I slid to the ground where she was turned away from me with a hand on her face.
"I'm sorry," I said. "I didn't know it was you!"
"I need to announce myself before getting anywhere near you."
"Here, let me see it." I gently pushed her hand away and saw a bruise already starting to form. "I'm sorry," I said again. "I can heal it, but I need a few more minutes first."
Truthfully, I needed a week, considering the way I felt. Any magic trickling through me was barely keeping me on my feet.
"Would this help?" Aurelia held up her other hand, with the bulla dangling from it.
"You had it?" Feelings of relief swelled in me, enough that I almost hugged her. Almost. "How long?"
"Since I got here. Why did you think I offered myself to Brutus? To give you the bulla!"
"Why didn't you --"
"When would I have told you? Between your shouting and threatening and making all sorts of stupid deals?"
"I had a plan!"
"Well, I had a better plan," she said. "To get close enough to give you the bulla so you could help your mother and flatten the entire Praetor camp."
"Making yourself a hostage in the middle of the camp is hardly helpful."
"You were supposed to rescue me first. Not honor your deal and tell me to run away."
"My plan involved honoring that deal!" I said.
"And I needed you to break it," Aurelia said. "Sometimes I think we make a terrible team."
I smiled. "Sometimes I think we make a pretty good one." Frankly, it made me happy that she considered us a team at all. I took the bulla from her. "So you found this on Callistus's saddle?"
"I couldn't leave it tied there. That was careless of you, Nic."
"Callistus wouldn't let any enemies near him." Except that Radulf had managed to capture a unicorn once -- Callistus's mother -- so Aurelia was right once more. It had been a big risk on my part, though I knew the bulla would've been taken from me if I'd brought it into the battle earlier. For one reason or another, every choice I made seemed to be the wrong one.
As soon as I put the bulla on, its strength filled me. I immediately put my fingers on the bruise forming on Aurelia's cheek and let the Divine Star heal it.
Aurelia giggled. "That tickles."
It had already finished healing. I knew that, and yet my fingers were still there, brushing her soft skin. Now it was not just my fingers on her cheek, but my whole hand, and I didn't know how I would ever let her go. Aurelia stared back at me until we had been quiet for too long. Then she stepped back and said, "We'd better get to safety. Where's Livia?"
"With Crispus," I said, finally pulling my head back into the battle. I pointed off to the right. "But let's go this way instead. There's something else I need to do."
We left Radulf to finish the battle behind us, and I had no doubt that he would be successful. There wasn't much the Praetors could do to him, and he was clearly enjoying himself. I wondered if this was how he had become so successful as a general. Maybe he never really attended all those battles he won.
"Can you do that, the magic he's doing?" Aurelia asked.
"I've never tried it," I said. Though now I wanted to. I would practice until it was perfect.
Except for Callistus, who was grazing nearby, the field was empty when we arrived. I pointed in the direction Crispus and Livia had gone. "Please find them," I said to Aurelia. "And then no matter what, stay out of sight until I tell you it's safe."
"I can help you fight," she said.
"I didn't come back here to fight," I told her. "And I'm not sure what's about to happen. You need to leave."
She nodded, though I knew it wasn't the answer she'd wanted. I asked Callistus to walk with her, and after a brief snort of annoyance, Callistus left his grazing and they walked away.