I raised my eyebrows. “Right. I told you it would sting.”
He looked over at Neds. “Ifeltit,” he repeated.
“Maybe if you didn’t have a breezeway open to your spine, you wouldn’t,” Left Ned said.
“You do not understand.” He took those same three steps back to me.
I stood up from the stool because I wasn’t the kind of gal who took a direct confrontation sitting down.
“Galvanized don’t feel pain or pleasure.”
He pressed his thumb down to the last knuckle into his wound until blood oozed out. He didn’t wince, his pupils didn’t dilate, his breathing didn’t change. He was either a very good actor or he really didn’t feel that wound.
“Stop that.” I slapped his hands away from the cut. He sucked in a quick breath. “You’re wasting jelly and making the cut worse.”
He caught at my hand, held it as if my touch was infecting him with sensation. “What are you doing?” This time he sounded genuinely spooked. “What are you doing to me? How are you doing this to me?”
“I am trying to bandage your injury. And you are the worst patient I’ve ever tended.”
Neds snorted.
“So how about you hold still for a straight sixty and stop getting in my way?”
“What are you?” he asked.
Funny; not too long ago, he’d been pretty certain what I was.
“Irritated,” I said, “so hush and let me work.”
He hushed and stood still.
I finished with the jelly while he stayed on his feet, then tied the wraps back in place, doing my best not to actually come in contact with his skin. Every time I did, he flinched and his breathing changed. It was worrisome.
“You still haven’t told me who started this,” I said, giving the cloth one last tug. “Who told you my father was alive?”
The sound of engines seared across the sky.
It had been years since a drone flew over, and just today I’d heard two.
Also worrisome.
Abraham’s cinnamon gaze shifted across the smooth white of the ceiling as if he could track the aircraft through it.
“Devil rut ’em,” Right Ned whispered. “Tilly, you and I should talk.”
“Are those drones looking for my home?” I asked calmly as I screwed the lid back on the jar. My heart was beating too hard. “Are they looking for my father?”
“Yes.” He drew his eyes down from the ceiling and held my gaze. Not panicked—he was waiting for me to make a decision.
“Did you send the drones here? Did you do this to me and mine?”
“I came to warn your father. To take him to shelter and safety. If you come with me, I will offer you and yours the same.”
“And if I don’t?”
“First passes are surveyor drones to lock onto me and gauge your level of technology and defenses. The next drones will be equipped with codes to break whatever blockers you have. They’ll look for people, animals, legal and illegal possessions and resources. They will send out ground troops.
“If any of the other Houses have drones in the area, this activity will be noticed. And if they find you unclaimed or your papers out of order, they will not offer you shelter. They will sell you and your land to the highest bidder. And your grandmother . . .”
