I was home, but I've been gone for far too long. The guilt from that is eating me up."

"Yeah, that's a hard one. But it's not an excuse! Let's say you go back to check in on your mom. Stay for a couple of months until she's fine. You could still come back here and live with Cimmeris."

The way Zara's hands moved, and the animated expressions on her face, made Emily conclude that, while breaking down her problems with friends may not yield a solution, it was a fun process.

"Okay, let's say that my mom is fine and I decide to come here. Aside from my regular job, there's the fact that I'm heir to the position of Heitor of Eneghar. I'll have to go back eventually. I'm an only child, and the title passes through a direct bloodline, i.e., me."

The bright light in Zara's hazel eyes faded as she opened her mouth and shut it several times, trying to come up with a solution.

"Yeah, that's a hard one. But you only become Heitor when your mom dies, right?"

"Uh, I'd be forced to do it then, but, in reality, I'm supposed to be learning the ropes from her well before then. The only reason she's doing such a great job now is because she worked side by side with my father, learning from him. He, in turn, learned it from his mother. You can see the pattern."

"I get it; there's no Heitor academy."

Emily scoffed. "I'm glad there isn't. Old generations of Heitor would just teach new ones how to be more corrupt and inefficient."

"Sounds tough. Okay, but what if Cimmeris wanted to come with you. He could get an office posting in Brevia. I mean, he's great with people."

Emily shook her head. "You know as well as I do that Cimmeris could never enjoy an office job. I can't leave my responsibilities behind, but I can't just ask Cimmeris to quit his job. He's built a career, which he may look down on from time to time, but it gives him a sense of pride and independence. Asking him to leave that and spend weeks or months doing nothing until he gets another job would eat him up. There's also the fact that he loves what he does." Emily's voice grew quieter as she continued. "And the one thing I can't do is take his second family away from him. He doesn't have any other, and I won't be the one to take him away from friends who accept him and thrust him back into the world he hated so much."

Zara drew a sharp breath. "Did people make fun of C for being an orphan?"

Emily nodded. "As kids, especially, but it was worse as an adult. People discriminate regarding hiring and making friends. In their minds, Cimmeris wouldn't bring anything to the table."

Zara snorted. "Well, they're all a bunch of assholes, if you ask me. Why do you hang out with people like that?"

"Because I work with them, live next to them, and they tend to cling to me whenever I go out. There's always some newbie noble who wants to become my friend. That's the one thing I hate the most. Brevia is so full of climbers, and many of them view me as a step up, thinking I'll pull in favors for them."

Zara shook her head, a look of disgust on her face. "Maybe I should stay on Earth."

Emily patted her hand. "Don't worry. That mostly happens among nobles. In school, you'll meet a bunch of different people. Just be careful about who you open up to, and you'll be fine."

"I guess rich people act like rich people wherever they are, huh?"

Emily laughed. "Well said. And, in all fairness, my experience is quite different from a noble like Narchis, because my family has ruling power."

Zara nodded. "So, what are you going to do? "

Emily shrugged. "I could think things through for the hundredth time, but I don't see a different outcome." Emily sighed. "It's hard to admit, but Cimmeris and I may not be able to be together. Not right now, anyway."

Zara shook her head, tutting as she did so. "You can’t give up so easily, Em."

"I'm not giving up. I'm being reasonable. I don't want to give up my responsibilities and grow bitter with time or ask Cimmeris to do the same. Can't you see, I'm just trying to keep us from making decisions that we'll regret."

"And, in the meantime, you deny the two of you the most important thing in life! I bet your dad would be happiest looking back at his life at the family he had, not the work he did."

Emily nodded. "You're right, but I'll tell you this, if he had a happy family and let Eneghar fall to pieces, he wouldn't have been proud. Our family is responsible for other people’s families and happiness. I can't just push that aside."

Zara raised her hands in surrender. "You make a good point. In fact, you've made several strong points, but now I'll give you advice that you need to hear."

Emily had never heard Zara sound so earnest or direct, so she squeezed her eyes shut and took a deep breath, preparing herself for the painful dose of truth that was on its way.

"When we first got together, Narchis tried to do to me what you're doing to Cimmeris."

Emily's eyes flew open. She wasn't doing anything to Cimmeris. She parted her lips, ready to speak, but Zara hushed her with a raised hand.

"Just listen. Narchis knew the dangers of the arter and tried to keep me safe by deciding for us, and, actually, in retrospective, not only did it drive me crazy, but it made me feel like a less-important member of our relationship."

"I would never—"

"Let me finish," Zara said with a small smile. "I'm telling you how it made me feel. Cimmeris may be a dragon, but he's got feelings, too. Talk to him. Don't just make decisions in a bubble and inform him. The same goes for him. Right now, Narchis and I are fighting like crazy, but at least we're talking. It's hard to find a middle ground, but, when we do, we'll have the satisfaction of saying we got there together. Whether or not you and Cimmeris find a solution doesn't necessarily matter, but the last thing you want is for him to walk away thinking that you didn't give him a fair chance. Cimmeris alone will tell you what he's willing to give up. You don't get to decide for him."

Emily ran a hand down her face, a tingling sensation at the bottom of her neck telling her that Zara was one hundred percent right. She was always trying to fix problems, a habit that had started when she was a child. In fact, wasn't that what she’d done with Cimmeris, protecting him and creating solutions for him after his mother died?

Tears ran down Emily's face as the memories washed over her, and Zara scooted closer, wiping them off her cheeks. "What are you so afraid of, Em?"

"That I'm not enough," she said, her voice thick. "What if Cimmeris thinks things over, and decides I'm not worth it? Or worse, what if he does, then wakes up regretting it a year from now?"

Zara pulled Emily into a hug. "Oh, honey," she cooed. "You are enough, just as you are. You are worth fighting for. You are worth sacrificing for. You've got to believe that."

Emily stayed in Zara's arms and let herself fall apart, just for a moment, trusting that she would be able to put herself back together. Vulnerability had never been her strong suit, but it looked like she was going to have to relinquish some control.

The idea of opening up scared her, but something told Emily that Cimmeris was the type of man she could trust with her heart. It was going to take some time for her to work up the courage to bring that life-altering conversation into being, but the one thing she had right now was time.